Prey

I've neglected playing prey for a long time. For the longest time in my life, I've hated how long games took to get into the gameplay parts. Story taking the front seat instead of a solid fun gameplay is one sin i still believe in. Nowadays, i've become older and more tolerant to stories and dialogues in games, previously i would skip all of them. Obviously the problem has become much larger than back then, seen as most Sony praised first party multimilion dollar titles are glorified movies and the AAA industry more and more tries to mimic what they're doing seeing as it's the game as a form of art movement we are going through right now. It's just not for me, my favorite genre in the past was old first person shooters, i hated DOOM 2016 when it came out cause the little story it had annoyed me and the gameplay felt like a slow paced modern FPS which borrowed some elements from it's past (i havent played it in years so i dont know how are my feelings towards it if i'd play it nowadays). Beyond fps games i really like simulation games because they cut to what is interesting without any story (most of the time). That's why i neglected Prey. I played the first moments of Prey and no matter how good that opening was, it could never strike an impression on me. I can now appreciate it for all it is and almost live and breathe in the world of Prey.
The presentation in here is top notch. The art direction here is amazing going for this futuristic art deco style that reminds me a bit of the way the art was handled in Bioshock (which is not a surprise at all, coming from the devs of dishonored 2). Right after you wake up in the game, all these sharp architectural designs and how the props match to the enviorament reinforces how real this game feels. the station and this era the game is set in feels belivable by how reinforced it is by the designs of objects and rooms Right from the get go you get immersed by all the little details on the apartment, the items, the e-mails, the props, the interactible objects (opening sinks are as fun as they ever continue to be, it's always a pleasure to add a new game to the flushing toilets and not taking showers genre). The opening sequence plays out flawlessly from start to finish made my eyes glued to what was happening on screen, specially when the start of the game in an horror experience that made me quite paranoid for a solid 4-5 hours in where i was sweating looking at chairs and small boxes. The horror here is intense, they are the prey hunting you down, you are fragile and unnarmed even though you can outsmart them, they are much more stronger and skilled than you.
All the text and info on Talos-1 is so interesting, the stories of the crew mates aboard and the sheer amount of visual storytelling (perhaps my favorite part of the exploration part of the game) reinforces the world of Prey. I was craving for the next room where i would enter and discover new things. I was rather anxious about opening locked doors, and finding my way to unlock them in unconventional ways, that i ended up finding the best aspect of the gameplay: the sandbox nature and how it's used to solve puzzles in multiple forms.
As the game progressed i discovered that what i loved about the game at first was outshined by how exploration and Sandbox go hand in hand in Prey. hidden locations with loot and visual storytelling make exploring way worth your time more so when the loot you find can upgrade your abilites and stats, that way i was venturing into uncovered dark and scary rooms for neuromods to get strong and after a while the whole curve hit me. I wasn't scared anymore, i was an explorer badass space marine repair hacker guy that was running through the station with a fully upgraded shotgun in slowmotion, at that point it hit me that i overcomed most enemies and i had turned into the Prey hunting them down.
And while the start of the game, lore and the gameplay are rock solid. The main story mission drags for way too long, the unvailing of the mysteries are cool but the gameplay here is just not it. A lot of backtracking and plot devices that feel really unecessary and are made just to make the playtime a bit longer. Which is a massive disapointment!
I got discouraged about 2/3 into story to do anything i was previously enjoying, since i wanted to see what happens at the end of it, but the experience was way too boring for me, that i was mostly ignoring enemies and audio logs and just rushing it.

Overall, it's a great experience, one that i'll recall in the future as one of the great singleplayer games i've played. it's memorable, it's fun and it's smart. Prey is a Sci fi horror immerisve sim sandbox worth your time and money especially now that it goes on promo for low prices

8/10

Getting this out the way, what happened to prey 2 was genuinely an injustice. As for this versison of prey, we've already seen the bioshockification of the "exploration based fps"/immersive sim. This is the peak of how far people ran out of ideas into making something that appeals to the equivalent of A24 but for video games. This is was one of the most boring fucking things i've ever played in my life. This is one of those cases where if i wanted to play bioshock, i'd play bioshock, if i wanted to play deus ex(the good one), i'd play deus ex, etc, etc. There was no reason for this to come out and arkanes already doing the fruitless task of keeping an already censorius and bloated western dominated video game industry alive. Something that should've crashed by 2008.

“Bioshock in Space!” That is how my colleague at work sold this game to me. “So…. System Shock?” I replied.

“No mate, Bioshock in Space, what is System Shock?”

“It’s erm… Bioshock, but in Space”.

“Oh, that sounds like Prey mate, you’ll like it”.

Prey is really good. I suppose its an Immersive Sim, or an Action RPG if you are old like me. You know the drill; unlock upgrades to your avatar via a Skill Tree, hack computers, turrets etc. The game takes place on Talos 1 Space Station, in an alternate universe where Kennedy was never assassinated and the Space Race reached unparalleled hights. So, the future we wish we lived in, but don’t. Talos 1 is a magnificent setting in terms of its design, but it is a little bit bland in its art direction. This is something of a theme with the game to be honest, but Talos 1 is an amazing place to spend the 25 hours or so you’ll take to finish Prey. Its just a bit nondescript, not a place you’ll really remember much after you finish the game, but one you’ll enjoy whist you are there. It really is incredibly designed to be fair.

The game is similar to Metroid Prime in regard to how you can’t access every part of an area at first, but with the attainment of various upgrades, will be able to when you return later. So… like Bioshock, but in space. Or System Shock. It’s a Survival Horror, where you find yourself constantly under powered, low on ammo, just trying to survive for the first half of the game, but then the balance all goes to shit and by about halfway through, you just become largely unstoppable. My initial playthrough I tried to play though using the environment and laying traps for enemies that would destroy me 1 v 1, and for 12 hours or so, that is what I did. After that I realised I’d maxed the shotgun out and all the related perks and spent the next 12 hours playing Doom but with the most limited enemy types imaginable.

That is the biggest problem with Prey, its probably the best game of its type. Its like how you remember System Shock 2 with out actually having to play a 23-year-old game. But then just as you get to grips with the systems the game uses, and the style of play you want, suddenly you’re overpowered and the game is no longer a survival horror. I think part of the problem is that you recycle basically anything in the game into raw materials via the use of a certain grenade. You can then put these raw materials into a machine and create ammo, weapons, upgrades and also, more grenades that turn everything into raw materials. Once this happens, you largely have infinite ammo. By about 2/3 of the game, I stopped upgrading my character because there was simply no point in doing so anymore.

The characters are all bland, the big twist ending can be seen a mile off and as amazingly designed as Talos 1 actually is, its all a bit samey and a bit bland. The enemies have 1 design concept and it’s repeated for the entire game. Big faults, but those first 12 hours of survival horror and the 3-5 hours of revelling in being a killing machine afterwards are just phenomenal. It takes the best of System Shock, Bioshock and Deus Ex and elevates them to near perfection. Then you spend the last 5 hours running from point A to point B and back again, massacring everything in between as the game completely loses track of what it is and what it meant to be.

I know this review is quite negative, but those are big defects that the game has. The fact it succeeds despite these faults and is actually one of the best games of its type ever made, is really testament to how incredibly well thought out the initial game actually is. Each enemy is a puzzle, and yeah, once you have all the pieces and then some, you’ll delete them left and right, but when you are underpowered, struggling for ammo… Each encounter is massive, requiring you to actually think about what you are doing. It starts of very difficult and ends up being far too easy, but the sweet spot it maintains is second to none for the longest time.

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.