UnluckyKate
Member
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.