Prey - Impressions and Interview

[Thrasher]

Yeah, similar to what I had to do with Mankind Divided. Sigh...

 

[NewDArt]

Yeah, similar to what I had to do with Mankind Divided. Sigh…

Why not simply refund it on Steam if it doesn't perform to your satisfaction? Would seem much easier

I have a feeling they'll release a demo soon, though.

 

[Thrasher]

I would use an Amazon gift card balance to buy it. Wonder how that would work.

 

[NewDArt]

I would use an Amazon gift card balance to buy it. Wonder how that would work.

AFAIK, you need to buy it from Steam to qualify for a refund, but I could be wrong.

That said, Prey is one of the best performing modern games I've seen in years - so if your laptop can run other similar games, I would assume it'll be able to run Prey on appropriate settings.

But I can't exactly give you a guarentee

 

[joxer]

Spent 4 hours in Prey.
Turning every stone.
Having much fun.
Everything maxed, no hiccups or something, fast loadtimes (SSD, i5, GTX 1070).

As I didn't watch videos, the story twist(s) hit all the right places on me. E-mails and audiologs, at least early are awsome. Horror moments sadly are not, somehow it feels less scary than Undying, then again maybe I'm just too old and got scarejumps immunity.
You played DX games? Remember the code to the first (and your apartment) keypad in DX games is 0451? Yea. Arkane remembered it too! I love it.
People are designed in Arkane's Dishonored style, some won't be happy seeing that, but I adore this comics style. This way they basically avoided me to criticize hair as too realistic hair wouldn't fit this style! Nice trick.

Hacking minigame is pathetic. Perhaps the worst minigame I've seen in my life. Feels worse than ME2's sonar. Or it's deliberately bad to persuade a player into searching for actual codes instead of hacking?
If it's not… I guess no game is perfect.

Thrasher, I cannot say if this game will cause problems on you, but I don't think you'll be able to play it even on medium on that i7 machine. Maybe on low. Sorry.

 

[Dasale]

Tempting RPG, but since Doom I got the feeling Bethesdda is in a constant overhyping context, that at least don't match my tastes. I swear after Doom that they won't caught me in the trap again (Skyrim, Dishonored, FO4, Doom, only Wolfenstein was quite ok and it's probably the one I bought the cheapest and delayed buy the most) , but it's really tempting.

Perhaps a let's play could do the trick, but I feel that I'll get from it shooting close combat as some Dead Space I won't like or more precisely that I won't be able play, at least with fun.

That's very bizarre to buy close to full price games I don't like, and late and cheap games I like.

 

[joxer]

Doom? I wouldn't buy that 10 hours long whatnot that occupies half of HDD even if someone paid me to.

Prey is not RPG. But even more (important) it's not Doom.

DO NOT watch videos. I'd be angry at myself if I did, even a short video will spoil the game too much.
Prey 2017 is one of those games where less you know about it, more enjoyable experience you get.

There is one thing I'm unsure about and it's playing this game on mushrooms. Several game mechanics feel not friendly to mushrooms. So if you're planning to buy it on mushrooms based platforms, please do check on internet how it plays with those first.

Here's a screenshot from Prey. No, I still say Prey is not RPG.

 

[Dasale]

Significant part of exploration, perhaps not puzzling but tricks, character building, inventory and equipment, logs and other text to replace roughly NPC. On my tablets it's RPG.

The problem is just duration, well perhaps it's not that important, and combats, that is a big deal. I wanted play some Dead Space but just couldn't.

 

[joxer]

Yea yea. By that logic Assassin Creed games, Far Cry 3 and new Tomb Raider with it's sequel Rise of the TR are also RPGs.

No.

 

[Dasale]

Tomb Raider, I didn't quote character building, inventory, more. Far Cry 3 obviously yes and noticed it was in advisor list (ok the list includes many non RpG), Far Cry even if best of series, obviously no.

Assassin Creed, boredom so I don't know, perhaps.

EDIT: But ok it's on base that System Shock 2 and Deus Ex series are RPG.

