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Prey (2017) |OT| Trust no one. Not even your shelf

D

Deleted member 325805

Unconfirmed Member
Is there a best hypo build? I'm thinking about playing again after frankly hating it on my first playthrough. You might remember we realised why I hated it was because like with every game I ignored anything that wasn't the main story which resulted in me being very weak, and lacking in resources at all times which made the game insanely difficult and frustrating. I've been getting the feeling I should maybe give it another go and play it "properly" so if there's a good build I can go to make it smoother I'd like to follow it.
 

bati

Member
Is there a best hypo build? I'm thinking about playing again after frankly hating it on my first playthrough. You might remember we realised why I hated it was because like with every game I ignored anything that wasn't the main story which resulted in me being very weak, and lacking in resources at all times which made the game insanely difficult and frustrating. I've been getting the feeling I should maybe give it another go and play it "properly" so if there's a good build I can go to make it smoother I'd like to follow it.

I was able to max out all the human skills in my playthrough, but I did also craft about 30-40 neuromods myself. So if you're gonna go that route the only question is what you want to pick first. My recommendation would be to grab the recycler (20% more resources) asap, get Hacking 2 (3 about halfway through the game), repair to 1 or 2, leverage 1 (early on you can use recycler charges to get rid of some lvl 2 and 3 obstacles), dismantle, firearms to 2 asap, combat focus to 1, then work on weapon upgrade passives. In order of importance for upgrade I'd say shotgun > q-beam > stun gun > pistol. After that you can work on suit slots, survivability, etc. Things that you can leave for last - all psi related perks, stamina perks, wrench perks.

It's pretty much the classic hacker/firearms/stealth build that generally allows you to see and deal with most of the content easily in games of this type (Deus Ex, System Shock, etc).
 

Nere

Member
Okey this is driving me insane I am at the main quest through a glass darkly and I need to track Dr. Calvino though a monitor but his name doesn't fucking exist am I blind or what?
 

bati

Member
Okey this is driving me insane I am at the main quest through a glass darkly and I need to track Dr. Calvino though a monitor but his name doesn't fucking exist am I blind or what?

Names are sorted alphabetically, with first name coming first. Look for 'Lorenzo', he should be on the Hardware labs tab.
 
Okey this is driving me insane I am at the main quest through a glass darkly and I need to track Dr. Calvino though a monitor but his name doesn't fucking exist am I blind or what?
Are you at the Security Station? If so, look for Lorenzo Calvino in the Hardware Labs tab. That'll give you a marker to track him down.

You can find him just at the window from the entrance to Chemical Lab,
but you'll have to reach him in the hull breach using spacewalk
 

Nere

Member
Are you at the Security Station? If so, look for Lorenzo Calvino in the Hardware Labs tab. That'll give you a marker to track him down.

You can find him just at the window from the entrance to Chemical Lab,
but you'll have to reach him in the hull breach using spacewalk

Names are sorted alphabetically, with first name coming first. Look for 'Lorenzo', he should be on the Hardware labs tab.

THANK YOU! I was searching for Calvino all the time not Lorenzo.....
 

Gator86

Member
Finally finished (human only, Nightmare diff). What a game, unbelievable. Stuff like this comes around maybe once every 15 years.

How hard is it to play with only Typhon abilities, especially on higher difficulties? I had a look at some of the abilities and while they seem strong I think the first third of the game could be a little painful. Possibly the final stretches too due to lack of health upgrades.

Pretty easy really. The Typhon powers lay waste to everyone. Psychoshock alone ends most encounters as it locks down enemy powers, completely destroying telepaths and such.
 

Eusis

Member
Pretty easy really. The Typhon powers lay waste to everyone. Psychoshock alone ends most encounters as it locks down enemy powers, completely destroying telepaths and such.
For a "I just don't want turrets auto shooting me" playthrough mimic plus psychoshock were more than enough for me. Especially with combat focus being a human power, was pretty easy to combo together psychoshock, combat focus, and a Q-Beam to destroy some big enemies before they do anything serious, especially useful for shutting down telepaths.
 

Gator86

Member
For a "I just don't want turrets auto shooting me" playthrough mimic plus psychoshock were more than enough for me. Especially with combat focus being a human power, was pretty easy to combo together psychoshock, combat focus, and a Q-Beam to destroy some big enemies before they do anything serious, especially useful for shutting down telepaths.

