Recently, I've been craving a replay of Arkane's 2017 ode to System Shock 2 - Prey. I adore the freeform exploration and tense atmosphere of that modern masterwork, so I thought I'd go back to the granddaddy. It's a game that has languished in my library for a while as I've made two previous, unsuccessful attempts to get through it, frustrated by the awkwardness of the combat. I've finally played through it. It is brilliant. If there is one main frustration with SS2, it is in how restrictive it feels compared to immersive sims that are inspired by it. Where I can bypass entire areas through ingenuity (or stubborness) in Prey, Dishonored, and Deus Ex, here, you slot into a role - hacker, melee, guns - and spec your character deep into that role. The game doesn't reward creative thinking in the same way some of its projenitors support and though it's certainly a deeper RPG than its direct successor - Bioshock - it shares more DNA with Bioshock than it does with the creative sandboxes of other immersive sims. That's hardly missed when the creativity in level design, storytelling, and atmosphere impress so many years on. It's not hard to see what a tremendous impact this game had on narrative and level design (and the nexus of the two) post its release in 1999. The audio here, as in Bioshock, is top-notch. The etherized harmonious voices of The Many are as unnerving as the infamous digitized scorn of SHODAN. Both serve as wonderful antagonists and both spawn two of the most memorable levels of the entire game (even if traversing these levels is far more annoying than any of the levels that precede them). One frustration: if you do slot into melee, BE SURE TO UPGRADE HACKING BEFORE THE END. It's impossible to complete the final boss without it. It's frustrating that this isn't communicated somewhere else, since the game is so flexible in how it approaches skillgating elsewhere. All in all SS2 isn't as refined as Bioshock, but it is just as memorable.
Recently, I picked up Far Cry, Crytek's first, on GOG to give it a shot. That game both amazed me and frustrated me to no end. As gorgeous as its world is 16(!) years later and as pioneering as its freeform open-ended sandbox levels were, the difficulty balancing was waaaaaay off. Hitscan weapons coupled with enemies that could spot you, even when shrouded in thick, verdant underbrush, across the sizable maps made the over 15 hour campaign a slog by the third act. And, before I had an aneurysm, I put it on the backburner to be completed at a later date. Its spiritual sequel, Crysis, is equally as impressive for a now 13(!) year old game; if not moreso. And, hey, they fixed the enemy balancing! It's an altogether more polished experience, with a story so drenched in salty popcorn butter and nonsensically over-the-top explosions that Jerry Bruckheimer would be proud. It's fun, light, silly stuff, but so beautifully-paced that the roughly 11 hours I spent playing it flew by. Everyone has talked Crysis's unbelievably impressive graphics to death, so I'll leave it at this; though the underlying asset work is undeniably mid-2000s era work, the texture work, particle effects, fluid rendering, etc are all so impeccable that, in motion, this game could pass for a late-gen modern console release. Gameplay, however, is where this game truly wowed me. Crysis's open-ended sandbox levels and on-the-fly weapon customization feel slick and intuitive even by today's standards. It's clear to see the inspiration games like Metro Exodus from Crytek's classic. There's a real sense of experimentation here that stands out even amongst modern games. And, the gunplay feels smooth as butter. I wish Crytek gave me a little more juice in my suit battery to experiment with flowing one suit mode into another as it would have allowed for more expressive play, but given the balance they had to strike between making you feel like the Predator and challenging you, it's understandable.
I'd been interested in the FEAR series, particularly the first game, for years, but with a backlog the size of Mt. Everest, I've only just gotten around to it. And I'm very glad I did. Monolith's J-horror by way of John Woo is both one of the most claustrophobic and simultaneously liberating games I've played in recent memory. When I started playing this game, I took it slow. You can lean to peak around corners and almost every encounter gives you the element of surprise, letting you plan out your attack. The game is enjoyable this way -- it's enjoyable most any way -- but it wasn't until I let my hair down and began to experiment that the true malleability of FEAR's mechanics became clear. Instead of just lobbing a grenade, giving enemies a second or two to realize and get out of the way, why not toss it toward them, slam the shift key to go into slow-mo, and detonate it mid-air with a well-placed bullet. Enemies on the floor below you? Hop over the railing, slam the shift key, and pop each in the head on the way down. Enemy about to toss a grenade your way? Slam the shift key and shoot it out of his hand to detonate it, taking out a whole squad. All of these opportunities happened over my roughly 5.5 hr playthrough and I always felt like an absolute God weaving my way through beautifully choreographed action scenes. None of these moments of improvisation are totally player-authored, the devs clearly intend for you to shoot grenades out of the air, hop over railings, etc. They telegraph each scenario with pathing, enemy barks, and subtle hints. But it's never so obvious that it feels like your hand is being held. Overall, 100% worth a look. It's relatively short, but well-paced. A 4.5/5
