Arkane PREY - Arkane's immersive coffee cup transformation sim - now with Mooncrash roguelike mode DLC

[ciox]

Like I said before, the Typhon really are straight out from Edge of Tomorrow:

Yes, I noticed this, it's part of a bigger trend of making formless aliens that are "just surviving", see recent movie Life.

 

[Ash]

If we're honest with ourselves this is... quite a bit better than Shock 2. And I really do love System Shock 2. I'll try to explain why:

1) The weapons actually feel good and not clunky / almost all weapons in SS2 are a bit wonky.
2) There's nice environmental interactions that were not possible in SS2.
3) There is quite a bit less hand-holding than SS2. There's no intrusive tutorial and the station opens up in a way SS2 never. I am at a point where I can literally go anywhere I please - and get my ass kicked because it's quite hard.
4) The inventory system is less of a pain.
5) Recycling is fun and rewards hoarding, giving even crap a use.
6) The skill tree is a bit better balanced than in SS2 (which had many borderline useless abilities)
7) There is more freedom in solving puzzles / rooms. There are more options than in System Shock 2 in general: vent, move the obstruction, blow the obstruction away, fight through alternate route, find password, hack, repair, turn into a coffee cup, shoot a button with your nerf gun... that's not even all of them.
8) The weapons combo nicely with one another, making combat as complex as you want it to be.
9) PSI in SS2 was generally trash and a drag; the abilities in this game are instead quite useful, if not as varied.

Sounds like the same garbage Bioshock fanboys spout. TRIGGERED.
Some of it is just plain false to boot. Prey's banal scripted scene and pop up prompt-heavy tutorial is non-intrusive while Shock 2's optional freeform simulated tutorial that trusts the player is the opposite? You smoking crack, son?
Less handholding than SS2? :facepalm:
Dissing Shock 2's God-tier inventory/GUI? Clearly inclined intricacies fly right over your head.
I'll deal with the rest later when I finish the game in full, if I feel like stooping low.

 

[Jasede]

Yes.
Quite a lot less handholding. Right now I can go to like five different deck I haven't been yet, in SS2 you always just go to one. I've more ways to get past obstacles and deal with enemies, and choices on how to handle things with consequences. The SS2 inventory lacks a sort button. And I've had people quit SS2 on me due to the campy opening with ghosts in the first ten minutes and a drab tutorial.

There was no tutorial in Prey. Incline.

I really think you're grasping for points. I love SS2 so I can tell when you're spouting pure nostalgia goggle bullshit. If you actually want to make a case you should focus on the things SS2 objectively does better, not your SJW-style feels and alternative facts:

* SS2 is a better horror game
* The game has a bigger sense of urgency and a more interesting premise and villains
* Monster design and variety is much better

Also, you're the one who sounds triggered. If you had paid attention, I've been shitting on every single BioShock game ever made, always writing - and explaining - consistently why SS2 is superior, even if BioShock art design is nice. You, on the other hand are just some edgy nobody trying to fit in because us older posters tend to hate everything.

Edit: to be fair, my point about recycling is super subjective and I can already see how it would be a pain on replays. I don't weigh this too highly, though; on a replay you should know enough not to need all those materials in the first place

 

[Durandal]

Though Arkane is apparently planning to release a hardcore mode patch, here's how I'd go about it:

-Reduce max stack sizes of everything aside from materials, inventory management should be emphasized and loading yourself with medkits and ammo should come at the expense of other items
-Medkits should heal over time rather than instantly, being able to carry more medkits than you need and not having to spend it on healing limbs like in Deus Ex should be balanced out
-More enemies everywhere, respawned enemy waves should consist of more than a Phantom and his mimic pet and Technopaths/Telepaths/Weavers need to be used more frequently
-You never have ammo troubles with the GLOO Gun to the point . Magazine size needs to be cut from 42 to 12, reload speed should be heavily increased, and the GLOO Gun ammo you find from drops should be heavily decreased
-The amount of times an Operator can fix you in its lifespan should be limited, and furthermore roaming Operators should be more susceptible to corruption when coming close to Typhon
-Reduced spare part use efficiency on higher Repair upgrades
-No craftable Weapon Upgrades or Neuromods at all (unless we're going with limited crafting licenses)
-Reduced recycling gain from materials or increased fabrication costs, the material amount you gain from hoarding is quite frankly too much
-When unupgraded, the stungun has only one shot with a larger charging time (e.g. 2-3 seconds?) to offset how powerful it is against Technopaths and Operators, mag capacity can be upgraded
-Increased sneak attack damage multipliers on the whole
-Science skill that increases medkit efficiency should only go up to 200%
-Rebalanced item placement, especially concerning grenades, f.e. Deus Ex never gave you this many nades
-Some medkits and Psi Hypos on the station could be replaced with trauma-healing items instead
-The Q-Beam is just weird compared to other weapons. I think that enemies hit by it should become more aggressive the more their health bar is replaced with green.

