It’s just been announced that Firesprite, the Liverpool, UK-based developer behind The Playroom VR on PlayStation VR, is working on another title for the head-mounted display (HMD). Taking a somewhat different direction to the family oriented videogame, the studio is working on horror experience The Persistence.
Horror has become one of the most popular genre’s for virtual reality (VR) developers to explore, and Firesprite will be going down the sci-fi survival route for The Persistance. Every good horror title needs a decent backstory, and this sees players on board a research vessel studying a collapsed star. Disaster strikes and the ship’s on-board computer tries to save the crew by reviving their deceased bodies. As you may suspect this doesn’t go according to plan and the process transforms them into ravenous mutants.
Awaking from cryosleep, it’s up the players to kill the undead and take back control of the ship before it plunges into a nearby black hole.
The Persistance is a procedurally generated videogame so that every time a player dies another character in cryosleep is awoken, but the ship will have changed, with a new layout, enemy placement and pickups. These come in the form of stem cells which can be extracted from enemies using a weapon called the Harvester. These cells can then be used to improve attributes such as speed, health, and stealth. If a player dies these are transferred for the next play through.
Other weapons include a six-shooter pistol, a Gravity Bomb which drops miniature black holes, and for some melee action there’s the Rage Serum granting players temporary super-strength.
Firesprite isn’t just making The Persistance a solitary, solo affair as many survival horrors tend to be. Its working on a social app for smartphones and tablets that allows other players to help or hinder the VR user. With the app they can view the ship’s compartments, identify threats or mark items.
There’s no confirmation on when The Persistance will launch, but VRFocus will keep you updated on when it does.