''The Persistence'' is a 2018

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

survival horror Survival horror is a Video game genre, subgenre of horror games. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical action games through limited ammunition or weapons, health, speed, and visio ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed and published by

Firesprite Firesprite is a British video game developer based in Liverpool. It was established in 2012 by former members of Studio Liverpool. In September 2021, Sony Interactive Entertainment, who had been the parent of Studio Liverpool, acquired the comp ...

for the

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

. It was originally released for the system's virtual reality headset

PlayStation VR The PlayStation VR (PS VR) is a virtual reality headset developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which was released in October 2016. The headset works with the company's PlayStation 4 video game console and is forward compatible with PlaySta ...

. A version with support for conventional controls was released for Windows,

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

in May 2020; an ''Enhanced'' version of the game was released for Windows,

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

and

Xbox Series X and Series S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

in June 2021. It is the only game developed by Firesprite to appear on

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

and

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

consoles, as the studio was closely associated with

Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

, who later acquired the studio as part of

PlayStation Studios PlayStation Studios (formerly SCE Worldwide Studios and SIE Worldwide Studios) is a division of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) that oversees the video game development at the studios owned by SIE. The division was established as SCE Worl ...

Gameplay

''The Persistence'' is a first-person

game. The game is set onboard ''The Persistence'', a stranded spaceship in the year 2057. The player assumes control of a clone of security officer Zimri Eder. She is tasked to reactivate the ship's stardrive in order to escape while fighting mutated clones which have occupied the ship.

Stealth Stealth may refer to: Military *Stealth technology, technology used to conceal ships, aircraft, and missiles **Stealth aircraft, aircraft which use stealth technology ** Stealth ground vehicle, ground vehicles which use stealth technology ** Ste ...

is encouraged, though the player also has access to several weapons, including but not limited to a taser gun named the Harvester, a

gravity gun A gravity gun is a type of device in video games, particularly first-person shooters using physics engines, whereby players can directly manipulate objects in the world, often allowing them to be used as projectiles against hostile characters. Th ...

named the Gravometric Hook, as well as items such as Ivy Serum which temporarily turns an enemy into an ally. The game also features elements commonly found in

roguelike Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a style of role-playing game traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. Most ro ...

games. The player needs to complete tasks on each of the four ship decks, though the ship layout, which is

procedurally generated In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated content and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. I ...

, changes whenever the player uses a teleporter. As the player explores the ship, they will find FAB chips, which can be used to unlock weapon upgrades, and stem cells, which can grant the player passive perks such as increased health or enhanced strength. Whenever the player dies, they will respawn as another clone of Zimri Eder. A

companion app A second screen involves the use of a secondary computing device to provide a different viewing experience for content on another device. The term commonly refers to the use of such devices to provide interactive features, like posts on social me ...

for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and Android was released alongside the game, which allows up to four players to influence how a game play out by either helping or hindering a player's progress.

Development

The game was developed by UK-based developer

. The studio was inspired by sci-fi classics including '' Alien'', as well as games such as ''

Dead Space ''Dead Space'' is a science fiction horror franchise created and directed by Glen Schofield. ''Dead Space'' was developed by Visceral Games and published and owned by Electronic Arts. The franchise's chronology is not presented in a linear format ...

'' and ''

System Shock ''System Shock'' is a 1994 first-person action-adventure game, action-adventure video game developed by LookingGlass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. It was directed by Doug Church with Warren Spector serving as producer. The game ...

''. ''

Stories of Your Life and Others ''Stories of Your Life and Others'' is a collection of short stories by American writer Ted Chiang published in 2002 by Tor Books. It collects Chiang's first eight stories. All of the stories except " Liking What You See: A Documentary" were pre ...

'', a collection of short stories by American writer

Ted Chiang Ted Chiang (; pinyin: ''Jiāng Fēngnán''; born 1967) is an American science fiction writer. His work has won four Nebula Award, Nebula awards, four Hugo Award, Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and six Locus Award, ...

, was also a major source of inspiration. Development of the game first started in early 2015. The studio used their experience developing '' The Playroom'' and ''The Playroom VR'' to understand how social play and interaction worked when they were developing the companion app. Firesprite chose

Unreal Engine 4 Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) is the fourth version of Unreal Engine developed by Epic Games. UE4 began development in 2003 and was released in March 2014, with the first game using UE4 being released in April 2014. UE4 introduced support for Physically ...

as the game's engine because it allowed the team to prototype and experiment with different gameplay mechanics quickly. Firesprite officially announced the game in March 2017. It was initially released for

headset

exclusively on July 24, 2018. A modified version of the game, which allows players to play the game without using any VR headset, was released on 21 May 2020 for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. ''The Persistence Enhanced'' was released for PC,

and

on 4 June 2021. Players who owned the game on PS4, Xbox One or PC will be able to upgrade their game at no additional cost.

Reception

According to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the PC version of the game received generally positive reviews based on 4 reviews, while the PlayStation 5 version received "mixed or average" reviews based on 5 reviews. Ian Higton, reviewing the PSVR version, described the game as "an ideal purchase for VR horror fans", and remarked that the game, with its roguelike elements, "offers way more in terms of gameplay" when compared with other VR titles in the market. Sammy Barker from ''

Push Square Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British digital media company based in London. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and oth ...

'', reviewing the PS5 version of the game, also liked the roguelike elements and the game's sense of progression, though noted that some of the systems "feel odd outside of VR".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Persistence, The 2018 video games Firesprite games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games PlayStation VR games Roguelike video games Single-player video games Survival horror video games Unreal Engine 4 games Video games about cloning Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games set in outer space Video games set in the 2050s Video games using procedural generation Virtual reality games Windows games Xbox One games Xbox Series X and Series S games Fiction set in 2057