Title: Perception
Platform: Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4
Cost: $22.99 on Steam
Rating: Mature, for violence, sexual themes and strong language
Perception is an atmospheric horror game that puts you in the shoes of a young blind woman, Cassie Thornton, who is driven to explore a creepy old mansion that has been plaguing her dreams for weeks.
Once inside the house, Cassie is forced into an exploration of her own personal demons, and of the memories of the previous residents and their spiraling descent into madness and despair. Perception evokes my own memories of Stephen King's The Shining, with its malevolent Overlook Hotel, and it's clear the creators drew on that novel, among others, as inspiration.
While it may seem like a bold move for a blind person to go alone to a centuries-old house to confront the source of her nightmares, Cassie has several skills to aid her along the way. First, well, she's not afraid of the dark. Second, being blind since birth, she has developed the bat-like ability to "see" through echolocation, much like Marvel's superhero Daredevil. She also has a sixth sense that lets her know in what general direction she should head when lost, confused or turned around.
One of the more interesting gameplay aspects is Cassie's use of her smartphone, as an example of real-world technology that can aid the blind.
When she finds documents or writing that seems important, such as the label on a bottle of prescription pills, she scans it using Delphi, a text-to-speech app on her phone, which reads the words aloud.
Other times, she comes across puzzles that someone blind just couldn't solve, so she snaps a photo on her smartphone and relays it to a service called "Live Eyes," where a live person answers and tells her what's in the photo she just sent -- such as writing on a mirror, done in red lipstick. "Least I hope that's lipstick," the agent adds, laughing nervously.
Her own footsteps, the rushing sound of air, doors slamming and taps of her cane allow Cassie to gain a sense of her surroundings. Stand still as Cassie, and the world fades into pitch blackness. A tap of the cane brings her surroundings into view, in a mostly gray scale color scheme. Doorways and items to interact with are highlighted in green.
As Cassie explores, she comes across these green baubles -- a length of rope, a malachite gemstone, e.g., and when she touches them, she sees the memories of people who lived here in the past. What happened to them? Unraveling these mysteries is her goal as she travels from room to room, exploring the common threads that entwine stories of multiple generations of residents.
But the dark holds terrors even for someone like Cassie, for she is not alone. An entity known only as "The Presence" is hunting for her, and the very taps of her cane she uses to see are also like a beacon, drawing that evil spirit closer. Tap too much, too fast, and death becomes unavoidable.
Perception was developed primarily by a husband-and-wife team at indie studio Deep End Games. Earlier they worked on the BioShock and Dead Space series. Perception is not as grand or expertly executed as those titles, but it's a still an interestingly done concept. The game takes only a few hours to play through and is not difficult to complete from either a technical or gameplay standpoint.
There are some jump scares, doors slamming shut behind Cassie, that sort of thing, but in general the experience is more "creeping dread" rather than horrifying as the memories are explored.
Seeing as they all took place in a haunted house, you can rely on most of those people not having had a happy ending.
The story is separated into chapters -- in the first, Cassie peeps in on the lives of a doctor and his pregnant wife, often coming across audio notes from the doctor's psychology practice that serve as a sort of diary of the sad events that befell the family.
The second chapter revolves around the wife of a World War II soldier who is determined to enlist so she can save her husband. The third deals with a puppetmaster who makes legions of creepy dolls, known as poppets.
Walking around the same house repeatedly can get a little repetitive, but the interior and furnishings of the house are perhaps also merely visions, as they change from chapter to chapter. The story is interesting and tight enough, and the game short enough that the repetitiveness isn't too much of a bother.
There isn't much in the way of replayability here, but the voice acting is great and the premise different enough that it's a title worth checking out, if the genre appeals.
Review code for Perception was provided by the publisher. Reviewed on Windows 10.
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ActiveStyle on 06/26/2017