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Prey (2017)


spatular
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It's a bit like deus ex/dishonoured but less stealth and more scary. i really like those games so i really like this game. it's also less level based as you can explore the whole space station. you can get powers to turn into a cup, although i didn't really use them. and i say it's scary but its maybe more that the music is scary, it put the fear of god into me and i had to keep taking short breaks to calm down, had some less intense music been playing i think i could have halved my completion time of around 33 hours. oh and you can do stealth but i didn't so not sure how viable it is, but it didn't seem as viable as in deus ex/dishonoured.

 

you get upgrade points that you can spend on special powers/more health and stuff. some of the powers seem cool but i didn't really use them, i went for hacking/repair/heavy lifting stuff to open up more areas.

 

some of the enemies can turn into in-game objects, like a book or projector, which can be quite freaky.

 

the crafting/materials system is nicely implemented, didn't spend much time messing about in the inventory.

 

the gloo gun is pretty cool, freezes enemies and can be used to aid platforming, although the platforming controls are a bit hit and miss. my basic tactic was to gloo gun stuff then shotgun it in the face - i was playing on easy mind so that might not be as effective on higher difficulties.

 

the story is really good and intriguing, although the end was a little disapointing. lots of interesting side missions too. and the game makes you think about your choices, some side missions i didn't do because i was concerned about the consequenses.

 

i played it on pc, my pc is old (2500k) but with a modern-ish graphics card (970) and the performance was great, looks really nice and ran really smooth, except for 1 room, where even on medium it was a little choppy.

 

so yeah i liked it :)

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Nice summary there man, didn't realise anyone else on here picked it up, bought it last night myself and will be giving it a go after Nier & Yooka-Laylee are crossed off the slate.

 

Really like Dishonoured 2 and Deux Ex (to a lesser degree) so think this'll hopefully be right in my wheelhouse considering it's Arkane.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Started this earlier in a 4 hour session.

 

Really impressed with it I have to say, I'm a big fan of Immersive Sim's so I knew this would be in my wheelhouse and I was right. What I wasn't expecting was how much of a survival horror game it is, I wouldn't say I've been 'scared' as such but it is incredibly tense and unnerving at times with each fight against the aliens making you worry about the ammo, resources and health you've got left, every time you see them it feels like an event, you mustn't underestimate them or you'll die very quickly, even on Normal the game's difficulty is rather challenging so far.

 

It also has this fantastic sense of isolation that I've not felt in many games, you really do feel alone on this space station and you get the feeling there aren't many other folks out there who wish you well, the enemies create a tangible sense of paranoia with their ability to mould themselves into objects in the scenery. you're always looking behind your shoulder or searching the area ahead of you to see if any bins, coffee mugs etc. are moving about.


The opening is incredibly Bioshock, you wake up in your Apartment in some faceless city (looks a bit like San Francisco) and make your way to work with Tristar, flying in a Helicopter over the gleaming city below. Of course once you reach the Tristar building and go through some mental/physical experiments things go completely tits up

Spoiler

 

when the Aliens turn up and start zombifying the Scientists. You get put back into your Apartment like everything's normal, but of course it isn't, everything is in exactly the same place as it was before but this time around there's a sense of dread in the air, you eventually escape to find out that you'd been living in Space all this time and that Tristar had simulated the whole opening of the game (numerous times) along with your apartment, and you'd been living a Groundhog Day style existence whilst they'd been watching/studying you all this time.

 

Incredibly eerie, and a fantastic twist so early in the game, really caught me out of left-field when I realised. It really is a Bioshock Biosphere moment when you first reach Rapture, when you first get into the Lobby of the Talos I, realise where you are and see the endless Space before you it is a truly fantastic moment.

 

 

I love how the game only tells you the bare minimum and there's hardly any hand-holding at all, it puts the objective markers up on your HUD sure (those can be turned off), but everything else is left up to you, the entirety of my 4 hours was spent exploring the opening Lobby area, room-by-room, finding out which doors I could open, which sections I could come back to later when I had a certain skill, I absolutely love all that stuff. Once I had the key-cards for some of the rooms or had unlocked certain skills it was very satisfying to go back and unlock them later on to find out what goodies were behind the door.

