Prey is a game with a lot of good qualities wrapped up in a sadly mediocre bow.
Firstly, I’ll praise a couple things I really like, the narrative for one takes a while to really come together into something great, but once it does near the end, I do think the payoff is really good. This is an Arkane game so the random worldbuilding and extras you can find scattered around to enhance the narrative really do this game justice. Every computer has some random email that breathes character into the unfortunate soul that used to work there.
Secondly the world design is stellar. Traversing the ship and finding random science labs filled with tons of freaky looking equipment, or stumbling into state of the art medical bays or surprisingly cozy resting areas give Prey a surprising amount of variety, and as the game goes on you learn new ways to traverse these rooms.
Lastly, I will always praise player freedom in a game like this. You are able to use anything at your disposal to complete objectives or get around easier. There are times where I did things and was genuinely unsure if what I did was intended by the developers or not, but I didn’t run into any bugs nor did I soft lock the game by any means so it’s nice the devs planned around different play styles and options. There’s a part in the middle of the game where you can just leave the station and get an ending early, I like that a lot too. The recycle system is also cool. It’s a pretty unique crafting system that relies on these massive machines that you feed random items you find. The machine then breaks these items down to their base material, and you then use those to craft items. It’s really cool to use things like recycle grenades, which instantly recycle all objects and enemies in their AOE.
Ok time for the stinky bad stuff. Limited weapons. I was pretty much using the pistol and shotgun the whole game. I understand that these weapons are upgradable and supposed to last you until the endgame but I never found ANYTHING as appealing as those two guns. This wouldn’t be much of an issue if combat wasn’t so viable, but it really is after the early game.
Early game is probably the hardest part of this entire thing. You are not equipped to deal with most enemies outside of basic mimics, so sneaking around is way more important. Once you get some upgrades and better gear though, every encounter is just, run up to thing, shoot thing until it dies. Don’t get me wrong, you can stealth if you really want to, but there isn’t much of a point, you’re bulkier and deal a lot more damage, plus ammo is fairly plentiful and easy to acquire. I wish the game kept that sense of fear you had for enemies, all the suspense is just completely gone and it feels like it happens way too early.
Now, enemy variety is pretty bad. There are only around 7 or so regular enemies with a couple special ones that show up at certain points. A lot of them are very easy to deal with, only really being tricky thanks to occasional outside interference, which sadly isn’t really used enough in the game in my opinion.
Lastly let’s talk about the special powers you can get in this game. Early on you have the option to essentially gain powers the monsters have. This is a pretty big choice in the narrative, however you really don’t feel that in the gameplay. If the developers really wanted the choice to be a difficult one, they should have put more downsides on the powers, instead it’s just asking you if you want to have more fun or less. The only downside I can think of is that the base’s defenses will attack you if you got too much alien stuff in your head. But these are typically stationary defenses you can get around easily.
Prey’s strength comes from its narrative and writing. Though it’s a game I’ve had trouble replaying now that I’m aware of all the twists and turns. The gameplay is serviceable with some good and bad ideas, but the biggest problem always just comes down to the fact that they didn’t do enough to keep it fresh the whole way through. Still, I would recommend playing it, just to experience the story if anything.
Firstly, I’ll praise a couple things I really like, the narrative for one takes a while to really come together into something great, but once it does near the end, I do think the payoff is really good. This is an Arkane game so the random worldbuilding and extras you can find scattered around to enhance the narrative really do this game justice. Every computer has some random email that breathes character into the unfortunate soul that used to work there.
Secondly the world design is stellar. Traversing the ship and finding random science labs filled with tons of freaky looking equipment, or stumbling into state of the art medical bays or surprisingly cozy resting areas give Prey a surprising amount of variety, and as the game goes on you learn new ways to traverse these rooms.
Lastly, I will always praise player freedom in a game like this. You are able to use anything at your disposal to complete objectives or get around easier. There are times where I did things and was genuinely unsure if what I did was intended by the developers or not, but I didn’t run into any bugs nor did I soft lock the game by any means so it’s nice the devs planned around different play styles and options. There’s a part in the middle of the game where you can just leave the station and get an ending early, I like that a lot too. The recycle system is also cool. It’s a pretty unique crafting system that relies on these massive machines that you feed random items you find. The machine then breaks these items down to their base material, and you then use those to craft items. It’s really cool to use things like recycle grenades, which instantly recycle all objects and enemies in their AOE.
Ok time for the stinky bad stuff. Limited weapons. I was pretty much using the pistol and shotgun the whole game. I understand that these weapons are upgradable and supposed to last you until the endgame but I never found ANYTHING as appealing as those two guns. This wouldn’t be much of an issue if combat wasn’t so viable, but it really is after the early game.
Early game is probably the hardest part of this entire thing. You are not equipped to deal with most enemies outside of basic mimics, so sneaking around is way more important. Once you get some upgrades and better gear though, every encounter is just, run up to thing, shoot thing until it dies. Don’t get me wrong, you can stealth if you really want to, but there isn’t much of a point, you’re bulkier and deal a lot more damage, plus ammo is fairly plentiful and easy to acquire. I wish the game kept that sense of fear you had for enemies, all the suspense is just completely gone and it feels like it happens way too early.
Now, enemy variety is pretty bad. There are only around 7 or so regular enemies with a couple special ones that show up at certain points. A lot of them are very easy to deal with, only really being tricky thanks to occasional outside interference, which sadly isn’t really used enough in the game in my opinion.
Lastly let’s talk about the special powers you can get in this game. Early on you have the option to essentially gain powers the monsters have. This is a pretty big choice in the narrative, however you really don’t feel that in the gameplay. If the developers really wanted the choice to be a difficult one, they should have put more downsides on the powers, instead it’s just asking you if you want to have more fun or less. The only downside I can think of is that the base’s defenses will attack you if you got too much alien stuff in your head. But these are typically stationary defenses you can get around easily.
Prey’s strength comes from its narrative and writing. Though it’s a game I’ve had trouble replaying now that I’m aware of all the twists and turns. The gameplay is serviceable with some good and bad ideas, but the biggest problem always just comes down to the fact that they didn’t do enough to keep it fresh the whole way through. Still, I would recommend playing it, just to experience the story if anything.
Moni
2 months ago