• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Prey (2017) is the game of the year no one played

S

Spudnik Sweetheart

Member
It has some fantastic parts. It also has some real 'ugh' parts.

The mimics are some of my favourite enemies in gaming and made for some real amazing moments early on but none of the enemies after that felt as good. The space station was a lot of fun to traverse because of how much detail was in alotta the areas. A degree of backtracking was enjoyable as you could see how you'd progressed... but the sheer amount made this nowhere near as fun. The overarching story has some great beats but misses quite a few too. Overall I loved it. When Prey gets it right it's amazing. I feel like the game is trapped identity wise. No matter what it's getting comparisons. System Shock. System Shock 2. Original Prey. Prey 2. Bioshock. Etc.

One thing I've noticed with Bethseda games is how quick they drop in price in the UK. I picked up the limited edition of Prey a week after release for £20. Dishonored 2 seemed to have a similar thing. Does Bethseda just have a habit of overstocking?
 
S

Surfside

Banned
carlsojo said:
It's a smart, well-designed game, with fantastic level design but it just goes on far, far too long. Particularly when it just starts sending you to the same parts of the ship and all kinds of shit has respawned or new mobs have showed up. Then it just becomes a slog and it killed my desire to play. I went from loving it to dropping it completely.
Click to expand...

I liked the backtracking aspect of the game. Finding the optimal way was a lot of fun. And at that point you have so many weapons and abilities at your disposal, that the Phantoms don't pose much of a threat anymore.

But i can understand that not everyone likes to visit the same locations multiple times.

If you like games like Metroid though, then you will see backtracking as part of the fun.
 
C

Courage

Member
UnluckyKate said:
Also, bland art deco ? Its not only art deco ala bioshock, its coated with retro futuristic tone. It's also absurdly high tech material blended in wood and cold war era looking machines. I though it was so unique looking. I'm not even talking about the layers of the station, digging deeper into its history, you see the former shells and original soviet then co-joint extensions... all retrofited with giant, tanks and tubes and dirty looking lab equipement. It felt so good to walk from improbably spacious and luxous lobby to the deep of psychotronics, the heart of the history and the station, the entire thing being so dark and creepy
Click to expand...
I didn't get that vibe at all. Visually, a lot of rooms were a little too well-lit and tidy leaving the world feel empty and dull rather than desolate.
 
S

Surfside

Banned
What i also liked about the art design was that the station looked lived in. Everything showed signs of wear.
Many scifi settings just look too clean.
 
O

old manatee

Banned
You're all wrong. I loved the way Prey did enemy respawns. It's not like Dark Souls where everything is just standing around in exactly the same place again waiting for you to slaughter it. In Prey you have to clear out the lobby of mimics and low-level whatchamacallits, and when you come back later in the game there is a thingamabobber and elemental whatchamacallits there because the aliens are succeeding in taking over the space station.

It's one of the few games that does backtracking right and it gets hammered for it. When you go back to environments there are multiple routes to travel and every inch of the game is interconnected. There are different enemy configurations, tons of secrets, persistent changes from your first trip through like unlocked doors and medical operators, etc. Prey was wasted on you philistines.
 
R

rtcn63

Member
old manatee said:
You're all wrong. I loved the way Prey did enemy respawns. It's not like Dark Souls where everything is just standing around in exactly the same place again waiting for you to slaughter it.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what happens if you leave an area for a long enough time and return. I.e. doing side stuff as opposed to doing story progression, the latter of which does eventually replace the enemy placements with newer stuff.
 
jryeje29

jryeje29

Member
Just picked it up as part of a deal with it and Wolfenstein 2 I’ll definitely play it this year but damn there’s just so many games. I have Destiny 2, South Park, AC origins, and the evil within 2 to hit before this not to mention also wolfenstein
 
O

Oakinn

Member
Really enjoyed the hell out of the game. Terrific style, soundtrack and gameplay. The knelt knock I can make against it were the load times (PS4 pro) were really really bad.
 
O

old manatee

Banned
rtcn63 said:
That is exactly what happens if you leave an area for a long enough time and return. I.e. doing side stuff as opposed to doing story progression, the latter of which does eventually replace the enemy placements with newer stuff.
Click to expand...