EDIT2: Quoted bad comments on Prey combats, I won't take the risk and will skip, too bad, but I don't think I played more than 15mn a game like Dead Space.

EDIT3: Gee and here an original way to look at the (awful) bad combats:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/05/05/prey-pre-review-pc/
Damit, that game is a hard case for me.

 

[joxer]

Whatever I'll pretend I didn't read it.

From hero to zero. Trashmobs - respawn. Not always, but mainly on loadscreens (area transitions).
Artificial atrocious filler to prolong the game length. Not fun. Not GOTY.

 

[Dasale]

You are making an obsession about respawn, I don't like it either, but you make such a big deal with that. It's hard to forget how important you feel it is in MEA despite they can be skipped, that's lacking sense of proportion and context, and just reacting on a feature but not how it is in the context. It's like the feature makes you lost all analysis ability.

 

[NewDArt]

Played around 16 hours or so. Fantastic, so far. I can't believe how many things they crammed into this game. Everything keeps expanding. Tons of details that really pays to notice.

Respawns are limited and they're obviously there to reinforce the core gameplay, which is the survival/scavenging mechanics. Since the game actively encourages you to backtrack and explore old areas - it would be a big mistake to leave the levels empty after clearing them out, because you would end up with one giant empty station with nothing happening. System Shock and System Shock 2 functioned in the exact same way - and it keeps the player on his toes.

Everything in the lore and the enemy design supports respawns - and you're supposed to be timid when you never know if something is a mimic or what might be waiting for you around the corner. However, it's not arbitrary and annoying - and they don't go overboard with the amount of enemies.

I'm playing on Nightmare - and it feels appropriate, if slightly too easy. However, that's mostly because of the incredibly tight controls and ultra fast quick save/load. I imagine it would be a much harder game on consoles.

Even better, the story is really intriguing and it's very good at keeping a sense of mystery.

The Talos I station is growing on me - and everything is laid out logically - and much like System Shock or something like Dark Souls - you keep finding new ways to navigate around it.

It's almost like someone FINALLY figured out the true appeal of the System Shock games and just went to town on the design paradigm.

About the only flaw I can find is that the visuals aren't great. They're good - and more than servicable, but not "up there" with the best of them. The atmosphere is strong - but I think it would have worked better with a more traditional sci-fi ambience and slightly more horror. Not straight-up horror, but SS2 was a lot more creepy back in 1999.

Maybe that's just me though.

Also, I would absolutely kill for a cooperative MP mode in this game, like in SS2.

But, other than that, I'm almost certain this will be my GOTY.

 

[joxer]

You are making an obsession about respawn, I don't like it either, but you make such a big deal with that. It's hard to forget how important you feel it is in MEA despite they can be skipped, that's lacking sense of proportion and context, and just reacting on a feature but not how it is in the context. It's like the feature makes you lost all analysis ability.

Yes, it's true, I've lowered my final score on ME4 because of trashmob respawns by 1. Would go 9 otherwise. Imagine that.

Prey uses endless trashmob respawns for several reasons.

1. Not enough original and unique content, insert filler to make Dragonball Z 7563785867385653 episodes instead of 90% less.

2. Mainstream wants jack of all trades master of everything character. Some said you won't be able to do that in Prey. Earlygame it does seem so. Later you discover that by grinding on trashmobs you can make "praxis kits" yourself. The exotic material needed comes only from trashmobs.

3. Remember TW3 endless respawns in wilderness? What were those? Wolves and whatnot 1hit to kill crap. Well, that worked for me, nothing is empty yet I'm not wasting my time on mundane idiocies. In Prey, you're spammed with jesus christ I need to empty 10 shotgun cells into a "phantom version x" trashmob to kill it. A trashmob that respawns over and over. Everywhere. No, you don't have tons of bullets and once you've used explosive tanks they don't respawn! Turrets? Yea, you don't have endless amount of spare parts to fix them once broken. Etc etc, aka resources are finite, trashmobs are infinite.

