The Persistence (System Shock vibes?)

Lateralus

Lateralus

More [H]uman than Human
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Aug 7, 2004
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Came across this game today reading about titles that RTX is being added to, and I'm intrigued. Several of the reviews say that it plays like SS2 and feels like the devs really loved that series.



Just wondering if anyone here has played it. If anyone can recommend it now, I'll probably pick it up for $30 but if not I might wait for it to go on sale. I watched one of the vids just now and it looks good.
 
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I saw this and it sounded interesting, but I'm not all that into roguelikes. Only ones that really grabbed me were Rogue Legacy and Dead Cells.
 
Armenius said:
I saw this and it sounded interesting, but I'm not all that into roguelikes. Only ones that really grabbed me were Rogue Legacy and Dead Cells.
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Yeah, I'm typically not into roguelikes myself but this one might have enough atmosphere and gameplay hooks to reel me in. :) I might wait for a sale. At 50% off (or even 75%; one can hope!) I'd probably get at least a few hours of enjoyment out of it.
 
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There was a roguelike built into System Shock 2, using the PDA, remember that?

I don't remember what it was called, but I found this looking for it:

 
I'm not into Roguelikes either, but that deserves a thread and a watch.
There is a thread so I necro'd it and put a trailer in. And the FOON.
 
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Update: I bought it on sale. The game is pretty cool, and there is definitely a System Shock 2 (and, to some degree, Dead Space) vibe. The weapons I've purchased so far are pretty neat, and you can upgrade those as well as your abilities (health, melee damage, stealth, etc.) at fabricator stations.

The only frustrating thing I've found so far, of course, is that when you die you have to restart from the Recovery center (where your cloned bodies are printed). Thankfully, it does save your objective status so if you've completed the Deck 1 (Research Deck) objective of plotting the jump vectors, it still shows completed and you just have to head to Deck 2 to refuel the stardrive. But, you don't lose everything (you keep your stem cells, erebus tokens and fabrication credits that are used to upgrade your abilities and the various weapons/technologies), and any weapons that you've unlocked at the fabricator stations remain unlocked...but they have to be purchased again each time you die. I've only unlocked Level 1 for each weapon, but at least at this point they are cheap to reacquire compared to how much cash you've got stacked. For example, I might die, re-enter the level with 3,000-5,000 fab credits and be able to repurchase a .50 cal pistol for 187 units. Something like that.

The game does help keep things fresh by rearranging the level/deck layouts each time. This was a great decision on the devs' part, since replaying literally the same level over and over would get stale fast. Death can come quickly in the game, so you'll most likely be starting over a lot. I'm just now getting to the point where I can survive encounters with more than one enemy at a time because I've upgraded my health and melee damage so I can take a few more hits and it takes fewer blows to kill enemies. I'm relying a lot on melee early on because you can't harvest stem cells from dead bodies, so if you choose to shoot them you don't get rewarded with stem cells that you need in order to be able to upgrade your character attributes. I've read though, that later on in the game, guns are a necessity and that even some of the less powerful guns might not be enough to deal with some of the enemies.

There have been plenty of good jump scares so far, and some of the enemies are pretty creepy. One reminds me of those things from The Suffering that would stab you with needles. Another one is called the Listener, and half of his head is missing. So he can't see, but if he hears you he'll start shooting at you. There are ways around that though, like a grenade called the Siren that makes a sound to draw enemies towards it. And early on, if you run into a Berserker and don't have the right power-ups or a powerful weapon...fuhgeddaboutit. And once they're dead, that section is "safe." They don't respawn until you die.

Overall, it's a fun game with a very nice space ship atmosphere that will keep you on edge. It's not a constant sense of dread like Alien Isolation or Amnesia, but if the rogue-like frequent death/starting over thing doesn't bother you there's some good fun to be had for $15. I'll definitely get that much out of it before I finish Deck 2. Everything after that is gravy.
 
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