Yeah but it's not like you leave the room and come back and everything is instantly respawned. They stay dead for a while and then eventually the story progression changes everything anyway, so in even a long playthrough it's not something you are going to experience often.
 
K

kamspy

Member
I can probably put it in my top 25 all time. Could get higher after it marinates in my memories longer and I replay it.

Arkane is for sure one of my very favorite dev studios now. Which is bad news for them if history is a teacher! Surely they'll be joining Obsidian on kickstarter or making CoD Packs with Raven.
 
R

rtcn63

Member
old manatee said:
Yeah but it's not like you leave the room and come back and everything is instantly respawned. They stay dead for a while and then eventually the story progression changes everything anyway, so in even a long playthrough it's not something you are going to experience often.
Click to expand...

It actually is if you're exploring and doing side stuff. I had areas respawn 2+ times at least, mostly because you were required to go through them to get to other areas. If the game wants you to go off the beaten path, then penalizes you (or rewards you, depending on whether you love crafting neuromods- I think I eventually had enough to put points in EVERYTHING) ...
 
F

Foxxsoxx

Member
old manatee said:
You're all wrong. I loved the way Prey did enemy respawns. It's not like Dark Souls where everything is just standing around in exactly the same place again waiting for you to slaughter it. In Prey you have to clear out the lobby of mimics and low-level whatchamacallits, and when you come back later in the game there is a thingamabobber and elemental whatchamacallits there because the aliens are succeeding in taking over the space station.

It's one of the few games that does backtracking right and it gets hammered for it. When you go back to environments there are multiple routes to travel and every inch of the game is interconnected. There are different enemy configurations, tons of secrets, persistent changes from your first trip through like unlocked doors and medical operators, etc. Prey was wasted on you philistines.
Click to expand...

It's cool at first, but quickly wore it's welcome off. It's great that you like it, but a majority of people have the issue of it just becoming too much and after a while.

Firstly, it makes you care less about the enemies because they just start showing up everywhere. If only a few rooms did this, it'd be fine, but when every one does it, I just lose interest and the 'wow this ship is getting fucked up' feeling only lasts so long.

Secondly, at least on consoles, backtracking kills the pacing because of how many loading screens you go through in quick succession. Once you know the areas, you go through them much faster, and in return get some long loading screens every time you enter a different part of the ship. This isn't helped by how many sidequests require going through many different parts of the ship on the complete other side of the map.

I see what they were going for, but I think it was a bit overdone. If the game had less backtracking, more enemy types, or was just straight up a few hours shorter I would have liked it even more.

Great game, but it went on a little too long and didn't end on as high of a note as it could have.
 
D

DJ Lushious

Member
I gorged on Prey, which I haven’t done in a long time; Two weekends ago I finished my 30-hour run by playing 8+ hours on both Saturday and Sunday. To say I loved the game would be an understatement. And that ending... 😵
 
C

CarbonatedFalcon

Member
Prey is on my to-do list.

But I still haven’t even bought Dishonored 1 or finished Deus Ex HR, so maybe the genre isn’t really for me.

It’s definitely not a full-price purchase anyway. Will see how cheap it gets in the winter sales.
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Backtracking wasn't really an issue for me because I always discovered new stuff upon returning, not to mention its got that Metroidvania aspect where you return with newer abilities giving you access to even more rooms, secrets and areas.

Only annoyance was long load times which break up the flow.
 
L

leng jai

Member
Doesn't seem to talked about much, but I think the art is this game is pretty weak. Especially when you compare it to the Dishonoured games. I mean all of the enemies were just different shaped black bobs, and I don't recall any particularly memorable areas of the ship.
 
M

Mathieran

Banned
I tried playing it but it wouldn't install on my PS4 so I have to return it. Disc is used but looks like it's in good condition. Just gonna wait for a digital sale I guess.
 
K

kamspy

Member
The low point for me was the black goo enemy design. Funny we saw the same thing in RE7.

I don't design monsters for a living, but when you get to black goo, is that a "fuck it" moment?
 
F

Freddo

Member
Prey is indeed the Game of the Year, at least for me. It's exactly the kind of game that I love the most, sure wish there were more games made with this kind of gameplay.
 
M

Mechanized

Member
Fantastic game, probably just a little dry in the middle, but otherwise I loved it. Like most games with a shit ton of objectives you should main-line it for the most part to get the best experience.
 
