Perception Review – Using Echolocation to Explore a Haunted Mansion

<p>Before playing <em>Perception&comma; <&sol;em>it had been a while since I encountered a truly unique gameplay experience in an indie horror game&period; Many of them follow a standard recipe for the genre&period; Jump scares&period; Pools of blood&period; Zombies or demented humans&period; As fans&comma; we are generally okay with this idea&period; We find a genre we enjoy&comma; and we play any and all games in that genre that we can find&period; <em>Perception&comma; <&sol;em>however&comma; breaks the mold&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s uses the horror genre to tell a compelling story and encourage understanding&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s compassionate in its mission&comma; but it still feels like a horror game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Deep End Game&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Perception <&sol;em>opens with a brief introduction to our protagonist&comma; Cassie&period; She&&num;8217&semi;s blind&comma; and she navigates through the use of echolocation&period; By listening to the sound of her cane tapping on the floor or static issuing from an old radio&comma; she can sense her immediate surroundings&period; Cassie&&num;8217&semi;s been having dreams of an old&comma; spooky mansion&comma; and she comes to the conclusion that the only way to stop the dreams is to visit the house for herself &&num;8211&semi; by herself  &&num;8211&semi; already proving that she&&num;8217&semi;s one hundred times braver than I am&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We take control of Cassie as she arrives at the mansion&comma; and the controls are simple&period; The space bar allows us to tap her cane and get a brief glimpse of the room we are in&period; Select items can be inspected by clicking on them&comma; but Cassie doesn&&num;8217&semi;t carry much inventory&period; No weapons&period; No tools except her cell phone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126420" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126420" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-126420" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;11024741&sol;GiveMeLiberty-e1497165263158&period;png" alt&equals;"Perception&comma; The Deep End Games" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126420" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Perception&comma; Feardemic<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>We can flip through voice messages on her phone&comma; listen to her MP3 collection&comma; or use the phone to solve puzzles&period; If Cassie picks up an item that she can&&num;8217&semi;t interpret on her own&comma; she can use her phone to take a photo of the item&period; An app connects her to an operator who can describe the item in detail&period; Words might be scribbled onto a page&comma; or her path might be blocked by an obstacle she can&&num;8217&semi;t see&period; Sometimes&comma; Cassie will pick up an item or a piece of paper&comma; and the house will transfer its memories to her&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Navigating the mansion takes patience&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s possible to beat the game without ever having Cassie use her cane&period; In fact&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s an achievement for it&period; But using the cane is important if you want to really examine every area of the home&period; It would be all too easy for Cassie to tap her cane nonstop&comma; giving us a constant&comma; full view of our surroundings&period; But no&comma; the house can hear her&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a frightening Presence who will get bothered and come after her if she makes too much noise&period; Unfortunately for us&comma; The Presence isn&&num;8217&semi;t much of a challenge&period; Every floor of the house is littered with hiding places&comma; even though The Presence rarely makes an appearance&period; In my short run through the game&comma; I only encountered him three or four times&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126422" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126422" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-126422" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;11025613&sol;Scribe-e1497165290153&period;png" alt&equals;"Perception&comma; The Deep End Games" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126422" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Perception&comma; Feardemic<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The entire game of <i>Perception<&sol;i> takes place within the haunted house and its surroundings but over the course of several generations of inhabitants&period; The house transforms a little with each chapter&comma; keeping its skeleton and layout&comma; but changing decor and haunts&period; The slight changes help to keep the game interesting&comma; while the consistency in layout keeps the blind navigation from becoming frustrating&period; After a short while&comma; I began to memorize the general floorplan&period; However&comma; I was still challenged every chapter&comma; because enough of the surroundings changed in appearance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Cassie is an interesting protagonist&period; She&&num;8217&semi;s stubbornly independent&comma; and she won&&num;8217&semi;t accept help from her friends&period; When she needs assistance&comma; she relies on a stranger at the other end of her cell phone app instead of sending a photo to someone she knows&period; Is she afraid of showing weakness&quest; I also found the stories of the house to be compelling&period; Each chapter is eerie but heartbreaking&period; The characters we encounter are complex&comma; their lives tragic&period; Deep End Games turned a horror game into a study on what it means to be human&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126426" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126426" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-126426" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;11031441&sol;Spiral-e1497165302690&period;png" alt&equals;"Perception&comma; The Deep End Games" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126426" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Perception&comma; Feardemic<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The biggest downfall to <i>Perception <&sol;i>is the length of the game&period; It only takes about four or five hours to reach the end&period; There are some achievements that will be nearly impossible to obtain the first time around&comma; but there&&num;8217&semi;s little incentive to immediately play through the game again&period; I appreciate that the game isn&&num;8217&semi;t more difficult for the sake of lengthening the duration&comma; but I feel there could have been another chapter or two&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In summary&comma; <em>Perception<&sol;em> offers a unique gameplay experience and a refreshingly compelling story&period; Cassie is a strong protagonist&comma; and through her&comma; we can learn to be more curious and understanding&period; <em>Perception<&sol;em> is chilling but doesn&&num;8217&semi;t bombard you with jump scares&period; It lets the story of the house and limited vision maintain a steady tension through the game&period; In a way&comma; they almost fall short of how scary it could be&period; The Presence could be more difficult to avoid&comma; more menacing&period; Overall&comma; I left the game wanting a few more hours of gameplay with Cassie&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC review copy of <em>Perception<&sol;em> was provided by Feardemic for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;