Velius
Banned
Disclaimer: this is my first thread, ever. I don't know if I'm breaking any rules in this. I've read around and believe I am within the jurisdiction of GAF policy but if I am not, please know that it was not my intent, and I wish to share content in accordance with the community norms.
Decent sized read ahead. I hope you enjoy it!
Prey is the greatest game I never heard of. I started playing it this week and I have pumped hours and hours into it. I do not know how far into the story I am, but I can tell you that I love this game, which is easily a 9.5. And I almost, almost never got to play it. In the months leading up to its release I never batted an eye at it. Never looked at any articles for it, never watched the E3 trailer or any of the pertinent media that was subsequently released. Any time I saw it on IGN it looked like just another generic shooter. I knew so little about this project I didn't even know Arkane was the dev. If it hadn't been for Digital Foundry's GOTY list (Found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3_zc7iMPkU) I would never have played this game.
Once I started playing, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why this game was so underrepresented. Highest ranked version is 84% on Metacritic? Wat. I think I know why now, but we'll get to that later.
Before I start I should give you my thesis statement: This game is remarkably lean, and you will hear me hammer at this on numerous occasions in this discussion, but it’s a remarkable feat; there is no unnecessary content- there are no characters that make you ask "Why do they exist?". There is no weapon or utility that is not useful in a way that makes your shoulder relax upon acquisition. Everyone and everything has a precise purpose in Prey, and it’s refreshing in a way that’s difficult to explain but unmistakable when you play. In an era of millions of mindless sidequests, forgettable NPC’s and junk that ends up truly being junk after holding it for 40 hours, the weapons, gear, abilities, characters and objectives (Both primary and miscellaneous) in Prey all feel deliberate and lovingly crafted.
In short, everything in this game exudes purpose, indisputably making this game an outlier in the current era of the industry.
Another thing this game really has going for it is the graphical presentation, which is in a way an extension of the aforementioned. The beauty of this game is in the practicality of the world presented- there’s nothing outlandish or gratuitous. This is the opposite of the modern Star Wars media, giving you a world that plausibly blooms from our current one. When I first picked up the shotgun I was somewhat underwhelmed because it looked simply like a shotgun with one or two futuristic garnishes- such as the rounded ammo counter bending around the curvature of the receiver. But this down-to-earth approach grew on me very quickly, especially when I realized that this device was consistent throughout the crafted universe of Prey. Everything, down to the way the doors are designed, and the way they open, is rooted firmly in a creative but believable projection of how our technology would develop in the next decade or so.
Presentation is also dynamic. There are dark corridors but there are brightly lit lobbies and cubical offices. There are gardens with lush foliage and synthetic waterfalls that will somehow manage to both relax and unnerve. And littered everywhere throughout these settings are glowing treasures for you to pick up and use.
I know that gameplay is ultimately what makes a game, but the right visual style can truly enhance those things and demonstrably so in Prey. There are many games wherein new equipment gives greater degrees of freedom and depth, but that expansion feels a bit hollow because the appropriate visual representation of that augmentation is either missing or misfired.
This game reminded me that when excellent graphics and gameplay are mixed well, delight ensues.
I won’t spend too much time on the music simply because there isn’t a whole lot to say. The music is incredible. Jack Wall and Sam Hulick did us all an enormous favor ten years ago with Mass Effect, revitalizing interest in 80’s style blending of electronic music with orchestral scoring. I don’t know if that was the sole origin of the resurgence, but I do know that it was a prominent one, and Prey OST composer Mick Gordan has picked it up and wielded it like a ninja, doing something that is distinctly his own. There’s simply nothing about the music in this game that I would change. It is futuristic, clean, and cannot be confused with the work of any other.
Finally I move now to the gameplay itself, and it’s difficult to convey how much I love it.
I suppose I should start by saying System Shock 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. And it is clear to me that the team at Arkane has similar tastes.
This game is, for the most part, System Shock 3. There are plenty of thematic and narrative based nods to the System Shock universe—such as the“Looking Glass”, as well as outright homages. There are terms lifted straight out of SS2, such as“Grav Shaft” and“Psy Hypo”. Presentational tributes aside, the game elements are constructs that evolved from the groundwork laid by Ken Levine’s team back in 1999. The things that were perfect about System Shock 2 have been preserved. The things that were ambitious but projected in a less than flawless fashion have been reformed. And the things that were atrocious have been eliminated.