O

old manatee

Banned
kamspy said:
The low point for me was the black goo enemy design. Funny we saw the same thing in RE7.

I don't design monsters for a living, but when you get to black goo, is that a "fuck it" moment?
Click to expand...


I thought the enemies were well designed in terms of gameplay, but I won't defend the black goo design. At this point I would probably rather just see standard grey aliens than more black goo.
 
Sentenza

Sentenza

Member
I liked it far more than any Bioshock game, for sure.
Level design in particular is incredibly solid, bordering "outstanding" territory at times.

I just wished there was a bit more enemy variety, frankly.
P.S. Oh, and I *hated* my attempts to play it without upgrades/only with alien upgrades.
 
C

carlsojo

Member
Surfside said:
I liked the backtracking aspect of the game. Finding the optimal way was a lot of fun. And at that point you have so many weapons and abilities at your disposal, that the Phantoms don't pose much of a threat anymore.

But i can understand that not everyone likes to visit the same locations multiple times.

If you like games like Metroid though, then you will see backtracking as part of the fun.
Click to expand...

I love games like Metroid, backtracking is pretty fast and the enemies don't change. You can just run and jump and ignore stuff. I'm not sure off the top of my head if they all have a warp system? Most Castlevanias do.

Prey when you come back to the
lobby area
it's filled with harder enemies: elemental Phantoms and those giant floating machine monster things. So I can either sneak around them (which takes forever) or try to kill them (takes forever).
 
K

kamspy

Member
old manatee said:
I thought the enemies were well designed in terms of gameplay, but I won't defend the black goo design. At this point I would probably rather just see standard grey aliens than more black goo.
Click to expand...

Same. I liked the variety of actual combat. I liked how it took me a long time to feel powerful, yet it never seemed like the progression of power stalled. Even then, it wasn't my arsenal or ammo supply that suddenly improved, I just learned to play the game better organically.

I played with absolute minimal alien mods. Dunno why.
 
M

MrOogieBoogie

BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
Let me preface by saying that these are some of my favorite games of all time:

System Shock 1/2
Thief 1/2
Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines
Deus Ex 1/Mankind Divided
BioShock

I'm a sucker for this genre.

I've played Prey for 11 hours and am about halfway through, and while it's an interesting Frankenstein's monster of all the aforementioned titles, it's due to that reason that it also lacks some of its own identity. I have a System Shock avatar for crying out loud, so naturally the Shock-heavy gameplay and presentation warm my goddamn heart.

The art is cool if a bit sterile, the graphics look really good at times, the soundtrack is fantastic. I like the idea of Mimic abilities. But it doesn't quite come together in the smoothest way for me. Enemies are kinda uninspired, gunplay is just alright, the skill tree is whatever, there is WAY too much garbage hunting (see: my tag), and the zero gravity segments really are not fun to control and dull the pacing.

It's definitely a hell of an effort but not quite as exciting to PLAY as a lot of the other games that it takes its inspirations from.

Way better than the first one, that's for sure, though.
 
S

Surfside

Banned
I just can't agree that the art in this is bad.
It's one of the highlights of this game imo.
I liked the art pieces that had the angular black stone as a motif. The monolith statues that came in different heights. The posters ( maybe billboards is a better word) that had a very unique looking art.
And that everything had that wear and tear look that made everything appear that it was being used.
Like i said many Sci Fi games have too clean a look.


As for areas that are memorable, like i said the Cantina and the Arboretum impressed me the most.
But i also liked the main lobby with its huge windows that let the lightning immerse the whole area in it.
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
UnluckyKate said:
Extra Credits : Prey : the enemy inside (this goes STRAIGHT to the ending so be warned)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3QsCy4ekWk
Click to expand...

HOLY SHIT SO THATS WHAT THOSE PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS SYMBOLISED?

tenor.gif



There's levels to it you and I know. Arkane ya damn geniuses.
 
Z

Zakalwe

Banned
Good game. Combat didn't click. I could execute things well enough, it just didn't feel that fun.

Really loved exploring, but the load times on PS4 sucked my momentum.

Hope to play it on PC some day.
 
K

kamspy

Member
I found the ship very memorable too. The evolution of the main concourse was awesome. You had to approach it differently almost every time you had to go through it.

