The Persistence is one of my personal most anticipated titles for the PSVR, coming May 2017 for PlayStation VR. The Persistence is a first-person horror survival game. The game takes place in the year 2521. It tells a story of a group of scientists that are studying a black hole. Something went terribly wrong during one of the experiments and the some of the crew members got mutated and start attacking the other crew members who haven't been affected. The ship's artificial intelligence recognizes this hazard decided to wake up crew members at a time, those who are in deep sleep. Each character is played by you. Your goal is to eliminate the threat on board and bring back the engines online and navigate the ship away from this area.
As you play you'll be collecting stem cells to enhance your character,. Stem cells can be collected using your multi-tool gun. Those stem cells can give your character new and improved abilities and stats which will help you survive longer in this hazardous environment. However, those improvements will only apply to your next characters after you die with your current character, not the one you are currently playing.
Many of the weapons in this game are based upon the knowledge humans collected by learning about the universe. For example, there is a Gravity Bomb that created a mini black hole that sucks the creatures in and a pistol that fires dark-energy-infused rounds. As you can see, humanity was already able to identify, collect and even use dark energy in firearms!
One of the key features of this game is it's procedurally generated maps. Each time you die you spawn with another character and because of the procedurally generated engine, you face a completely new map and even completely new enemies, not two spawns will have the same gamepaly experience. This is the beauty of this technology and it forces you to be alert at all times because you can't remember the map by heart or have any indication where the threats will be coming from on the second run. Death is an integral and essential part of the gameplay mechanics, This means that you will die in this game, and quite a lot.
Another really cool features ia a mobile device companion app. This allow users who installed the game's app to join another player who plays the game. That person, the app player has the privilege of logging into the ship's computer and get a digitized bird's eye view of the level and can alert the VR player of incoming threats, debuf enemies or even hinder the VR player's progression. The non-VR player also will be given various objectives. Some of them might be to mislead the VR player in order to get experience points and use them to upgrade your abilities. This utility can really make the whole experience much more fun. As the PSVR player, you need to decide whether the other player is trying to sabotage your progression or help you out and then you can decide which actions to take.
The Persistence has all the right ingredients to be a great horror game. After Resident Evil 7, I am searching for a new horror game that will excite me all over again, and I have to say that I think I found one. Usually when I hear the term "procedurally generated", I don't know what to expect (No Man's Sky..**cough** **cough**). I was first glad that it's not an open world with procedurally generated planets, just the maps and enemies. So why it's good? because it helps keep the tension going. The player has no idea what is waiting for him in the next corner. It's not like a regular horror game where you die and spawn back and you know what to expect and how to avoid dying again. In this game, when you die, many things will change, and you nee to stay alert and get ready for any new danger. I think this is a great use of a procedural-generation engine for enhancing the gameplay experience. I think it's especially beneficial for these type of horror survival games like The Persistence.
The graphics in this game looks really great judging by the gameplay trailer. Kind of reminds me settings from the movie Alien (from 1979, one of my favorite movies of all time by the way). This is what I love about horror games, the great use of unique map design, lighting and sounds to create tension. I'm really looking forward to play this game on the PSVR. It's great that PSVR players get, what looks like yet another great horror VR game.