Alright to illustrate the differences between System Shock and Bioshock for the people who are confused or haven't played them:
System Shock is an RPG that happens to be in first person.
To highlight this fact the first time I played the game 2 or 3 years ago, I built a character that was primarily based around Psionic abilities, Hacking. I got gun training as one of the first choices out of several in the beginning of the game that gives your character stats and abilities, training. These all are pretty neat choices that are accompanied by some neat visuals and some flavor text describing the duration of your characters training and what it was like.
I didn't know that in order to use that shiny pistol I got from one of the early choice proficiencies, I couldn't even fucking use because I didn't spec points into firearms use.
It was amazing the moment you enter a fight realizing you can only use a wrench to defend yourself. This also gets interesting when you interact with things in the environment without hacking ability, it is a vastly different experience.
Mind you this isn't a problem too much at first if you play the game stealthily because the game allows you to do it, and it isn't some hackneyed thing, it is yet another systemic layer. In this case the game plays similar to the Thief or Dishonored when you don't use powers and move slowly.
All throughout SS2 supplies are limited given what has happened on the Van Buren and later the Rickenbacker(bacher?Bocker?), so the game is very survival horror in that avoidance of enemies is a good idea to save resources(health, Psionic Energy, Various Ammo types, key cards, etc).
Also the UI and everything? That is actually part of the games systems and world lore. You have to open up your inventory, use items, examine things, play voice recordings or read emails or messages. You even get objectives occasionally through it, you level up your character in certain ways through it and physical terminals in certain parts of the world.
Most of the Van Buren can actually be traveled freely back and forth, it's a hub. I know because I got lost multiple times and found myself back at the start or in different areas I hadn't even been in before. The later levels get more and more linear and less mazelike in their complexity, this covers both verticality as well as just pure level space filled with rooms, threats, items, audio logs, etc.
Weapons degrade and break down, they can be repaired with repair kits, they can also jam causing you to have to go into your inventory menus(real time like dark souls if I remember correctly) to have to manually clear or repair them when they break.
Likewise if you find a broken weapon, have the skills and a repair kit to do repair it you can do that.
The psionic tree is complex and takes tons of points to invest in, all of the powers are pretty varied and are split into differing strengths, types, roles, etc. It's pretty indepth, and is yet another systemic part of the game that the enemies can also use against you.
The one thing I hate about SS2 is the alarm system and respawning enemies that Bioshock also mined for its design for some obtuse fucking reason.
Bioshock you can pretty much wield everything and do everything, BS2 even more so. I mean yeah you have RPG lite character development, and similar systemic gameplay that has been streamlined in comparison to how open natured SS2 and hell especially SS1 is in comparison to later entries.
There are parts of SS2 that are so dread inducing I can't even describe what is like to play through them. It's a great game with great antagonists with layers upon layers in the way the game world works and the game itself works for players.
The music in SS2 is fucking awful I turned that shit off after 30 seconds.
The sense of presence in games like Dishonored 1 and 2, Deus Ex, Thief1 and 2,SS1 and SS2, are all key things that the genre of immersive sims really define them. There is a living breathing world filled with possibilities within a semi linear story structure. The gameplay itself is nonlinear, the player really isn't restricted to doing things completely in a certain way and there are builds in the case of SS1 and 2.
Bioshock has no real inventory system, but copies most of the design philosophy of its predecessor which makes sense given the pedigree. There are no builds though, I mean sure there are ways to make weapon combos more effective, upgrade your powers but that doesn't really make your build any different. I mean SS2 has an entire defensive psionic ability page, going from memory.
Inventory management is something that is key in the game, that BS as a series avoids entirely. I mean research requires certain chemicals, parts of enemies, time, and if I remember correctly, skill levels. There were boons beyond a lore entry for researching enemies as well, in fact some primary objectives in the game require you to do science based stuff with chemicals and things and equipment to progress. Also, if you don't activate the revival chambers you die starting at your last save or quick save.
Bioshock 2 is a far better game than BS1, in every conceivable way and thematically supercedes the Randian hellhole capitalist science utopia gone wrong of bioshock with a wonderful Orwellian, 1984ish borderline Jungian Freudian facade over the dead and dying one. The Big Sisters were a great play and I loved how they turned out.
System Shock and System Shock 2 are more akin to something like Alien, a dubious company does dubious, evil shit to everyday people in the name of everyday profits in the future. There are tons of elements of what people call Cyberpunk in them that really defines them visually and the world around it, the systems, everything. Bioshock takes that approach more in aesthetics rather than systemic gameplay. The complexity just isn't there.
But BS1 and 2 both fail at really being SHOCK games, specifically SYSTEM SHOCK games and being true immersive sims.
The Looking Glass Studios games are perfect and hallowed for a reason, I mean I love Bioshock but as someone that played SS1 and 2 after playing Bioshock, the originals surpass the sequels in concept and execution, story, in just about every conceivable way.
Dishonored was was basically Thief: The Dark Project, Dishonored 2 was basically Thief 2: The Metal Age.
Prey is a system shock game through and through from what I've seen and read, it's wearing an old IP's skin but it looks and sounds to have that Immersive Sim genre gameplay, story, and everything I want.
The real System Shock 3 isn't here but I will gladly grade this new contender tonight fairly but accordingly because it gives no fucks about what it is, fans of the genre know what it is. I love Arkane, they have made some of the best games of the last five years with my favorite game only being toppled by Alien Isolation because I love the universe.
I don't know if it will click with the everyday joe, but if it is anything like SS2 you can dump points at a certain point to become a walking machinegun, pipe swing maniac on stimulants.
Will it be the a return to form for the genre? I don't know, Dishonored gave me hope, Dishonored 2 gave me reaffirmation, can they do it again with a new team?
I want to believe that maybe 2017 is completely awful, rotten to its core.
Maybe, just maybe Prey will be pretty fucking alright, even if it wasn't the Bounty Hunter game.
It's taken me awhile to really come around on the idea of this game but really, what can we lose? This game has the potential, and I've felt that about a lot of the different games Bethesda has published, stuff like The Evil Within, Wolfenstein: The New Order and Old Blood, the Dishonored series, and DOOM 4 have all turned out to be excellent.
I can only hope to find out in a in roughly an hour and a half.