Addictive despite jank and bugs. Peripeteia immersive sim review [Early Access]

At its core, Peripeteia resembles a potent mix of the Deus Ex and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universes. It is a clunky and bug-ridden life simulator set in post-apocalyptic Poland, where a bleak, oppressive atmosphere plays a major role.

A sobering awakening

The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. People begin to crawl out of the radioactive ash and gradually rebuild civilization. A similar fate befell Poland, where fragmented factions fight for control and the future of the country.

On an inconspicuous Polish scrapyard, the main protagonist comes to — an alcoholic cyborg named Marie. She remembers nothing of her past, and the augmentations received after the war turn her into a true killing machine. Now she must find her place in the grim realities of the new world.

The main lead is the search for a bunker. It is assumed that Marie will find answers to all her questions inside this bunker. During the search, she will have to complete missions for factions vying for control. In most cases, these missions boil down to finding and eliminating enemies.

Meeting the locals and navigation

Marie receives her first task and briefing from Philemon the scavenger, who finds her after she wakes up. The essence of the mission is to steal a lamp from a planetarium so Philemon can profitably resell it to its former owners. After that, the heroine is left to her own devices: do whatever you want and act as you please.

Navigating post-apocalyptic Poland is a true nightmare. The environment is dominated by multi-story residential buildings. To move through them, you have to climb countless flights of stairs — working elevators are hard to come by in Poland. The heroine’s mobility allows her to clamber over debris, scale balconies, and slip into the most inaccessible places.

Each level offers multiple paths to complete assigned tasks. You can find a convenient crawlspace or ledge, or drop down to the needed spot. Some passages are unlocked via terminals where you need to guess an encrypted phrase or number. The cipher never changes, so if desired, any terminal can be brute-forced using save and load.

The sheer scale of the environment is offset by its sparse content: 99% of doors are locked, most balconies offer no way inside the apartments, and you encounter people very rarely.

The characters met along the way share crucial information and their views on current affairs. Some of them spout gibberish in the most charismatic manner. I was particularly amused by an officer of the local law enforcement. If you strike up a conversation with her, she begins to wildly fantasize about how “Marie attacks her, big muscular soldiers rush to her rescue, but it’s already too late, and everyone mourns her.” What makes it even funnier is that one of the factions offers a quest that calls for her untimely demise.

Between missions, Marie rests in her apartment. She spends her free time downing beer and chatting with a cactus. A bizarre neighbor obsessed with elevators lurks outside the door, and the basement features a shooting range where you can practice firing various weapons.

Encounters in the dark

Combat encounters in the game are very rare. Marie can easily avoid them using stealth and abilities like camouflage and a recon drone. New abilities are gained by installing implants, but they drain energy, take up plenty of inventory space, and are far from always useful.

Most enemies do not turn hostile until you breach their territory. The game makes no exceptions! At one point, a Polish soldier asked to fetch a weapon for him from a warehouse. Technically, this made entering the territory legitimate, but nearby soldiers would attack without hesitation anyway — including the very scoundrel who gave the quest.

If conflict is inevitable, it is best to lure enemies into dark rooms. They have poor vision there, making it easy to flank them. Matters are also helped by the fact that the local Poles eagerly wander off in unpredictable directions and get lost.

For shootouts, the game provides an arsenal of Soviet-era weaponry. Ammunition is scarce, so you often have to fire whatever you have and scavenge corpses for magazines and new guns.

If you explore the first level thoroughly, you can discover a sabre. It is a true weapon of mass destruction that leaves no chance for nearby foes. Hidden on the third level is a Stechkin pistol. Its high firepower combined with a suppressor allows you to silently dispose of most opponents.

The sabre even proved useful against a column of tanks crewed by evil communists! On the first attempt, the tanks merged into one, turning their destruction into dismantling a very peculiar nesting doll. The tanks bugged out in a unique way on every single try, which made completing the level impossible.

Atmosphere — suffocatingly familiar

The core gameplay loop centers on exploring the ruins of Soviet civilization. Propaganda posters hang in many buildings. One of them warns against consuming denatured alcohol. If I had a nickel for every time a Polish game warned about the dangers of denatured alcohol, I would have two nickels. Not a lot, but weird that it happened twice.

The overall attention to detail is also pleasing. If you gaze up at the sky in the rain, droplets gather on the screen. A found cigarette can be lit and smoked slowly. Many objects can be pushed around. In the bottom left corner of the screen sits Marie’s avatar: it dims in the dark and contorts in pain upon taking damage.

Sustained damage affects limbs, leading to consequences. For example, severe leg trauma strips away your ability to run. You can “heal” using batteries, food, and alcohol.

Diagnosis

At present, Peripeteia is an exceptionally buggy and clunky game. It is easy to get lost, and enemies as well as peaceful NPCs do not always respond to player actions. Choices made have no real impact on the storyline.

At the same time, the game delivers plenty of positive impressions: the combat is janky yet captivating; exploring levels is exciting; conversations with NPCs trigger unexpected events; the atmosphere is thick enough to cut with a knife; missions can be completed in a multitude of ways. Despite all its current shortcomings, the game is definitely worth giving a chance!

***

Image rights belong to Ninth Exodus. The preview image is taken from SteamDB