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[UnluckyKate]

Prey 2017 is a masterpiece. Its not perfect, but its incredibly ambitious, intricate, clever and deep.

Sadly, a lot of people overlooked it. but you shouldnt : because it's very cheap and it's unique. It's also an endangered species : Deus Ex is basically dead. Dishonored 2 bombed and Death of the outside barely lived. Prey, sadly, bombed hard. Immersive Sim, as we called them, are a dying breed, one more reason to not overlook Prey.

What is Prey ?
It's Bioshock meets Deus Ex, made by Dishonored people. It's an immersive sim, with Metroidvania progression, quests and level design.

It's a sci fi game, in a retro futuristic art deco style in a space station where humans conduct experiments about alien they made contact with in orbit.

Prey opens with one of the best, most engaging and memorable opening hour since God of War 3 imo. it will hook you. Hard. It's slick, brillant, mindfucking and addictive. Without spoiling, they manage to engage the player and suck it into their world, down the rabbit hole, in a very compelling way.

The game is about progressing through the space station; finding what's happening, why and how. The game offers an amazing sens of discovery and reward exploration through loot but also through gameplay with emergent solution of traversal for example.

I really can't say much about the story, the setting or the mechanics as everything is deeply tied and the discovery is essential to the element of surprise.

Let's just say this : the game is incredibly ambitious. From the artstyle, from basic posters, to furnitures, to the layers of the stations telling their own story through simple environmental design. The gameplay, is taking the best from Bioshock, Deus Ex and Dishonored and takes the best of the bunch, but still has its own ideas and personality. Prey succeed at being so familiar in its structure (exploration, dumpster diving, hacking, moving big object around) but with its very own crazy and unique clever twists.

Now let's talk about the narrative : Prey is the most ambitious narrative I played this year* and it really shook me through its scope but also with its premise and story but more importantly : the themes and the underlying implications. I think TONS of people missed it because otherwise, it would be praised, or maybe it's just that the game bombed that hard.

Many of my friends brushed the game aside because of the simple story but they totally missed the second reading. Everything is there. Of course I can't go deeper without HUGE spoilers so let's avoid it here, but Prey is hard on the mind game and asks the player to see through it. Nothing is as it seems and even on its most basic " game " system, the story only gets more revelant.

If you played the game, here are two excellent analysis of the game DO NOT CLICK if you havent played / finished the game :

Errant Signal : Prey :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ9U0u8aR8w&t=28s

Extra Credits : Prey : the enemy inside (this goes STRAIGHT to the ending so be warned)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3QsCy4ekWk

Maybe if you played the game, give these two video a go. Maybe you'll noticed something you missed, maybe you'll get a second view on the game's true ambition in narrative design.


*I just began Nier:Automata let's see how it goes.

 

[robotrock]

Game is amazing

 

[Akronis]

I need to go back to this.

The lackluster enemy visual design didn't click with me and it didn't feel fun to kill stuff

 

[Dartastic]

+1. It's my runner up GOTY right now, second only to Zelda. It's fantastic.

It's even more refreshing when you consider the trend of games on the market right now with loot boxes and shady DLC. It's just a refreshingly straightforward experience and a great game as well.

 

[Ponchito]

It’s good. Really ambicious. A bit tedious at times, didn’t enjoy fighting the typhoon. An intricate game. Hopefully more gamers try this.

 

[BiGBoSSMk23]

I definitely did NOT take the best from Deus Ex.

Or at least did a shit job aping it.

Source: Tried playing it. It was a fucking slog.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

thanks for the write up. its currently in my queue.

will get to it in 2018 or 2019

i wonder if skyrim/doom/wolfTNC does well they'll consider bring this to switch

 

[thehillissilent]

I'm playing it now on PC with the "Real Light + Ultra Graphics" mod https://www.nexusmods.com/prey2017/mods/22/?

 

[Peroroncino]

So far it's The Evil Within 2 for me.

Man we should have a separate GOTY category for games that unjustly underperformed.

 

[Ctlead]

I should really buy this at some point...

 

[Death Metalist]

Sleeper hit of the year for sure.

 

[His Majesty]

Another victim from Bethesda's lacklustre advertisement campaigns. Prey is an absolutely stellar game with one of the best introductions of all time. Super ambitious game which doesn't reach all its goals but should be lauded for at least trying to do something different. Talos I is the best open world of 2017.

 

[bluehat9]

Tried playing it on ps4 before the patches. Maybe I'll try it again before the end of the year.

 

[CheckMate]

I thought the game went downhill when you had to go to Talos 1 Exterior.

 

[Renna Hazel]

What is the ratio of action to non action in this game?

 

[Carlius]

incredible game. def up there with the best of the year.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

Prey kicked ass, and all of the comments about "it's just BioShock in space" or "it's like Dead Space meets BioShock" or "it's just another game where you hack computers and go through vents" drove me fucking mad.

It also did so many new things that got overlooked by people who wanted to write it off as another one of those games.

 

[dugdug]

What is Prey ?
It's Bioshock meets Deus Ex, made by Dishonored people.

For me, this was exactly the problem. It didn't do one single new thing. Couldn't even be bothered to finish it.

Cool opening, though.

 

[ZedLeppelin006]

I played it at launch and absolutely adored it. My only annoyance was all the backtracking for the last few hours. It was phenomenal otherwise and is in my top 3 for this year.

 

[rtcn63]

Too much emphasis on picking up trash (on the higher difficulties it's a recycling sim) and lackluster combat. (One particular skill absolutely wrecks enemies) The Bioshock games were more memorable in almost every aspect, even if technically and mechanically they started off really jank. (Although Bioshock may have actually been worse when it comes to the trash collecting/eating)

 

[Canadian]

I played the demo and really enjoyed my short time with it. I'll definitely pick it up during a sale.

