Perimeter (2004) - A Game Forgotten by Time

[@SardonicSays]

AS OF MAY 2024 A REMASTER HAS BEEN RELEASED: store.steampowered.com/app/2530170/PERIMETER_Legate_Edition/ TURNS OUT PERIMETER WAS REMEMBERED AFTER ALL!

[@matiastorres1510]

Somehow Russians are remarkably capable at making these entirely alien yet extremely fascinating settings.

[@forickgrimaldus8301]

The country itself is an enigma, a combination of European, Steppe and Mongolian cultures and on top of that it became Soviet.

[@hedgehog3180]

Themes like this aren't particularly weird in Russian/Soviet sci-fi, like you can see similar themes in Solaris and Roadside Picnic, which laid the basis for STALKER. Though it is very much intended to evoke an alien and unfamiliar setting that usually is a very obvious commentary on the failure of the Soviet Union itself. Like there's a reason why almost all Soviet and Post-Soviet art contains some sort of failed utopian megaproject that left society in a weird and unrecognizeable state, and a lot of the time the central question is why exactly the project failed.

[@gxcreator]

@@hedgehog3180 This is not a commentary on Soviet Union, overall storyline is a classical religious story, even logos of fractions in players toolbox have a very easy readable references. Lore and story of the game HEAVILY inspired by Harry Harryson's Deathworld, even concept of perimeter, psychosphere and scum. Check here with a translator: ru.wikipedia. org/wiki/Неукротимая_планета

[@soldier22881]

@@forickgrimaldus8301 according to my russian friend the mongolians influence is there because way back then russia was invaded by mongols, they lost alot of territory to the horde so thats why there is mongolian influence there.

[@SpiritInMeatBag]

There are actually game Vangers (MandaloreGaming have review on it) that is happening in this setting but in lost links of chain of worlds. Humans there had find a hivemind that started to taking worlds one by one. Firstly they thought it was some kind of new scourge and called them crispo because of sound the made when squashed by tank. But later hivemind have found that behind the portals there are a lot of new territory and started to expand. To prevent spreading of crispo humans destroyed portals that goes to infected worlds and that how lost chain was created. But some of humans still were there, so they created bioweapon to destroy crispo and then something weird have happened, bioweapon started to mutate and affected humans too while taking genes from crispo and humans and mixing it into "Creature Soup". After some time new type of life were born in lost chain. Half humans (they started to be callen as softie) half crispo. Also spoiler: spirits were tricked by infernals to bring humanity into psychosphere to meet crispo to create lost chain and Creature Soup to create new life and Vangers that should become their army in the end.

[@IronHorse1854]

I grew up playing Vangers, but never played Perimeter. Watching this video now cause I wanted to check out what the game was like, although I did know it was a prequel of Vangers, I had never played it or even really seen gameplay, so I wanted to check it out since I love the lore of Vangers. I was really happy at 14:30 ish in this video, you can hear a variation the Fostral theme music from Vangers playing! That warmed my heart lol.

[@typehere6689]

Some source I found claims that the Scourge and Cryspo are one and the same. What source did YOU get that says that the Scourge and Cryspo are not the same?

[@azoregod144]

@@typehere6689 Perimeter:Emperor's Testament(ending)

[@ЕвгенийСнежкин]

Great to see that old good Perimeter is still being remembered. And video itself is very good too.

[@TopsyTriceratops]

I've been looking everywhere for this thing as of late. Forgot the name, and finally found it. Man, the rush of finally finding that lost memory in your video is indescribable. All I can really say is, thanks man.

[@OmegaEnvych]

For those who are more inteterested in the world of Perimeter and can read Russian, game discs (and official web-site of the game) had a thing called "P-Files" which were a collection of short stories, set in the world of Perimeter. I'd say they were anywhere from fascinating to unsettling - like one short story where group of teenagers was literally turned into monsters using bodytransformative scum-serum. These stories helped to establish the weird and interesting world of Perimeter.

[@СингонияКубическая]

This music will be stuck in my head for long time...

[@burningsheep4473]

Yes, one of the most important reasons I played through the whole campaign in spite of some frustrations. The Maelstrom-soundtrack is also surprisingly good, though less weird.

[@Abdoulaye1995]

13:58 this is because Codemasters cut some dialogs in english version. Harkbackhood's people merged with scourge and completely lost their human appearance.

