PERISH Review – Babylon’s Rise Needs Fixin’

The shooting game genre has been a good place to bring several other gameplay styles in unique mixes. One of the best approaches, in my eyes, was when BPM and Metal: Hellsinger brought rhythm game mechanics that made each of them stand out. Another such example is the game that’s the subject of today’s review, PERISH, a title that combines shooting mechanics with roguelike elements alongside a multiplayer aspect.

PERISH has its own unique theme of being inspired by Greek mythology as you take the role of a wayward pariah that’s condemned to live in Purgatory. The aim of the game is to blast through the Underworld and make haste to the mythical Elysium, a place of cosmic revelations. The game offers a tough challenge that can be tackled by either yourself alone or by multiple players.

That’s right, up to 3 other players can all go through the same journey to the land of Elysium and share the spoils of the battles against several hordes of revenants you find in Purgatory. However, is this journey worth taking?

Like always, let’s start with the presentation of the game. As mentioned earlier, PERISH is a game with heavy inspiration from Greek mythology, featuring a lot of references to it throughout the underworld environment. We’ll face off against mythical creatures such as Lamias, Minotauros, hordes of revenant creatures, and even some automatons. Although, the game will also feature other enemies inspired by Christian and Roman mythologies.

The harsh environments also include a wide variety of locales that are pleasing to see from time to time. You fight your way across a volcanic foundry, a dark fissure, and even the dilapidated temples of Orpheus in your quest for salvation. The graphics in the game are definitely a noteworthy highlight, especially with Ray Tracing enabled, as you can see a few great vistas that are a treat to the eyes.

I think the best aspect of the game is its visual design, as the demons of the Underworld have very distinct designs that you can easily tell apart. Each section has its variety of monsters that can be easily memorized by their appearance alone. It’s a good thing, too, because you will also end up seeing them a lot as you die of their attacks.

The game also has a decent soundtrack to pair with the stunning visuals. While some tracks are incredible bangers at some points, others are a bit boring or too repetitive to be anything worth listening to. More often than not, the peers that shared this experience with me tended to turn off the game’s music to play their own instead.

Honestly, the worst part about PERISH in terms of the presentation would be the sound mixing and some text issues. The game is plagued with typos, inconsistent sentences, and sometimes voice clips get drowned out by the music. In one of the worst cases, I was met with a character talking offscreen that I could very faintly hear over the music. I guess I’m lucky I always enable subtitles before I play games.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding the game’s issues. See, for a game that supposedly wants to have several players going through the same journey at the same time, it really isn’t doing its best to have a very good grasp of its online infrastructure. If you wonder why I skipped the gameplay portion, it’s because the very epicenter of it revolves around the online features.

Up to four players can join Perish to play the game simultaneously. But honestly, I have a hard time maintaining the connection with those players 90% of the time. I can’t even begin to count the number of times when my teammates disappeared during a transition between dungeons or just got disconnected for no reason after completing an objective.

What’s even odder about this is that the game also has issues of its own. On one occasion, we were invaded by a phantom player who just stood at what I assume is the origin point of each map, diverting all the enemy’s attention to them and basically forcing the enemies to despawn. My partner and I tried to continue playing, but shortly after, the game softlocked us by throwing my friend underneath the map and into a perpetual void… A Purgatory within the Purgatory.

There were times when the game also just teleported us to the same void due to some latency issue or because we stood at a random spot in the map during a transition. My partner was stopped from falling just because a random asset loaded in beneath him and kept him in place. On one occasion, my partner loaded into an area just as the graphical assets were loading in, and he just kept falling until the game placed the assets there.

I reported some of these issues to the developers, and while I was told that these bugs would be ironed out, I also don’t feel like this game has enough polish to be released in such a state. The online infrastructure needs to be upgraded a little bit, and the issues with the typos and sound mixing have to be fixed, especially because they can break immersion.

The game itself is fine when it works. In fact, it’s a really fun (albeit short) experience in which you and your damned friends go on a journey across several locations in the Underworld. You can use a wide variety of weapons to fend off the threats ranging from a shotgun, a sword, a mace, and other neat weapons.

Perish also has some neat ideas when it comes to its objective structure. Your party will be met with several objectives depending on the number of players that are currently on. As you go along, you can also gain temporary buffs each time you complete an objective which ranges from giving your abilities a bit more of a punch or allowing you to create puddles that instantly kill enemies.

The game also has some neat hidden items that require players to work as a unit to figure out the real method behind achieving things, such as a different ending. The developers told me that the intent is to have co-op parties to help each other solve the hidden riddles within the game and to collect the tools that are hidden in each stage.

Where PERISH falters a bit in this regard is that it doesn’t open itself for exploration with the way it works. The game can spawn waves of enemies and send them at you even after you complete an objective. Usually, these don’t provide players any downtime to explore the stages. Thus, they will be very likely to miss the hidden codex entries or items while focusing on exiting the stage and moving on to the next objective.

The bosses in PERISH are certainly unremarkable too. Many of these fights tend to be a bit of a war of attrition over an actual challenging boss because they just stand around and maybe throw a punch or laser beam your way while you are constantly mauling them and blocking their attacks. The only annoying aspect is that the hitboxes are sometimes inconsistent, leading to me and my party taking a hit from an attack aimed far off our actual positions.

So, what’s the final point here? Do I recommend PERISH or not? Well, in its current state, the game has a lot going against it, but at the very least, it’s an entertaining experience when it works. I suppose I could say that the game is a solid recommendation if you have a stable internet connection and wish to spend some time shooting down underworld miscreations and figuring out the truth behind the journey to Elysium.

I believe that there’s something to be found here. All the game needs is a bit more polish with its core elements and online infrastructure. Once those issues are addressed, I will firmly believe that it’s an experience worth having. Luckily, the developers have claimed that PERISH will get more weapons and a lot more content that will expand its world in the future.

It’s clear that the game will be very well cared for as it moves forward. Now, it’s just a matter of keeping its consistency and learning from the problems. For now, my criticisms can massively draw back the original purpose of the game itself and thus, my ranking will reflect that. I may revisit this project later to talk about whether or not it’s been improved, but for now, I’ll just stay here rather than go to Elysium. At least it’s better than Babylon’s Fall.

Review code provided by the publisher.

Perish

Perish is a game that can accomplish its objectives but requires a lot more polishing. The game offers a great way for up to four players to enjoy a shooter experience in which you can face off against several hellish creatures cooperatively. While those are definite pluses, the aforementioned issues can take players away from the experience.