 

[Hellshadow]

I'm playing it right now, love it. Great Soundtrack.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

I played it and loved it. Its one of the best immersive Sims yet. Sadly, much like Deus Ex MK last year, not many people cared.

 

[ZugZug123]

I pre-ordered it and really liked it... Bethesda really needs to do a better job at marketing, the game gave me HL1 vibes while I played it. Although it is a harder than average game you can't go guns blazing into, so maybe gaming tastes are changing.

 

[i-Lo]

I'd get it for PS4 pro if they had fixed the input lag (or the stutter).

 

[baphomet]

It was so goddamn boring I couldn't bring myself to play more than an hour or two.

I would have preferred an actual Prey sequel a million times over.

 

[burgerdog]

Hated the demo. Said fuck it, I'm going to give the full game a shot and it was a great gaming decision. Incredible game.

 

[GameAddict411]

I loved Prey, but the stealth aspect of the game fell flat. I still think Resident Evil 7 is probably the best game I played this year. Maybe Wolfenstein 2 will change my mind though.

 

[MastaKilla]

You've convinced me OP, i've been trying to find a decent game to sink my weekend into and i think this will be it.

 

[Zap Rowsdower]

What is Prey ?
It's Bioshock meets Deus Ex, made by Dishonored people. It's an immersive sim, with Metroidvania progression, quests and level design.

It's more like a modern System Shock without all the jank.

But yeah, its great.

 

[psychotron]

Prey was so good I bought it on multiple systems. One of my all time favorite games. It’s that damn good.

 

[GHG]

I tried to tell y'all about this game. Probably going to finish as my personal GOTY. One of the best 3 games I've played this generation.

 

[Indelible]

It is part of the many games in my backlog, to many good games this year.

 

[ArkkAngel007]

I really enjoyed it, though it's behind Horizon Zero Dawn and maybe Breath of the Wild in my ranking. Good world building and handled the exploration well.

 

[WickedLaharl]

I played it and it was just decent. Dealing with the typhon got old way before the game ended.

 

[wild wild rice]

Basically everything about this game is great except the combat, which is a drag.

 

[Struct09]

I typically love these types of games but this one didn't keep my attention, I got distracted by all the other amazing games that have come out this year. I'll try to give it another shot but may not get to it until next year.

 

[Duffk1ng]

When I saw this compared to System Shock, I expected it to be more like a Bioshock in space rather than System Shock. I was pleasantly surprised that it actually is System Shock. It's streamlined for sure and doesn't have quite the depth, and isn't quite a classic on the level of SS2, but as a modern game experience it's definitely the more enjoyable game and my favourite thing this year aside from Divinity 2. I wasn't expecting anything other than BotW to be my GOTY and yet it might even get knocked into 4th when Mario launches.

This is a bit like Deus Ex Human Revolution - not the classic that the original is (or spiritual predecessor in this case), but a more enjoyable game to play today and still great in its own right.

Could have used some more enemy variety though. I did like the combat though, not sure if it's just as I was on PC though. The game was a blast on hard.

 

[Nibel]

One of the smartest designed and overall best games I've played in years

This felt like the natural evolution of System Shock 2 and added a lot of its own mojo to the mix. The fact that the game underperformed breaks my heart because it easily shits on most games released this year

 

[Ultimadrago]

I haven't played Prey. Though I've played such an amount of really good to great games this year, I hope more people make LTTPs and summaries of games that got slept on.

 

[UnluckyKate]

What is the ratio of action to non action in this game?

Up to you. It gets a bit on the action by the end chapter, and its feel forced. People agree it's a bit cheap what they did but other than that, combat is up to you : it's still very challenging though.

 

[Morts]

I loved it enough to play complete it twice. This is despite the truly awful load times on PS4, and the rather tedious last hour of the game.

Exploring Talos and piecing together all of the characters' stories was amazing, and the art direction for the environments was perfect (enemies were a little generic).

Spoiler

I still prefer Dishonored 2.

 

[Koobion]

Potentially my favorite game this year as well, even over Zelda, which I adore. Came out of nowhere for me.

 

[BiGBoSSMk23]

Gee, I wonder where the fuck were all you people in this thread circle jerking each other when I made that other thread asking for advice on getting through to Prey.

Typical. Lol

 

[Marcel]

Kind of unfortunate that people use Bioshock as a comparison when Prey is clearly inspired by System Shock, one of the the actual OGs. Smh

 

[smisk]

I'll admit I didn't buy this despite Deus Ex and Dishonored being some of my favorite games. I told myself I wanted to beat Dishonored 2 first, which I still haven't done for some reason...
We really don't deserve Arkane.

 

[Broritos]

Prey kicked ass, and all of the comments about "it's just BioShock in space" or "it's like Dead Space meets BioShock" or "it's just another game where you hack computers and go through vents" drove me fucking mad.

It also did so many new things that got overlooked by people who wanted to write it off as another one of those games.

Even if it was 'just another one of those' games, its stupid to write it off just for that. Acting as if the market is saturated by them. There's Deus Ex, Dishonored and that's it.

Gee, I wonder where the fuck were all you people in this thread circle jerking each other when I made that other thread asking for advice on getting through to Prey.

Typical. Lol

They were too busy not caring about a stranger online.

 

[PushingButtons]

It looks like an interesting game but I've read that the combat is pretty lackluster and that's stopping me from buying it.

 

[HvySky]

I loved the atmosphere, world building, and premise so much, which is what made stopping it such a bummer. I just didn't enjoy the actual act of playing it at all.

 

[EvB]

Yeah , a really great game