I thought turrets would be an issue, but it seems like 90% of them are broken by the time you run into them. The rest are easily dispatched with Kinect blast.
 

roytheone

Member
Got my first "ending"

The escape pod ending. Some interesting hints regarding the story in that one.

Also, do you really need repair 3 to get rid of
the nightmare
, or is there another way to do it? That are a lot of neuromods for a skill I would use once.
 

bati

Member
For a "I just don't want turrets auto shooting me" playthrough mimic plus psychoshock were more than enough for me. Especially with combat focus being a human power, was pretty easy to combo together psychoshock, combat focus, and a Q-Beam to destroy some big enemies before they do anything serious, especially useful for shutting down telepaths.

Combat focus is a no no, since I'm going for the Split Affinity.
 
One thing's for sure, Typhon only run makes you keep an eye on your inventory space as well as the fact you don't have a high Psi pool to do the Typhon abilities.
 

kliklik

Banned
So I finally finished it last night and I'm trying to figure out some things about the ending -
what was real.

Clearly Alex survived, so the end where the spaceship blows up and he stays behind is not how it happened. And at the end, you are still on the spaceship, so they didn't blow it up. Also, Igwe, Sho, Ilyushin, and Elazar must have all survived for them to be neurally scanned and turned into 'Januarys', but they and Morgan are all dead now. But Morgan must have survived the initial attack for the memories to be retrieved, since what you play through is reconstructed memories.

So all of them died fighting the Typhon since? Did the Typhon get to earth via that one shuttle you read about on the Talos Bridge? The commander there died before she could detonate the charges on the vessel, and it's possible that real Morgan didn't either.
If there really were mimics in the cargo hold, then that could have caused the spread to earth.

Also, can someone explain exactly what White Noise is? I understand that it starts as white specks in vision, and it has something to do with paraplexis and the inability to accept neuromods or be scanned. But what exactly happened to that... figure skater lady I think she was, from the books? It was suggesting she was dying and there were negative effects from her getting scanned, which the company made rules against after. What happens to you when you take a neuromod or get scanned for a connectome?
 

bati

Member
From what I understand the whole thing is a simulation where you're given many different choices so they can evaluate if you (the typhon organism) is still a potential danger to humanity once injected with human neuromods. I think the way Morgan fits in this is that his mind was the basis for virtual reconstruction of the Talos I and the people that inhabit it. I'm not sure if any of those people were real at any point though,
it could be that they are just VI constructs that were injected into the sim.
 
So I finally finished it last night and I'm trying to figure out some things about the ending -
what was real.

Clearly Alex survived, so the end where the spaceship blows up and he stays behind is not how it happened. And at the end, you are still on the spaceship, so they didn't blow it up. Also, Igwe, Sho, Ilyushin, and Elazar must have all survived for them to be neurally scanned and turned into 'Januarys', but they and Morgan are all dead now. But Morgan must have survived the initial attack for the memories to be retrieved, since what you play through is reconstructed memories.

So all of them died fighting the Typhon since? Did the Typhon get to earth via that one shuttle you read about on the Talos Bridge? The commander there died before she could detonate the charges on the vessel, and it's possible that real Morgan didn't either.
If there really were mimics in the cargo hold, then that could have caused the spread to earth.

Also, can someone explain exactly what White Noise is? I understand that it starts as white specks in vision, and it has something to do with paraplexis and the inability to accept neuromods or be scanned. But what exactly happened to that... figure skater lady I think she was, from the books? It was suggesting she was dying and there were negative effects from her getting scanned, which the company made rules against after. What happens to you when you take a neuromod or get scanned for a connectome?

White Noise, IIRC, is described for people who suffer from conditions that doesn't allow them to use Neuromods

And the lady that was interviewed in the Neural Horizon series (The book you're talking about) died later from her Paraplexis condition.

Here's the how Neuromod works:
"Neuromods are created from the Typhon. They change the structure of the patient's brain, manipulating it to grant effects ranging from learning a foreign language, learning to play an instrument, or even lengthening the user's lifespan. Needles inject a serum into the the neurons in the brain that are sensitive to light. Then, the neuromod uses lasers and light to map the patient's brain, and then extrapolates the changes required to grant the effects desired. "

When you get scanned for a connectome, its later used for the Neuromods. Let's say, for example, you know how to speak a foreign language. TranStar's scientists would later scan your brain (including your ability) and put it into a connectome. Then that connectome would be used for Neuromods which users would use it to learn to speak the same foreign language as you do.
 

kliklik

Banned
Oh I mean, what happens to a person with Paraplexis who gets scanned or gets a neuromod. The book was implying there are terrible side-effects and that she still doesn't regret it, but there was some resentment and a lot of controversy that led to them banning people with Paraplexis from even becoming employees because it was so "dangerous". So what exactly happens? Also, where did you get that quote for the Neuromod? I didn't know that about the lightmapping stuff. That's cool

@bati
I considered that too, but so far we've seen them be very unsuccessful at creating personalities and voices out of thin air for Operators (see: the chef's assistant in Crew Quarters. The only operators that had proper personalities and voices were the result of scanning real people. It's much harder to make something from scratch than to copy it.
 
