Perish Review (Emaneri)
This review has undergone significant changes after close to 30 hours of playtime. Spoilers for this game are included below.
PERISH is alright.
PERISH is like if DOOM Eternal and a random roguelite had a child, then tried to give it a bath in the river Styx. Overall, it's mediocre, but isn't the worst game I've played.
Combat
...is fine? There's an array of weapons, both melee and ranged, that each carry an active and passive upgrade you must first unlock by completing specific secondary objectives. Luckily these objectives are persistent, so even if you die on a run, you don't have to worry about your progress being reset. The problem is that not a lot of these weapons are worth using. Most melee weapons are outshone by all ranged weapons, and every other ranged weapon is outclassed by the Byzantine Cannon. It seems like fire damage is a big thing in combat, as there's also a Fire Potency ring, a Burning Daggers reward card, and the Burning Crown, which all help deal significant fire damage, so once you have them, you're pretty much set. Far and away, though, Staff of Thyrsus is the worst weapon of the list. It's a gimmick melee weapon, and good luck with trying to get the upgrades. Even if you're playing with a melee weapon, it's almost guaranteed that you're using daggers to take down any boss - a lot of reward cards are centered around your daggers. Silver lining, though - you can block practically everything, from daggers to explosions to straight up fire, so that's a plus.
Enemies are generally pushovers. Their pathing is easily skirted, and with the dodge mechanic in play, you only get hit if you're not really paying attention. Otherwise, just jump around while you're moving.
Performance
...isn't the worst thing. I have poor PC parts compared to most these days, but running it on Medium settings at 1440p does the job, even if it doesn't get 60fps. However, the game is very buggy. Crashes happen rarely, if at all, in single-player. In co-op? I lost count, but the average time rounds out to about 1 crash every two or three hours. No idea why. Speaking of glitches, the spectator camera bugs out and allows you to travel outside the map, you can sometimes spawn in beneath a map (happened to me in the Orphic Temple), various subtitles for lines that are never spoken show up for some reason when you respawn in the Pantheon, random health bars will flicker in and out of existence in some levels, and so on. Most of these aren't really an issue; as far as I know, the dev team consists of two people, and two people can only do so much, but these crashes need to be fixed.
Music
...is kinda bland and formulaic, with no real experimentation throughout. The most interesting songs of the soundtrack come from the Chthonic Quarter, specifically in Thalassian Fissure and the fight with Dismal Lord Karkinos. Second place would probably be the Tartaros ending, just because the song just fits the overwhelming feeling of oppression and suffering that the realm gives off, and that's probably the biggest compliment I can give the music in this game is that it fits the setting and the environment. However, none of it really stands out - I don't find myself in any particular area thinking that I really want to hear the music there again. Every song follows the same pattern: there are some strings that resemble Greek melodies, probably a lute or harp or something, and there's probably some percussion that isn't just a straight up drum kit, and then the metal kicks in, and it's like "yeah, alright, I guess." I don't know, maybe I'm just picky.
Environments
...are well-designed. Everything looks great and, at times, almost breathtaking. They really outdid themselves when designing the aesthetic of the game. No complaints here. My favorite environment is probably Charon's Harbour, maybe even Tartaros for its destructability.
Writing
...is actually not bad. From the dialogue to the lore, everything is pretty interesting to read and fits the tone of the game fairly well. Not a lot of voice acting in the game, but what is there is well done, so kudos to that. No real complaints.
Is it a roguelite?
In the barest, loosest definitions of the word? Yeah, I'd say so, and I do mean barest and loosest. There is no level variety - the stages are static in their progression, with no variation. Once you've run them a few times, you practically know the layout. The objectives change every time, but with only a few objectives per stage that cycle through, again, not much variation. After every completed objective, you gain a reward card, which allows you certain effects like increased movement or an added burning effect to your daggers and so on, but I've seen someone else say that a good percentage of these cards are gimmicks that don't serve a purpose and, frankly, they're right. I don't find myself jumping in the air to get more damage on an attack - I do it to get out of danger.
However, there is a sense of progression throughout, even in death. You are making progress, little by little.
Overall
...I'd recommend it, but only if you're going for full completion of the game. It's not quite worth it otherwise. SCORE: 5.5/10