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[Brandon F]

Tried it out on PS4 and gave up shortly after some mimic killed me while trying to use the gloo gun. Maybe 20 minutes in.

Agreed with most in that the control is poor and requires some tuning for the dead done, acceleration, and general aiming. Visually it's all over the place and feels like some last-gen holdover with a very inconsistent art style and subpar performance. I found everything from the UI to the general objects to look rather poor.

Combat felt rough and no matter how I approach mimics with the wrench(even completely aware of their hiding spots), I couldn't get first hit. Again the gloo gun came across as a real poor introductory weapon. Felt like I was hitting everything but the mimics!

Big pass from me for now. I adore Dishonored and System Shock, but I couldn't even last through the first hour of this.

 

[Pjsprojects]

How does the Xbox One version hold up? Impressions in here are all over the place.

I played both versions on a 4k TV. Xbox one s version played better with no input lag and I didn't notice any fps drops or screen tear.PS4 Slim version looked the same but had bad input lag.
Both versions are not a graphics showcase.The game for me is either pick up pre owned for peanuts or forget and play one of the many other much better games.

 

[140.85]

So, yeah this demo was...bad. I couldn't help but feel I've played all this before and executed in a better way in previous games. I was bored and the combat felt awful. I'm sure there are some nice moments to be had late in the game when you have a ton of abilities but the only time I had fun was overpowering the little buggers by placing the turrets where the game was clearly telegraphing they were going to be and watching them get mowed down. And even that got old fast and felt cheap. At that point I should be having fun with my basic abilities, not something that feels like cheese.

Personally I just can't do the checkpoint to checkpoint with mysterious phone calls telling me what to do next AGAIN. It's just so overdone at this point.

I may be in the minority here but I think the retro future/Bioshock-in-space design sensibility doesn't work at all and is a huge distraction. I get what they were going for but It's not a pleasing aesthetic and it suffers from not feeling grounded at all. It doesn't feel like a natural product of the world's culture or technology of the time but a heavy-handed design decision. The whole Neuromod scene felt literally cut and pasted from the first Plasmid event in Bioshock. So it's 2032 (?) and we've reached the point of privatizing giant luxurious space stations and holodeck-quality simulations but we're sticking giant needles in our eyes and shooting glue out of guns that look like someone cobbled together some cans and wire and spray-painted it with red paint? Sorry. I don't think so.

 

[Kenzodielocke]

Yeah, no way I am going to buy this on console. Feels worse than Dishonered 2, and I am on a PS4 Pro.

 

[Stoze]

I'm not sure why you'd make any of those comparisons. It lifts pretty much everything directly from System Shock. It's just not very good at it.

You don't see why they'd make a comparison to Deus Ex? It's clearly trying to be a SS2 successor first and foremost, but honestly most of the time it felt closer to the newer Deus Ex games or the Dishonored 2 hubs because of the level design (as well as the amount of emails, objects in the environment that you can throw around, sidequests, etc.).

 

[SlasherJPC]

Stopped playing the demo after fighting a few mimics. Not cause I hated it. No, cause I'm super interested in playing the full game now. Pretty excited.

 

[robotrock]

Some very good emails in this

 

[140.85]

You don't see why they'd make a comparison to Deus Ex? It's clearly trying to be an SS2 successor first and foremost, but honestly most of the time it felt closer to the newer Deus Ex games or the Dishonored 2 hubs because of the level design.

That opening.
"Ready to go, JC?" Is all I could think as I approached the chopper. Lol

 

[LowlySmokeGuy]

hi

Yeah, uh... I posted some video too.

If you've played Dead Island, this basically just has Dead Island's combat system. When you're fighting four evil headcrabs at once, you run out of stamina in like... seven swings? They take 3-4 successful hits to kill. It's not fun. You can use the GLOO gun to slow 'em down, but when fighting four at once, because they're fast, can shapeshift, and take a decent amount of damage to kill... just... ugh. I've been a bit concerned about the aliens from the start, because their designs are so bad, but I was hoping the game would be fun, and... it's not. I was expecting to like this more than Dishonored, because I prefer System Shock 2 to Thief.

This is a really bad System Shock successor based on what I played. I confided to a friend something I thought I'd never say, which was "they canceled Prey 2 for this?" I'm not even one of those super salty folks, but... this... is just really shoddy. It's Dead Island style combat. I don't understand how the creators of Dark Messiah and Dishonored could create such a garbage combat system.

That said, I love the music, I love the maps so far (there are SO MANY DOORS that I need to unlock). I'm glad the tutorial is short and the game gets to the good stuff right away, but narratively it's pretty dull.