Oh I mean, what happens to a person with Paraplexis who gets scanned or gets a neuromod. The book was implying there are terrible side-effects and that she still doesn't regret it, but there was some resentment and a lot of controversy that led to them banning people with Paraplexis from even becoming employees because it was so "dangerous". So what exactly happens? Also, where did you get that quote for the Neuromod? I didn't know that about the lightmapping stuff. That's cool

Ah. In that case, we have no idea because the game doesn't delve what happens to a person with Paraplexis who get scanned or gets a Neuromod. If they ban people with Paraplexis from even becoming an employee on Talos 1, I imagine the side-effects of getting scanned or using a Neuromod has devastating side-effects. But that's just speculation on my part.

As we know, Mikhaila hid her condition to work on Talos 1 to
find traces about her father

The quote was from Game Informer's coverage of Prey back in December last year.

I'd like to talk a bit about the ending, but I'm pretty busy atm
 
I think I fucked up towards the end and want some advice if I should reload back 3 hours. Late game spoilers ahead:

after the cutscene where I meet my brother and the large mimic thing outside the station spawns, I turned around to check the new room behind me and I get a side mission fail for not saving my brother. Can I actually save him? He was just floating in zero g
 
I think I fucked up towards the end and want some advice if I should reload back 3 hours. Late game spoilers ahead:

after the cutscene where I meet my brother and the large mimic thing outside the station spawns, I turned around to check the new room behind me and I get a side mission fail for not saving my brother. Can I actually save him? He was just floating in zero g


Yes.
you grab his body and put in in his safe room (the room he comes out from). And then close the door from the outside
 

Memnoch

Member
I really tried to like Prey, but I just do not have fun. I really enjoyed Bioshock so I thought I'd like this, but alas. I played about 14 hours of the main quest but I can't take the slog anymore. I have to dedicate my limited time to games I like therefore I uninstalled it.
 

bati

Member
Unfortunately, nope. But I understand Prey draws a lot of inspiration from it.

System Shock 2 is amazing. One of the best games ever made. If you mod it you can make it look pretty good, and the mods also introduce widescreen support. If you like this genre then I can't recommend the game enough.
 
Well, I finally beat it and I can say without even a sliver of a doubt that Prey is better than any of the BioShock games to date. A true masterpiece from start to finish!
 

Eusis

Member
Arkane related question: does Dishonored 2 run as well as Prey on PC?
No.

But there's a demo on Steam so you can tell if it's fine for you. I had been blowing off the game on PC in favor of consoles, but after trying the demo I think it'll be OK to get on my laptop after all.
Combat focus is a no no, since I'm going for the Split Affinity.
Yeah, that's true, it's great for those not focusing on achievements the first time through at least, but those going for one of them definitely wouldn't be able to run with that combo.
 

StarPhlox

Member
I really tried to like Prey, but I just do not have fun. I really enjoyed Bioshock so I thought I'd like this, but alas. I played about 14 hours of the main quest but I can't take the slog anymore. I have to dedicate my limited time to games I like therefore I uninstalled it.

My experience was similar had an OK time on PS4 Pro in spite of the technical issues but the part where I got to the "echo collection" in the Crew Quarters was just too miserable. Back to Redbox. I'll grab it digitally for sub-$20 if they patch it up
 

Stranya

Member
My experience was similar had an OK time on PS4 Pro in spite of the technical issues but the part where I got to the "echo collection" in the Crew Quarters was just too miserable. Back to Redbox. I'll grab it digitally for sub-$20 if they patch it up
Too miserable in terms of technical issues? Wondering whether or not to buy this now to support games of this genre, or pick it up later in light of the shoddy performance issues and pro enhanced lies.
 

StarPhlox

Member
Too miserable in terms of technical issues? Wondering whether or not to buy this now to support games of this genre, or pick it up later in light of the shoddy performance issues and pro enhanced lies.