Once more, this speaks to Arkane’s resolve to trim every ounce of fat from this game, leaving nothing but dense gameplay into which you can sink your teeth and shake. This appears to have been their battle cry in this project, the moniker of“Nothing wasted”. To see such a motif so prevalent and so faithfully sustained throughout an entire work is for lack of a stronger term impressive, and makes a bold statement about the unified vision the entire team had during their work. The“NeuroMod” factor is akin to intellectual crack, and will have you drawing out charts and tables plotting out how to best spend your ability points. I need to bolden the font on this thought; I have been up until the wee hours of the weekend pouring blueprints out on paper, flowcharts and all, deliberating over how to proceed with my precious ability currency. Without getting too deep into spoilers, I will add that there are thematic, story-based incentives to consider your path of abilities carefully, and these narrative-driven stipulations dovetail delightfully with gameplay nuances that leave you feeling warm inside, and give you a sense of weight to your choices that goes beyond“Paragon = Blue and Renegade = Red”.
Okay I’m done taking potshots at ME. I should also add that I already have an idea of what I want to do for my second playthrough- by the way, this game is so good, with so much breadth, I know I will play it at least two more times after this run.
I really can’t emphasize that enough. Each ability has clear purpose and significant value. Let’s face it, some of the abilities in System Shock 2 were well intended but not always usefully implemented without alterations such as SecMod and other community software. Arkane looked at every single ability and made sure it was worth getting, and the price of each one is enough to make you say“Ooooh!” and“Buuuuuuttt...” right after another. You will agonize over the choices. When you make your selection you will experience fear, wondering if you did the right thing. And then you will smile in delight when you put your newly acquired mechanism to use. That is intentional. It’s nerve-wracking and it’s fun.
I anticipate that conventional weapons will be a first act crutch for most, and that the perception will be that they should phase out as the player delves further into the work. That is likely the natural progression for many and the game itself seems to direct you to experiment with the more abstract and otherworldly aptitudes, but the pistol and shotgun combo are endgame viable, just like everything else. Ammo is sparse but will accumulate for those who play smart, and the modifications available to those who invest will deliver significant yield.
And that leads me to perhaps the greatest compliment I could give this game: there truly is no wrong way to go about doing what you need to do, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a combination of abilities that soars above any other. I know that many games have advertised this, but in the vast majority of titles your style will be pigeonholed into one or two aisles, with the other options serving only as shoehorned afterthoughts, presented for the purpose of giving you multiple options“if you really, really wanna go that way.” Prey turns its nose up at this idea, and bestows upon you an air-tight list of selections and the perfect blend of geography with which to utilize them. In Prey, you are never in danger of locking yourself into a build that will doom you. You are always, however, in constant danger of having to change the way you play.
Here’s another way to look at it: go to YouTube and search for“Prey Builds”. No consensus. Can you hear me smiling?
What beauty, what newness of life that has been breathed into video games with this.
Moving on. In keeping with the tradition of the System Shock gameplay, there is seldom any one technique or path to your objective. The game bestows gargantuan rewards to those who experiment, and you will be surprised to see how far creative use of the“Gloo Gun” will take you, if you’re able to breech the confines built upon years of being subjected to unimaginative, restrictive gaming.
Inventory management becomes a minigame unto itself, a pseudo-FreeCell delight to scratch your OCD itch. Hacking is done in a different and slightly less frustrating fashion than what we find in BioShock. Chipsets offer plenty of passive abilities for you to mull over and swap out, and they can provide quite a boon if you’re calm and calculated enough to recognize the appropriate situations.
The PsychoScope comes into play during what I presume is the first or second act, and the augmented perceptive abilities instantaneously afforded to me were instantaneously obvious and marvelous. I said the word“Oh,” and sat there slackjawed for a few moments until the beautiful musical accompaniment died down, almost as if the game knew I would need a moment or two to wrap my mind around this new toy.
The curved ascension of your growth in power is clear, unbroken and exponential. At the outset you will feel week and helpless compared to your adversaries, and at some point during the long, subtle crescendo you will realize that you are no longer the prey, but a cybernetically augmented wrecking ball. The sense of paranoia instilled early on never completely fades, as you will encounter more progressively dangerous and potent foes, but there will come a time when you will look at Mimics and Phantoms (who once stalked you down dark corridors) and see nothing but bags of delicious loot, ripe for your plucking. This provides harmony for the increasingly complex powers you accumulate, making you feel powerful and making you feel like progress is being made. No Final Fantasy VIII garbage here.
And it’s likely a disservice to tack this last point on like some sort of appendix, but I should mention that the crafting system in Prey is meaningful and fun. It’s probably fun because recycling stuff is really, really helpful. I remember having mixed feelings when I discovered BioShock’s charming but very simple crafting system, and I remember being utterly frustrated with Fallout 3’s complex but burdensome. Prey brings the two together into a system that is both fun and devoid of frustration, at least to all who plan carefully. Making virtually everything convertible into useful materials, but having only four material types, is a best of both worlds approach.
