The Persistence in the Horror Hardness Test

In the exclusive PSVR horror shooter "The Persistence", the game takes place in the year 2521 on an abandoned colony ship in space, 17,000 light years away from your home. The story is somewhat reminiscent of the sci-fi thriller "Event Horizon", paired with a breeze of "Doom" and "Bioshock". A dramatic malfunction causes the "Persistance" to come to a sudden standstill and the spaceship is sucked in by a black hole. In the intro sequence, you float through the abandoned spacecraft for a moment. All your former shipmates are dead. But actually you are no longer among the living. You slip into the role of Security Officer Zimri Eder. However, every time you restart, you play with a fresh clone of her engrams, in which her experiences and personality are stored. Because a clone generator goes crazy and has also created very scary monsters.

What options do you still have? That's right. You have to get the Persistance up and running again and not get slaughtered yourself in the process. The goal of the mission is to return to Earth. The sci-fi shooter from Firespite is not an instant baller orgy for a quick kick, nor is it a space walk. If you just want to mow down everything, you will be turned into cat food by samurai-like bloodhounds very early on. Fortunately, there is the possibility of acquiring heaps of new weapons, bombs and abilities with collected items right at the beginning. Therefore, you should collect everything possible.

Different every time

In "The Persistence", which is part of the roguelike genre, you will often die and start all over again. But fortunately, you can download the DNA sequences of a previous life each time you start over. The items you collect will make you stronger, better able to teleport and crawl more quietly. Only in this way will you gradually make it to the middle of the ship. According to the makers, the level sections are procedurally generated. This is also noticeable in the fact that the same mutants do not always appear in the same rooms. In addition, the map of the ship changes because you are sucked up by a black hole. A few main zones of the giant multi-storey ship remain static, however, because they are interwoven with the story and belong to the core missions.

Fine control

The game mechanics in "The Persistence" are designed for the DualShock 4 controller. As in "Resident Evil 7" and "Skyrim VR", additional comfort options with quarter-circle movements and speed levels are available in addition to the stepless 360-degree rotation. An additional teleportation ability like in "Doom VFR" is linked to your contingent of dark matter. By the way, so is your electric defence shield. This is only available for a limited time with the L2 button. Therefore, there is no way around internalising the correct defence timing first. With weaker opponents, it is best to wait for the attack and hold out the shield as soon as you are attacked. This takes a little practice at first, but you will soon understand the tactics.

Take it slowly and calmly

At first you might think you don't stand a chance in "The Persistence" if you don't constantly hide and avoid the creatures of hell. Not necessarily. Sometimes there is no way around offensive fights. But monotony does not get the upper hand. On the contrary. In certain rooms you can soon forge one or more of the seventeen weapons with the fibrechips and Erebus plates you pick up. For example, there is a large-calibre magnum cannon, which makes a lot of noise and is not recommended in large rooms with many undead. But you can also collect batons, a knife and a harpoon. The obligatory rage serum, known from "Doom" as brass knuckles, is of course also included.

One of my favourites is a love serum. An evil fiend then becomes your cuddly cat for a moment and helps you keep the mutant brood at bay. Another highlight is a gravitational weapon that you can use to slap your enemies against the walls with your VR head movements. The many bombs with noise attraction or tracking shot nanobots complete the armoury. Nevertheless, you have to be aware of one thing: The ammunition of the many nice space gadgets runs out quickly and brazen enemies can nibble away at your energy bar.

Gameplay

There are a total of five missions scattered across several decks of the giant spaceship. You will also have to fix the malfunction of the clone printer in order to save Officers Zimiri and Serena so that you can return to Earth. At one point, you'll need to repair the star drive, using a special harpoon to activate a large bridge with a switch. It always takes a while until you reach the destination of the respective deck. The mixture of sneaking up and gadget surprises like invisibility potions counteracts the frustration factor, however. In addition, the changing rooms and diverse villains, from gurgling street zombies to witch-like reapers to colossal monsters of the past, provide plenty of variety.

PS4 graphics with detail polish

The graphics of the PSVR-exclusive scary shooter are very well done. The textures look sharp and the characters, including special effects such as glowing mouths, are animated with great attention to detail. In places, however, a few jerks can be detected. Especially when there are many undead in a large room or an allied colossus is following you. I would have hoped for a little more precision in the sounds the zombies make. Sometimes, despite having good headphones, I didn't have the feeling that I could precisely assign individual monsters to directions. All of a sudden, in a network of rooms with several rooms, there was something nearby that couldn't be there at all. And that's not all: despite the map, I got lost a few times in the centre of the ship and constantly moved around in circles because many shafts and walls were similar. But maybe it's just me who has these orientation problems.

Tips from the developers

According to the developers, it took about eight hours to play through the main campaign. That is generous. It is quite possible that you will have completed less than half of it even after eight hours, because you first have to understand the underlying tactics. I don't want to deprive you of a few tips from the developers at this point: Firstly, dodging can be a good strategy when energy and equipment are too weak. Secondly, in order to be economical with Erebus tokens, it is better to unlock new weapons first before upgrading your existing arsenal. However, upgrading is not entirely unimportant. You should always keep an eye on your armour and teleportation abilities in the recovery zone. For example, there are six different protective waistcoats. In addition, you should regularly use the map or consult your scan view with the Triangle button before entering a new room. This way you can even see through walls and spy on the positions of enemies for a short time before you press the door switch.