Prey

I have to highlight some of the(potentially fatal) flaws before I can move on to mitigation. 1. The keyboard bindings incorporate all the letters, forcing you to shift your hand from the WASD position regularly. 2. The Quicksave function is vital as the autosave knocks you back quite a bit. This should've been an F-key shortcut. 3. There are supposedly many ways for you to get through the game but anything that doesn't include efficient resource-gathering and attacks that exploit Typhon/Mech weaknesses are bound to be very long and painful. 4. The enemies are bullet-intensive where ammo is hard to come by, and stealth seems like an afterthought that discards the exploratory elements(sneaking by=leaving things out). 5. If you leave side quests for later the levels will, as a matter of story progression be overrun with Typhons and Mechs, making things even harder. 6. The one fast travel option is only between three areas, and that doesn't connect well to the rest of the levels. Slow travel is...slow. For the third point I suggest the following to the player: a. There is eventually a mission that leads you to a recycler chamber(not the big bin, but a whole room segment) that can recycle anything you can move into it. Together with the lifting ability this'll get you a lot of resources. b. Focus on Psi abilities the moment you can - the Electroshock and Psych attack when maxed out will not only damage but disable enemies for awhile(where you can wrench 'em to death). All things considered once I pushed through the difficulties things did get easier, and I did like the Bioshock-ish environment: not a copy, but certainly inspired in a good way. The storyline was decent as well with the player having significant inputs, adding to nonlinearity. It's three years late but if they iron out the little kinks there's a lot of shine and polish to be added to what's already a good game.

While the game was good and I enjoyed my playthrough I think some of the praise the game receives is overblown. The idea pushed in the game that you can "play your own way" didn't seem to actually fit the gameplay from what I could tell. There is a little bit of variety in how you can approach combat, with some unique weapons and some environmental traps with explosive barrels, turrets and some electrical junctions. There are a small number of weapons grenades and some powers you can upgrade. Other than that there's almost nothing that allows you to play your own way. There's no non lethal approach to the main enemies in the game, few dialogue driven options, the areas in the station are actually quite linear and there aren't many real opportunities to find new ways to approach areas outside of the options available in combat. The combat is serviceable, but not great. Controls feel floaty and sluggish compared to a standard FPS, which is probably by design. Enemies are bullet sponges, even with upgraded weapons, which makes the combat a chore, and because upgrades aren't tied to combat there's not much reward for it with the respawning enemies. By the last third of the game I was running passed the enemies in almost all cases cause the combat wasn't interesting anymore and there was no point to it. The number of enemy types in the game is very limited as well, but it does fit the game narrative. I did encounter a few minor bugs. Textures not loading correctly and the menu UI occasionally failing to load properly. But there was nothing game breaking and it wasn't frequent. The sound and music is great. The story was also really enjoyable and was the main reason I enjoyed the game. It's not to say that it's a bad game. Prey is a good game. But for people buying this cause they think it's going to have the depth of something like Deus Ex, based on what some other reviews say,they may be disappointed. I gave it 4 stars but it's probably closer to 3.7 stars.

Have it on the ps4. Has great gameplay, mysterious locations and story elements, and good direction and pacing. Right up until the last act, you will be scrapping for supplies, changing up your style to conserve resources, and dying. I had a fantastic time. The DLC...less so. It was good, don't get me wrong but...there was no finale or payoff at the end, just a "good job" and a splash screen. Annoying, after so many interesting elements and events.

I never played an immersive sim before this; just games with very deliberate paths of progression, like resident evil, zelda, BGS games, etc. Prey uncrusted my gamer brain in ways that left me giggling, such as when I spent 20 minutes wondering how was supposed to unlock a door- before it dawned on me that I could simply smash open the window, reach through and tap the unlock button on the security console just beyond it. I didn't need to trek halfway across the station to solve a slide-puzzle in the bathroom in order to get a key- just logical world interaction that I wasn't used to from games I'd played before. I wouldn't call Prey something as pretentious as "The Thinker's Shooter" but it does routinely reward creativity and critical thinking when it comes to problem solving. If you need to maneuver around a Super Heavy box, there are more solutions than just having the 'Lift Super Heavy Things' ability.

It's is a fun game, I don't understand why anyone would say otherwise. Good plot, great graphics, and gameplay that doesn't get boring after the first hours. Good.