Loving it. What a great game Prey is.

But the traumas are hardly noticed and have added little to my experience. A bit of a letdown as I reckoned they'd cause a shift in how I played. I've done essentially everything up to the first trip down the G.U.T.S., and so far I've been third-degree burned twice and had one hemorrhage and one concussion. These cause minor inconveniences. For example when the burn status is active, it simply limits max health until you take care of it. So if your max health is normally 115, it will be 105 until you remove the burned status. I play very cautiously, always sure of my surroundings and aware of threats so it's not often I get taken by surprised or dog-piled. The burns came from corrupted operators who got too close.

But overall, I'm finding it rare that things get out of hand enough to have one of the trauma statuses applied. Bigger dangers await, so we'll see how it goes from here. The bigger effect on my game is playing on Hard. I must have played on Normal before, because enemies certainly deal more damage, a single hit from a Mimic can take over half of your health in the early stages. It's been too long since I played to say if the AI is harder at this level, but they certainly hit harder.

It's fun playing Prey again, it's a game right in my wheelhouse. the opening stages are worth it alone, from the neat intro credits roll, through the point where you see what is really going on, and then discovering the true nature of the situation inside Talos. This sort of thing has been done before of course, but Arkane really polished it all up and put an innovative spin on it. It's not quite the same a second or third time, since you already know, but anyone playing Prey for the first time must do themselves a favor and avoid spoilers until you are well in to it, and better yet, none at all. It's a game that is best when you don't already know what's about to happen, as all games are really. But Prey especially.

Remember the movie "When a Stranger Calls"? It had a plot twist that had impact when you didn't know it was coming. The remake a few years ago, actually put this twist in the trailers! Sheesh. Don't compromise the experience by knowing it ahead of time. I'm really digging the new run, I remember enough to make it smooth and intuitive, but forget enough that I can still be surprised.

I'm still working on the game off and on myself. Still my first play through. It really is a great and well made game. I can't imagine the survival aspect would be fun for me on this game. As most of that seemed to come after the original release, because it wasn't built into the main game I think it would feel too shallow and tacked on for me to enjoy. I need to have a great story and narrative along with good gameplay. I tend to HATE "trials" and "arena" type modes in games. I don't find them fun and for me it actually detracts and potentially dilutes what should be solely devoted and concentrated into the main single player game. I finished the main game of God of War recently which was great but even though they are cool looking, unfortunately the two remaining realms I never traveled to are basically one big trials level and one big arena type level. There is some new dialogue between characters which is nice but these two game modes make the original game world and its enemies feel like nothing more than NPC fodder instead of the lore-based interesting foes that you initially encounter. It cheapens it for me which I hate. Its the same idea I hated in some of the later Ghost Recon games. You'd start your training tutorial level and instead of the developers making a kill house with dummies or use non-lethal weapons against adversarial clothed friendlies they literally had you kill, while in TRAINING, the same stinkin' generic enemy NPCs you would go on to face in the game. That makes encountering enemies during the story not feel like real enemies. Lazy, cheap and immersion destroying in my opinion.

Currently in Prey I have 58 hours. I only recently got to the reactor level so I don't know how far in the story it is. I shouldn't take such long breaks in between game time as I forget what's going on. I've been playing this first play through for about two years I guess. I love the space walking stuff and most things feel great. I wish the powers were easier to switch between. I do like that the action pauses when in your wheel inventory but it is a little awkward still to switch powers and it feels like it stunts the combat momentum too much. I also like the audio log stuff. I love lore building mechanics in game such as listening to audio logs, reading documents or being able to pick up and examine in game objects in a full 3D way. Its such a simple yet significant and impactful lore building tool.

Of all the first person shooters I've ever played, I'd say the beginning of Prey was the most intriguing and surprising. It was definitely one of those memorable big gaming moments for me.

I agree Panzer. Things aren't always as they seem is a recurring theme, isn't it? The mimics are a manifestation of this in the form of an enemy. Pretty clever really.

I'm pretty far along in this new run, just about to enter Deep Storage, having spent yesterday clearing out Crew Quarters. I said that I did a hybrid run earlier and installed Typhon mods up to the detection point. Well, that's just two mods, which is nothing. This time I've gone right past that in to turrets-hate-me mode. Turrets aren't much of a threat, and they aren't much of a help either. I found I was spending a lot of spare parts keeping them running. Every time you return to that level the newly spawned Typhon have wrecked all the defenses, requiring another round of repairs. Not worth it really, aside from early on when you can use all the help you can get.

