Prey - Review @ PC Gamer

HiddenX · May 10, 2017

Prey review

I need to get into this office. That's not entirely true. I want to get into this office, and Prey has taught me that where there's a will, there's a way. The door is unhackable, and its keycard could theoretically be anywhere on the Talos-I space station. It's time to get creative. The windows into the office are breakable, but the gap is too small for me to squeeze through. Also, my standard trick of using the Mimic power to turn into a smaller object won't work. There's no window ledge to perch on, and mugs, understandably, cannot jump very high. There is, however, a computer terminal in view of the window. I've got an idea.

I leave and head for a fabrication station, and spend some of my resources to create a toy crossbow and a pack of foam darts. It's a joke weapon, but, in the right circumstances, a legitimately useful tool. Returning to the window, I shoot a dart at the computer's touch screen—specifically at a large square marked "Utility". Bingo. A menu opens, and inside is an option to unlock the door. Another carefully aimed dart, and I'm able to enter.

Prey is at its best in these moments of creative problem solving. Every closed door presents a multitude of possibilities, whether that's transforming into office detritus, hacking a lock, or simply stumbling upon a keycard—like I did, moments later, on a corpse just meters away from the door. It's a first person immersive sim of the kind Arkane specialises in, but nevertheless offers a very different style and experience to the recent Dishonored 2.

[...]

Unfortunately, some sidequests don't quite land, and for a variety of reasons. One—a pretty lengthy revenge tale—just sort of ends, and in some potentially silly ways. Another—this time based around a difficult moral choice, with fairly heavy emotional stakes for both Yu and another survivor—was entirely undercut by having a separate character call in about a critical objective. Repositioning to hear what the caller was saying, I accidentally triggered yet another character's dialogue. In the end, four people were talking over each other about different missions and I was forced to reload and try again.

Many of Prey's issues are a consequence of its broad range of options. Attempting to cater to a variety of play styles is laudable, but also means that Prey isn't as good a stealth game as Dishonored, nor as good a combat game as BioShock. But while the individual parts have problems, Prey is nonetheless greater than the sum of them. Prey is worth playing, mostly thanks to the strength of Talos-I as a setting, and the excellent environment design. It's fun to explore, full of interesting stories, and also looks and sounds great. Frequently, Prey's strengths build to create a tense and compelling atmosphere. And then it usually undermines it all with yet another goddamn Mimic.

Score: 79/100

More information.

joxer · May 10, 2017

Prey is still a compelling, beautiful immersive sim.

As someone said in comments there, that review is trash.

luj1 · May 10, 2017

Oh shit, they actually started using that word. Haha

JDR13 · May 10, 2017

That score is way too low imo. Prey is easily the best game I've played in the last 2 years

crpgnut · May 10, 2017

Hmm, Witcher 3 came out less than 2 years ago….better than W3, JDR?

JDR13 · May 10, 2017

crpgnut said:
Hmm, Witcher 3 came out less than 2 years ago….better than W3, JDR?

I meant best game since 2015 more specifically. 2016 was kind of weak though, and 2017 has been pretty weak so far as well, so maybe it's not saying much.

Capt. Huggy Face · May 10, 2017

I hate that term so much. What exactly is this game a simulation of? Turning into a towel and shooting aliens? So stupid...

NewDArt · May 10, 2017

Capt. Huggy Face said:
I hate that term so much. What exactly is this game a simulation of? Turning into a towel and shooting aliens? So stupid…

It's a simulation of environment. Most games don't even attempt to make the environment interactive, where Prey goes out of its way to make things work together.

A big part of the game is using the environment to your advantage, and avoiding all the dangers that are a part of it.

Also, I'm not at all surprised that the mainstream aren't digging this game quite as it deserves. It's pretty sophisticated - and given how ultra streamlined experiences with zero cerebral challenge, like Witcher 3, get the 10/10s - it goes without saying that complex games that encourage thinking and creativity during play will (partially) turn such an audience away.

duerer · May 10, 2017

Capt. Huggy Face said:
I hate that term so much. What exactly is this game a simulation of? Turning into a towel and shooting aliens? So stupid…

Heh-heh, welcome to the futureeee!

Btw the term "sim" is pretty much downgrading nowadays, just like the "rpg", "adventure", "strategy", etc.

Sim: any game where the emphasis is on immersion and/or some minor detail mimics reality (physics, etc)
Rpg: any game that has some form of ability progression and/or allows some gameplay choices by the player.
Adventure: any game that has a strong focus on story and/or has an epic scope.
Strategy: any game where the player controls more than one unit at once and/or the player has to plan his next move.

Needless to say, these descriptions are pretty lame, and just barely scratch the surface of e.g. Falcon 4, Fallout 2, Day of the Tentacle, or Steel Panthers.

As an old fart, it is very amusing to me to witness this trend - but I don't really care, as long as the game satisfies my needs, regardless of its self-proclaimed genre.

NewDArt · May 10, 2017

I'm an old fart that's sick of seeing other old farts insisting that their tiny and rigid definitions of pointless genre labels should be universal

duerer · May 10, 2017

NewDArt said:
I'm an old fart that's sick of seeing other old farts insisting that their tiny and rigid definitions of pointless genre labels should be universal

Hey, it's not my definition, it is the game marketing industry's definition nowadays, like it or not.

Just try to find a decent point'n'click adventure or flight sim game on PSN, and you'll know what I mean ...

joxer · May 10, 2017

I've commented on PCG already.
Immersive sim means everything and nothing. It's like squareroot of -1, you may write it down but you can never visualize what it actually is.
Instead of immersive sim they should have used trashmob grinding sim. I don't think this would confuse anyone.

