When I was into the game like 3-5 hours, I would have rated it 5 stars. It's amazing to run and climb, gather stuff to maintain or craft things, always in threat of getting cornered. Even on higher stages, with lots of skills unlocked, you never become that invincible super hero who walks untouched through waves of zombies. One can feel the constant danger and death is all around. At the end of the main story, which I almost didn't want to play towards anymore, I would have rated the game 0 stars. I don't know how it is even possible to fuck a story and it's missions up that much. The game lives from tactical routing, avoiding, improvising and using the environment to your benefits. The story mini-boss arenas are consequently the opposite. A tiny room with no environment, you are always stripped of any belongings and a brute in front of you just kicking you around. It's not a challenge, it's a tiresome, boring annoyance at some point you just stop playing. The story, and you can't avoid it because it unlocks new regions and items, kills all the fun while letting you 'crawl' through your fevered dreams. I understand, they wanted to show the struggle - but this is just a failed design! It's just horrible. Who ever came up with this should be fed to zombies. Then some smaller failures like auto save or the hook. I know it's handling is cool but, it looks like made by a toddler. A white line that straightly connects to anything you shoot it at. You die when falling from the 3rd floor. Just "hook" yourself down with double speed (than falling) with no damage. Also, after the story ends, all what felt alive ingame vanishes. No story characters show up for a talk or anything. It's a shame. Some small adjustments like the requirement of the community to be supplied with medicine and food from local shops, some main chars popping up here and their and removal of the story - completely (it's just beyond salvation) and this would be most amazing. Now it's mediocre.
I'm playing this game for a couple of hours now, taking my time to do side quests and try different approaches while plying on hard with survival addition. First of all, I read a lot about this being a spiritual or whatever successor to System Shock 1/2 and trust me, it's not. I love and still play both SS, but except from the "in space" setting, there are hardly similarities. SS is in the first place a shooter, a brilliant one with nice story, and in SS2 also with some basic skill system, but that is that. Prey on the other hand has only a minor set of lethal offensive weapons and skills. You can do it head on, but it is obviously clear, that this game expects from you to use wits and environment to your advantage and gives an extra portion of skills to do so. It's more like Thief in space as RPG simulation. Skills are gained by collecting neuromods, which are lying around or produced instead of gained by solving or killing. There are three 'human' the skill lines for stuff like hacking, repairing and firearms and three alien skill lines, which allow abilities from psionic blasts to morphing into objects lying around. The environments are quite appealing. Vast halls, arrays of offices, tiny maintenance corridors and zero-gravity outer space. There is a lot to explore and several ways to progress. All in all, the layout of departments and utilities of the space station makes sense which adds the the immersion that some reviews also mention. Enemies doesn't just spawn behind you randomly (like in SS). Instead, levels have a set number of enemies and only specific events or leaving and returning later may create new enemies. Another highlight is the story. Usually this is the weak spot; casual, predictable and more of a side kick while slaughtering yourself though the hordes. Here, the story is well told, interesting and captivating. You are never sure whom and which information to trust. From the very first moment you learn, that nothing is, what it seems.
I'm playing this game on Linux Mint 19, stable with no issues. The concept is as of now the closest one can get to the old Dungeon Keeper franchise. I also own the Dungeons X series, which is not too bad, but at times with the cartoon style and the overexcited waffling evil a bit too annoying. WotO however finds, in my opinion, a good balance between sarcastic/funny comments and 'serious' game play to create a convincing atmosphere to dig your own, and some heroes graves. It is also still actively updated (just got patched to 2.0.7 with bug fixes, improvements and more scripting support in the map editor). It features different games modes like Campaign, Skirmish, My Pet Dungeon (dlc), etc, different dungeon styles (well kind of), seasonal events (if you log in). Beside the original rooms and creatures, some new, like the witch chamber or the beast den are available, lots of new traps with distinguish effects and a point based research tree gives new strategical options. I's also well balanced, with different AI settings, thou some people claim the AI is 'cheating' a bit it's not to bad. In the end, it's difficult to create a reasonable ai with so many possibilities to choose from and still run smoothly on low end machines without a bit of cheating here an now. There is also a FAQ for the Gog-Version on the official homepage: https://support.brightrockgames.com/knowledge-bases/2/articles/2302-gog-drm-free-build-faq Even thou it's not perfect, it's the first game I rate 5 stars here as I think it's well deserved for a game which delivers what it promised. Not more nor less.
Elex is a game with a lot of potential. Nice graphics, good sound, the idea to clash factions with weapons and equipment from different time areas, a really large, basically seamless world… so why give only 2/5 stars? Well, this game is not finished and need at least 2-3 more month development. Intro: You get shot down and crash over enemy territory, climb out of your burning fighter and.. walk slowly to the next sightseeing spot, throwing away your helmet. Just got attacked? Nah, I'm cool. Keyboard layout: Impossible. Half of all keys are locked and with that important keys can't be reassigned. Animation and movement: In the Intro, it was just ugly, in game it's implemented like the first attempt in animation class, seasickness included. No idea how anything works! I feel like a pirate in the 80's. No Handbook. Everything is like a puzzle. Game engine: Targeting (just looking, not shooting), larger steps over a rock, basically breathing breaks sneak. Ever seen “homing rocks”? That's the trolls equivalent of homing missiles. Basically every enemy projectile, rocks, fire and toxic breath and spit is freely changing direction in midair. This, in combination with the very creative interpretation of collision detection (with attacks) makes many encounters extremely frustrating. Creatures: Almost any creature, even that tiny lizard on the rock can spit insta-gib fire-, toxic- acid fumes further then my mom - or any plasma rifles. Because progress is chapter based (no armor for you until you join a faction), almost anything is to strong. A companion could help: Unfortunately, brain was unavailable. Self initiative? Behavior control? Task assignment? NOTHING! Absolutely no AI. If one attacks a creature, the companions shoots about 3 times and then let loose, even if you still run for your life, he's just enjoying the show or worse, constantly gets in your way. Finally killed that guy in body armor and plasma rifle, thanks to chapter progress, all you loot is a candy bar.