I was expecting to love the hell out of this, so I'm kind of numb.



I don't think a single Bethesda game has had good sound mixing or voice acting, tbqh. They often have great SOUNDS, but the mixes are always off, regardless of who's involved.

You can hold the attack button to make your wrench swings more powerful. I think one full powered wrench swing and one quick swing are enough to kill them on hard mode.

It doesn't magically fix how unfun the mimics are to fight, but it helps a tiny bit.

 

[disappeared]

Okay so I told myself I was gonna blind-buy this without the demo (based on the staff working on it) but I peek into this thread and now I gotta download it cuz I'm not sure about all this lukewarm reception. Shit

 

[Rexatality]

It's on the nearby whiteboard but I can't figure it out. Maybe you need something else to make sense of it or...?

You can only find in a 3D video in Morgan's

Spoiler

office

.

it's

Spoiler

5150

 

[dark10x]

I certainly see potential here and I'm still very interested in trying it but there are clearly some missteps here.

The mimics are not fun to fight especially with a melee weapon.

...but this is made infinitely worse on PS4 due to the input lag. They are promising a fix, at least, but it's a bad way to sell your game.

Thankfully, the input lag issue is not present on Xbox One and I immediately found the game much more pleasant there.

 

[Rexatality]

You can hold the attack button to make your wrench swings more powerful. I think one full powered wrench swing and one quick swing are enough to kill them on hard mode.

It doesn't magically fix how unfun the mimics are to fight, but it helps a tiny bit.

I said it once and I'll say it again: Use the GLOO Cannon. Your life will be much easier while dealing with Mimics

Okay so I told myself I was gonna blind-buy this without the demo (based on the staff working on it) but I peek into this thread and now I gotta download it cuz I'm not sure about all this lukewarm reception. Shit

It has its issues, but it's not a piece of shit like some of the posts calling it. You know how hyperbolic GAF is at times

Give it a try, will you?

 

[Jombie]

Yeah, think I'll pass on this. Looks and plays like it's more than a decade old. Expected more from Arkane.

 

[Markitron]

Tried it out on PS4 and gave up shortly after some mimic killed me while trying to use the gloo gun. Maybe 20 minutes in.

Agreed with most in that the control is poor and requires some tuning for the dead done, acceleration, and general aiming. Visually it's all over the place and feels like some last-gen holdover with a very inconsistent art style and subpar performance. I found everything from the UI to the general objects to look rather poor.

Combat felt rough and no matter how I approach mimics with the wrench(even completely aware of their hiding spots), I couldn't get first hit. Again the gloo gun came across as a real poor introductory weapon. Felt like I was hitting everything but the mimics!

Big pass from me for now. I adore Dishonored and System Shock, but I couldn't even last through the first hour of this.

I was about to post this almost word for word. Can't see myself ever playing thru this tbh, shame.

 

[dark10x]

Translation:

"Remember how fucked up Dishonored 2 was on PC when we released it? Yeah, seriously, we have a ways to go before we're going to let anyone get hands on the PC version. We'll put out a PC demo a few months after release once we've had time to polish that version."

No, I don't think that's accurate or fair.

The PC version COULD have issues but they won't be the same as Dishonored 2 simply because the two games do not share technology at all. The VOID Engine, based on id Tech 5 I believe, seems to have some pretty serious underlying performance limitations. It's really not a great experience on any platform.

This is CryEngine, however, and CE runs very well on PC. Even games like Homefront: The Revolution, which launched in a horrible state on consoles, ran like butter on a PC out of the gate. The fact that Prey runs quite well on consoles suggests that the PC version shouldn't have any problems at all (or at least not the same issues as Dishonored 2).

 

[Bl@de]

Tried the demo on PS4 but stopped playing after only 5 minutes. This game is definetly something for PC. Low framerate and picking up all the items with slow controller aiming is a pain. I will definetly get it but wait for reports on the port quality.

 

[Psychoward]

Huh, it's like Deus Ex. Half Life and Portal made a baby.

I like having a demo available. Makes me think of Nier, which i also picked up. Because there was a demo first I got to try and saw I'd enjoy it.

I hope things go back to having demos again, i've missed that!

Portal?

Anyway it plays exactly how I feared from the initial game play demos, like a bad 'shock clone.