I feel that you need to be put in a situation where you'd have to sacrifice items like medkits or ammo to craft other items you're more likely to need. As it stands you're given too many trash items and other recycleable items that you always have the materials to craft whatever you need.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn GT-I9301I met Tapatalk

 

[Great Deceiver]

I really dislike all the junk hoarding/recycling. It makes finding non-junk less significant (not more), and creates rote busywork that takes away from the tension the game is trying so desperately to create.

 

[Ash]

snip

You seem to be under the impression I'm trying to argue with you which game is better and why. I'm not, as I haven't played enough of Prey to be able to offer any valid contribution in that regard. I was merely pointing out some of your points are retarded, and that your post is oddly reminiscent of shit Bioshock retards spout. "Muh combat is less clunky. Muh SS2 inventory management is such a chore! Wow can use plasmids to interact with the environment! Better game fo sho!"

And I've had people quit SS2 on me due to the campy opening with ghosts in the first ten minutes and a drab tutorial.

By people you mean furry faggots devoid of an attention span.

There was no tutorial in Prey.

The SS2 inventory lacks a sort button.

Maybe, just maybe, it didn't have one by design?

Quite a lot less handholding. Right now I can go to like five different deck I haven't been yet, in SS2 you always just go to one. I've more ways to get past obstacles and deal with enemies, and choices on how to handle things with consequences.

Dude, the game has button prompts, pop-up tutorials, objective markers, objective reminders, loading screen tips and more. No more crack for you.

Right now I can go to like five different deck I haven't been yet, in SS2 you always just go to one. I've more ways to get past obstacles and deal with enemies

More options translates to less handholding and better overall game experience? You must think Skyrim is GOAT-tier then.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Maybe, just maybe, it didn't have one by design?

Noone cares if it is intentionally designed to be shit or is shit by accident.

Reminds me about this meme:

 

[Renevent]

There's like 20 gloo guns scattered all over the ship you can find, and you can also find plans to create one using the assembler-machine-thingy. I wouldn't let that stop you from playing.

Though what if I lose a gun with fuckload of upgrades next time?

Kinda funny, but I lost my gloo-gun last night lol. From what I've read it really only happens going to/from the Arboretrum. Luckily for me it was at the very end of the game anyways (like last 10 mins) so didn't matter. Shitty bug for sure.

Anyways overall enjoyed the game a lot. It does drag a bit towards the end with the side quests since you are just revisiting old locations and they never really introduce anything new after around 10-12 hours. At some point I was done with it and just wanted to wrap the game up. According to Steam it took me 22 hours and I did plenty of side missions, though not nearly all of them.

Ending was a mixed bag. I mean some cool stuff happens towards the end of the game, but the actual ending sequences absurdly brief. The one exception:

Spoiler

I did like the part where you are sitting in a chair listening to your bro and the robots discuss your earlier choices in the game. It was also cool, even if too brief, learning that earth is essentially completely taken over by the aliens.

 

[Dev_Anj]

Dude, the game has button prompts, pop-up tutorials, objective markers, objective reminders, loading screen tips and more. No more crack for you.

So those are really that bad compared to... this?



Oh, and speaking of which...

Dude, the game has button prompts, pop-up tutorials, objective markers, objective reminders, loading screen tips and more. No more crack for you.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Am I the only one who finds it completely ridiculous that outerdimensional spirit alien phantasms from outer space can get knocked out by a fucking wrench hit to the face?

 

[toro]

Am I the only one who finds it completely ridiculous that outerdimensional spirit alien phantasms from outer space can get knocked out by a fucking wrench hit to the face?

I bet you would get knocked out by a fucking wrench hit to the face.

 

[undecaf]

Wrench must be their kryptonite.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

If we're honest with ourselves this is... quite a bit better than Shock 2. And I really do love System Shock 2. I'll try to explain why:

I think it's rather different than SS2, despite all the comparisons. SS2 is first and foremost a survival horror game about resource management, and in many ways has more in common with the likes of Resident Evil than Thief or Deus Ex. In SS2, developing your character generally either gives you more resources (get hacking -> more stuff from hacked containers; get maintenance -> save inventory space on additional weapons, etc) or makes you use existing ones more efficiently. The game is very deliberately built around this idea, and the oppressive atmosphere and claustrophobic level design (very different from Prey, which has a lot of open space) add to the feeling of just barely getting by (until you become packrat god anyway).

