I don't get Peripeteia, and it's frustrating to me.

To get it started well, I'd like to mention that I was interested in Peripeteia plenty of years back, I even backed it up on Kickstarter when I was a college student back in 2022 I think (which is especially important, giving that being a student pairs well with lack of funds most of the time). I loved what I saw in the then-available demo - multitude of possibilities, freedom of movement in open environments, and something that captivated me: plethora of weapons (I'm pretty much a gun-nut).

I saw that the demo is... underbaked, it needed a lot of polish to it, as the environments, however big they were, appeared to be shallow structures, concrete blocks standing there unnaturally. Physics when interacting with the world (jumping, picking objects up, shooting) were really wobbly. There was no real structure to the quests and lore, it all felt like run n' gun was a great option all the times.

But hey! It was only an early demo, right? They'll surely take the feedback I sent them and will get the work done.

No. They did not.
After 5 hours into it, I'm seriously thinking to call it quits for now. I'd like to breakdown some things here:

- IMMERSIVE SIM - Immersive Sims are supposed to really immerse the player in the world, make him feel like a part of the adventure their partaking in. It is comprised of systems which overlap on each other and due to the open structure, player can creatively overcome them. I believe that this is not a case in Peripeteia. Interaction with the world objects is scarce, many of them don't even have 'interact' option, dialogues are just fillers with no real exposition, there's little to no change felt with new toys unlocked (like implants, guns etc.) - I got my first 3 new upgrades from killing my 1st questgiver after he pulled a gun on me for no reason. Not really feeling like I progressed and earned them here if you ask me, nor did I think outside the box - I just reacted to the events happening to me.

- LEVELS - Probably my biggest gripe there. I don't care for how big a level is (although I prefer smaller levels for many reasons), as long as it is readable and there is a possibility to navigate through it. Peripeteia lacks both of these. Don't get me wrong, I think that artstyle-wise it is a solid presentation, however with levels this big and sprawling, I'd enjoy them much more if they actually offered me anything worth my time to visit all those nooks and crannies crafted by the developers. However, most of the locations visited are empty, and I mean EMPTY, where ~70-80% of a room is just a concrete floor and walls, and maybe 10-20% are objects like simplest table or a TV. It's not only un-interesting, it's also discouraging to go anywhere and explore, because why should I? So I can find a small medkit lying around as a reward for a 10 minute detour? No thanks. If it would even contain any tidbit of information so I could solidify my knowledge of the world surrounding me, or better - if the unncessary floors were removed or shrinked, I think it would only serve a great purpose here. To top it all off, I think that the worst immersion-breaker is the full-reset between missions, instead of having full continuity in the progression - there really was no need for intermissions in my aparment every time I ended my quest.

- GAMEPLAY - I liked the shooting, it was pretty demanding and you could feel like some cyborg-Marie-Wick, especially when the shooutout was accompanied by Sewerslvt music. I do have to point out, however, that the AI of the enemies is one of the most stupid ones I have ever enounctered in my whole life, they just run at you and shoot more inaccurately than Star Wars Stormtroopers. Stealth system was also not bad for what we got, 'visible-meter' and sound-detection were working as they should. Still, I believe that the game 'feeling' is a bit too wobbly, with aiming through sights feeling like a drunk clayman. Barter makes little sense to me personally, as most of the time, your inventory will be filled up with goodies, even if you're not very careful with the exploring. I think that the hacking minigame was neat, because you could decipher some phrases halfway and I always though 'that's cool, I actually got it right by myself!'. I'd like to maybe get some more solutions to end quests, like disguises, information scattered in places on the map.

I do have to give credit where it's due, though. I think that the presentation is great, it has it's own style - brutalist architecture, futuristic setting in post-industrial Poland, fantastic, a little edgy (but in a good way) artstyle in regard to uniforms of NPCs, all that bathed in green lighting, contrasting with dark silhouttes of the buildings creeping from afar and accompanied with a great soundtrack. It's definitely a standpoint for me.

I wonder what are your opinions on it?