 

I was just completely engrossed in it, lost all sense of time and space and just wanted to exist in this space station and peel back the layers to see what makes it tick.

 

Pics below:

 

 

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Played another 4 hours earlier, 8 total.

 

Really starting to feel that this game isn't just excellent, but something truly special. 

 

Made it further into the ship today and it keeps surprising me, keeps innovating and does things that other games just haven't thought of like the Recycler that gets rid of the scrap you collect around the station, actually making use of the Eel skins, banana peels, Typhon guts etc. that you pick up along the way, you then use these recycled materials in another machine called the Fabricator to craft weapons, Neuromods, Medkits and other useful items to help you in your journey. It's just such a clever idea, the machines all have a fantastic tactile feel to them too and when your crafting materials or weapon/medkit pops out you feel satisfied, like you collected or this shit over a certain amount of time and actually got something worthwhile for your troubles.

 

The Aliens (Typhon) are fantastic enemies too, they look a bit like the Moulded from RE7, but they have a more sinister, organic, less clunky way about them, they remind me of some of the XCOM enemies in some ways, particularly from that cancelled XCOM shooter years back. Every time you run into a 'Phantom' which is one of the huge fucker Aliens it feels meaningful, you can sneak around them if you're lucky but 9 times out of 10 you're going to be fighting the fuckers, and you better have enough shit on you to deal with it, they're almost like a slightly less difficult version of the Big Daddy's from Bioshock I'd say, just not quite as unique aesthetically.

 

I got quite a few Fallout vibes from it today too, just the intricately designed rooms, setting/hacking turrets, searching compulsively through every draw in a room to find anything useful, looking through every nook and cranny you can find. What I didn't expect so much was the little stories, one area I was in today had a guy that was so paranoid he put 'Not a mimic!' post it notes on everything in his Lab for his own piece of mind, another story thread had some crew members make up a 'Glooey McGlooeyface' Snowman looking thing as they were bored and another where some crew members were playing a D&D style pen and paper role playing game across their stations, I absolutely love all that stuff.

 

There was another where I managed to open up a secret door in a guys lab, made my way down some stairs and discovered a theatre room with a leather chair pushed back against the wall, on the screen in front there was a 'push the green button' prompt, so I pushed it and nothing happened, pushed it again and no response, on my 4th press a Typhon Phantom appears on the screen and smashes against it right in front of you, scared the living shit out of me, jumped right back in my seat!

 

I touched on this yesterday too, but the isolation you feel on the ship is really unparalleled in games, the music and sound effects are utterly fantastic, creating a sense of tension, paranoia and dread around every corner. The only game that matches it is possibly Alien: Isolation where you're stranded on another space station (albeit slightly spookier and with a Xenomorph on your tail), you just feel utterly on your own, people come on the radio to you all the time but you have no clue if they're just using you, lying to you, helping you or leading you to your death, Arkane have just nailed that vulnerability someone in this situation would feel.

 

I tried one of the Zero-G sections today and that was great, just floating about in Space, similar to Bioshock 2 or SOMA where you're free to roam about the bottom of the Ocean all on your own with no other soul in sight, floating around with space debris, other air-locks and hull-breaches in the distance.

 

I got the Psychoscope too, which is a kind-of Batman-style detective mode, but of course this being such a fantastically well designed game they do more with it than that and enable you to 'research' enemies and be able to spot/mark mimics when you enter rooms, just such a neat idea, similar to a detective mode granted but different enough that it adds some innovation and originality to proceedings, this game just has so much depth to it. It also alters fights as you need to keep Typhon enemies alive so you can scan them, which means you either don't bother scanning them or you put your health, weapons and resources on the line to get the research, always making you make snap decisions in combat.

 

I knew I'd like this but I'm WAY more impressed with it that I was ever expecting to be, it could be my favourite game of this year if it keeps on like this, and I'm only 8 hours in! Just utterly engrossing, couldn't stop thinking about it after I put the controller down too, the sign of a great game. 

 

I can comfortably say fans of Alien Isolation, Bioshock and/or Fallout will love this game, it's most definitely worth a try!

 

Few pics below:

 

 

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4 more hours today, 12 total.

 

This game continues to surprise and impress.