Prey, on the other hand, is more about exploration. Resource management is much more forgiving, even on Nightmare, it's much easier to just avoid combat completely, and your abilities are often used to gate your progress through the world in various ways, rather than making you more robust per se - the overall world design is almost Metroid-like in that sense. You do get a lot of alternative ways of dealing with situations, but crucially, these are often not based on your character's abilities, but rather your own clever use of available resources (so for example, most Leverage barriers can be removed via Recycler Charges, or just blown away with a gas tank). The end result is much more sandboxy, although it's still a relatively strict sandbox (hence reviewers whining that they couldn't play it like Fallout 4).

1) The weapons actually feel good and not clunky / almost all weapons in SS2 are a bit wonky.
2) There's nice environmental interactions that were not possible in SS2.
3) There is quite a bit less hand-holding than SS2. There's no intrusive tutorial and the station opens up in a way SS2 never. I am at a point where I can literally go anywhere I please - and get my ass kicked because it's quite hard.
4) The inventory system is less of a pain.

True, though I'd say the inventory system is too forgiving. Things stack too much and you get way too much inventory space from suit upgrades.

6) The skill tree is a bit better balanced than in SS2 (which had many borderline useless abilities)

It's better balanced, but much worse at letting you actually define your character and producing varied builds. As it stands, you get so many Neuromods, that you can basically max out 3 out of 6 trees. It also has too much low-hanging fruit, leading to way too many mandatory picks - why wouldn't you get everything that costs 1 Mod, the value is simply insane on those. SS2 in comparison, made it prohibitively expensive to get new skills - the first level was 10 modules, and the following ones were much cheaper. This led to less experimentation for the player, but more distinct builds and choices mattering more.

7) There is more freedom in solving puzzles / rooms. There are more options than in System Shock 2 in general: vent, move the obstruction, blow the obstruction away, fight through alternate route, find password, hack, repair, turn into a coffee cup, shoot a button with your nerf gun... that's not even all of them.

Yes, but this isn't really even something SS2 tries to do, imo. It's more like a proper RPG, where if you have Hacking, you use Hacking to solve your problems whenever you can; and if the same problem can be solved by a dude without any skills hitting a button with a nerf gun, then that devalues your investment in Hacking.

2) The audio logs in SS2 are, while campy, more interesting as a whole

They're more interesting in and out of themselves, but overall, Prey's audiologs, emails, and environmental cues (the post-it note room in Psychotronics was such a cool idea) do a better job of selling Talos 1 as a real place where real people lived and worked, rather than just a series of game levels. Close to the end, I actually found myself feeling a bit sad every time I found a new body of a crew member, which I think speaks to the strength of the worldbuilding.

4) The enemies are more interesting/varied/memorable.

They are conceptually and visually more interesting and varied, but enemies in Prey win in terms of gameplay. They actually require different tactics and approaches to fight effectively that go beyond just picking the right weapon and ammo type.

6) Maybe I am the only one but I like that enemies in SS2 respawn. Keeps you on your toes and drains your ammo

They respawn in Prey as well. There are ambient respawns which happen when you leave the area (I think), and also scripted respawns based on main story progression.

On that note, Talos 1 in Prey is a much more dynamic environment in general, and it changes based on events in both the main plot and side quests. I don't know how far you are into the game, and I don't want to spoil some of the cool surprises, but let's just say areas that you've already visited can become dangerous in ways other than just new enemy spawns.

7) I find OS upgrades more meaningful than the mod chips

Yeah, the chips overall were pretty boring, and the immortality chip is hilariously overpowered.

9) No fucking EVA sections; Jesus those suck

I loved those, actually. Just being able to go out into space and travel between airlocks (and the station actually making sense topologically both outside and inside) was really awesome. And from a gameplay perspective, I loved how the suit made you much more vulnerable, and how exposed you constantly felt in it. Enemies like the Weaver with their hit-and-run AI seem almost designed for microgravity, and are relatively harmless otherwise.

 

[Durandal]

Am I the only one who finds it completely ridiculous that outerdimensional spirit alien phantasms from outer space can get knocked out by a fucking wrench hit to the face?

 

[Ash]

Maybe, just maybe, it didn't have one by design?

Noone cares if it is intentionally designed to be shit or is shit by accident.

Again, you're pretty retarded. Inventory tetris and pseudo-realistic sorting is usually half the point of a grid-based inventory.