And it never gets old. You’re going to condition yourself to salivate whenever you see a heap of debris, or whenever you unload a bunch of junk into the recycler. Just hit that button and all that stuff becomes beautiful glistening cubes of yumminess.
If you’re like me, having little to no exposure to the media leading up to the release of this game, hopefully this article has given you a nudge toward what I consider to be one of the most joyful surprises in the history of gaming. Prey does so many things right, the slightly above average reception is an absolute enigma to me. BioShock Infinite received greater praise and established a more widespread following that its predecessor, but I believe Infinite to be the inferior of BioShock and much more so of Prey.
So what happened? Why did IGN give this game... an 8? I’m betting it had a lot to do with the development time, paired with the game’s total overhaul. I didn’t know this until today, when I wrote this, but Prey was called Prey 2 once upon a time. And Prey 2 had a very different premise. Whatever we want to say about what that game could or would have been is somewhat irrelevant at this juncture, but I believe there is something to say about prejudices that develop over time, fostered and molded by delays or exchange of ownership, to say nothing of reimagining.
I believe that Prey was anticipated for a long, long time. And after the cancellation of whatever software we saw represented by that snazzy 2011 trailer, people just sort of moved on, so when the game was reinvented and pumped out, people were just kind of like“...Oh.”
And I understand how and why that happens. And most of the time we don’t miss much. Too Human probably would have been better received and better designed if the original vision had been executed on the GameCube or Playstation, rather than the complete overhaul seen on the Xbox retail offering. But in this case, I believe the final presentation outshines the original idea by a wide margin, and hopefully I’ve done a good job of explaining why.
But most importantly I hope simply that these thoughts will goad you into giving this game a shot.
Prey is a masterpiece. There are many other good things I can say about it but I’ve done my best to keep this review spoiler-free. I have heard from several corners that the later part of the game sags a little. I can’t comment on that because I don’t know exactly where I am in the game! But I can tell you that I am enjoying it immensely. I am playing this game with a fervor I’ve not felt since Breath of The Wild. And before that, I couldn’t even tell you, it’s been so long.
If you’re on the fence, wait for a Steam Sale and pick it up. Seriously, don’t miss this one. You’ll break my heart.
And with that, I’m off to play some more. Good night, fellow Gaffers. It’s time to play the mind game.
Decent sized read ahead. I hope you enjoy it!
Prey is the greatest game I never heard of. I started playing it this week and I have pumped hours and hours into it. I do not know how far into the story I am, but I can tell you that I love this game, which is easily a 9.5. And I almost, almost never got to play it. In the months leading up to its release I never batted an eye at it. Never looked at any articles for it, never watched the E3 trailer or any of the pertinent media that was subsequently released. Any time I saw it on IGN it looked like just another generic shooter. I knew so little about this project I didn't even know Arkane was the dev. If it hadn't been for Digital Foundry's GOTY list (Found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3_zc7iMPkU) I would never have played this game.
Once I started playing, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why this game was so underrepresented. Highest ranked version is 84% on Metacritic? Wat. I think I know why now, but we'll get to that later.
Before I start I should give you my thesis statement: This game is remarkably lean, and you will hear me hammer at this on numerous occasions in this discussion, but it’s a remarkable feat; there is no unnecessary content- there are no characters that make you ask "Why do they exist?". There is no weapon or utility that is not useful in a way that makes your shoulder relax upon acquisition. Everyone and everything has a precise purpose in Prey, and it’s refreshing in a way that’s difficult to explain but unmistakable when you play. In an era of millions of mindless sidequests, forgettable NPC’s and junk that ends up truly being junk after holding it for 40 hours, the weapons, gear, abilities, characters and objectives (Both primary and miscellaneous) in Prey all feel deliberate and lovingly crafted.
In short, everything in this game exudes purpose, indisputably making this game an outlier in the current era of the industry.
Another thing this game really has going for it is the graphical presentation, which is in a way an extension of the aforementioned. The beauty of this game is in the practicality of the world presented- there’s nothing outlandish or gratuitous. This is the opposite of the modern Star Wars media, giving you a world that plausibly blooms from our current one. When I first picked up the shotgun I was somewhat underwhelmed because it looked simply like a shotgun with one or two futuristic garnishes- such as the rounded ammo counter bending around the curvature of the receiver. But this down-to-earth approach grew on me very quickly, especially when I realized that this device was consistent throughout the crafted universe of Prey. Everything, down to the way the doors are designed, and the way they open, is rooted firmly in a creative but believable projection of how our technology would develop in the next decade or so.