This time through I got the scrounging perks and as a result am able to fabricate a lot of neuromods and so I have more abilities. It's on Hard this time, but even then it's not imperative. Just having fun playing with a more diverse character, with more abilities on call. Psychoshock and shotgun combo is strong against the toughest enemies, but there are many ways to approach it. I use the disruptor stun gun a lot too. The silenced pistol was important early, but now I just use it for mimics. I actually killed a Nightmare with one too, but I played him for a fool and took advantage of the fact they cannot unlock doors. I've seen way many more Nightmares this time, because of the Typhon mods I'm sure.

Because of my playstyle, minerals are the bottleneck for me, mostly spent on shotgun shells. With the Necropsy perk exotic mats are plentiful.

I haven't seen much new, as I was thorough in my earlier runs. I did get a different pistol that I don't think I got in the first run. A little better than the first one. Anything else would be too much spoiler. Not sure what the statute of limitations is on game spoilers, but I won't do it. Maybe someone will be tempted to play Prey based on this thread, and any spoilers would ruin it.

I still love the microgravity gameplay. That doesn't seem to get old for me. The pace of Prey is excellent. Exploration, stealth, cool abilities, a fantastic world with top-tier level design and a good story. So much to like about this game. I even love the way info is displayed. The way messages pop, flash, and fade, and even the font. The audio cues. It's appealing. Arkane knows what they are doing.

Thief 2 was the first game where I began to notice these touches. The sound T2 played when you completed an objective remains one of my favorite to this day. I still vividly recall the Bank mission, and how much time I spent casing the joint looking for a way in. I found one, and as I slipped in that awesome sound played and I smiled the smile of the accomplished haha. Something satisfying about it. Prey hits these points. It's a minor thing that most may not notice all that much, but these sorts of finishing touches add a lot to a game for me. Arkane are really good at it.

I still have a lot of the game ahead of me. One goal is to find every crew member, which I hadn't done in previous runs. There are a few achievements I am hunting on this run, but most I got in earlier runs. I think finding all crew will be hard without spoilers. I can use security terminals, but can only track one at a time, so that could be tedious. So we'll see.





I think you are probably right. I'm running oxygen and traumas and both are hardly noticed. I like having them, because it gives me more to consider, more to be prepared for, more attention for being kitted out properly. But after a while, the things you need to fix up are plentiful. I'm carrying 30 suit repair kits and am now recycling anything over that. So it's not a big deal. Interestingly, these things are not 'tacked on', but were in the game from the start, and then removed prior to release. So while Coot's conclusion is probably accurate, it actually happened in reverse.

I can't remember if this topic has been brought up before but I was also impressed with the people Arkane got to do the voice acting.


1. Benedict Wong - Most people probably know him for his roles in Dr. Strange and the Avengers movies.

2. James Hong - A prolific character actor who has been in Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, War of the Worlds (remake), an X-Files episode and also did a voice for the Kung Fu Panda animated movies.

3. Elya Baskin - Another prolific character actor who has been in 2010, Air Force One, Transformers, Spider Man 2 and 3, etc.

Prey is a game that deserves way more sales of several orders of magnitude greater than they've had. As far as single player games are concerned, it is among the best of all time.

Arkane is a wonderful studio. Anyone who has never played Arx Fatalis, should. That was one of their first games but there are some characters/cultures that were quite memorable, even a decade after I played through it. I'm a Ultima Underworld fan, though, which Prey and Arx both owe their roots to.

I'm hoping Cyberpunk follows in their footsteps, but it may turn out it is closer to Elder Scrolls games than the Underworld genre--although even Elder Scrolls owes part of its lineage to Underworld, also.

Right on Blastman, and it was actually your last post in this thread that really inspired me to try the Survival options and give Prey another go. Turns out they are minor additions, but still, it adds something to the gameplay.

About Cyberpunk. It's really the only game I am looking forward to. I watched the first video Steam has on their Store page yesterday and I want to play this even more now. Can't wait.

I've read articles on this very topic and one major conclusion seems to be ineffective marketing. I don't know about you but I had no clue about "Prey" until a couple of months after it was released and then I found out about the game from word of mouth and how it was a sci-fi shooter that was originally supposed to be the successor to the "Prey" shooter from over a decade earlier that featured a Native American main character.

I just watched it as well. It really looks like Altered Carbon: The Video Game.

There's some talk that the name itself affected sales.

