izigame.me

I'm not doing my usual format for Perish, because there is so much to talk about in greater detail, I feel simple bullet points would not get across what kind of game this is. Because Perish is really cool, and I feel a lot of people don't understand what it is and what it's going for.
Perish is a very weird and interesting game, and honestly it's quite hard to nail down what it really is, but I'll do my best to explain what I think it is. Perish is basically what you get if you take Elderborn, Painkiller and a small dash of Hades and put it in a blender. But it also comes with a surprising dose of NES-inspired approach to difficulty design; with constantly respawning enemies, limited health points based on number of hits you can take, having a true ending in a fashion similar to games like Ghosts 'n Goblins, but it's all wrapped up in really shiny modern visuals with a pretty excellent Greek mythology-inspired underworld aesthetic, with lots of gold.
However, I feel Perish is not really a roguelite, as it lacks a lot of the elements like random levels, crazy synergies and such to warrant being called one. It does have upgrades between runs and has some random elements, like enemy spawns, the objectives you need to complete in said levels and the upgrades and powerups you get per run, but you are still running through the same levels in the same order.
The combat loop is a bit strange, but very satisfying. A lot of the time you can run through a lot of the levels and can even ignore enemies, but there will be certain objectives that force you to engage in the game's combat system and it is a lot of fun. You start out finding basic melee weapons, which have a slash and a block, pretty straight forward. However you're given other tools; a dash to evade enemy attacks, a kick to knock enemies down or off ledges and into traps, a consumable item of your choice, but also throwing daggers to deal with enemies from afar and can be powered up to be extremely formidable.
The game also has firearms and other magical and ancient ranged weaponry to find, which are incredibly powerful, dishing out way more damage way faster than even the strongest melee weapons in the game, and can make problematic enemies a breeze from afar. However, you can only carry one weapon, and by choosing to use ranged weapons you complete forgo your ability to block, meaning you lose a great deal of defensive capabilities, and enemies are more than happy to sneak up behind you. While melee weapons aren't as powerful damage-wise, that block makes them an invaluable option for skilled players who want to stay in the fight, as a block will protect you from literally every source of damage all around you, not just in front of you, plus granting you a couple of seconds of invincibility after a successful block thus making them just as viable in the grand scheme of the game's combat.
So depending on the situation, the enemy types and the objective; choosing the correct weapons that you unlocked can be the difference between life and death, as certain enemies are weak to ranged or melee and some objectives are easier with certain weapon types. So the combat seems very simple on the surface, but with multiple playthroughs, it's easy to see the game has more depth than it originally lets on.
However the right tools for the job, being your upgrades and acquired weapons and trinkets, will not apply if you're going for the true ending. To obtain the true ending, the game forces you to use the starting weapon, the starting consumable and deliberately forgoing all your crowns and rings and other upgrades you've accumulated over your playthrough. This is where the real NES-inspired mastery of the game comes into play, you need the know the game inside and out, know how to deal with every enemy, how to accomplish every objective on each level as fast as possible, how to properly manage your health and to plan your powerups in the run for the long term in order the achieve victory. The game becomes truly relentless and being stuck with such harsh limitations and having your character back to square one can be incredibly daunting.
Luckily all is not lost, as you have likely found all the orphic fragments in previous runs using upgrades and powerful weaponry, if you're the exploratory type of player. If given to the right NPC, your starting weapon becomes a powerhouse of a sword and also increases the power of your throwing daggers. making it a tool that's more than capable of achieving a win, so long as you're using every tool that you are allowed to use as best as you possibly can.
Getting that win on my orphic run was absolutely exhilarating, my heart pounding and hands even shaking a little when I finally beat the final boss, which is a real bugger of a fight. Getting to finally step into Elysium and and getting that true ending definitely hit me harder than I expected.
I also have give a ton of praise to the soundtrack and sound design. The music is genuinely fantastic, taking a lot of those ancient Greek motifs you often hear in a lot of other games and movies sharing similar themes and then mixing those together with some really crunchy heavy metal tunes. It's a weird and interesting mix and it absolute rocks.
As for the sound design, it's also great; guns feel so punchy and powerful, slashing enemies with your melee weapons feels visceral as heck, and the sound you hear when you get a confirmed kill is always so satisfying the hear. The sound is also great for telling you what's happening around you and picking out sounds in the heat of a fight can be the difference between life and death. It is pretty great the game does that so well, even with hard tunes blasting in your ear.
All that gushing aside, I do have some gripes with Perish. My biggest issue by far is the second chapter of the game, I feel it should have been the final chapter, because it has by far the most dangerous enemies in the game by a really significant margin, along with huge levels filled to the brim with hazards. The most common enemy in said chapter is one that's insanely fast in running speed and attack animations, is nearly invincible when attacked in the body, is immune to fire damage and can only reliably be killed with headshots. They are very much overtuned. Other than that gripe, my second biggest issue is being unable to pause in a singleplayer session, which is really quite naff.
The others I have is mainly just some lack of visual polish in certain areas; things like a crusty texture here and there, the occasional small hole in level geometry where you can peak out of bounds, as well as some animations looking a bit rough and juddery at times, and I do notice some areas can drop frames here and there, but it otherwise runs really well most of the time. I feel like the issues that a lot of other people seem to have with Perish don't really apply to me and is either a case of personal taste, or I just simply accepted Perish for what it is and met it halfway, in doing so I've come to love the game and really enjoy its eccentricities.
After completing Perish 100% last night I wanted to give this game a glowing review, because I feel it deserves a lot more love that it sadly never really got. It's a weird and strange game but is a huge load of fun and is really rewarding and punishing in equal measure. The game demands a lot from the player, and I was really happy to give my all for it, it was very much worth it in the end. And it's perfectly doable in solo, as almost all of my play sessions were singleplayer, with the rare session with randos in my earlier hours in the game, and it's great fun in both modes.
If you like Greek mythology stuff, horde shooters/slashers, banger soundtracks and games with really weird and eccentric game design, give Perish a go. It might take a bit of time and getting used to, but it's well worth the asking price once it clicks with you.