+ story itself seems interesting and with avellone on board I'm sure it'll be the best part of the game
+ you can see your legs!
+ there seems to be a lot of slots for suit upgrades, that combined with the skill trees, psi powers and weapon upgrades make it more of an RPG than I was expecting
+ GLOO gun is a good idea... in theory
+ I like how it hands neuromods/skill points out pretty generously
+ choosing between a male or female protagonist was a nice surprise, a unisexual name is a smart way to save on some VA lines
+ floating objects that are actually mimics still amused me by the end of the demo
+ switching simulation rooms is really neat although I imagine that won't be as prevalent during the main game, if at all past the first 35 minutes
+ the way materials work with recycling and fabricating is really neat and I love how it's done through the in-game visuals
+ some of the hidden paths are pretty neat
+ the part where you leave your apartment with the wrench was really well done

Now for the bad

- hacking is awful
- hacking a friendly turret has no rewards like giving it a health or damage bonus, yet it'll still shock you if you fail
- there is no reason a game in 2017 which has a large focus on shooting has gunplay that triggers my ptsd of fallout 3 and bioshock 1
- there's supposedly stealth options but it's very undercooked/half baked, disappointing coming from Arkane
- there's no weapon upgrade slots for the wrench?! There's like 2 skills that increase its damage but no actual weapon upgrades
- speaking of weapon upgrades, they're all borng. Just stuff like decreased reload speed, more range etc. Iirc bioshock 2 especially gave you secondary uses for guns that made projectiles turn in to tripwires, added a double barrel to the shotgun, imbued bullets with electricity and the like. They also changed the visuals of the weapon unlike this game.
- the GLOO gun is a nice idea in theory but in practice platforming is a frustrating and messy affair and the fact that phantoms can still shoot while being hardened is baffling
- the difficulty seems all over the place, I had a full health turret that got like one shotted by a phantom
- the pacing seems like it'll follow the awful bio 1 style of "oh here I'm about to tell you an important story beat - oh wait something broke, go here and fix it" ad nauseam.
- graphics aren't as bad as people are saying in my opinion but it's also not a looker
- the fact that repetitive, blaring music pops up whenever an enemy is around is not only annoying, it's comical and destroys any tension the game builds up. If you told me it was a glitch I'd believe you
- input lag didn't bother me as much as I was fearing but yeah, the game still feels sluggish, and it's not even like it can fall back on weighty gunplay as an excuse
- mimics are frustrating to fight in that even if you know exactly where they are you still just swing wildly sometimes and pray, and yes the GLOO gun exists but constant weapon switching just for the introductory enemy is probably gonna get old quick
- the environments feel empty, and I know I know what it is but it still doesn't feel like a lived in place to me. All of the dead bodies seem to be posed in exactly the same way and it just feels static
- if the psi abilities are like plasmids and whatnot they should have gave you one before the demo ends because even clunky movement and gunplay can be looked over a bit with cool powers. As it stands I know nothing about the types of powers I may or may not be able to equip
- load times are pretty bad on ps4
- framerate isn't stable
- I bought the carry 1 skill and there's this weird distortion effect that happens every time you throw things that's just useless visual noise.
- color shading seems to change whenever a mimic is in your line of sight, I'm not sure if this is intentional?

It's gonna be a no from me dog.

 

[gossi]

Man, Bethesda should not have allowed the demo to ship like this. The input lag is immediately noticeable.

 

[Roussow]

I'm so fucking sold on this, ya'll had me worried GAF. I had a great time with the demo, I thought the Mimics looked a bit dull in early trailers, but their whole gimmick of disguise is absolutely wonderful, plus the game didn't even show off the more elaborate (psi?) powers I assume your character can unlock later down the line. Great premise, great opening, that helicopter ride in was slick, smashing through the glass window really made good on that promising announce trailer. I'm incredibly excited, just seeing the possibilities in the level design in that early area, very Deus Ex like. Didn't expect a shotgun either, saw the silenced pistol in promotional stuff, but I was happy to get my hands on that dope shotgun.

 

[disappeared]

It has its issues, but it's not a piece of shit like some of the posts calling it. You know how hyperbolic GAF is at times

Give it a try, will you?

Downloading now. I'll give it a shot tomorrow!

 

[CalamityPixel]

I want to know about the most important part of this game.

How is Mick Gordon's soundtrack?

 

[Defect]

I really enjoyed the intro but lost pretty much all interest after the combat started...

 

[alexanderftw]

No, I don't think that's accurate or fair.

The PC version COULD have issues but they won't be the same as Dishonored 2 simply because the two games do not share technology at all. The VOID Engine, based on id Tech 5 I believe, seems to have some pretty serious underlying performance limitations. It's really not a great experience on any platform.

