LTTP: Prey - What if Shodan was a Typhon?

[FliX]

Considering all the dishonored games are great, I love Deus Ex and all things System Shock I am ashamed to admit how long it took for me to take the plunge on this one.

But wow, just finished my second play through and it was an amazing experience from start to finish.
The game is dripping in atmosphere, the game play is really good, the story is engaging and interesting till the end.

Had to lower the difficulty level at various points during the game because I was nope'ing out with those Nightmares and the higher level Typhons can give you a run for your money with the limited amount of resources you have. Not to mention those bloody laser operators...

Special shout out to the soundtrack, which is often times just background music to me personally, but this has some really great songs.
From the very first one

Through the Yellow Tulip Lounge

To the very last song of the credits




Was the game successful? Wish I had picked it up at full price now to support the developers.
But I guess whatever Arkane puts out next I will be there day one. 😊

 

[Kasai]

Prey was amazing.

It had such a lived in feeling, too. I'm a sucker for retro-futurism, but its something that too few games experiment with.

 

[TheIlliterati]

I just played it last week on Game Pass, all Human, saved as many as possible. I thought my ending was really satisfying. I loved the game. I meant to play it for years but hadn't. I hope they make another. This is definitely the SS3 I always wanted.

 

[SofNascimento]

It's a fantastic game and we deserve more games like it.

But I think it has some shortcomings that stop me from calling it top tier. One of them is exactly that it lacks a character as memorable as Shodan.

 

[Silky]

Crazy how Arkane just makes games of the generation without being provoked

Your favorite dev could never tbh

 

[VaporSnake]

I feel confident in saying this is the most underappreciated top tier game of this generation, just a fantastic game top to bottom.

 

[MangoUltz]

Was intrigued by Prey but never picked it up. Must get around to it

 

[Dphex]

one of the finest games this console generation. this game is just great.

I feel confident in saying this is the most underappreciated top tier game of this generation, just a fantastic game top to bottom.

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[Deleted member 29682]

Yeah, Mick Gordon did a fantastic job with the soundtrack. Going from Doom to Prey's much more subdued and sinister ambient soundtrack takes some doing. Tied with Hollow Knight for my favourite game of 2017.

 

[Ryuhza]

My thoughts?

 

[Moist_Owlet]

My favorite game of the last 2 years. Nothing else has come close.

 

[Deleted member 6949]

I'm so glad I was unemployed when Prey came out. Is controller support still fucked on the PC version?

 

[CHC]

It's really special, just like the Dishonored games. Not a game that hits you over the face with its brilliance, but more something you appreciate more as you imagine all the ways the concept could have been done in a worse way, and how much care was put into the environmental design and layout of the station.

I am actually dying to replay it but I'm going to build a new PC soon and am saving it until then. The load times are not so nice on an HDD!

 

[Schopenhauer]

Prey was great, enjoyed it quite a bit more than Dishonored which I loved.

That said, Mooncrash was way more fun. Would have been so amazing if they had added a similar mode to the main game!

 

[Kolx]

Best game Arkane ever developed and one of the finest games ever. Such a shame we're probably never getting a 2nd one.

 

[Kazuhira]

The ending blew my mind,i love the game so much.

 

[FliX]

How well did it do commercially?

 

[Deleted member 29682]

How well did it do commercially?

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I can't find any hard numbers but the general consensus is not very well, for a game of that budget. I vaguely remember somewhere saying it did worse at launch than Dishonored 2, which was itself a step down from Dishonored 1. Don't quote me on that though, if anyone has any numbers at all I'll defer to them.

 

[FliX]

I can't find any hard numbers but the general consensus is not very well, for a game of that budget. I vaguely remember somewhere saying it did worse at launch than Dishonored 2, which was itself a step down from Dishonored 1. Don't quote me on that though, if anyone has any numbers at all I'll defer to them.

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Now I want to know numbers for the dishonored series too. Too bad they are all fantastic games in their own right.

 

[Deleted member 29682]

Now I want to know numbers for the dishonored series too. Too bad they are all fantastic games in their own right.

