Prey

I stumbled upon this game when it was on sale, just after finishing dishonored 2. I saw it was by the same studio, and given i never heard anything of this game, i thought it would be similar to dishnored, or probably a miss. This is one of the best games i have ever played, and I rarely ever post reviews, so i am not just saying that. The crafting system, the atmosphere, the art, the characters, the story, the emails (lol), the decisions, the difficulty level. Just wow, what a journey. Yea the combat is a little weird, but at the same time, thats kind of part of the game. There could be more enemies, but I am happy that the enemies that ARE in the game are as stimulating as they are. There are a lot of ways to play this game, and that is one of its strongest characteristics. Honestly sad to have explored as much of the game as i have, because its one of those games you wish would never end. Looking forward to the DLC. If anyone from Arcane reads this, thank you sincerely for such an awesome experience.

This 2017 version of Prey is similar to System Shock, but less horror and more wandering around. I spent most of my time trying to find shiny things laying around everywhere, to craft the next stat point for my gear, or spent it trying to find where objectives were located. Pros: It ran well on my Intel 7700 system, no screen tearing at 4k (depends on the game, since I never use Vsync or "frame buffering"). Sound design was fine, no issues. Combat felt smooth, no forced mouse acceleration, DOF, or motion blur AFTER turning them off (using a config file change guide). Cons: The story was not bad but it was predictable. None of my chocies actually mattered except maybe the final one. This trivializes everything else. Sometimes you have certain objectives you have to complete before others, but they are objectives from different missions in your journal. For example you may have to complete a side mission before moving forward with a section/part of a main mission. In the middle of that maybe sections of the ship are either opened/closed by NPCs. This caused me to do alot of wondering around, and it was confusing because they are not tied together in a way that made sense in the journal. Not super confusing, but I think how the objectives are presented could have been easier to look at. I feel like a spread sheet would have been easier to follow. >.< The weapons are OK. They used the same idea from Natural Selection 2's Gorge clogs, but now they are in a "gun." I liked the weapons available but in the end you only get a small number of them as well as tools. Limiting choices for anyone who wants to blast enemies to just a few choices. *Read the description for Mooncrash carefully. I wish I had done so, and saved a few bucks. Worth the seasonal discounted price of $15, but I am glad I did not pay full price for this.

I played a small chunk of Prey when it was first released in 2017 - originally, I was under the impression this would be something more akin to the then recently released Doom (2016) and that it was part of the new wave of retro-inspired first-person-shooters that Bethesda was becoming known for. I also didn't know it was heavily inspired by System Shock (which I wasn't too familiar with at the time, so it may not have even mattered then). While I enjoyed what I was playing, the more methodical gameplay was a bit of a surprise, and I ended up not giving it the commitment that it deserves. I stopped playing after only a dozen hours or so, and didn't give it another try until earlier this year. Man, what a game. I know I'm not the only one who experienced what I just described back when it came out, and so I imagine there's a plethora of people with Prey being just another overlooked title in their lengthy Steam catalog. If this is you, I strongly urge you to re-install it and give it the time of day. I don't think I've been so enveloped in a game to where I consistently lose track of time during every play session - it just scratched an itch I didn't realize I had. The freedom it offers with nearly every situation you encounter, be it combat, interacting with NPCs, or even the order in which you explore Talos I, is something you just don't see in lots of games today (even titles that boast robust player agency as a key feature - looking at you Fallout 4). And it does so all in a meticulously designed environment that isn't as physically *big* as many other "open-world" games, but yet feels enormous in terms of its depth and the sheer number of nooks and crannies that somehow keep unveiling despite me painstakingly combing a particular area *multiple* times already! I'd love to see more games expand on the "Shock-style" formula, but there's no denying that Prey is a modern masterpiece, and arguably the most up-to-date "Shock-style" gameplay experience available.

I bought Prey on Steam in 2019 and I just finished my second play-through, 3 years after my first run. Holy crap, this really is one of the best games ever made! The game-play is immersive, story is fantastic and mysterious and game-play and controls are perfect. 5 out of 5 stars. For fans of Deus Ex, System Shock and Bioshock. Arkane Studios. I thank you for creating this masterpiece!

This is an enjoyable title, it looks great, has a simple but engrossing storyline, the gameplay is excellent, and the choice of how to play is surprisingly open. My two small complaints would be as follows. 1. There are quite a few loading screens, and many of the quests have you traversing around the ship. A particularly bad one is using the lift in the lobby, this locks you into a small area while travelling up or down, but then you still need to open a door and load into the target area anyway. Either get rid of the lift ride or make that the loading screen. 2. The hacking mini-games are the worst I've seen, there's a mod on Nexus to remove them and I would advise you install it. Aside from these minor issues, the game is fantastic.