I havent reached the alien skills yet, so I cant turn into a mug. Thats the big gimmick everyone knows about, right? Imagine thinking the game is so brill when I havent even been a mug for a second. And it is brill. All my uncertainties about the creatures and the combat might diminish or become more acute as the game goes on, but at its core Prey is closer to the Deus Ex and System Shock heir that Ive been waiting for than anything that Ive played in the last ten years.
Where Dishonored and its sequel treated their cities as playgrounds, and gave you the abilities to test each space to its limits, Prey is a more tight and tense design, though also far more open. That might sound contradictory but its all in the design of the spaces youre given to explore and inhabit. Im not just looking for new ways to make use of my toys, Im looking for ways to survive and progress, often limping from one area to the next, or dragging myself back to safety. But every time I approach an area, new or old, I figure out new possibilities.