No, the technical issues have been improved since the demo for the most part but stick drift was present and I glitched through the world and either had to reload or I just died a few times over maybe 10 hours of playing. Major frame pacing issues still and that's playing on a Pro with Boost mode.

For that section is was more frustrating that there was a new enemy type that is a huge pain because it puts a vortex under you that does nothing but inconvenience you. If the game had fun and satisfying combat like Dishonored 1/2 or drastically reduced enemy encounters it would be much more enjoyable. The world is fun to explore but the combat actively works against it.
 
For that section is was more frustrating that there was a new enemy type that is a huge pain because it puts a vortex under you that does nothing but inconvenience you. If the game had fun and satisfying combat like Dishonored 1/2 or drastically reduced enemy encounters it would be much more enjoyable. The world is fun to explore but the combat actively works against it.

Why not put the game on easy ? I love the exploration and don't like the combat and this solution solved all of my problems with the game. I'm having an absolute blast now.
 

Stranya

Member
No, the technical issues have been improved since the demo for the most part but stick drift was present and I glitched through the world and either had to reload or I just died a few times over maybe 10 hours of playing. Major frame pacing issues still and that's playing on a Pro with Boost mode.

For that section is was more frustrating that there was a new enemy type that is a huge pain because it puts a vortex under you that does nothing but inconvenience you. If the game had fun and satisfying combat like Dishonored 1/2 or drastically reduced enemy encounters it would be much more enjoyable. The world is fun to explore but the combat actively works against it.
Thanks. I wonder if the stick drift is because the dead zone is too small.
 

selfnoise

Member
I have a question about quest strategy given the place I'm in. (at the end of the questline
"Before I give you the key"
)

I have just scanned the coral and headed to Alex's office. I know using his computer will start a new quest line. I have a bunch of sidequests, most of which I don't care about, but I was thinking about doing Mikhaila's quest in Deep Storage (for her father), taking car of the imposter cook on the Bridge (which I haven't even been to yet) and maybe Igwe's recording in his bunk.

Is it better off for me to complete these before I do the next part of the main questline? Or will I be going to these areas anyway?
 
D

Deleted member 325805

Unconfirmed Member
Well I've started my second playthrough after giving the game a 4/10 so you might be wondering why the fuck I'm putting myself through this but I loved so much about the game that I want to try and play it properly instead of rushing it like last time (which according to you boys is the reason for all my troubles), maybe it'll click. I've gone for the girl this time to change it up a little and I'll pick the other ending if I get there.

BTW, is it just me or is the game running slightly worse? I know there has been a patch since I finished but usually patches help not hurt :D
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I finished it just now. The music and sound effects were great. I love the aesthetics of this game. It's no doubt Bethesda's take on a Shock game and the science fiction elements scratch an itch that's been lingering since Dead Space 2 or even BioShock Infinite.

Sad part is, I didn't even bother with getting the psi powers until way late in the game. I didn't even feel like I needed them until half way in. I got the other abilities late too.

The level design was great. The side stuff felt like filler at times. Locating people and so forth. I found myself able to do most things just by finding ways to cheat the recycling system.

I really enjoyed it. I couldn't believe they made this on the Cryengine.

i had a great time. I liked the enemies. There were probably a few times I questioned the variety of enemies. There were times I questioned the quests, but it's a solid ride. It felt like a science fiction film. Even the mechanic in space feeling was there. I personally like that whole take on a lone survival fighting an unknown threat with all the twist and turns along the way.

This could be worth a watch, coming from GameSpot later in the week: Failure to Fame: How Dishonored Saved Arkane Studios



'Teaser trailer' here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqKwZpS8F_M
Publishers have said some messed up BS to amazing developers over the years. Remember Bloodstained's KS and how they said the same thing to Igarashi?
It feels like these analyst sense some winds move in one direction and that's all they can see.

These are awesome. Thanks for sharing.
 
D

Deleted member 325805

Unconfirmed Member
Well I just put 3 hours into my second run through and I'm so much more progressed than before, way more mods have been installed, I have shit tons more ammo and general resources and I've found many areas that I didn't the first time. So far I've only died once and that was to a fucking junction box lol. I haven't been raged yet but this was also the honeymoon period on my first run through, I think I started to enjoy the game less once
Technopath's
became a thing so we'll see. I'm optimistic though, I think giving it another shake may have been a good decision. Also my weapons are upgraded much more than before already, I really screwed them up last time.
 
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