Perception Reviews
By putting you on the shoes of a blind woman, Perception creates a unique survival horror experience, with heavy focus on narrative. It does a good job of playing with your… well… perception of the darkness and your surroundings.
In Summary Perception is a game that introduces new ideas to the Horror genre, but fell short in scaring us, its fairly basic presentation, its short duration and its low difficulty are negative factors that do not allow this game to excel in the genre. But its new ideas, interesting narrative and game mechanics are enough to recommend you to try the game and form your own opinion.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
I had high hopes for Perception, which made this experience all the more unfortunate. Clearly The Deep End Games had a unique idea for a video game here, but it just doesn’t translate well to the medium. It’s evident by the care that went into researching the hardships that blind folks must deal with daily — like how Cassie uses her mind and technology to survive — that The Deep End Games is very passionate about the subject matter. However, in the end, this is a video game, and when the main gameplay mechanic becomes a hindrance during the first hour, there’s not much that can be done from a presentation perspective to help alleviate it. The whole game-breaking bug that forces you to start over from the very beginning doesn’t help either.
In the end, the game’s biggest fault is the missed opportunity. I commend Deep End Games for swinging for the fences, but a big swing and miss is still a miss, and it’s a shame. If you love horror games, then I think you might find the unique basis for this game worth checking out, despite the lack of terror. For everyone else? I’m afraid I just can’t unconditionally recommend Perception.
While it’s lighter on the scares than its big brothers in the horror genre, Perception ends up being much more memorable due to its well-crafted story and unique way of creating danger. Its central mechanic forces you to be careful and quiet, and its final chapter delivers a wallop that more than makes up for a slower start.
Perception feels like a perfect blend between Gone Home and Beyond Eyes, and whilst neither of those are horror games, seeing the best aspects of each mixed into the horror genre doesn’t make for a bad game.
Perception is a good attempt at trying something new in the horror genre without ever really delivering on the scares.
Perception is an adventure/horror game in which you play as a blind woman… If that doesn’t grab your attention, I don’t know what the heck will!
It’s worth a go just to show that game developers are continuing to have amazing ideas to change gameplay, but finish it as quickly as you can and move on.
Perception is a tough one to review, because it is a relatively short game that is at its core very similar to a lot of other action/horror titles out there. However, a clever mechanic combined with a very cool visual style helps to creates some excellent atmosphere that had me holding my breath on multiple occasions. In the end these smart design choices help to elevate Perception above the sea of also-ran titles in the genre, even if it never really quite realizes its potential.
Overall, Perception is a relaxing yet tenseful game. A game that lets you experience how it is to lose sight. I can’t imagine having to navigate their world this way and all I can say it’s making me see them in a new light. It makes me thankful for my sight and makes me realize that blind people make do with what they have and still enjoy life as it is. I applaud the developers for bringing this experience to us that which makes me more considerate of what a blind person has to go through everyday.
Perception gets everything wrong and is probably one of the worst games in 2017. Besides some decent creepy sound effects the game doesn't offer anything besides being a shallow walking simulator.
Review in German | Read full review
Even with an interesting concept, mediocre and repetive gameplay brings Perception down.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
It's neither as engaging nor as terrifying as first-person horror games like Amnesia or SOMA, but its earnest spookiness goes a long way.