[@pongel7447]

I'm playing Perimeter: Emperor testament but never play a first version. First time I thought Hackback is an alien from the beginning 😳

[@rewinderon707]

not appearance tho! They were observed from the outside to be unchanged, but it was implied that something inside has changed so drastically that they can no longer be considered human.

[@yesilbursa]

I've been trying to find this game for years. I briefly played it one summer. Then forgot about it for a decade and a half... Thank you

[@kurisuchiinathecrocodile333]

Thanks for everything and rest in peace, Andrey "KranK".

[@SardonicSays]

UPDATE: A must-watch video for those curious about what was lost in translation between the Russian and English versions. Spoiler: It's indeed a lot: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nKnYZoCgis-KmJY

[@Diadras]

I still remember playing the multiplayer at my grandpa's house near release. I was about 12 so not a tactical mastermind (at 25 I am still about as tactical as 12 y/o me) and I remember the multiplayer being a bit broken. Usually I would extremely quickly get surrounded by the energy sucking units and after about a few minutes these would transmute into jetfighers and my 5 or so rocket units, to kill the energy-sucking unit, would get bombed to shit because they were way weaker than the jets. Then the jets would slowly bomb every single building I had and then my frame. All in all I REALLY enjoyed the campaign and the skirmish modes :D

[@royalbandit8106]

I remember buying this game on steam because it made a big deal about terrain modification. So I thought playing with the terrain would be more important. Like building mountains for high ground, tunnels to sneak, WW1 type trenches for defence. Stopped playing because it just felt like a tower defence. Game reminded me of that one Final Fantasy movie though, the weird one. But yah, the vibe was cool at least.

[@herpderp9854]

Thanks for covering this one, always happy to see obscure games from my childhood getting some attention and Perimeter is one that has lodged itself into my mind pretty deeply

[@TheManBehindTheSlaughter6669]

we need a remake of this game

[@ZTr00p3r]

Yes plz

[@azoregod144]

remaster is coming out!

[@YurGa1980]

This game is set in the same universe as Vangers which is a completely different genre but could be fun to learn more about the setting.

[@ganryusasaki]

Good video, I love seeing obscure games like this.

[@georgeoldsterd8994]

I played a point-and-click adventure by K-D Lab (the company that developed Perimeter) called Little Longnose. It was pretty cool. Didn't know the devs prior to watching this video, though. The whole backstory of Perimeter reminded me of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, it even visually looks similar.

[@Qwufi]

They trying to make a flat world! Haha :) great review

[@honeybadger256]

Being unpolished and frustrating to play is deliberate design decision, some elemenets get unreasonable amount of depth while other simply doesnt work. Playing perimeter and vangers is like being trapped in asylum, those strange worlds absorb you not only with drug fueled lore but also with nightmarish gameplay. Thank you for the review.

[@burningsheep4473]

Thanks, a good and - most importantly - fair review! I played through it a few years ago and I did definitely enjoy it, even in spite of some frustrations. Personally I can see what they were going for with the limited unit supply, but perhaps they should have allowed a little more wiggle room. The way it is now it might restrict unit compositions too much.

[@DrrZed]

Hey! Thanks for referring to my LP! Though I want to mention that the story of Perimeter 1 was greatly dumbed down in english translation. Also, the AI does run out of energy. They just turn their perimeter on and it instantly shuts down when they are out of power, and they turn it back on again only to it to shut down again, ad infinitum.

[@SardonicSays]

Ha, how annoying! I really wish they had patched that out. What would you say is the biggest thing left out of the english version? A shame how much of it didn't come over.

[@DrrZed]

​@@SardonicSays Harkbackhood becoming sapient scourge, and Emperor's Mechanical Spirit. Along with fourth-wall shattering 'WTF?!' ending.

[@burningsheep4473]

I assume a lot of it comes down to them usually having quite a lot of energy stored in collectors or however they were called. But yeah, eventually they still ran out. After being bombarded for a while with Scum catapults for instance.

[@SamGarcia]

Perimeter is one of my first games on Steam. I quit when I didn't understand how anything worked. Probably will explore again one day. Although I made a Perimeter/Creeper like mini RTS called Critical.

[@crypteklab]

This wibe reflects some russian fantasy writers' novels in late 90th's and 2000's inspired by late Soviet fantasy period combined with new hi-fi and cyberpunk style of USA media culture in 2000's. It looks unique but for me it is a too much outdated. It reminds me how my childhood period culture was so stupid and low-detailed. Also music from this game reminds me first Deus Ex and Unreal music. I like it as much as I can't here it because it is outdated and low-quality. But all I know that period of time was really mind capturing. Maybe because of age I was just living other reality with all those games, music and stories. It was like to travel into the Black hole and doing something risky but incredible for all humanity. I think it was a time of blowing up experiments.

