Prey - Hardcore Mod

@PCGamesN Prey now has a new hardcore mode called Prey for Death thanks to a mod.

With speedrunners now completing Prey in less than 8 minutes, you may be looking for a way to make Arkane's sci-fi horror a bit more challenging. Creatively named ‘Prey for Death', this gameplay mod drastically increases Prey's difficulty level.

Created by modder jvames, Prey for Death reintroduces several missing mechanics that were supposed to be in Prey. Morgan Yu will now suffer specific injuries like burns, concussions, bone fractures and even partial blindness. You now have to use specific cures to heal your ailments, with Medical Operators getting rid of any injuries you may have. The mod also activates a cut skill called Field Surgeon, where regular med-kits will heal all of your injuries. The downside of this is that scoffing a bunch of food no longer heals as much health, while downing a bottle of water does nothing to heal you.
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More information.

Aaaand, trashmobs still respawn so you can grind whatever you want to craft.
So hardcore.

Oh dear.

Another moron who thinks interesting gameplay is about being as frustrating and stunted as possible.

NewDArt said:

Oh dear.

Another moron who thinks interesting gameplay is about being as frustrating and stunted as possible.

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Why so negative NewDArt? People have different tastes, maybe not to your liking, but that doesn't make them morons.

Silver said:

Why so negative NewDArt? People have different tastes, maybe not to your liking, but that doesn't make them morons.

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Ok, it was an emotionally fueled expression.

How about I severely disagree with the concept of this mod - and many, many more mods like it?

Beyond that, I actually suspect that people don't truly like these changes in terms of how they change the game. I think they like the changes based on their own misconception of what an interesting challenge really is.

As in, the more "hardcore" - the more fun. But the fun they derive comes from the FEELING that the game is hardcore rather than the reality of the gameplay experience.

Meaning, they could actually qualify as uninformed about themselves. Moron is a strong word, though, I agree!

NewDArt said:

Beyond that, I actually suspect that people don't truly like these changes in terms of how they change the game. I think they like the changes based on their own misconception of what an interesting challenge really is.

As in, the more "hardcore" - the more fun. But the fun they derive comes from the FEELING that the game is hardcore rather than the reality of the gameplay experience.

Meaning, they could actually qualify as uninformed about themselves. Moron is a strong word, though, I agree!

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The thing is NewDArt you probably no longer remember what it was like to be a new gamer. There are tons of them every day and for people who haven't experienced these sorts of systems before it is different enough to be interesting. You learn to appreciate nuanced gameplay more as you play more and obviously tastes vary and what people look to get out of a game varies alot too. All things being equal the more unique and interesting mods that get produced the better. They can only inspire bigger and better things.

Silver said:

The thing is NewDArt you probably no longer remember what it was like to be a new gamer. There are tons of them every day and for people who haven't experienced these sorts of systems before it is different enough to be interesting. You learn to appreciate nuanced gameplay more as you play more and obviously tastes vary and what people look to get out of a game varies alot too. All things being equal the more unique and interesting mods that get produced the better. They can only inspire bigger and better things.

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I'm pretty sure I remember

I'm not against the mod at all - I just don't think it does what people think it does. I'm seeing it as a trend that's been going on for a very long time, and I - personally - find it unfortunate that people can't separate these nuances you're talking about.

It makes for a confused division between the quality of a meaningful challenge - and the perceived quality of just being more frustrating.

In general, you could consider me on the side of the more informed side of game balance. I advocate a deeper understanding of mechanics and the psychology of a challenge that's been cared for and delivered with the experience that few gamers have.

I'm not looking to stand in the way of these super hardc0re mods.

Just want the freedom to express my opinion of them

Many modern games are designed to be as easy and as accommodating as possible, to better suit the edgy, impatient crowds of kids and casuals. Just look at Numanuma where its near impossible to fail a check. High difficulty which was normal back in the day, is now deemed "frustrating" by the masses of sheeple. The consumer standard was never lower. Hardcore/challenge mods are always a welcome addition. Maybe Prey will be worth playing with 2813912098 mods

Hardcore mods only mean the game default difficulty sucks.
Worst case scenario - a game's lead designer is the author of such mod.

Josh, I can't believe you said that joxer

I played the game on hard and - at least until near the end where you are so pumped not even Nightmares pose a challenge - it was actually challenging and I died quite a lot at the start.

Though admittedly much of this comes from some enemies being HP sponges and no real long-range weapons available. There's the Q-Beam, but I found ammunition to be very scarce (again, until the end game where you are suddenly swimming in resources). I always had loads of materials to craft except mineral materials which I was always short on.

It definitely was not a breeze through difficulty like found in Dishonored 2 (that game was just a sleepwalk, even on hard).

Then again, I decided against using any Typhon neuromods, so I guess that makes things more difficult.
Plus, I never did any grind of respawning mobs as that is just the opposite of fun, so I probably increased the difficulty for myself, too.

I played it on Nightmare and found it way, way too easy.

But that doesn't mean adding more inventory juggling and increasing every number across the board is going to make the challenge more interesting.

crpgnut said:

Josh, I can't believe you said that joxer

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You can. Dunno at what point people on this forum started to play games on hardest difficulty in their first playthrough - that trend is caused by normal difficulty being a cakewalk in too many games out there. I'm not saying normal difficulty should be equal to insane, but there is no fun when a game poses no challenge. For whatever reason in too many mainstream titles normal means easy, most probably a decision from company CEOs.
What's most horrible is gaming sites not criticizing it and not even talking about it in their reviews. A game too easy on normal difficulty? So easy you practically cannot die ever? Drop the bloody score. No, they put 100% on it.

The ideal difficulty is one step higher than you think you can handle and one step lower than you can actually handle.

Haven't seen a game that would have "ideal" difficulty listed among others. Usually games have "beginner", "normal", "braggaboutbiggestdick" although some introduced "sucker" aka storymode and some have "evenbiggerdick" aka ironwhatever sillyness.