The Persistence review for PSVR

Reviewed on: PS VR

The Persistence is a sci-fi horror game, set in an environment of procedurally generated maps, in the year 2521. It tells the story of a group studying a black hole, but something happens when an experiment goes wrong and some members of the group suffer mutations and start attacking the rest of the crew.

The game, to define its genre, deserves many adjectives since it is sci-fi, action, FPS, horror, Roguelike, singleplayer, survival and a PSVR exclusive that arrives to renew our faith in virtual reality, and without further ado I can state that the game is incredible and has great replay value.

The focus of the game is precisely an answer to the big criticism of VR games, since they tend to be shorter experiences than traditional ones; so with procedurally generated maps and roguelike mechanics, this survival, horror and sci-fi FPS arrives to widen the range of games exclusive to Sony’s VR.

Your goal is to guide your ship back to Earth, making repairs and exploring as you fight part of the crew that has mutated. You, as a security officer named Zimri Eder, must use all technology, all knowledge and skill to return home; so the game has a simple but effective plot that holds the player’s attention, making the game deserve a 7.0 for the story it well tells.

Every time you play, it feels like you’re playing a new game because the layout, the position of items, the enemies and the structure of the ship you’re going to explore change completely every time you die, thanks to the procedural technology the game was built on, making the player feel encouraged to play and replay several times.

Unlike many roguelikes there is no permanent death, because instead of having everything you gained reset for a new run, everything you managed to unlock stays unlocked; all the upgrades made to your character stay with it, you keep your credits and you can still use fast travel inside the ship if you find the appropriate spot. Death in the game can be frustrating for the player, but the developers did a good job, because after death, your clone, which is printed, has some upgrades that make your character more powerful and change the new round of play.

The Persistence, which is the name of the ship where the game takes place, is divided into five floors or Decks; each deck has a starting point that is connected to the recovery room, where your clone is created (printed), and these decks are divided into twelve connected rooms that can contain enemies, items, fabrication stations and supply crates that usually come with waves of enemies, making the place something like a challenge room.

The gameplay is solid, but it is not very well implemented on the Move and, from the reviews I read, not very well implemented on the aim controller either; despite the support for both, I strongly recommend using the DualShock 4, which shows off the good gameplay, combined with a good variety of weapons that really have impact and change the gameplay, making the game deserve an 8.0 for its gameplay.

Regarding the technical aspect, the sound and visuals are quite competent; it’s not a perfect game, but it exceeds the average and allows good immersion, with well-built enemies and very well implemented lighting effects, deserving an 8.0 for the technical aspect, for the graphics and sounds presented.

A must-have game for all PSVR owners, adding crucial weight when deciding which VR you should buy, joining a range of Sony exclusives that deserve the player’s attention, at an honest price and with a game that took me nine hours and many deaths to complete the final objective on the ship’s last floor, yet happy to know a survival mode is unlocked, which limits your lives to ten, and I can guarantee ten lives are not as many as they might seem in The Persistence.

Final score: 7.6