For many years already I'm saying the technology we're playing games on allows "remembering" state of every object in a game. When Gothic 1 appeared with it's system of repopulating the world with harder trashmobs that can't revive I thought this is it, garbage designs are a thing from the past. But no. Some developers' mindset is stuck with no space to save gamestate android phones. Did you notice I don't cry much when gridner making studios close their doors?
This game is not Arkane, it's Bethesda. Without norespawn mod, I don't think I'd ever finish their Skyrim and FO4. Sadly, this is another engine and I'm not hoping much for a norespawn mod here.

So what have we here. A game with superinteresting story with twists and mystery you want to uncover. Arkane specific graphics style some hate, for some reason I adore.
But you're playing a cleaner in a junkyard that cannot be cleaned till doomsday. If I wanted to be french maid, I would work on that job, I wouldn't play games.

A potential masterpiece with a turd at a center of it, a turd some say is important and are preaching whatever excuses for it. To them it probably is, they're training everyday with it I guess. To me it's still turd in a shiny wrapping.

Additional info only for those who are irritated with grinding and don't praise it.
The game has a nasty bug where past loadscreens some of your weapons can disappear:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/480490/discussions/0/1327844097120169163/
Ignorable issue if trashmobs didn't respawn so you need to kill them again! This minireview from a person who completely missed crafting, actually nails it:
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198343710616/recommended/480490/

Great start to the game you have a lot of supplies. Then torwards the end you Literally have nothing but a wrench and 20 hp running back and forth struggling to survive picking up every little piece of junk u find but, no ammo, med kits or anything that will help you get to the end faster. its jus you and the wrench running away the whole time.

Don't think you can overcome this by making plenty of manual saves. You're allowed to make 20 savegames max. See… You're playing the game on a phone. "What's a terabyte?" asked Arkane developers.

 

[joxer]

Speaking about bugs in ME4 in another thread reminded me, Prey has a bug that's… Well… Perhaps not a bug at all.

The whole game is about trashmobs appearing from thin air. So this "bug" perhaps is intended game mechanics. If trashmobs can appear out of nowhere, perhaps "copying" materials is a feature:

I'm starting to believe hostiles and materials aren't appearing out of nowhere, but there is a wardrobe to Narnia in the game where all things come from.

 

[Dasale]

Lol, so if you recycle you generate respawn? and if you don't you remove the respawn? You should be very happy to have find a way to remove the respawn.

 

[Dasale]

Yes, it's true, I've lowered my final score on ME4 because of trashmob respawns by 1. Would go 9 otherwise. Imagine that.

9, looks high to me, but to each their own rate scaling.

For me the game fails not in re spawning which is a very minor detail because it can be avoided/spiked entirely, it fails mainly in:
- combats repetitions, the randomization from combats dynamics is at limit to be enough to compensate, at end much weaker on that than ME2&3, ok if you can bear their combat systems.
- too many tedious quests fillers in at least two planets and overall not always.
- dungeons repetitions, really they shouldn't have used some graphic changes?
- areas repetitions, at least three planets.
- consequences of the character dominant traits either lacking either not highlighted enough.

I would still give it a solid 8/10 and probably on par to ME1 which is a difficult case because of a combination of quite good aspects and quite weak aspects, but I would put MEA quite behind ME2&3.

 

[BoboTheMighty]

Seems the game is not selling well

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...rt-8-deluxe-holds-off-prey-in-uk-boxed-charts

Betsy usually has a good nose for marketing, but this is pretty damn dumb to let it out without marketing and no pre-reviews.

 

[JDR13]

Huh? There was quite a bit of marketing for Prey. I was seeing ads across many different sites for months as well as television commercials. I also got bombarded with emails.

 

[Stingray]

So do you think my laptop can handle it?
2.9 GHz Core i7-4910MQ
32 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro K4100M 4GB

K4100M should fall somewhere between GTX 650 and GTX 660 desktop cards, it's the same basic chip from the OEM version of the GTX 660, but the Quadro is clocked a bit slower. So, technically below Prey's minimum requirements, but not by a ton.