Maybe if it had been called Neuroshock or something it would have sold better.

Regardless of what it's called, I'm surprised it didn't do better considering Arkane's recent track record with the immersive sim genre. It's not a moniker I like all that much, immersive sim, but I'd reckon Prey should have ridden Dishonored's coattails to more success. What are the actual figures?

Maybe our unstinting praise of the game will result in a few more sales.

The first Prey was really good, and I enjoyed the American Indian aspect of it--their culture has always been pretty interesting. I also recall hearing about Prey before it was released, but I recall there being some confusion as to why there was no more American Indian culture in the game. They did a pretty poor job explaining it had nothing to do with Prey and everything to do with System Shock.

Perhaps a different name would have helped them sell more copies.?

But even a good name can't overcome bad marketing.

There's so much good to be talked about in Prey. The climbing and crawling mechanics! How many games have such fluid motion of your character where you can literally climb up to the highest areas of a level and then manage to hide among the tightest spaces trying to outflank your opponent and catch them from behind? Prey does this so well! Better than any other game I've played.

I'll have to dig up the article online but while no official numbers were given, the article mentioned that Dishonored 2's sales were a significant drop from the first Dishonored. It's my theory that the drop wasn't due to any perceived drop in quality but due to changing tastes of the mainstream gaming market.

+1


I'm convinced this was a significant factor behind the lackluster sales.

Who the voice actors are has never meant anything to me, other than Steven Russel has to be Garrett. What matters to me is how well the voice actors act

Prey is again excellent here. The voice acting is superb, the dialog is well written, and it seems to find that nice middle ground of being useful and interesting while at the same time not being excessive and drawn out. It all serves a purpose, even if it isn't immediately evident why. You could listen to a message in the opening Neuromod Division level and not have it mean anything until many areas later. Matter of fact, a lot of this was missed by me until the second and third run, where these sorts of touches become evident. Names of the crew start to register and it all ties more tightly together. It's very difficult to piece it together sometimes unless you were taking notes, or, playing more than once when it all starts to become more evident.

It's never really mattered to me if a game has known actors voicing the roles. I really don't care about that stuff. Dishonored had a bunch, and while it makes an interesting talking point, in the end I couldn't care less if the voice actor is famous. That's more for marketing folks and those within the company who set the budget. I'd imagine they could cut a big slice off the budget if they were paying voice actors scale. It's not that I don't want these name actors in my games, more that I really don't care if they are. None of this was PMs point, but just my take on the matter.

I mentioned it before in this thread a couple years ago now. But if there is one thing I would single out as poorly designed in this game it's the hacking. I really do not like it. I've gone level 2 hacking mod in this run, but that's just for expedience. Honestly I'd rather take longer to find an alternative way in than do more of this hacking.

I agree with all of you on Prey's quality down to player feedback and ques which I love seeing more in more in new games. There's so many clever ways now to give players information without having to have obstructive HUD clutter or intrusive, game stopping menus and sub menus. However Prey does include lots of the kinds of extra special effects that I tend to hate in games. Like too many sound effects that are not only abrasive but for some reason are set to an excruciating decibel level. Also too many flashy "fake" type Movie effects that just seem to fry my brain and nerves and can be a little overwhelming or even oppressive. I love the GLOO gun in Prey. I like how it not only slows enemies but canwhich is very clever. As Dbond mentioned too, I think the mimic class enemies are a really cool and clever enemy type. I'm not sure I've seen a game create such a unique enemy class. I was going to say what they do but like Dbond says, we should be considerate of spoilers just in case. I edited my last post for something that I did not realize at the time was a little spoiler.

I like a good voice actor too but I had no idea who voice acted in Prey so thanks PM for posting that. I especially know the last two character actors very well. The Asian man I'm certain I've seen in tons of shows in movies including MacGyver and other 80s/90s television shows. Isn't the other gentleman a Russian defector in real life too? I think I may have even seen him in a MacGyver episode playing a Russian defector on tv. The first guy looks familiar. Was he Genghis Khan in the Marco Polo series?