Presentation is also dynamic. There are dark corridors but there are brightly lit lobbies and cubical offices. There are gardens with lush foliage and synthetic waterfalls that will somehow manage to both relax and unnerve. And littered everywhere throughout these settings are glowing treasures for you to pick up and use.
I know that gameplay is ultimately what makes a game, but the right visual style can truly enhance those things and demonstrably so in Prey. There are many games wherein new equipment gives greater degrees of freedom and depth, but that expansion feels a bit hollow because the appropriate visual representation of that augmentation is either missing or misfired.
This game reminded me that when excellent graphics and gameplay are mixed well, delight ensues.
I won’t spend too much time on the music simply because there isn’t a whole lot to say. The music is incredible. Jack Wall and Sam Hulick did us all an enormous favor ten years ago with Mass Effect, revitalizing interest in 80’s style blending of electronic music with orchestral scoring. I don’t know if that was the sole origin of the resurgence, but I do know that it was a prominent one, and Prey OST composer Mick Gordan has picked it up and wielded it like a ninja, doing something that is distinctly his own. There’s simply nothing about the music in this game that I would change. It is futuristic, clean, and cannot be confused with the work of any other.
Finally I move now to the gameplay itself, and it’s difficult to convey how much I love it.
I suppose I should start by saying System Shock 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. And it is clear to me that the team at Arkane has similar tastes.
This game is, for the most part, System Shock 3. There are plenty of thematic and narrative based nods to the System Shock universe—such as the“Looking Glass”, as well as outright homages. There are terms lifted straight out of SS2, such as“Grav Shaft” and“Psy Hypo”. Presentational tributes aside, the game elements are constructs that evolved from the groundwork laid by Ken Levine’s team back in 1999. The things that were perfect about System Shock 2 have been preserved. The things that were ambitious but projected in a less than flawless fashion have been reformed. And the things that were atrocious have been eliminated.
Once more, this speaks to Arkane’s resolve to trim every ounce of fat from this game, leaving nothing but dense gameplay into which you can sink your teeth and shake. This appears to have been their battle cry in this project, the moniker of“Nothing wasted”. To see such a motif so prevalent and so faithfully sustained throughout an entire work is for lack of a stronger term impressive, and makes a bold statement about the unified vision the entire team had during their work. The“NeuroMod” factor is akin to intellectual crack, and will have you drawing out charts and tables plotting out how to best spend your ability points. I need to bolden the font on this thought; I have been up until the wee hours of the weekend pouring blueprints out on paper, flowcharts and all, deliberating over how to proceed with my precious ability currency. Without getting too deep into spoilers, I will add that there are thematic, story-based incentives to consider your path of abilities carefully, and these narrative-driven stipulations dovetail delightfully with gameplay nuances that leave you feeling warm inside, and give you a sense of weight to your choices that goes beyond“Paragon = Blue and Renegade = Red”.
Okay I’m done taking potshots at ME. I should also add that I already have an idea of what I want to do for my second playthrough- by the way, this game is so good, with so much breadth, I know I will play it at least two more times after this run.
I really can’t emphasize that enough. Each ability has clear purpose and significant value. Let’s face it, some of the abilities in System Shock 2 were well intended but not always usefully implemented without alterations such as SecMod and other community software. Arkane looked at every single ability and made sure it was worth getting, and the price of each one is enough to make you say“Ooooh!” and“Buuuuuuttt...” right after another. You will agonize over the choices. When you make your selection you will experience fear, wondering if you did the right thing. And then you will smile in delight when you put your newly acquired mechanism to use. That is intentional. It’s nerve-wracking and it’s fun.
I anticipate that conventional weapons will be a first act crutch for most, and that the perception will be that they should phase out as the player delves further into the work. That is likely the natural progression for many and the game itself seems to direct you to experiment with the more abstract and otherworldly aptitudes, but the pistol and shotgun combo are endgame viable, just like everything else. Ammo is sparse but will accumulate for those who play smart, and the modifications available to those who invest will deliver significant yield.
And that leads me to perhaps the greatest compliment I could give this game: there truly is no wrong way to go about doing what you need to do, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a combination of abilities that soars above any other. I know that many games have advertised this, but in the vast majority of titles your style will be pigeonholed into one or two aisles, with the other options serving only as shoehorned afterthoughts, presented for the purpose of giving you multiple options“if you really, really wanna go that way.” Prey turns its nose up at this idea, and bestows upon you an air-tight list of selections and the perfect blend of geography with which to utilize them. In Prey, you are never in danger of locking yourself into a build that will doom you. You are always, however, in constant danger of having to change the way you play.
