Wait, why is it named after a dead game? Prey review.
Wait, why is it named after a dead game? Prey review.
Title: Prey
Release: 5th May 2017
Platforms: PC, XBONE, PS4
Prey (2006) was a frankly entirely mediocre game which when you look at Prey (2017) they both seem completely unrelated, then; you realise the original Prey is only remembered because there was a trailer for a sequel that everyone seemed to want because it looked like a cyberpunk RPG and you know everyone just loves Cyberpunk RPGs. So, when the new Prey was announced everyone already experienced at least a little disappointment that it wasn’t the Prey 2 they saw years ago, which was a great start. Always start with disappointment so when the game is decent, or even good, people can be pleasantly surprised when they play it; if they do actually play it.
{this has been your daily example of flawed logic}.
Then, Bethesda had the genuinely good idea of making a demo and releasing it for free, it’s amazing I have to specify that it was free but in this day and age and after Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zero you just don’t know anymore. However, for some dumb reason they decided that the PC didn’t need a demo, why? Cause fuck you, get a refund bitch!
{this has been another example of flawed logic and just all round bad marketing}.
I actually tried the demo for the game, it bored the shit out of me. I think the problem was that I thought the game was going to be an action horror along the lines of Dead Space but instead the game is a horror-ish RPG like System Shock or Bioshock but also with Dishonored. But anyway, let’s get on with it.
Story (spoilers)
Prey is a game about living your normal life training to be a spaceman, or woman, it’s quite a nice game, you wake up get in a helicopter, go to work, see your boss deep throat a weird space-spider then you wake up on that same morning, again. It tries to shock the player with the reveal that you were in a simulation, but, personally I thought it’d work better if you woke up then the day played out as normal, then you wake up again then it goes to shit. When you get out of the simulation you find out you’re actually in space, which is a reveal that I feel the game thought was bigger than it actually feels, and the station has been infested with black goo creatures called the Typhon. You also quickly learn that people have been improving themselves and giving themselves things called neuromods which are actually made from the Typhon and when a Neuromods is uninstalled the person loses all memory, which explains the intro to the game because you volunteered to have the neuromods tested on you. All in all I’d say the story is pretty interesting and I did want to know what was going to happened next, but honestly, the ending left me a little... Let’s say unsatisfied. There are multiple endings in the game, well I should say multiple paths to the same two or so endings because it turns out that you’re actually not Morgan, you’re actually a typhon going through a simulation of Morgan’s memories and when you fulfil one of the ending quests you wake up and a few main characters of the game decide if you should live or die based on the decisions you made and then there’s a sequel hook. A problem I have is that there are so many “moral choices” that just don’t have any pay off, there’s a side quest where you have to decide whether to destroy a ship filled with people trying to escape because they might have the typhon aboard or don’t destroy it because they’re people, or something. It doesn’t matter what option you choose, either way you just get a whole monologue about what it means to be human and what a robot would do, you get this for pretty much every decision. The ones that do lead into the finial cuts end are pretty cool I guess. On the flip side I would like to see what they could do on Earth with continuing the story but, then again, Prey doesn’t seem like the sort of IP that has that much luck worth sequels.
Gameplay:
Like I mentioned before the game is the RPG ideas of System Shock 2, the (slightly wonky) FPS gameplay of Bioshock, and finally the supernatural powers and level design and play your own way attitudes of Dishonored, which does make sense considering Prey and Dishonored are both made by Arkane. However, for me personally, it also has the same issue as Dishonored, I don’t really ever feel like I need the supernatural powers, I got the upgrades like inventory space; hacking and so on but I just didn’t see the value in being able to turn into a mug, or a chair, or even being able to blast energy at an enemy when I’d say a shotgun would be more effective. However, the other reason I didn’t use any of the special powers is because you are told early on that if you have too many Typhon powers then the security turrets will start seeing you as a Typhon yourself, which I guess would lead into the ending. I mean I could have gotten a few powers but it’s such a vague statement that I didn’t even want to try because the turrets were my best weapon, I could just pick them up place them and let them distract the enemies. Why would I trade that for some powers that I’d keep forgetting to use?
Apart from the standard Sci-Fi RPG mechanics such as hacking, upgrading weapons, repair, so on; Prey is also an almost pseudo survival game, unless you put on the optional survival mechanics then it is just an action survival game, I almost feel that the original intention was to be a survival action game but they just decided to add the option to turn some features off, which is good; more options is always great. A sort of survival mechanic that isn't an option is breaking down objects into materials then using said materials to create, well, anything really; from mission items to ammo, breaking down items and making new ones is a massive part of the game and I like it, it really adds something new. It's not just Bioshock or Dishonored when I'm just looking through searchable places looking for items, but in Prey there's more management but at the same time not so much that I just get frustrated and I never felt like I was constantly out of parts I needed.
Presentation:
Prey looks amazing, it really does looks great. I'll be honest that's all I really got for this. The character designs look like they would fit in with Dishonored but it's Arkane. The designs are great, the weapons are interesting, except the enemies, I really really wish the enemies looked different, unique, anything. They're just black blobby things, if they had some really cool designs that would have been great. Can you tell I'm trying to talk about something that I don’t really know that much about?
All in all, I think Prey is pretty good. I enjoyed it, the ending and sequel hook did leave a bad taste in my mouth, I thought the powers were good from a story perspective but not really needed from a gameplay perspective. I do recommend Prey for a nice softcore survival sci-fi game from Arkane that could also be a more hardcore survival game if you turn on the extra options; the only be complaint I have is the ending, so if you can look past that then it's a perfectly good game.
https://soundcloud.com/dawn-of-the-winter-moon
Dishonored in space, but the first one because Dishonored 2 isn't a good game/10
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