EDIT:

NewDArt said:
Also, I'm not at all surprised that the mainstream aren't digging this game quite as it deserves. It's pretty sophisticated - and given how ultra streamlined experiences with zero cerebral challenge, like Witcher 3, get the 10/10s - it goes without saying that complex games that encourage thinking and creativity during play will (partially) turn such an audience away.

Jesus Christ.
Bioshock Infinity blindness strikes again I guess.

I wanted to write this in "finished" thread when I do finish the game, but man…
Prey does not know what it is nor what it wants to be.

Partially this game wants to be DX. You may pass through an "obstacle" in more than one way. Hacking, jumping, abusing gloo to climb, name it.
But it also allows clearing heavy objects with a recycle bomb - a bomb that will implode and suck everything, even useable stuff, means bodies of crew you didn't discover yet and according to some it will recycle also critical items like key passcards. DX does allow you to go different routes, but none of those is dangerous in a way you don't want to do it because you're unsure if it'll destroy something critical to the game.

Another similarity is that plenty of awsome stuff is hidden and you want to explore an area fully to find all of hidden goodies, but you just can't go DX. In DX the strategy is simple - neutralize hostiles, turn every stone, if you missed something you'll return later and dig it out. Here, you can't neutralize something for good, upon your return it'll spawn again just so you have to grind it over and over. Which forces you to sweep the area completely the first time you're there just so you don't have to return back ever again and grind trashmobs that respawn.
Not only that, you want to recycle all (discovered and inventory looted) corpses just because of certain damned trashmob respawns that can appear when you return and zombifie those!

Yet another similarity is neuromods. By "sticking needles" into your brain the protagonist learns different skills. Like augments in DX.
But augments in DX are mechanical and electronical, not organic. Prey's certain "augmentation" adds more space in inventory. You stick your brain and suddenly you can carry more stuff. Seriously? I know, you'll argue it's telekinesis (or telepathy as Arkane uses that word wrong), but then...
Perform some more lobotomy and you'll be able to add suit propulsion chip, suit resistances and suit more whatnot… Hell I'm gonna go for an actual brain surgery if that will upgrade rags I wear at work.

Creativity?
Yes, it's supercreative to use bugs for dealing with other bugs, really really creative.
Tizzy didn't appear in my game, no biggie, I gloo the door, recycle grenade it, pass through, voila. Weapons disappeared from my inventory, who cares, use recycler to duplicate mats and create those weapons again, it's christmas!

Prey could have been a great game. It just isn't. Didn't finish it yet, but IMO PCG's score is a way too generous.

zahratustra · May 10, 2017

NewDArt said:
It's pretty sophisticated - and given how ultra streamlined experiences with zero cerebral challenge, like Witcher 3, get the 10/10s - it goes without saying that complex games that encourage thinking and creativity during play will (partially) turn such an audience away.

You are selling yourself short DArt. You aren't just an old fart. You are an old fart with dementia.

pibbur who · May 10, 2017

joxer said:
.. It's like squareroot of -1, you may write it down but you can never visualize what it actually is.

Actually you can, it's no problem.

Unlike real numbers it's not on a number line (x-axis), but you find it in the complex plane (coordinates 0,1):

pibbur who is nitpicking

)) but can agree with some of what the joxer says regarding "immersive sim" (not the suggested translation).

joxer · May 10, 2017

Pibbur, that's writing it down. You can write anything down, but it still can't exist at it's own in reality, you can't feel it, see it, touch it nor experience it.
Same goes for immersive sim. PCG writes it, but no matter how you'll try to describe it to your kid, they won't understand what are you talking about. But if you tell them "grinding sim", they'll know instantly what you mean.

pibbur who · May 10, 2017

joxer said:
Pibbur, that's writing it down. You can write anything down, but it still can't exist at it's own in reality, you can't feel it, see it, touch it nor experience it….

Well, I disagree, but this was just intended as a small (unnecessary) digression in a thread about something completely different, so I'll leave it at that.

pibbur who may bring it up again in the TYDNTK thread.

duerer · May 10, 2017

On topic....

FYI, I'm currently playing the game. While it won't set the world on fire, I think it is pretty decent. I really like the atmosphere, and actually love the downscaled shooting, mild puzzles and the emphasis on methodical exploration.

System shock it ain't, but a nice time waster nonetheless.

joxer · May 10, 2017

Yup, after first two areas shooting is downscaled. All you need is crowd control PSI power plus wrench or maxed Q-beam to get rid of any kind of hostile easily.
It still doesn't mean trashmob respawns ain't annoying as hell!

The game has different difficulty settings, I'm playing on normal. But I feel it'd be all the same on any setting - you'll use a bullet or a charge more or less to kill a trashmob over and over again.

Games should finally start adding annoyance setting instead of difficulty setting.
After I finish this one, I just don't see me replaying it. Ever.
Just like The Last Remnant. Great ideas, horrible execution.

Ivanwah · May 10, 2017

Who started calling these games immersive sims, and when? It's not that I dislike things getting new names (games like Deus Ex really need their own genre, imo), it's just that it's a really bad name.

luj1 · May 10, 2017

NewDArt said:
It's a simulation of environment.

No shit, as is every game, ever. Might wanna be more specific.

Most games don't even attempt to make the environment interactive,

That's bull shit

where Prey goes out of its way to make things work together.

That's true, I guess you could call it a household item simulator.

Wanna be a towel? Why not a coffee cup?

Prey - Review @ PC Gamer

The Elder Spy

The Smoker

SasqWatch

SasqWatch

SasqWatch

SasqWatch

Troll Aspiring to Responsibility

NewDArt

Guest

Keeper of the Watch

NewDArt

Guest

Keeper of the Watch

The Smoker

SasqWatch

pibbur who

Guest

The Smoker

pibbur who

Guest

Keeper of the Watch

The Smoker

Keeper of the Watch

SasqWatch