Includes Cosmonaut Shotgun Pack & OST
Story
In Prey, you awaken aboard Talos I, a space station orbiting the moon in the year 2032. You are the key subject of an experiment meant to alter humanity forever – but things have gone terribly wrong. The space station has been overrun by hostile aliens...
In Prey, you awaken aboard Talos I, a space station orbiting the moon in the year 2032. You are the key subject of an experiment meant to alter humanity forever – but things have gone terribly wrong. The space station has been overrun by hostile aliens and you are now being hunted. As you dig into the dark secrets of Talos I and your own past, you must survive using the tools found on the station -- your wits, weapons, and mind-bending abilities. The fate of the Talos I and everyone aboard is in your hands.
Features
Sci-fi Thriller Nothing is as it seems aboard Talos I. As Morgan Yu, set out to unravel the clues you've left behind for yourself, and discover the truth about your past. What role will you play in TranStar’s plans, and the mysterious threat ravaging the station?
Singular Setting Orbiting the Moon, the Talos I space station symbolizes the height of private space enterprise. Explore a lavish craft designed to reflect corporate luxury of the 1960s, and navigate interconnected, non-linear pathways built to hide countless secrets.
Unimaginable Threat The shadowy extraterrestrial presence infesting Talos I is a living ecology bent on annihilating its prey. It’s up to you, one of the last remaining survivors aboard the station, to end the deadly attack of these haunting predators.
Play Your Way Gain alien abilities to develop a distinct combination of powers and upgrade your unique skills. Craft increasingly useful items with the blueprints, gadgets and tools on board the station to overcome dangerous obstacles in your way. Survive unprecedented threats with your wits and ability to improvise.
I have only had the game for 2 days, but I am having so much fun with it! It is very "smart," immersive, and intense. It also runs beautifully - looks fantastic, and feels silky smooth. I understand the latter portion of the game loses some momentum, but so far, I am really having a great time with it.
While the aesthetics or the structure of the game (compaired to other immersive sims) is not unique, the sheer level of interaction with the world is what makes it as good as it is. If you like games like System shock, Deus Ex, Thief; this is a no brainer.
I would recommend you also get Mooncrash dlc since is is one of the first real innovations in this unique but stagnated genre (every game follows the Looking Glass formula).
Among of the hundreds of games I've played, Prey is easily in the top 10. It's a better version of Bioshock, System Shock, and Jedi Fallen Order that incorporates Metroidvania gameplay and a really good story.
The atmosphere of the game is absolutely amazing and as good as Bioshock. Each floor and environment (especially Arboretum) is gorgeous and beautifully-crafted.
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.