This is CryEngine, however, and CE runs very well on PC. Even games like Homefront: The Revolution, which launched in a horrible state on consoles, ran like butter on a PC out of the gate. The fact that Prey runs quite well on consoles suggests that the PC version shouldn't have any problems at all (or at least not the same issues as Dishonored 2).

Even a good engine made for PC can run poorly if its made by "bad hands". Will just have to wait and see. I will remain skeptical however, as in no pre-order, nothing until I know for sure there are no issues.

 

[Rexatality]

So, yeah this demo was...bad. I couldn't help but feel I've played all this before and executed in a better way in previous games. I was bored and the combat felt awful. I'm sure there are some nice moments to be had late in the game when you have a ton of abilities but the only time I had fun was overpowering the little buggers by placing the turrets where the game was clearly telegraphing they were going to be and watching them get mowed down. And even that got old fast and felt cheap. At that point I should be having fun with my basic abilities, not something that feels like cheese.

Personally I just can't do the checkpoint to checkpoint with mysterious phone calls telling me what to do next AGAIN. It's just so overdone at this point.

I may be in the minority here but I think the retro future/Bioshock-in-space design sensibility doesn't work at all and is a huge distraction. I get what they were going for but It's not a pleasing aesthetic and it suffers from not feeling grounded at all. It doesn't feel like a natural product of the world's culture or technology of the time but a heavy-handed design decision. The whole Neuromod scene felt literally cut and pasted from the first Plasmid event in Bioshock. So it's 2032 (?) and we've reached the point of privatizing giant luxurious space stations and holodeck-quality simulations but we're sticking giant needles in our eyes and shooting glue out of guns that look like someone cobbled together some cans and wire and spray-painted it with red paint? Sorry. I don't think so.

You really don't think a space station filled with retrofuturism would fit? That's ridiculous, especially since the setting is an alternative timeline and it's not all luxurious in Talos I.

There are some logic and sensibilities beheind the Neuromod woeks, though. And the GLOO Cannon uses hardened foam to subdue enemies as well for platforming and stopping environmental hazards, not glue.

 

[Psychoward]

Some of these kneejerk reactions in this thread are amazing. I've been playing the demo all day and I'm still finding new stuff. I have no idea what demo some of you are playing.

Reading some of the posts, you'd think it's a complete disaster.

After reading some of them, I honestly thought it had killed their dog.

Lol, "kneejerk" reactions as if we all haven't played the same demo and had different thoughts on it.

 

[AgentOtaku]

I want to know about the most important part of this game.

How is Mick Gordon's soundtrack?

It's awesome!

Problem though is that it's mixed too loud and it implemented rather questionably in parts

 

[Psychoward]

Aesthetic and character design is definitely reminiscent of Dishonored's stylized realism

Edit: interesting, seems like they're doing the Soma thing of

Spoiler

getting the obvious twst and implications out of the way early, and not even treating it like a twist

Soma was special because of that but at the same time you could say (soma spoilers)

Spoiler

the ending was kind of a twist too, in that you think you're gonna get beamed up and lol just kidding it's only a separate consciousness of yourself and your 1st body/mind is still fucked

 

[Jb]

I'm definitely into what this game is selling. As others have pointed out the audio mixed is completely fucked in the demo but I'm really intrigued by the premise and the openness of the level design.

 

[Markitron]

I have a funny feeling this is gonna be the number one answer in future 'Bad demo, good game' threads.

It's awesome!

Problem though is that it's mixed too loud and it implemented rather questionably in parts

This drove me crazy, you would kill one mimic and the music would be blasting for 30 seconds afterwards. Great tune though.

 

[Hentailover]

Oh, so... I wasn't only one who was terrible at playing it?
It felt like I was playing fps on a controller for the first time, very reminiscent of that infamous Doom preview, but I just assumed I simply forgot how to play FPS on a controller cuz I haven't played any for months.

 

[DomsPlaying]

Played on day one Xbone. No input lag luckily, ran fine actually. Even the music didn't bother me really except for its volume.

I guess I'm in the minority in that I thought the demo was both fun and tense, definitely looking forward to the final product especially when it comes to the story that it sets up.

To each his/her own!

 

[Rexatality]

Yeah, think I'll pass on this. Looks and plays like it's more than a decade old. Expected more from Arkane.

Call me nitpicky, but that comparison never made any sense. It's like the same old "It's current year" nonsense. There's not really a metric on which design principles should die out or be left behind.

To be honest, no one should expect Arkane of all developers to push the standard in graphics like ND and DICE do.

 

[Elog]

Seems I am in the minority too. Really enjoyed the demo and the beginning of the story. Went in with no pre-conception of what type of game this is. The feeling I get is that most people that are disappointed expected a straight up thriller FPS like Dead Space?

