Prey

Colour me impressed, but for a game that borrows parts of Dead Space, Bioshock, System Shock, Deus Ex and a dozen others, Prey manages to rise above these in many ways. Superb story, setting, plot, action and character development options. It wears its influences proudly on its sleeves but there is more than enough going on in this game to overlook its heritage. Quite simply, this is one of the more superior games I've played in recent years, and I heartily recommend it.

I'll happily admit I might look back in a few years and laugh at how I've overrated this game. But now having played it through twice, along with the excellent Mooncrash DLC, it feels like such an incredible breath of fresh air. Morrowind, Half-Life, Deus Ex, Thief - these were the games that made me excited about the medium in my teens, and after taking quite a few years off I came back to find very little of that potential appeared to have been realised. Games as a powerfully immersive, experiential medium seemed to stall out somewhere in the early 2000s. Even Dishonoured felt like bunch of fun video game levels without that extra level of immersion/verisimilitude/whatever. But Talos One captured my imagination. Walking into its towering lobby for the first time; floating out the airlock, and later into the internal guts of the station; standing on top of a huge space greenhouse as the apocalyptic finale unfolds; these are moments that took my breath away and finally gave me that feeling of experiencing something new. The atmosphere and gameplay systems are very well realised and the story isn't half bad either. But in those moments when the art design, music, graphics and first-person perspective all came together I really did feel something approaching awe.

Of all the "immersive shooters" I've played, this is definitely one of my favorites. Pretty cleanly melds elements of Metroidvania, survival horror and all sorts of first-person shenanigans into a very satisfying whole. The difficulty is missing some great late-game weapons (any sort of rifle would have helped immensely, and been really fun in the zero gravity sections) but otherwise slowly climbs from a tense experience where every bullet counts up to a power fantasy where the Neuromods let you do some pretty interesting stuff. Despite being a brightly lit game, it still has some unnerving moments, and the resource management just adds to that even if the very PC-centric saving system keeps the gameplay loop from being too punishing.

Prey's biggest flaw is probably its backtracking. Early on, it is a recipe for survival horror shenanigans where new enemies repopulate old areas and force you to approach these threats with the gear and skills earned in the interim. Unfortunately, towards the end, enemies feel more like obstacles to run around than challenges to overcome, especially the robot enemy introduced in the final act. Running around Talos I teaches you how small it really is, which isn't bad, but it's definitely not as cool as the first Bioshock's Rapture or anything. The combat was ultimately a bit too lightweight for my tastes, and the stealth is really undercooked, but none of this got in the way of the game at all. Throw in a story that starts and ends kind of cliched but includes maybe the most detailed ensemble cast seen in one of these kinds of adventures and you have a very satisfying romp.

first 4 hours are frustrating and really unfun no ammo no items trial and error running away or quicksave quickload enemies

none of the mechanics were that obvious i ran past the recycler thing essential to get ammo for the first quarter of game, not understanding what any of it was because it just looked like another piece of the enviorment

didn't enjoy any of the weapons to be honest combat was bad and unenjoyable only used one weapon the whole game bascically (shotgun) i really disliked all other weapons they felt like gimmicky tools more than anything especially the blob shooting gun

story is mildly interesting but feels very contrived and convoluted the further you get slightly pretentious

really annoying and frustrating enemies. i didnt really like fighting any of the enemies in the game. all of them are just obnoxious and either teleport around constantly or electroshock you from 25 meters away. the enemies are just not fun to engage.

the setting is kind of interesting, environment is memorable and easy to get familiar with, graphics are nice and the game can be immersive.

did most of the side quests, didnt feel worth it. didnt get anything really, didnt feel rewarding. kind of waste of time.


again it comes down to the enemies and the weapons, i didnt enjoy fighting any of the enemies, and i didnt enjoy any of the weapons. theres really only two guns, pistol and shotgun, everything else is specific times or tools really..

6/10

I'm honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I rented the game through my library system and heard this game was decent and by the same guys who made Dishonored and I enjoyed Dishonored. This is a lot different, its a sci fi FPS survival and your goal is to explore a near abandoned ship with alien lifeforms and uncover the mystery of what is going on. The game feels like some weird mismatch of games like Bioshock, Dishonored, and System Shock 2 and it does wear its influences pretty strong, butt hell Bioshock and System Shock 2 are some of my favorite games and easily top 50 games of all time material for me so at least it chose great games to draw influence from. The thing I love most about Prey is the fact that the game just gives you a huge ship to explore and doesn't hold your hand or steer you in a complete linear direction. Sure near the start it does but about 5 hours in and the game has tons of sidequests already, multiple areas to explore, and tons of backstory through computer and audio logs. This game has really good atmosphere and I always wanted to get to the next area to see what it would be or what new monsters I'd need to sneak around.