 

I spent most of my time floating around in Zero G today, I thought the outer-station exploration would just be a transportation tool but there's tons of stuff to find out there, dead bodies with audio log's on them that give you side quests, hull breach's which you can enter and find some goodies in, so well fleshed out. I carried on with the story and reached an area called the 'GUTS' as well which is another Zero G area (this time inside the station) which I very much enjoyed too.

 

I've been introduced to some new enemies too, the Cystoid's which are pretty much like the Bloodfly's from Dishonored 2, they congregate in Nests and if you get too close they all race out and attack you causing damage and inflicting you with radiation poisoning to boot, the best way to take them out I've found is by using the Toy Dart-Gun to enrage them from a distance and then they sometimes explode on one another and take themselves out. The other new enemies I encountered were a Telepath, which controls humans in the vicinity and turns them hostile against you (as well as causing Psi damage), a Technopath which uses Electric attacks to damage you and jam your weapons (and is bastard hard, took almost all the shotgun shells I had, along with a handful of EMP's to bring it down), the Weaver (which is kind of a ghost-like creature which spits out Cystoid's at you when you get close then runs off) and the worst which was ominously titled 'Nightmare', with this one I didn't even bother fighting it, I assumed I shouldn't be in this area yet (The Bridge) and high-tailed it out of there, that shit was seriously full on! You don't have to kill it, I could've evaded it apparently but having that thing chase you all around the level would be so fucking intense.

 

I want to talk about the Toy Dart-Gun I mentioned earlier for a second, when I talked about this game's inventiveness and innovation in earlier posts this weapon just personifies it. You can't do any damage to enemies with it, it's seemingly useless and a 'joke' weapon the Dev's just put in for kicks when you first look at it. But, it is one of the most useful weapons in the game, see a room that's locked, that you can't get access to? Well sometimes you can break a window with your wrench and then shoot a Dart into the room to activate a computer screen or unlock button on a door and voila, you're in! That is just so fucking cool it blows my mind, the first time I did it I was like, is this going to work...is the game actually going to let me do this?! And yes, the game let's you do this and it feels fucking amazing when you do it and get into a locked room with it.

 

When I wasn't messing about in Zero G I was exploring the 'Arboretum' at the very top of Talos I, another really interesting area to explore, it felt fresh, it felt new and everywhere I looked there were places that caught my eye. The whole area was overgrown with tropical plants, shrubs everywhere, bodies strewn all over the place, an ornate Greenhouse on one side, a contemporary mansion on the other along with lots of Art-Deco styling  (of course). Serious Bioshock vibes again, that area in the original game that was all overgrown with tropical plant life felt so similar to this.

 

So yeah, I'm still absolutely loving this.

 

 

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Another 4 hours earlier, 16 total.

 

Just utterly engrossed once again, I know people probably don't pay too much attention to my posts, but honestly, this game has been a revelation to me, I really didn't expect it to be this good at all.

 

Mostly spent today exploring the Arboretum some more and Crew Quarters, the level and depth at times has been absolutely phenomenal.

 

Spent most of my day in Crew Quarters and exploring all the various rooms there, lots of stuff to discover in numerous cabins, there was also an interesting side-quest in the Cafeteria where 'Will Mitchell' didn't actually turn out to be his namesake, locked me in a freezer and I had to escape. Explored the Fitness Centre after this and cleared out all the cabins that were available (discovering a heartwarming relationship between two of the scientists in the process) and a 'treasure hunt' which would take me all over the Station to solve. Now I looked this up and I couldn't help looking at what the code was instead of traipsing across the station, when I inputted this and got my 'prize' however, the game was clever enough to realise this and I got a 'cheats' reward instead of the proper one, love that kind of stuff.

 

Once I'd finished with everything in the Crew Quarters, got all the 'voice samples' I needed (and successfully evaded a nightmare for the first time by hiding in a security booth) I made my way over to 'Deep Storage' exterminating a few Phantoms on my way. When I reached the Grav lift that would take me down to my destination however, I realised there was another grav lift that would take me up to Alex Yu's apartment and enable me to discover what was in his safe.

