Prey (2017) Released

Bought this finally and started playing over the weekend.

I'm enjoying the story so far and its obviously influenced by System Shock 2 which is one of my all time favorites, so that's cool. It runs pretty nice on my system too with the very high preset. I was for some reason thinking this game was newer and might push my aging system. But no, solid 60fps most of the time with the occasional dip to 58 or so. Only thing is when it does drop that 2fps, I get a micro stutter. Not sure what's causing that.

Not very far into it yet though so I can't comment too much on what I think overall. Will have to play more.
 
Today I just fired this up for few minutes just to check what the patch is about and I'm instantly on the second playthrough, few hours in already. Still don't know what the patch is about.

Anyway, decided to read this thread during loading and a few comments hurt my feelings, so now instead of playing I'm typing a pointless opinion post.

Destroy said:
After playing the demo, I tend to agree.

This console port game feels, looks and plays like a poor total conversion of Bioshock, bleh.
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Bioshock is like 2 tiers below this game. It was a city but everything was basement sized, combat (and everything else, animation etc) was 10 times clunkier and dumber than the one in Prey and all that made it keep its deep game street cred was the art deco and that loaded plot.

t0adp1p3 said:
Its weird, it has a lot of the elements of what made SS2 great. On the other hand, the enemies are dull, combat is pretty lackluster, and the graphics are in that realm of not being awful, but not good, and they sort of work to pull you out of the game.
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I don't get this and similar posts. Dull enemies? They look great both technically and aesthetically, all have sth special about them and escalate greatly both with numbers and abilities. What is it, they don't conform to the doom ladder of zombie to granduberdemon, not enough bossy gimmicks, not colorful enough?

Combat is brilliant, from a military style phantom head on with a shotgun, no powers through sneak attacks to the combined arms of alien based neuromods, environment, traps and equipment, so much tactics to use. How is lackluster even the word to use, it even works great in a classic strafe circle fight and is actually better than many games designed only like that because phantoms are deadly and it's quick and decisive, without room for error.

Graphics, again, not sure if I play the same game. When I play Doom 2016, I see shiny but when I play Prey, I see beautiful. Going further with this comparison, just look how much emptier and less interactive are the former's bland (but soo reflective!) corridors. It's also very good technically, from the crazy shaders on aliens to the models and textures, SMAA TX is pretty decent in this (though as performance is great, I really recommend x4 DSR without gauss filter, then come back and tell me it's ugly), don't get the criticism at all. Maybe it's the helicopter ride, that one is a bit of a victim of game's style but it looks infinitely better later on.

Disclaimer, I really like the new Doom (not as much as 1 and 2 though) but really think it's just as graphically overrated (environment) as this one is underrated.
 
Prey is one of my favorite games in recent years. I'm unlikely to ever play it for a second time, but I really, really loved its world and a lot of fans do run through the game multiple times.
 
KAC said:
I uninstalled it for the second time.
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Must have been the awful graphics.

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I got bored kinda quickly, the game sort of lacks sole. Now with VorpX, it's interesting again. We'll see how long this lasts.
 
twonha said:
Prey is one of my favorite games in recent years. I'm unlikely to ever play it for a second time, but I really, really loved its world and a lot of fans do run through the game multiple times.
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One of the best games I've ever played. I recommend if anyone hasn't tried.
 
Great game. Only real gripe was that audio logs would not reliably auto-play when found and you had to dig around in the menus or you'd miss story content.
 
Lazy8s said:
Those are some great shots. People either seemed to love this game or...not. I couldn't find a single thing bad to say about it. I'd love to have a chapter two :drool:
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Thanks, those are straight from my screen (****ing jpgs though) which is a peasant 1080p 60hz budget IPS and the game looks great to me, that's why I don't get people with better rigs and screens complaining about its look. Sure I play supersampled (DSR x4) but then a high end gpu will have no problem with this taken to 5k on some low pitch QHD where the beauty should just jump at you, I imagine, despite their subtle approach to gfx. Subtle doesn't seem to cut it this days though, neither gfx nor enemies for example, because your game looks dated and is boring then apparently.
 
Ziklitschli said:
Thanks, those are straight from my screen (****ing jpgs though) which is a peasant 1080p 60hz budget IPS and the game looks great to me, that's why I don't get people with better rigs and screens complaining about its look. Sure I play supersampled (DSR x4) but then a high end gpu will have no problem with this taken to 5k on some low pitch QHD where the beauty should just jump at you, I imagine, despite their subtle approach to gfx. Subtle doesn't seem to cut it this days though, neither gfx nor enemies for example, because your game looks dated and is boring then apparently.
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Well, I have a peasant 1440p @60hz :lol: ...

Sometimes I think the ability to not get hung up on minor details is a real blessing for me. The atmosphere was amazing, I thought the enemies were terrifying. The mechanics were tons of fun and that ending...I just never saw that coming.

Right now I'm still doing tons of co-op in Remnant from the Ashes...graphics aren't the latest and greatest, but the gameplay and overall feel/satisfaction is amazing. I would have missed out on quite the little gem if I had let graphics put me off. :)
 
Lazy8s said:
Sometimes I think the ability to not get hung up on minor details is a real blessing for me. The atmosphere was amazing, I thought the enemies were terrifying. The mechanics were tons of fun and that ending...I just never saw that coming.
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Game didn't click with me when I first started playing it. I was coming off of Dishonored 2 and looking for another immersive game, but one with a different feel. Prey seemed to tick all the right boxes, especially seeing as it was another Arkane game.

