i made the mistake of initially dismissing this one after a two hour trial/refund. now that i've come back around and really taken my time to experience everything it has to offer, i'm pretty blown away by prey 2017

i'll get my one slight out of the way first: the aesthetics. arkane has given us the closest thing we'll ever see to a metroid prime 4, but the whole look of the experience is standard 60s space sci fi shit. enemy design doesn't fare much better - gooey black blobs of varying sizes. it lacks identity visually, but thankfully the atmosphere is still pretty strong due to some great trent reznor-inspired ambience

as for everything else? top fucking notch. the narrative is constantly intriguing and takes the oft unfulfilling "choices matter" angle in a creative and effective direction, while the sheer amount of freedom to explore gives even the best 3d platformers a run for their money. it's so open-ended that i'm actually pretty eager to check out some longplays just to see how other people found their way around talos i

prey 2017 is not prey 2, but that's a beef to be had with bethesda rather than arkane... and honestly? between the two games this is probably the best outcome