Speaking of Dishonored 2, I'm currently frustrated with that title and simply because it runs like crap. I've tried everything and have seen many others with issues as well as others supposedly showing improvements by way of sometimes extensive workarounds. I don't know what frame pacing is but this seems to be what most folks are saying is the game's performance issue. I have a GTX 970 so I don't know if perhaps a step up or two in video card will help. This card however has and continues to serve me well. What's also frustrating is that the performance is extremely inconsistent and all over the place. I tend to think the game has some sort of memory issue too maybe. The quality and story still seem to be there as with the first game which I loved and played through twice but its borderline unplayable for me most of the time. There will be like one corner of the city that slows to a crawl while another smooths up but mostly its consistently bad performance. Prey still amazes me that I can run at max and ultimate which I not only normally can not do in any game, I certainly can't do it in a Cryengine game. Arkane did an amazing job using that engine and optimizing it. I wish Dishonored 2 could have likewise followed suit.

Also speaking of voice actors, I never looked into who performs him but I love the voice acting work of Daud. That guy does a great job.

The GTX 970 is quite a bit outdated now for current day games but there are indeed performance issues with the graphics engine in Dishonored 2. A LOT of people complained about it online but it seems that it was never fixed.

D2 ran great for me, aside from the opening section of the Clockwork Mansion level, where my frames dropped from 60 to 30. Otherwise it ran smoothly. Prey's like butta too. I played D2 on a 1070. I just looked at Steam to see when I last played, which would in turn tell me which video card I was using, and it says I haven't played it since July of 2017? Can it be that long ago already? Sheesh. I'm going to have to give that game another run too I think.




Yeah, that's a good point. It may sound strange, but I like it. Prey's the sort of game I have to play with headphones, and you're right, some of the sounds played when new messages pop or you've completed an objective are brain-rattling. Like you really need to have such an auditory assault when a Nightmare starts hunting you. But when that resonance hits me I feel it, and for me it adds to the game. It's completely out of place in one sense, but it has some level of visceral appeal to me. At the very least it should be a toggle, as I can see that some players would want to turn it off. I would think I would too, a stealth game doesn't need booming bass out of nowhere. Instead, I find it oddly awesome, like the game is shot through me. I have it turned up pretty loud in the phones too. Not my usual thing, but Prey has great soundscape.

The Clockwork Mansion and the derelict mansion where you keep alternating between two different timelines are among the most memorable levels I've ever played in any first person shooter.

Oh yeah, for sure PM. We talked about it a bit in the D2 thread. I have to admire the level of creativity that Arkane has to come up these things. And then to pull it off technically and mechanically on top of it. Playing those missions I felt I was seeing what I wanted Thief 4 to be. I keep hoping Arkane will be given a greenlight on a new Thief game, and they've already worked with Steven Russel. If anyone can give me the Thief game I think we should have now by 2020 it's these guys. I'd love to see what they could do with that IP and today's technical and graphical possibilities. There's such a direct lineage for me between the Looking Glass games and Arkane games that it just seems like something that HAS to happen. The term spiritual successor is used a lot, but it's especially true in this case. Thief to Dishonored and System Shock to Prey. Now give us Thief to Thief, ya know?

Back to Prey, I think I might have a shot at finding all of the crew members. It will just as probably come down to one without a bracelet that I can't find. But I saw the total number on the 'net and I'm not so far away already. We'll see.

This is the first run where I've invested heavily in Typhon mods and they're sick. Well, a couple are. Psychoshock is amazing. In my first run, I installed Psychoshock I, which in itself is really good. Now I have Psychoshock III and it wrecks. I tend to shy away from OP mechanics, preferring to keep some semblance of challenge. But this is just so much fun, and challenge is great and all, but so is exploding Phantoms in a blink. Even the biggest and baddest enemies, like Telepaths and Technopaths are taken out with a shock-shotgun combo in a few shots.

I also have installed the Mimic mod and Electrostatic Burst for dealing with any operators bunched together. The stun gun is great too, especially when upgraded. I plan to get mind-jack too, but not sure how many chances are left to use it. Having hostile turrets is not a reason to avoid using these alien abilities, even though that's what I thought my first time through. But turrets are push overs, literally and figuratively and most are taken out by the Typhon anyway.

And even though I don't seem to mind my god-like powers with top-tier Psychoshock, I draw the line at combat focus and have never used it. Just not how I want to play, but I know it is very powerful. I just reached the Cargo Bay in the main story.

What you described concerning the Typhon abilities and making the game too easy is a fundamental pitfall of any shooter that offers powerful augmentations. It happened to me with all of the Star Wars Jedi games as well as the Deus Ex games. For example, once you have the top tier "Force Push" power in some of the Star Wars games you don't even need to fight melee anymore! Just push all of your enemies off a cliff and you're done.


edit: I do believe there's an achievement in Prey for finishing the game without using ANY neuromods. Now that is hardcore.