 

Now this is where the game really shines, I didn't have a code for this lift and my hacking ability wasn't at the Level 4 requirement to activate it, but I really wanted to get up there and see all the cool shit, so I used the GLOO gun and made a path for me to climb up, took a while, really didn't think it would work and that I was wasting my time at times, but eventually I made it up and into Alex Yu's mansion! Had an explore here, found some decent goodies and the key for his apartment back in Crew Quarters. Went back down there, lifted up a lot of objects before finally finding the key for the escape pod on Alex's mansions roof. Seemed absolutely crazy to me that I'd find something like this relatively early on, and that the game happily allowed me to travel up this lift shaft using the GLOO gun without any consequences, absolutely bloody love that kind of stuff, games that give you a full and thorough choice about how you play them get my vote every day of the week.

 

It almost felt like cheating really, I could now escape at any moment from the escape pod on Alex Yu's mansions roof, it was crazy, I thought to myself for moments whether to bother carrying on with the rest of the game or go straight to the escape pod, I definitely felt guilty. Also had a great side-quest where I had to venture back to the Talos I lobby (now complete with difficulty enemies), I managed to evade them all and reach my destination in the Trauma Centre where I received my own (Morgan's) psycho-evaluation, which was interesting, made my way back to the lift after this and back to the Arboretum to continue another side-quest by growing some plants in the botanic area.

 

Encountered another new enemy today called a 'poltergeist' too, quite freaky the first time you see it as you just see random bits of scenery moving in the distance, but one you get used to it, use the Psychoscope to track its movements it's a doddle really, it never really damaged me and I battered it with a Wrench every time.

 

This game just surprises at every turn, the variety, the freedom and the choices it gives the player to play the game how they want to play it are just incredible, Arkane have created such a rich, unique environment to explore and get engrossed in too, it really is such a fantastic place to just exist and get engrossed in, I can't get enough.

 

 

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Spent another 7 hours on this over the weekend, 23 total.

 

Still really enjoying it, but the magic of the first 16 hours has worn off slightly. As I've now unlocked the entirety of the ship, seen every wing there is and have upgraded my combat abilities to god-like I haven't really been enjoying as much. How difficult the enemies were and how daunting every fight was for the majority of the time I've played the game just isn't there now, I have a ridiculous amount of materials, fully upgraded health and weapons, and am just running around shooting the fuck out of every alien I see, even the 'nightmare' which is the hardest Typhon enemy in the game I can kill in 5 Shotty blasts, and the enemies just don't have the same menacing feel to them as they used to, the Mimic's just become like little rats running around and are more annoying to take care of than something you'd dread.

 

The dev's have purposefully put the story in the background and let you soak up all the little side-stories throughout, but now I've done almost all the side-quests available and have been finishing off the story-missions for a while, I just find myself not really caring at all that much, I pretty much know exactly how it's going to end already too and there doesn't seem like there's going to be anymore to it than that.

 

When you're running around, exploring every unexplored nook and cranny, mopping up side missions, backtracking through areas, can batter any enemy you see it's just nowhere near as special, maybe I should've invested into the Psi powers to make things more interesting, but I assumed bad things would happen if I did that.

 

So yeah, some of the magic has worn off, and I'm not so engrossed in it as I was for the majority of the game, kind of feel like I'm going through the motions and just want it to end now, but it's still a great game overall, it just could of been incredible which is a tad disappointing.

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  • 6 months later...

I've spent most of my 20 hours with Prey thinking it's an absolute chore to play. It's very Bioshock (or System Shock I guess) so I can't say I'm surprised I was struggling with it. I almost wish I'd dropped the difficulty down at least then I wouldn't have been actively avoiding conflict. 

 

Part of my problem was that I didn't want to spec down the Typhon route, partly because of where I think the plot is going, but also because I was worried about having to go up against the security. The aliens seem to have no problem with them, but I suspect they do more damage to you/me. I ended up adding the fire skill which has made things a lot more manageable. 

 

Added to that I had a look at where to find the laser gun and backtracked to get it. I had a lot of ammo for it and it's meant that my other guns aren't getting rinsed when I come up against something big. 