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According to Techspot, by last August Dishonored 2 sold about 2.5 million in total, whereas Dishonored 1 sold 3 million on PC alone. Don't know if they're a reputable source. If it's any consolation, Arkane games appear to have a pretty long tail.

 

[FliX]

According to Techspot, by last August Dishonored 2 sold about 2.5 million in total, whereas Dishonored 1 sold 3 million on PC alone. Don't know if they're a reputable source. If it's any consolation, Arkane games appear to have a pretty long tail.

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That doesn't sound too bad to me...¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[LebGuns]

My thoughts?

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Plot twist: the bowl is a mimic and it devours that kid's conscious.

 

[Villein]

One of my games of the generation

 

[Sai]

literally one of the best games i've had the pleasure of playing. i originally found out about how cool it was through a let's play i was watching, but they stopped updating for like 2 weeks, and i got impatient and bought it in that time. fucking incredible game, and one of the few games i feel cool with replaying multiple times. i think i've beaten it at least 5-6 times now.

 

[FliX]

I cant even...

 

[Clay]

Overall a great game but it has some glaring issues. Combat goes from being frustratingly hard at the beginning to becoming a total joke once you get the shotgun and some of the better perks, I remember even the huge enemy that stalks you being extremely easy to kill by around the half-way point. I thought the ending was extremely stupid and that it made a lot of early plot points nonsensical. One of the dumbest is

Spoiler

that humans will attack you if they see you using Typhon powers, regardless of how you use them.

There's a scene were you come across a group of humans holed up in a small area and you can decide to what extent you want to go out of your way to help them. I transformed into a mug to get into a cage that held supplies, someone saw me and everyone freaked out and tried to kill me.

As you're playing through the game that makes total sense, obviously everyone is going to freak out that you're not what you seem. But when you see the twist at the end this becomes really stupid in hindsight, you'd think that the guy running the simulation would want to reward the player character for using Typhon powers to help humans. Instead he reinforces that humans will always be distrustful of Typhons regardless of their intentions, which is idiotic when he then asks the PC to help broker peace between the species.

Seemed to me that last twist was thrown in just for the sake of having one last surprise with little though as to how it re-frames prior events.

Other than that it's awesome though. I thought the writing was awesome, they did a great job keeping you in the dark as to the brother character's intentions. There's a lot of really clever lines that can be taken multiple ways based on your assumptions, which will be very different based on how much digging you've done into the audiologs and other supplemental story stuff. There's some really fun mechanics that make you feel clever. The foam darts that activate touch screens were awesome, and figuring out that you can use the Recycler grenades to get rid of objects you would otherwise need the strength perks to move was an extremely memorable moment.

The level and art design is awesome too, the game obviously owes a lot to games like the Shock series but they just absolutely nailed the station, it totally felt like an actual place. Probably my second-favorite setting in any game in its genre right behind Rapture. The beginning is awesome with that first twist right off the bat, the morphing aliens are super creepy and I love you quickly learn to distrust rooms with any element that feels a little off ("Wait a second, why would someone have two garbage cans by their desk!?!").

Despite it's flaws it is great, it's a shame that it seems to be pretty overlooked. I've actually been meaning to replay it, may get on that tonight.

 

[Slay]

Excellent game. I bought the game twice for a couple of my friends and they very much enjoyed themselves. Mooncrash gives a different experience at a similar quality and one of my favorite expansions ever. The only flaw I can recall is the load times on PS4 but they only are a bother at the end when you are frequently traveling throughout.

 

[TheWooniestWoona]

Prey is so dang good. Played through it last year.
My only complaint is I felt the ending was really rushed. It's like they shoved a 15 minute ending into about 5. The story was still satisfying though, so I'm not too upset.

I just loved the world and exploring it.

 

[Pandora012]

Prey is legit one of my favorite games ever. Arkane legit can do no wrong.

 

[Gush]

Fantastic game with some of the best level/world design to date and Mick Gordon's best OST. By far my favourite of the modern immersive sims in almost every way and there were parts I found to be full on breathtaking.