[@lazzlepops]

Just came off butting my head aganist this game after getting my hands on it briefly 20 hears ago. Got futher this time but I've long since learnt to put a game down if it's no longer fun. Fantastic video, Russian and Eastern European scifi games do have certain vibe an old school vibe don't they. I did not expect the MechCommander soundtrack, that fired off a lot of happy memories.

[@lystic9392]

Yes I remember playing this (or was it the demo?!) around its launch. I remember thinking it was kind of fascinating but a bit busy. I don't recall any of the cutscenes so probably I just played the demo.

[@gamingtonight1526]

So many very original strategy games in the late 90s/early 00s. You had this, Alien Legacy, Reunion, Tone Rebellion, and many more.

[@Ka99999990]

Yeah, super excited for creeper world 4 too.

[@alekseyprokopev7409]

Played this as a kid in Russia. The game blew my mind. Apparently the translation of the English version is quite broken. There is a video explaining somewhere on KZbin.

[@anonvideo738]

I learnt of this game from a dutch gaming magazine way back in 2004. They noted how good it was and how it shouldve had more exposure, but for some reason didnt give it that exposure themselves by giving it a big review. I played it a bit and loved it, but one of those hard missions broke me. Its a shame it wasnt taken up in the RTS catalogue of great games.

[@chanlennox8133]

Good video, loved vangers and wanted to learn more about it''s prequel :) ty!

[@ArkyonVeil]

I've written a Guide on steam about how to play with an increased Unit Cap and I've beaten the entire campaign with it. I have to admit, it really makes the game MUCH better and a little easier, though it kinda balances itself somewhat as a big army eats big energy. As for the difficulty. I believe It affects AI reaction speed and the density of Scourge swarms. I have to really agree with this review here, the ideas of this game are lightning in a bottle. Unfortunately it just wasn't polished enough, the sequel could have nailed it and become one of RTS relics, but instead... Yeah... Also I can't speak for the Expansion either, although I like the game, the campaign left me exhausted and surprisingly content, even though there were still so many scenarios to try out. And since the expansion REMOVES faction variety instead of adding more in addition to a fresh dose of fascinating yet mangled narrative didn't help ether. Maybe some fan will make a spiritual sequel that gives those ideas justice, that'd be neat.

[@herroberbesserwisser7331]

I cant find your guide. Can you tell me how to remove the unit cap?

[@ArkyonVeil]

@@herroberbesserwisser7331 It involves changing some code. It's a Steam guide in the Perimeter page. Edit: KZbin keeps eating my attempts to post a link, so I'm afraid you'll have to track it down yourself. A link to the guides section can be found when you click on the game in the library, there should be something reading 'guides' below the play/install button but above the Actvity where the first item reads [Store page] and one of the next items will read guides.

[@herroberbesserwisser7331]

@@ArkyonVeil can you link it? That would be amazing!

[@ArkyonVeil]

@@herroberbesserwisser7331 I've edited my second comment.

[@herroberbesserwisser7331]

@@ArkyonVeil thank you. Yeah youtube is awful with the link comment deleting. Sadly i only have the disk version. I will try anyways.

[@Greatdictator]

1 I fuckin hated that Zeros mission it is straight up the mission that when i originally played it when i was younger it hard blocked me i just DIDNT KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING WRONG 2 i had to find out through your comment that a remaster was released and that drives me a bit crazy honestly lol

[@ElMarcoh]

Duuude, I remember playing this, it comes to my mind from time to time and was wondering what happened to it, the story was super weird

[@DwAboutItManFr]

Paradox interactive published this? Cool

[@Abdoulaye1995]

Only the addon. Original game was published by Codemasters.

[@maximthebear7958]

Nice. It was a good times of gaming

[@Nogardtist]

perimeter dont ends there Perimeter is just a prequel to vangers a very unique game thats for sure

[@DrrZed]

I'd say that Perimeter is side-quel of Vangers. Now, Perimeter: Emperor's Testament is a prequel to Vangers. In the end of the Testament, you can actually see the Lost Chain.

[@Nogardtist]

@@DrrZed yeah i tough the ending of emperors testament chain kinda looks like chain of vangers

[@TheKnightOfSmite]

This game was like playing an acid trip

[@iivarimokelainen]

aquanox and total distortion look interesting! thanks for the video!