What ended up happening was that the mimics at the start of the game freaked me out and just made me nervous wherever I went. I was constantly listening for that telltale sound and hitting every inanimate object around me with the wrench when I did hear it, only to have them still get me with the jump scare. The first few phantoms you run across just felt so OP it was borderline ridiculous-- even with the gloo cannon to freeze them in place while I wailed on them with the wrench. I ended up wanting to stop because it was just wearing me out, but I decided to give it one more go after reading a hint that told me where the first shotgun was hidden (the way in to the room was surrounded by like six or more mimics, so I'd just noped and reloaded a save and went about my way ignoring that corner of the station). Once I had the shotgun, the game really opened up, and I fell in love with it.

Think I ended up getting four back-to-back playthroughs out of it. Game is brilliant. After learning the layout, I was able to fall back on my preferred play style (melee stealth) and damned if it wasn't fun. Even the really annoying enemies (nightmare, technopath, telepath, operators) are fun encounters once you've had time to figure them out.

And I agree about the ending. It was subtle, clever, and brilliant all at once. So glad I somehow managed to avoid spoilers even though it had been out for over a year before I ever played it.
 
deadite_9 said:
Game didn't click with me when I first started playing it. I was coming off of Dishonored 2 and looking for another immersive game, but one with a different feel. Prey seemed to tick all the right boxes, especially seeing as it was another Arkane game.

What ended up happening was that the mimics at the start of the game freaked me out and just made me nervous wherever I went. I was constantly listening for that telltale sound and hitting every inanimate object around me with the wrench when I did hear it, only to have them still get me with the jump scare. The first few phantoms you run across just felt so OP it was borderline ridiculous-- even with the gloo cannon to freeze them in place while I wailed on them with the wrench. I ended up wanting to stop because it was just wearing me out, but I decided to give it one more go after reading a hint that told me where the first shotgun was hidden (the way in to the room was surrounded by like six or more mimics, so I'd just noped and reloaded a save and went about my way ignoring that corner of the station). Once I had the shotgun, the game really opened up, and I fell in love with it.

Think I ended up getting four back-to-back playthroughs out of it. Game is brilliant. After learning the layout, I was able to fall back on my preferred play style (melee stealth) and damned if it wasn't fun. Even the really annoying enemies (nightmare, technopath, telepath, operators) are fun encounters once you've had time to figure them out.

And I agree about the ending. It was subtle, clever, and brilliant all at once. So glad I somehow managed to avoid spoilers even though it had been out for over a year before I ever played it.
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That whole "freaking me out" thing...if a game does that for me, I'm done. I'm hooked :p I remember going for the shotgun, and every. single. little noise had me spinning around and swinging :lol:

That first time the Nightmare spawned in on me was an epic moment in my personal gaming history.

I also loved how mixing in human and alien perks changed how you had to approach certain areas, tasks etc. Maybe I'm just simple, but I got the biggest kick out of morphing into something innocuous and just rolling/bouncing on past a high threat area.

More please :D
 
I need to get back to this game. I played it up to the G.U.T.S. area and kind of lost interest and went back to retro gaming.

I like it just fine, but something about it is just not keeping me engaged enough. I don't know for sure what though. I really love games like System Shock 2 and Bioshock, so you'd think Prey would really click with me but something about it just isn't. I almost want to say it seems like when I play I'm constantly reminded of SS2 and that game is just so much better IMO, so just makes me think I should be playing that instead.
 
It's one of those games that isn't really scary but there's a constant tension, first time I played it I went 11h non stop into the night and I got light symptoms of neurosis heh.

To relieve the tension this time, I went for combat oriented human, with the exception of combat focus (have 1st level but never use it for combat). I found it a bit OP last time and without it the fights are so beautifuly hectic and decisive, nerve wrecking really with teleporting phantoms and jumping mimics everywhere. My last visit in the lobby I was greeted by a nightmare, a telepath and two etheric phantoms, some fun heh.
 
I don't really have issues with tension / anxiety from scary games. Only game I can think of that really did get me freaked was Amnesia The Dark Descent. But after that every other game is a cake walk.

The stress of this game did not affect my wanting to continue it. I think its simply a case of nothing about it really hooking me to make me want to play more. I will return to complete it, but sadly I think it would be a slog.
 
The only thing I can think of that may have made this game a better experience for me would be to make the atmosphere a bit more Dead Spacey. The Typhon just begged for a bit darker and a bit more gory. That and use the player's own imagination against them more.

Then again, maybe the devs avoided that because they didn't want a Dead Space clone of any sort, but I'm a sucker for dark and gory anyway....
 
I love Dead Space but it was gory and brutal to the point of camp, a bit Lovecrafty if you will. The more sensible, classy aproach fits Prey more imo.

Anyway the game's too easy on nightmare tbh, the last guy I played was more rounded and there was a slight challenge but since this playthrough I turned myself into a running neuromod factory (also recycling psi hypos), I'm high on security skills and my max damage shotgun/ pistol just owns everything. Nightmares, poltergeists, telepaths, weavers die like dogs even without combat focus, seems I have to look at the difficulty mod I've seen somewhere.
 
Why are there pipes containing flammable gas running throughout the space station. What is it used for? Powering gas stoves? Flammable gas in larger quantities on a space station is not a good idea and it also needs to transported from earth.


Also all that mahogany interior, must cost a fortune to transport all that from earth as well as the wood itself.
 
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