Review for Perception. Game for PlayStation Network, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 30/05/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 31/10/2017 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 06/06/2017 The version for Xbox One came out on 06/06/2017
Videogame, the word itself says, is a term that implies the centrality of sight in the player's experience. Perception is a title that stereotypes this description, ignoring semantics and offering us the chance to play a blind protagonist in a first-person survival horror. The idea and its implementation are certainly interesting, a pity only for a final realization that does not give credit to the excellent premises.
The house in the dark
Cassie has recurring dreams: a rope, an apple and other objects but, above all, a house. The classic gloomy mansion with a thousand rooms that, regardless of her disability, the young Cassie still decides to explore. In fact, the house really exists and the protagonist does not hesitate for a moment to go there: facing her fears is the only way to exorcise them, not to mention that it is essential for her sanity to understand why she continues to dream of that place.
The plot continues taking shape in a tangle of discoveries, letters, recordings and, of course, the protagonist's comments. At the beginning of the adventure, the game will ask you if you want a more or less chatty Cassie: although the game is dubbed only in English and the presence of subtitles partially ruins the dark and gloomy style desired by The Deep End Games, we highly recommend you to opt for the second option, so that you can appreciate what it is the strength of Perception, that is the identification with the emotions, the character and the thoughts of its charismatic protagonist.
Seeing with sound
But how to make the experience of a blind person visible? The trick chosen by The Deep End Games is the sound: the screen will be completely dark, as long as we don't decide to hit Cassie's stick on the floor or a surface. The sound wave that will be generated by our action will "illuminate" the surroundings, showing the contours of the objects and the environment that Cassie will be able to perceive - hence the title of the game - a bit like a bat would. In the event that there are enemies or noisy elements in the surroundings (such as a heater or running water), Cassie can use them to "see" around them and get a clearer idea of the surrounding environment. The idea, as we said at the beginning, is good, just a pity that the way it is made soon ends up boring: continuing to beat around is not the best of fun, and it soon becomes difficult to believe that Cassie knows how to recognize sheets of paper, small details and ethereal projections such as ghosts, effectively making the protagonist's visual handicap an element of annoyance rather than a cue to deal with the gameplay differently.
Speaking of gameplay, in fact, we are faced with the classic walking simulator seasoned with some simple puzzles and the ability to hide to escape the enemies. However, where some recent titles such as What Remains of Edith Finch have managed to thrill us in the depths without even a monster to escape from, Perception mixes the mechanics of the walking simulator with elements already seen in titles like Outlast or Kholat, without equally being able to really capture attention. After a few minutes of play you will find yourself using Cassie's sixth sense - a skill that allows her to identify the next goal to walk towards - to simply move from one point to another, escaping from time to time quite easily hostile presences. to resume walking, with the sole purpose of unraveling the mystery behind Cassie's dreams. If it were not for the strength of the plot, surely the desire to permanently abandon the game would have come well before the end credits.
"A world in flames"
In the Marvel series of the same name, Matt Murdock, alias the blind vigilantes Daredevil, when asked about what he sees with his hypersenses, he answers "a world on fire": this is more or less the feeling that Perception tries to reproduce by offering the player the way to see by Cassie, although the predominant color is a cool blue rather than Daredevil's bright red.
Graphically the game starts very well: the wind whips the house and, howling, outlines its contours; the slamming doors and the sudden noises that allow Cassie to mentally recreate the environment around her are all interesting elements that, however, tend to repeat themselves quickly and get bored. At the umpteenth blow of the stick, at the umpteenth noise too much that calls the enemy, at the umpteenth banal death because you came out of a hiding place too soon, you risk abandoning the adventure irremediably. In the long run, the bitter feeling is that Cassie's blurry contours and blindness have served more for hide the carelessness of a mediocre graphics engine than to create something truly innovative.
The sound sector, on the other hand, is entirely different: effects, music and noise are top notch, especially if listened to through headphones, which helps to identify with the main character, who clearly makes hearing one of his main senses. In the same way, the English dubbing is very accurate and plausible, so much so that if you have no problems with languages we advise you to disable subtitles and immerse yourself in the experience without annoying translations that distract from the little that is good in the technical sector. of the title.
Perception starts from a stimulating premise but misuses the potential of the idea: the blind protagonist is charismatic and an excellent character to identify with, too bad that this identification soon falls into the frustration of a graphically bare setting, not able to give an idea of how Cassie perceives the world around her. We thus find ourselves inside a walking simulator halfway between What Remains of Edith Finch, Outlast and Kholat, just a pity that these other titles are far superior to the Perception reviewed here, which manages to reach the pass mark only thanks to a all in all non-trivial plot, the only strong point of a game that unfortunately remains only an excellent idea on paper.
► Perception is an Adventure type game developed by The Deep End Games and published by Feardemic for PlayStation Network, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 30/05/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 31/10/2017 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 06/06/2017 The version for Xbox One came out on 06/06/2017