I wouldn't even call it enemy respawning. It was a plot device. It's a
boss creature warzone
by the end.
 
kamineko

kamineko

Does his best thinking in the flying car
Loved it. One of the few games where the plat is actually fun (well, maybe not the genocide trophy) because there are so many ways to deal with stuff.

It's been my GOTY though I'm loving TEW2 as well (which might also be my GOTY nobody played)
 
S

Surfside

Banned
carlsojo said:
I love games like Metroid, backtracking is pretty fast and the enemies don't change. You can just run and jump and ignore stuff. I'm not sure off the top of my head if they all have a warp system? Most Castlevanias do.

Prey when you come back to the
lobby area
it's filled with harder enemies: elemental Phantoms and those giant floating machine monster things. So I can either sneak around them (which takes forever) or try to kill them (takes forever).
Click to expand...

But you could also just throw a typhon lure that would distract them and then just run past them.
 
R

Rathorial

Member
Prey is still firmly my GOTY, with Divinity: Original Sin 2 closely behind it.

Memorable space station, far more systemic than Bioshock ever was with the RPG depth of System Shock 2 (minus the jank) , and an assortment of clever unique tools/powers. If you're the kind of person who loves to poke at a game world to see what happens, Prey will regularly poke back in unexpected ways.

Biggest disappointment to me this year that is sold so poorly.
 
K

Kazuhira

Member
I've been parroting that statement since i completed it,the game is a masterpiece of sci-fi.
Truly a worthy succesor to SS2 and Bio1.
 
K

kamspy

Member
Surfside said:
But you could also just throw a typhon lure that would distract them and then just run past them.
Click to expand...

You can also run for your damned life. No one does fps running better than Arkane. It works too. I ran from more fights in this game than maybe any since Call of Pripyat.
 
S

ShemhazaiX

Member
I tried so hard to like this game, I really did. The setting was fantastic, the depth of abilities were amazing, but the game just played like raw shite.
The gunplay is clunky as hell. It reminds me of how Dishonoured plays, but even heavier and without the benefit of the stealth focus to distract from how the combat is. I understand that it's a game that requires thought, but it felt so hard to hit anything or even move about in general.
Its a shame though, because it did so much right.
 
Sentenza

Sentenza

Member
MrOogieBoogie said:
Let me preface by saying that these are some of my favorite games of all time:

System Shock 1/2
Thief 1/2
Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines
Deus Ex 1/Mankind Divided
BioShock

I'm a sucker for this genre.
Click to expand...
I start from very similar premises except for Bioshock, which I never liked.
I stand to my previous opinion that Prey is vastly superior to it and in some of its best moments can match and surpass several of these classics.

It's also true that it's not a flawless game, so it can offer some "meh" moments, but i still rate it very highly among this year's releases.
 
O

Opa-Pa

Member
Apologies if it's been asked already, but were the many issued in tbe PS4 version ever fixed? They're pretty much tbe only reason I didn't get the game, as I love Arkane's work.
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
ShemhazaiX said:
I tried so hard to like this game, I really did. The setting was fantastic, the depth of abilities were amazing, but the game just played like raw shite.
The gunplay is clunky as hell. It reminds me of how Dishonoured plays, but even heavier and without the benefit of the stealth focus to distract from how the combat is. I understand that it's a game that requires thought, but it felt so hard to hit anything or even move about in general.
Its a shame though, because it did so much right.
Click to expand...

Theres weapon upgrades to make weapons faster and more accurate

Theres neuromods which let you run and jump faster.

You're supposed to invest in these abilities to improve the "feel" of the combat. Think RPG rather than straight up action FPS.
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Opa-Pa said:
Apologies if it's been asked already, but were the many issued in tbe PS4 version ever fixed? They're pretty much tbe only reason I didn't get the game, as I love Arkane's work.
Click to expand...

Yup they patched it a few weeks back. Besides long load times it runs like a charm.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

LTTP: Prey (2017)
49
2K
Mister Wolf replied
I think I play way too many video games because even ChatGPT is struggling to find suggestions for me that I haven't played already
2
65
2K
Justin9mm replied
Rank Every Immersive Sim Game You Played
26
2K
HL3.exe replied
i wish someone would erase all the games that ive played from my memory
2
66
2K
SHA replied
do you hate immersive sims ? if so then why?
2 3
142
6K
Sentenza replied
Top Bottom