Sci-fi horror The Persistence will soon be emerging onto the PlayStation VR, with its release date due on 24th July, 2018. The team behind the title have taken inspiration from a variety of sources for the creation of the title, and spoke about influences, gameplay and virtual reality (VR).

Nina Salmons of VRFocus spoke to Gareth Delve from developers Firesprite about the title, and the various gameplay elements that have come together to make The Persistence what it is.

The title is a hybrid of survival horror, first-person shooter (FPS) and roguelike. The action is set in space aboard a huge, labyrinthine spaceship which has got too close to a black hole, the distortions causing many of the ships systems to go haywire. The player needs to navigate the ship and manage to escape with your life.

Delve explains that the problems begin during light-speed travel, as the crew of The Persistence tries to navigate to a distant colony world where the 800 ‘digital engrams’ store on board can be ‘printed’ as clones to colonise the planet. A ‘spark gap’ event causes the ship to drift close to the black hole.

The ship’s chief engineer has saved the life of the protagonist player character and then backed herself up in the ship’s computer. She then acts as a repository of knowledge as well as your guide through the events that follow.

Delve also explains how each deck on the ship has its own missions that need to be completed, and once all the missions are completed, you can then head to the bridge and fire up the engines to escape the black hole and head home.

However, there are many obstacles in your way, not least the twisted, mutated copies of your former crewmates and the ship itself, as its defences have gone wild and turned against you.

The full interview is available to view below. Keep checking back with VRFocus for more news from the VR world.