Though it describes itself as inspired by immersive sims from Ion Storm and Looking Glass Studios, the only title I could reasonably compare Peripeteia to is E. Y. E. Divine Cybermancy: a cult classic Eurojank title with big ambitions and even bigger, largely empty levels. Peripeteia tones down the amount of mechanics and required lore reading, but it goes even further with its sprawling stages. It also features alt-history mid-rebuild Poland where every man is a barely breathing, cyber-enhanced soldier and every woman is anime, a robot, or both. Fellow insane people, we are so back.
To say that Peripeteia is unapproachable is an understatement. It is unapologetically esoteric, each mechanic and UI element with its layers of confusion and (mostly) purposeful jank. Take the tutorial mission, which I completed using the “pick up item” mechanic. During the section of moving said item, I noticed that the outstretched arm I used to carry would limit my movement, unlike, say, Deus Ex where a crate you move around becomes a sort of floating ghost in front of you. This led to many falls and quick loads as I got stuck in my limb or the carried item while turning around or climbing ladders. Not to mention the amount of times I dropped it into the unreachable abyss.
The few common design rules that snuck their way among the abstraction indeed shape it enough to classify it as an immersive sim, but not one survived unscathed. The Tetris-style inventory system and body augments bring back memories of Deus Ex, but the multi-step way of exchanging gun magazines in it quickly snaps you back to insanity. The light level indicator feels straight out of Thief, but figuring out the edges of shadows without it is more of a vibe than anything palpable.
On the border of familiarity, Peripeteia finds its soul—flowing from profound to comically simple, inescapably molded by online culture and stories of the Soviet rule us Poles heard from our grandparents. It is authentic. Like its protagonist Marie, a cyborg awoken with memories of the world intact yet unfamiliar with her past, I found myself in a hypnotizing haze. I knew some of its elements, played games vaguely like it, recognized ideas and Polish words but in the end this is entirely its own thing: a powerhouse of independent voices and visions best discovered on your own.
Unconcerned with player guidance, each mission starts you out completely fresh, lost in an unfamiliar brutalist complex. The blocky shapes and ever-enveloping darkness are a perfect playground for Marie’s immensely satisfying, climbing-focused, cybernetically augmented moveset. You can grab onto any ledge, balcony, or light attached to these gigantic buildings, and the verticality goes both ways. You will not only scale enormous towers but also make your way back down. Falls that are not too deep can be cushioned with a permanent double jump upgrade, activated only while going down. A ledge grab will nullify damage as well.
Though no mainstream game would approach level design like this, Peripeteia’s gigantic maps are part of its charm. The sheer size of the megastructures in front of the player is often a ruse—not all paths lead to rewards. Some lengthy hallways and staircases are just one way of reaching a destination, others hide entire substories, but all communicate the scale of destruction and loss inflicted on a culture-rich country, with bits of beauty and terror still hiding beneath the rubble. Connected by seemingly never-ending bridges, pipes, and cables, this vision of Poland feels like the gutted insides of an old machine.
This haunting presence, all of its spectacular qualities really, make up for any inconveniences still plaguing the Early Access release. This is actually a huge compliment given that one of the missions took me a frankly ridiculous eight hours to complete due to all of its issues. From key items not respawning on reloads, softlocking certain saves, to scripted events removing my ability to shoot some guns, I was close to giving up on one of the five missions available at launch (seven in the final game).
The worst of the worst happens when you complete a task you were sent out to do, yet nothing is triggered as a result. The game has multiple routes for reaching the end of a mission, as described in your journal or by certain characters, be that different sides in a conflict or simply several entrances into a room. The problem is, I often found myself unsure of whether I made a mistake or the quest bugged out on me by not spawning an item or missing an event trigger.
By progressing to certain locations, events can also be skipped, further adding to the confusion. Characters may act as if they talked about something you have never heard of. Though I was always eventually able to finish each mission, on a few occasions I ended up doing so in a way I did not want to because an event trigger was missing or one messed up a spawn or function that prevented me from moving forward with a given plotline.
With a very limited understanding of how a game this size is made, loading the entire map at once seemed to me to make such issues unavoidable. I was worried that the only way to fix them would involve compromising the developers’ vision in one way or another. Thankfully, after taking a break, I came back to a patch that fixed some (mind you, not all) of these issues. With time, I trust they can find a way to get it all working as intended. For now, remember to save often and on multiple slots.
As it stands, Peripeteia is still quite inaccessible, in all the best and worst ways. Flashing lights, visual unclarity and inconsiderate use of language are an inseparable part of the whole package, an aspect that separates it from the mainstream, yet the alienating, cold feeling it left me with has been a haunting presence for nearly a month since first getting my hands on it. I have been thinking about its words, its vistas, but most importantly its gameplay—the way it makes me feel unlike anything else. Though not in its final form, I already know that it is merely a matter of time before I can call Peripeteia an all-time favorite.
Mateusz played Peripeteia on PC with a review code.
