Perimeter (2004) A Game Forgotten by Time

Exploring the forgotten 2004 Real Time Strategy game Perimeter.

0:00 Intro
1:15 Lore Background
4:50 Gameplay
8:07 Campaign
14:06 Legacy
16:01 Conclusion
16:44 Outro

[SardonicSays]

AS OF MAY 2024 A REMASTER HAS BEEN RELEASED:
TURNS OUT PERIMETER WAS REMEMBERED AFTER ALL!

[matiastorres]

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

[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.

[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.

[Abdoulaye]

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

[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:

[СингонияКубическая]

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

[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

[kurisuchiinathecrocodile]

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

[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

[herpderp]

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

[ganryusasaki]

Good video, I love seeing obscure games like this.

[Ka]

Yeah, super excited for creeper world 4 too.

[gamingtonight]

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

[burningsheep]

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.

[georgeoldsterd]

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

[lystic]

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.