[@Sinnssjuk]

Interested on hearing about the spicy Defcon takes.

[@typehere6689]

This is a Highfleet prequel. Perhaps, this thing could get more recognition by pointing this out to Highfleet fans.

[@-.MICHAEL.-]

Unfortunately of not, but it's a Vangers prequel

[@typehere6689]

Well, yes, Perimeter is ALSO a Vangers prequel. However, as far as I know, Vangers is ALSO a Highfleet prequel.

[@azoregod144]

Highfleet is Hammerfight's prequel(?) which is a Perimeter spin-off.(maybe, if highfleet is connected to hammerfight)

[@DwAboutItManFr]

Humanity if they had colonized the warp in warhammer 40K during the age of strife.

[@ffn8917]

Great

[@ThePrimordialChronicles]

One of those games that I know I’ve played but I couldn’t remember what it actually was called… Getting it on GOG right now 🤣

[@incaseofimportantnegotiations]

it's not forgotten it's like saying the rts genre is forgotten just because more people are playing fort niht anyone who have played more than 3 rts IP played perimeter because there are barely any rts games in total

[@TheTealHydra]

I played a lot of RTSes as a kid including weird euro stuff like State of War, Original War, and Outlive but somehow had never even heard of this one.

[@incaseofimportantnegotiations]

@@TheTealHydra the weird stuff is usa google the cover, the original extended release it's filled with awards as a prequel to vangers everyone waited for it and they just released legate edition on steam

[@TheTealHydra]

@@incaseofimportantnegotiations The only reason I've heard of Vangers is because an obscure youtuber I watch happened to play it. You may be right for all I know but as someone who played lots of RTSes at the time and has seen even more since, it's weird that something supposedly big completely passed me by.

[@incaseofimportantnegotiations]

@@TheTealHydra not all cultures are isolationist philistines the IP was big on 1/6 of the earth. even if not everyone liked it they at least knew its reputation it's like saying you've never watched fantomas le coup du parapluie bisbetico domato fantozzi etc people younger than 25? maybe. but for 30+ it's like saying they don't know pool of radiance proving grounds of mad god dune 2 gothic gorky 17 "blood aria 2" allody etc back then there wasn't a flood of millions of small games per year so all big releases across the world were known

[@incaseofimportantnegotiations]

@@TheTealHydra also it has the super generic name so here's that

[@willypumphandle3131]

I loved this game back in the day. Does anyone have a link for the mod that changes the screen ratio to 16:9?

[@asethon4430]

Source code of game now open(exclude resources) and game released in Steam. Ratio, HD and some other stuff updated.👍

[@incaseofimportantnegotiations]

war wind has 48 reviews on steam rts is just not a mainstream genre and never was the rest of the gaming has grown due to casual genres the people who have played rts games till play them it's like saying pool of radiance has few reviews. doesn't change the fact that it's a cornerstone of rpg genre as a whole

[@DwAboutItManFr]

The creator died within days from the stalker creator dying, Russias culture is beign butchred. Miss old RTS so much.

[@incaseofimportantnegotiations]

the addon is very short and easy

[@aipkjbf]

review. Turgor.

[@burningsheep4473]

Ha, I tried that one recently and I ran into some issues with the story progression, so I stopped after maybe 20 hours, but I will definitely get back to it. It's yet another russian game which is completely unique. I wasn't happy with some aspects of the game and honestly had an easier time with Pathologic, but the art, music, creatures are very enjoyable to experience.

[@Nogardtist]

theres actually 2 turgors one is the original that can be obtained trough making the game language into polish and modifying the files a bit to change the dub and subtitles and the wester adaptation the void voice of color the game dont like having 2 monitors thats for sure

[@DeLegatExistor]

Ищешь русский коментарий? Нашел!!!!!

[@Turanic1]

Even in 2024 its ztill ahead of it's time 😂

[@TinKelp]

A 3:4 resolution? Not 4:3? And I cast a vote for Aquanox.

[@SardonicSays]

Haha, yeah that was what I meant, oops.

[@bolivarphgaming1478]

this look like father of creeper game.

[@citizencrimson201]

Same storyline as Vangers.

[@SBstudio117]

Uh-oh, 666 likes soon And I'm knews all about russian culture in whole day.

[@loscopihues2343]

russian cosmism the game

[@sbplankton_1999]

I know How Russian culture after?

[@RandyArmy]

Allien Nation attack Ukraine lately