 

Something that still annoys me though, and Bioshock was the same. There's no point in clearing out an area of enemies and setting up/fixing turrets, when you return to the area a new bunch of enemies are going to have spawned in out of nowhere 

 

Anyway, I'm starting to enjoy it a lot more now. It's taking me ages to get through but it's starting to feed the power fantasy a bit 

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Finished. I'm reluctant to be too critical because I do think that it felt like a trudge is more down to me and my seeming aversion to anything even remotely Bioshock. I probably should have stick the game on easy, but I wasn't having too much trouble with combat in the back half, the recycler grenades are very powerful, way more useful than I expected. The crafting, how limited the grey stuff is, but how it's required for virtually everything, got annoying again, so my advice would be to give yourself at least 1 attacking Typhon mod

 

Glad it's done, it's not going to trouble my goty list but I did enjoy it, wish I'd felt a bit more powerful or free to fuck stuff up. The story isn't bad, not amazing but it is fairly interesting

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  • 6 months later...

I’m about 10 hours in, very impressed so far. 

 

Its a game that I think people could easily put down again after an hour or so as it’s a tough start. Enemies are bastards , weapons and ammo are less than plentiful and progress always seems to be hindered.

 

I turned a corner though, i was down with the controls, I knew what the game wanted of me and the plot was becoming interesting. 

 

Im lapping up the side quests, always happy when a new one comes my way, I have about 5 on the go at the moment.

 

Also, being an Arkane Studios game I’ve found some cool alternative routes to objectives.

 

This games rad. I said rad.

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I’m hugely addicted to this game. I want to play it all the time. I’ve got 17 hours on the clock but it feels like less.

 

Ive been playing at a pretty slow pace, exploring every area of the map I can and in return I’ve been rewarded with a ton off access codes and key cards for easy access around the ship, it’s almost like it’s the way it’s supposed to be played.

 

Ive just had to gather samples of Chief Danielle Sho’s voice so as to bypass her security door in Deep Cargo. I was looking pretty hard for the final voice sample, luckily I checked the recordings I’d already collected as amongst them was a recording I hadn’t listened too that happened to be the last one I needed to complete the task. I’d have been mighty fucked off if those events transpired a few hours later.

 

Now I’ve got a mad chef on the loose. Looking forward to running in to that cunt again.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 01/01/2018 at 18:35, DANGERMAN said:

I've spent most of my 20 hours with Prey thinking it's an absolute chore to play.

 

I realise at the end of the post you stated you started to enjoy it more, but I this quotation as contrast to my 35 hour meander through this game reading everything and being utterly absorbed in the play area Arkane created.

 

I didn't do all the side missions as I got to the point where I wanted to wrap the game up, not becuase I wanted it all to be over but because I was curious to see how the plot wrapped up. I wasn't disappointed either, you got choices right up untill the end.

 

So atmospheric, so playable, this would have been on my top 10 of last year without a doubt.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 4 months later...

Just started it and I have some questions.

 

Firstly, like the opening but I’d already played it before when the demo came out.

 

So anyway, I’m picking up all manner of tat at the moment like bits of string, someone’s used gum, set of false teeth, etc. Is any of this actually gonna prove useful?

 

And is there a map I’m missing? It seems to be giving you multiple objectives but I can’t work out how to get to the Trauma Centre just yet. I think that’s a side mission.

 

I’ve come across the Phantoms and they seem double hard bastards, should I be trying to fight them at this point or avoid them?

 

Less of a question and more a statement - the one mod I installed so far I put into hacking and that seems useless so far, so I may have made a fatal error.

 

Last, does this tie in to the original Prey in anyway? 

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All the crap you pick up gets turned into resource cubes so just dump it all into the machine that does that. 

 

I remember a map so I assume there is one but can't remember where. 

 

Avoid the Phantoms for now. Like most open games the difficulty is all front loaded. 

 

All the skills suck until you upgrade them.

 

I don't think so. 

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Inching my way forward. Dying a lot, so I kind of wish I’d put it on Easy to just breeze through the story.

 

Opened up 3 more neuromod slots in the skill tree, that hint at Morgan losing their humanity.

Any recommendations of cool abilities to try?

 

So far I’ve gone for basic hacking, basic lifting, basic repair, a slightly bigger suit inventory, slightly better stealth and less stamina use on hitting things with the wrench.

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