The one place I think it falters is where all of Arkane's games do: the narrative and characters aren't anything special and it hurts Prey a lot to have the storytelling peak within the first hour. It's inoffensive but drab, I guess, like they're going through the motions. Doesn't ruin their games by any means but they've never managed to capture the same level of personality that System Shock, Bioshock, Thief or Deus Ex have even though their settings and lore tend to be very well thought out and developed for the most part.

 

[LavaBadger]

It's an amazing game. It's a real shame more people didn't play it.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Amazing game. One of my favourites in recent years. Loved everything about it and would love more games like Prey. Insanely good world to explore and navigate.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

An excellent game. I don't think it surpasses Deus Ex 1 for me for king of the sub-genre but it's one of the best.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

It's the best game of the genre and one of the best of this gen. It's truly amazing. I didn't even want to play it first but then I got it for cheap and was hooked. I hope we get a sequel. Still disappointed that the DLC was a freakin' roguelike :(

 

[danhz]

i dont like dishonored games, but god, arkane did a great job with this game.

 

[Deleted member 29682]

Still disappointed that the DLC was a freakin' roguelike :(

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I think Mooncrash was great. I wrote it off at first but an immersive-sim/roguelite ended up being a much better concept than I though it'd be. Sure I'd have preferred a full-fat story expansion but there are worse directions they could have taken it (like a fully procedural environment, I'm glad they stuck to a fixed map), and at the very least I appreciate the novelty of a high budget roguelite which requires your runs to cooperate with one another.

 

[smash_robot]

I really enjoyed it too. The biggest flaws for me were the long loading screens and a lot of backtracking in the last third of the game. The backtracking would have been ok without the loading issues, but by the end I was sick of that elevator shaft.

 

[ThereAreFourNaan]

It was a top 3 game of 2017 for me, really great all round.

 

[HK-47]

Don't forget about Mooncrash. It is a wonderful piece of dlc.

 

[ActWan]

The final bit of the game with all the bots and rushing was a big dip in quality. Other than that, this game is phenomenal. Everything I ever wanted

 

[chrominance]

Overall a great game but it has some glaring issues. Combat goes from being frustratingly hard at the beginning to becoming a total joke once you get the shotgun and some of the better perks, I remember even the huge enemy that stalks you being extremely easy to kill by around the half-way point. I thought the ending was extremely stupid and that it made a lot of early plot points nonsensical. One of the dumbest is

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Remember, though:

Spoiler: Ending spoilers

It's a simulation designed to find a candidate that can broker a sort of peace between humans and typhon. Humans can and would totally act like that, even if the typhon is helping them. Any typhon that couldn't hack that environment would be a poor candidate for trying to broker peace; it's going to have to overcome a lot of the prejudices people have from being practically destroyed by the typhon.

I do agree that it comes a little bit out of nowhere, but personally I didn't have a problem with the ending.

 

[N.47H.4N]

I loved this game,much better than I expected.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

I know ERA *LOVES* to hyperbole-but honestly, this was, for me, on par with BOTW for GOTG and EASILY one of the best games i have EVER, EVER played. It blows most of the Sim games that came before it out of the water too. MOST, not all. What a game and the twists blew my shit. The intro twist AND the end twist.

I have realized i have different tastes to most when it comes to games because shit like god of war, uncharted, etc dont do much for me but this one hit me in the special nerve. I cant praise it enough.

 

[SmittyWerbenManJensen]

Amazing game. One of my favorites this gen. I am replaying the Bioshock games right now, and I think I liked Prey a lot more (but Bioshock is still great). I hope there is a sequel.

 

[Ringten]

Amazing game, but the game got a bit too chaotic towards the end. 8/10

 

[KushalaDaora]

Played and finished it recently. God-tier atmosphere, worldbuilding and level design.

The final part is kinda clusterfuck tho and the loading time in OG PS4 sucks.

9/10.

 

[FliX]

I look forward to jumping into the DLC after Memorial Day weekend. 😎😎😎

 

[Deleted member 16876]

Great game that should have had a different IP name. It really should have been called something else because the game is good on it's own and the Prey name hurt it.

I disliked the game because I wanted Prey 2 but when I played it I loved it. Should have called it Cosmic Shock or something.