 

[teokrazia]

Man, I used to be a HUGE Arkane supporter.
From Arx Fatalis till the first Dishonored.

After Dishonored 2 and this demo, well, not so much anymore.

 

[alexanderftw]

Man, I used to be a HUGE Arkane supporter.
From Arx Fatalis till the first Dishonored.

After Dishonored 2 and this demo, well, not so much anymore.

Whats wrong with Dishonored 2, besides the performance issues that were mostly fixed?

 

[TannerDemoz]

The feeling I get is that most people that are disappointed expected a straight up thriller FPS like Dead Space?

Yeah, I had really high expectations. I've never really played a Dishonoured game, but I was expecting it to control more... solid?

Honestly, the original Prey played better than this IMO. I was expecting like a gritty, FPS sci-fi horror. Not what I imagined at all. Think I'll be giving this one a miss

Spoiler

But definitely buying the soundtrack because Mick Gordon is KING

 

[dex3108]

Man, I used to be a HUGE Arkane supporter.
From Arx Fatalis till the first Dishonored.

After Dishonored 2 and this demo, well, not so much anymore.

Dishonored 2 is one of the best games released last year.

I liked Prey demo a lot. There are lag issues and sound mix but those are technical things. Game as game is so good, from atmosphere, level design, soundtrack to story are so good.

 

[Intheflorsh]

Man, I used to be a HUGE Arkane supporter.
From Arx Fatalis till the first Dishonored.

After Dishonored 2 and this demo, well, not so much anymore.

Same. It's too bad because their design philosophy hasn't changed much, it's just that they're not executing on their ideas as well these days.

 

[alexanderftw]

Same. It's too bad because their design philosophy hasn't changed much, it's just that they're not executing on their ideas as well these days.

I dont understand this statement. Dishonored 2 is, and this is a fact, a better game from a level design and gameplay point of view than Dishonored 1. Say what you will about story but everything else is the improved version of the 1st game. There is literally nothing that it does less than the previous game regarding those huge factors. And regarding Prey, have you finished the game? I doubt it.

 

[Veelk]

I'm surprised at the negative reception.

The goal of a beginning section is to build intrigue, to be a set up so the revelations of the narrative can pay off later. Outside of the cinematic, the beginning level of Bioshock and the like don't have as much going on either, they're all spent building intrigue.

For me, it worked. It's an interesting world with cool scifi shit going down. I want to know how it all fell apart.

I should note that I never played the other Prey games either tho, and only saw one promotional video for this game before playing the demo, so I'm going in this completely blind.

That said, the controls are balls and I don't know why that is. Definitely gonna be getting the PC version here.

 

[Intheflorsh]

I dont understand this statement. Dishonored 2 is, and this is a fact, a better game from a level design and gameplay point of view than Dishonored 1. Say what you will about story but everything else is the improved version of the 1st game. There is literally nothing that it does less than the previous game regarding those huge factors.

This is a fact: your opinion is not a fact.

 

[Surface of Me]

Played more of the demo and Im torn. Everything except the actual combat gameplay is lovely. A friend playing said he also noticed the aiming is bad. It might not be input lag, but something is certainly fucked with how you aim in this game. I got better at it, but it is still a pain. They need to rehaul it completely in a patch, or offer extensive customization to it(ala Halo 5 or Overwatch) to fix my complaints.

 

[alexanderftw]

This is a fact: your opinion is not a fact.

Good argument. Keep it up.

 

[robotrock]

Good argument. Keep it up.

way better than yours tbh

 

[DocSeuss]

This is a fact: your opinion is not a fact.

Fortunately for us, the quoted post was full of facts, with no opinions to be found

 

[alexanderftw]

way better than yours tbh

Feel free to prove me wrong.

 

[whatevermort]

Literally the only negatives I have about this are the wrench combat (which feels weak and loose and hard to hit) and the fact that the first safe code you come across is wrong

 

[gossi]

Fortunately for us, the quoted post was full of facts, with no opinions to be found

Saying level design - the first sentence - is better is the definition of an opinion.

 

[robotrock]

Feel free to prove me wrong.

Sadly haven't quite got around to Dishonored 2 yet. Just commenting on your argument. You speak in some vague terms with "better level design, better gameplay", eventually leading to "literally everything is better", but what exactly about the level design or gameplay makes it better? I don't think you have a great case when you don't make an effort to actually explain why Dishonored 2 is better than Dishonored 1, and it gets worse when you say it's a fact.