Here’s another way to look at it: go to YouTube and search for“Prey Builds”. No consensus. Can you hear me smiling?
What beauty, what newness of life that has been breathed into video games with this.
Moving on. In keeping with the tradition of the System Shock gameplay, there is seldom any one technique or path to your objective. The game bestows gargantuan rewards to those who experiment, and you will be surprised to see how far creative use of the“Gloo Gun” will take you, if you’re able to breech the confines built upon years of being subjected to unimaginative, restrictive gaming.
Inventory management becomes a minigame unto itself, a pseudo-FreeCell delight to scratch your OCD itch. Hacking is done in a different and slightly less frustrating fashion than what we find in BioShock. Chipsets offer plenty of passive abilities for you to mull over and swap out, and they can provide quite a boon if you’re calm and calculated enough to recognize the appropriate situations.
The PsychoScope comes into play during what I presume is the first or second act, and the augmented perceptive abilities instantaneously afforded to me were instantaneously obvious and marvelous. I said the word“Oh,” and sat there slackjawed for a few moments until the beautiful musical accompaniment died down, almost as if the game knew I would need a moment or two to wrap my mind around this new toy.
The curved ascension of your growth in power is clear, unbroken and exponential. At the outset you will feel week and helpless compared to your adversaries, and at some point during the long, subtle crescendo you will realize that you are no longer the prey, but a cybernetically augmented wrecking ball. The sense of paranoia instilled early on never completely fades, as you will encounter more progressively dangerous and potent foes, but there will come a time when you will look at Mimics and Phantoms (who once stalked you down dark corridors) and see nothing but bags of delicious loot, ripe for your plucking. This provides harmony for the increasingly complex powers you accumulate, making you feel powerful and making you feel like progress is being made. No Final Fantasy VIII garbage here.
And it’s likely a disservice to tack this last point on like some sort of appendix, but I should mention that the crafting system in Prey is meaningful and fun. It’s probably fun because recycling stuff is really, really helpful. I remember having mixed feelings when I discovered BioShock’s charming but very simple crafting system, and I remember being utterly frustrated with Fallout 3’s complex but burdensome. Prey brings the two together into a system that is both fun and devoid of frustration, at least to all who plan carefully. Making virtually everything convertible into useful materials, but having only four material types, is a best of both worlds approach.
And it never gets old. You’re going to condition yourself to salivate whenever you see a heap of debris, or whenever you unload a bunch of junk into the recycler. Just hit that button and all that stuff becomes beautiful glistening cubes of yumminess.
If you’re like me, having little to no exposure to the media leading up to the release of this game, hopefully this article has given you a nudge toward what I consider to be one of the most joyful surprises in the history of gaming. Prey does so many things right, the slightly above average reception is an absolute enigma to me. BioShock Infinite received greater praise and established a more widespread following that its predecessor, but I believe Infinite to be the inferior of BioShock and much more so of Prey.
So what happened? Why did IGN give this game... an 8? I’m betting it had a lot to do with the development time, paired with the game’s total overhaul. I didn’t know this until today, when I wrote this, but Prey was called Prey 2 once upon a time. And Prey 2 had a very different premise. Whatever we want to say about what that game could or would have been is somewhat irrelevant at this juncture, but I believe there is something to say about prejudices that develop over time, fostered and molded by delays or exchange of ownership, to say nothing of reimagining.
I believe that Prey was anticipated for a long, long time. And after the cancellation of whatever software we saw represented by that snazzy 2011 trailer, people just sort of moved on, so when the game was reinvented and pumped out, people were just kind of like“...Oh.”
And I understand how and why that happens. And most of the time we don’t miss much. Too Human probably would have been better received and better designed if the original vision had been executed on the GameCube or Playstation, rather than the complete overhaul seen on the Xbox retail offering. But in this case, I believe the final presentation outshines the original idea by a wide margin, and hopefully I’ve done a good job of explaining why.
But most importantly I hope simply that these thoughts will goad you into giving this game a shot.
Prey is a masterpiece. There are many other good things I can say about it but I’ve done my best to keep this review spoiler-free. I have heard from several corners that the later part of the game sags a little. I can’t comment on that because I don’t know exactly where I am in the game! But I can tell you that I am enjoying it immensely. I am playing this game with a fervor I’ve not felt since Breath of The Wild. And before that, I couldn’t even tell you, it’s been so long.
If you’re on the fence, wait for a Steam Sale and pick it up. Seriously, don’t miss this one. You’ll break my heart.
And with that, I’m off to play some more. Good night, fellow Gaffers. It’s time to play the mind game.