 

[Pargon]

It's probably my game of the generation so far. It's clearly a flawed game -especially the last 20% or so- but nothing else this generation has grabbed my attention like Prey did. I don't think it's nearly as good a game, but Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is the only other thing to come close. Dishonored 2/DotO were disappointments for me, but their experience was soured by technical issues (poor performance).

I have realized i have different tastes to most when it comes to games because shit like god of war, uncharted, etc dont do much for me but this one hit me in the special nerve. I cant praise it enough.

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Yep.

I'm so glad I was unemployed when Prey came out. Is controller support still fucked on the PC version?

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It never was.
Here's the situation:

1. The game shipped with an option to toggle between XInput and Steam Input support. It does not support both simultaneously, and changing between the two required you to restart the game.
2. They updated the game so that it would automatically use Steam Input if it was enabled, and XInput if not, removing the need to set it manually.

The issue is that some people were using Steam Input for their controllers, but left the game in XInput mode and had assigned legacy XInput commands to the analog sticks in their controller layout.

So when they patched in automatic detection the game used Steam Input, since it was enabled on the controller. But since the profile was outputting XInput commands, the analog sticks wouldn't work.
The solution was to either disable Steam Input for the game, or use Steam Input and assign the correct 'move' and 'aim' commands to the profile.
Someone released a mod that forced the game to use XInput even when Steam Input was enabled, and I believe the latest patch for the game also restores that option.

Now some people were doing this intentionally, as the XInput camera control is smoother.
Steam Input seems like it's mouse-based for look controls, since it was designed for the Steam Controller's touchpads, and it doesn't do fixed-rate turning a smoothly as XInput. But that's a separate issue from the controls "not working", and I don't think it's specific to Prey.


What is actually a problem, is that touching the in-game volume sliders breaks the audio mix.
For some reason not all of the sound effects are flagged correctly, so if you are playing with the volume turned down to 20%, some effects are still played at 100% volume.
You need to leave all the volume sliders at the default and use the system audio mixer (accessible in-game via the Windows 10 Game Bar) if you need to turn down the volume.

 

[Clay]

Remember, though:

Spoiler: Ending spoilers

It's a simulation designed to find a candidate that can broker a sort of peace between humans and typhon. Humans can and would totally act like that, even if the typhon is helping them. Any typhon that couldn't hack that environment would be a poor candidate for trying to broker peace; it's going to have to overcome a lot of the prejudices people have from being practically destroyed by the typhon.

I do agree that it comes a little bit out of nowhere, but personally I didn't have a problem with the ending.

Click to shrink...

I guess, I just don't see what the incentive to work towards peace is in that case.

That's the other major problem with the ending,

Spoiler

you've spent the whole game making these moral choices only to find out not only that they didn't actually matter, but that you're a completely different character with completely different goals, a completely different history. What reason does the Typhon have to choice the "nice" ending, especially when it's had the point hammered home that humans hate it regardless of its intentions? Since you've only known you're a Typhon for all of two minutes it's hard to suddenly evaluate "OK, what exactly do the Typhon mean to me? What happens to me after I save the humans? Does my species still have to overrun other civilizations to survive? Who do I have more allegiance to, and why?"

It basically just boils down to whether you want to see the "good" or "bad" ending first.

I'm also not totally sure I agree with how you're interpreting the ending. It's been awhile but from what I remember it seemed like Earth was pretty fucked. It seemed to me that the player character would mostly be convincing the other Typhon to let the remaining humans survive, humanity doesn't have any negotiating power, and the player character isn't going to be acting as a politician trying to convince skeptical humans that they should go along with its plan to save their race.

Also, I don't think they're trying to "find a candidate," are they? The playable character is literally the only option to ward off the other Typhon. It's always the same Typhon going through the simulation, they just force it to keep repeating events until it learns empathy or whatever (it's unclear to me why they still allow the simulation to end if you've clearly made nothing but immoral choices, though again I could be forgetting details since it's been awhile).

The rest of the game is great enough that a dumb ending isn't reason to avoid it, but I really do think it's awful, especially considering the quality of the rest of the writing. I warned everyone I've recommended the game too to prepare for a BioShock-esque disappointment of an ending.