The game plays sort of like a hybrid stealth/shooter where at first you sneak and use your wrench but as you upgrade you become pretty powerful and can blast your way through most enemies no problem. I like the idea of crafting ammo and healing items from materials you collect in the game and actually makes hording a good thing. The combat is pretty basic itself and consists of mostly pointing and shooting, there aren't really many unique mechanics to the game, even the zero gravity segments feel like they've been done in other games. To be honest the zero gravity kind of sucks in this game but you only do that during a few segments. The gameplay is pretty decent but its really not what pulled me into the game. The enemy design in this game is pretty generic and most enemies look similar but at the same time its not the worst I've seen, the mimics in this actually are really cool since they transform into objects and trick you. You get psychic powers too similar to System Shock but they are extremely overpowered in this and almost break the game.

The game is pretty well paced for the first 80%, and has you go through different areas with new enemies and progressing the story and side quests. The problem with Prey is the first 80% of the game is amazing, then the final 20% has you backtrack, going to areas you already explored, and then it completely gets crazy during the final 5% where you are just traveling between areas and rushing through things. That's the problem, the game starts throwing too many enemies at you near the end and while you are pretty powerful ammo is pretty limited and it gets really annoying having to backtrack to areas and finding that new more powerful enemies spawned since you were last there. The final 5-10% of this game is just bad, it throws away the slow paced atmosphere and has you running between areas and running and gunning to get to the end.

Which brings us to the story which is pretty bad. The story starts off as an interesting premise where you are in a fake reality and then aliens take over the ship and you along with your brother try to figure out what is going on but the ending is just horrible and it basically comes down to the whole it was all just a dream (virtual reality simulation actually) but I just felt like it was a cop out and it basically made the game feel like a giant teaser for the sequel that will likely be coming on in the next few years.

Prey is still one of the best games to come out in the last 5 years and if you ignore the story, can deal with the somewhat generic gameplay, and enemy design, its still a fun game with a good atmosphere, lots of content, and tons of exploration, and the first 80% of the game is really good. Sure it has some glaring flaws and could be improved, but I just really like this games atmosphere and style so much that I could forgive some of the flaws, and if you took away the final 20% this game would have very few flaws in my eyes.

I'm sure other people could probably put this game into greater historical context than I could. Clearly this game draws heavily from classic Immersive Sims such as System Shock. I actually don't have much experience with Immersive Sims though, at least not the classics. Before this, Dishonored and Bioshock had been the only games I had played in the genre. I really dig the design philosophy behind these games though. The emphasis on player choice is really refreshing, and I felt Prey did a wonderful job giving players the tools to come up with creative and personal solutions to problems.

I also really enjoyed the ending (spoilers of course). The reveal that the whole game occurred in a simulation was a fine twist on its own, but I loved the way it fit into the recurring theme of mimicry/illusions. I also love how this theme didn't occur just in the narrative, but most of all was shown in gameplay. The mimic enemies and the looking glass technology meant you were often second guessing your vision, and ending is an extension of that.

A few other things this game did exceptionally well were level design and environmental storytelling. The level design worked perfectly with the gameplay to allow players a variety of options to approach problems. It was also a joy piecing together the backstory of the station and TranStar’s employees. On a related note, I loved the story explanations which allowed Morgan to become a vacuum for the player to fill. Both his memory and personality were altered by the experiments, lessening the dissonance between the player and the character. It's a little thing, but it was a nice touch, and made it the environmental storytelling feel more meaningful, since the information should be new to Morgan as well as the player.

Like I said though, the game is far from perfect. For one, the combat and enemy design leave a lot to be desired. Also, this game hit a couple pet peeves of mine, the first being the stop/start nature of the combat. That is, it bugs me when real-time combat systems depend on quick-menus that freezes time that undercuts any built-up tension and takes you out of the moment (see also Zelda BotW). This irks me especially in a game like Prey, which tiptoes on the edge of horror, and could have made combat much scarier and suspenseful if it had stuck to its guns and committed to the real-time combat. My other pet peeve was the save system. I realize this is heavily subjective, and in fact I think this save system is quite popular, but I'm not a fan. The ability to quicksave and load completely freely, I feel, undermines the penalty of deaths and the weight of decisions you make throughout the game. So called "save scumming" really takes me out of the moment, and doesn't let players make mistakes. This especially annoyed me in Arkane's previous game, Dishonored. IMO playing the game stealthily until getting caught, then going full Rambo until finding cover again is an interesting gameplay loop. However, save scumming makes it optimal and easier to quick save all the time and quick load when you are caught to play the whole game stealthily.

Finally, most of my other complaints are that I wish they went further with some of the things that make this game interesting. For example, exploring Talos I is a joy, I sort of wish they dropped their map markers and let players navigate more organically. The station is also beautifully interconnected, reminding me of a metroidvania. I would love it if they had just been more hands off in general. I'm picturing games like Hollow knight or Dark Souls that allow you to explore the world non-linearly in search of your next objective.