Decline is all-encompassing in today's world.

 

[Zombra]

"They'll thank us for not letting them sort items! SS2 will go down in history as 'that brilliant game about dragging items back and forth in a long narrow box!' That is the point of what we are doing here today!"

 

[Durandal]

Maybe, just maybe, it didn't have one by design?

Noone cares if it is intentionally designed to be shit or is shit by accident.

Again, you're pretty retarded. Inventory tetris and pseudo-realistic sorting is usually half the point of a grid-based inventory.

Decline is all-encompassing in today's world.

what's the fucking point in playing tetris with mostly just 1x1 blocks

 

[Jasede]

If you think sorting items in your inventory manually is some skill-intensive intellectual challenge I have some dire news for you...

 

[Ash]

That was not said nor implied. Lots of dumb bastards ITT. Tetris is however one of the top-selling games of all time, so likely has some undeniable merit. e.g people find it FUN. Elements of said fun present in classic grid-inventory design should not be overlooked. Not to mention it's pseudo-realistic/simulated.

 

[Paul_cz]

Measuring dicks of whether Prey or System Shock 2 is better is such meaningless waste of time. They are very similar in style and both great. I am just glad both exist. And SOMA, even if that one is not in any way immersive sim, fuck was it a great scifi game.

 

[Zombra]

That was not said nor implied. Lots of dumb bastards ITT. Since when is inventory Tetris skill-intensive or intellectual? Tetris is however one of the top-selling games of all time, so likely has some undeniable merit. e.g people find it FUN. Elements of said fun present in classic grid-inventory design should not be overlooked.

I'm sure that's what they were thinking.

 

[Ash]

Decline-enabling, ever present.

What's next, objects being highlighted across the room because looking, sorting and interacting naturally is a chore? Objectives being marked across map because carving your own way through the world is tedious? Walking over pickups auto-picks it up, because we can? Oh wait...

 

[Siel]

Main reason this gem is worth playing:

Do it Arkane, even if you have to call it Skyrim 2.

 

[Siel]

New patch on PC:

A new beta update for Prey v1.03 is now available via Steam – see below for instructions.

The Steam update v1.03 includes:

• Further fixes to prevent save games from becoming corrupted. Fix also returns corrupted save games to uncorrupted state.
  
• Items should no longer be incorrectly deleted from inventory or world when changing levels.
  
• Fix for stamina not recovering.
  
• Fix for being unable to repair items.
  
• Player should no longer spawn out of level.
  
• Fabricated weapons are now empty.
  
• Fix for humans incorrectly turning hostile. Hostile humans in lobby will be returned to friendly.
  
• End game credits now always skippable.
  
• Aaron Ingram no longer cowers if spooked by a typhon.
  
• Fix for various problems making changes in the settings.
  
• FOV slider is available in the advanced options menu.

Note - If a Save file has been previously edited manually, it may not function properly.
Deletion of level.dat files may cause game progression to not function properly.

How to access the Steam Beta:

1. Log into Steam.
   
2. Right Click on Prey in your Library.
   
3. Select Properties.
   
4. Select Betas.
   
5. A drop down menu will appear. Select public-beta-patch.
   
6. Select OK.
   
7. Wait for the game to update.
   
8. When done, Prey[public-beta-patch] should appear in our Library.
   If it still appears only as “Prey” in your Library, repeat the above steps.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/480490/discussions/0/1291816569119420603/

 

[insukk]

From Neogaf, I will just leave it here:

Well I finally finished it and honestly I did not enjoy it, it just wasn't for me. For the first few hours I loved it, a solid 8.5/10 but after that it got insanely difficult, even on normal difficulty and later easy difficulty enemies were always extremely tough mostly due to the fact that resources were so rare, I was almost always walking around on 30HP with no ammo or items that could help me so I spent a lot of my time dying or running away which just isn't fun at all. I've never done such a massive 180 on a game before. I really struggled to finish it in the end, especially once those bloody military bots came into it, they would literally kill me in 2 seconds on easy difficult and they were absolutely everywhere and relentless.

I don't mind games that are hard and rewarding or if they're tough but it makes sense but that's not Prey for me, Prey was just frustrating and overtuned, even when I switched it to easy enemies would swarm and surround you, constantly harassing you every step of the way and without any resources to deal with them it just became tiresome with the constant deaths. I honestly can't remember disliking a game this much that I actually finished. I think I'm more upset because there's so much I do like, the visuals, audio, atmosphere and some of the gameplay mechanics are really great but at the end of the day fun is most important and I just didn't have any past maybe the 5 hour mark.