Developer: Arkane Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Release Date: May 05, 2017
MSRP: $59,99
ESRB: Mature, PEGI 18
Players: 1 (Singleplayer Only)
Available Platforms: PS4 [Reviewed], Xbox One, PC
Genre: Sci-Fi Action-Adventue / First Person Shooter
Story:
In Prey you play as Morgan Yu, Vice President and Director of Research on Talos I space station (before the game starts you can choose whether to play a male or female character). Morgan’s memory has been wiped and he is undergoing some experiments with Neuromod implants – a technology that can be installed in people’s brains to give them alien powers or unlock superhuman strengths. Of course something goes wrong on the space station and the aliens break out of containment. Morgan must find a way to survive and make important choices along the way; choices that would decide the fate of planet Earth.
The Neuromod skills cover a wide spectrum – such as transforming into nearby objects (you can literally turn into a piece of furniture if you want to), or using powerful elemental attacks. The entire game takes place in and around Talos I station. You can even fly around the station in outer space (in your space suit).
Due to the heavy focus on exploration the game is very slow paced. Getting from one area to the next can take hours. There is also a lack of waypoint markers in main- and side quests. Sometimes you just have no idea where to go and game progression turns into a tedious task. I really found this confusing and the level design too convoluted. Especially when you don’t have the appropriate skill unlocked it can take a while to find an alternative path.
To name some examples: one main mission in the Crew Quarters area has you collecting voice samples. Those samples are needed to open a door with a voice lock. The game provides no waypoints whatsoever for these samples. You must search the area very carefully, but if you don’t have the repair skill you can’t get two audio recordings and must find optional ones. This could make you get stuck in the area for hours.
On another occasion, I had to kill a certain someone who arrives on Talos I station at the end of the game. I got some quests related to that person but it took me 4 hours to figure out where to find my target. The game didn’t provide any help whatsoever. Eventually, after 4 hours a quest popped up randomly when flying around the exterior of Talos I. This made no sense. The seemingly random quest then pointed me in the direction of the target (who was in a completely different place and not the exterior). Things like this are just horribly bad game design and make you want to quit. It’s hard to stay interested in Prey sometimes because you have no idea where to go or what to do.
My first playthrough took roughly 15 hours (saving everyone). The second playthrough took 3-4 hours (killing everyone). A thorough playthrough will last well over 10 hours. even 20 hours if you go for collectibles and do all side quests.
During the last third of the story, the game really starts to open up. This is when the most side quests become available and you can still go back everywhere to mop up missing collectibles and quests. Unfortunately, this is also when the loading screens become a major issue. The areas are relatively small but have long loading screens. Some side quests will have you chasing through the space station where one loading screen follows another. This gets so bad in the endgame that you see more loading screens than gameplay. Surely there could have been some way to make this a true open world without constant loading. It’s frankly annoying and makes the game feel outdated from a technical standpoint. In the early stages you’ll spend hours in every area and it’s not a problem. Just during the last third of the story it gets really annoying.
Gameplay:
Prey is one of the most complex shooter games I have ever played. Everything is connected in different ways and your actions have a great impact on future side quests. Helping, refusing to help, killing, or keeping alive a quest giver will impact the availability of side quests later on. If you wanted you could kill absolutely everyone and still finish the game.
How quests and characters are connected is not the only complex thing. The levels are multi-layered and hard to navigate. There’s often more than one path to take and you’ll constantly run into locked doors. Using your creativity to reach new areas, such as building a climbable structure with the Gloo Cannon is essential. To the casual player this game may seem a tad too confusing (also remember the lack of waypoints mentioned earlier). At the very least, main missions should always have waypoint markers, but in Prey they do not.
Unlike most shooters, Prey focuses heavily on exploration, ammo conservation and crafting. If you expect a linear easy-peasy shooter then Prey is not for you. This game appeals to a hardcore audience who want a game with deep exploration and crafting features. Gunfights take a backseat. It’s not even much of a shooter because resources are very limited and the gun controls abysmal. You can’t aim through iron sights / scopes, it has only hipfire and melee combat. Definitely give the demo a look before buying. It’s a good representation of what you’re gonna get, the only difference is that the final game opens up a lot more and features a variety of enemies and side quests. The amount of weapons is quite limited. Some mechanics feel familiar from Dishonored 1 & 2 (Prey is developed by the same studio after all). Stealth is possible in some sections via skills but it’s not as stealth focused as Dishonored.
In regards to enemies: There are many different types. Aside from mind-controlled humans and combat drones, you will be fighting black gooey aliens. The aliens come in different shapes and forms. “Mimics” which transform into objects in the environment and jump at you with surprise attacks. Then there are Phantoms which walk on two legs like humans and come with different elemental effects. Flying monsters of various types, nests of small radioactive ones and a really powerful “Nightmare” can also be encountered. I thought all the aliens looked too much alike and honestly a bit lame. They are just some black gooey blobs that walk/fly around. At least they all have different attacks and weaknesses. Prey has more enemies than most games, they just could’ve looked a little more distinct.
In regards to level exploration: searching the game world for loot and doing side quests takes up most of the time. The levels are utterly convoluted and hard to navigate, especially if you don’t have the Hacking and Leverage skills (which allow you to access some areas more easily). Looting items is important because you need crafting materials to make ammo, med kits and other items. Junk can be recycled for resources. Those resources can then be used at a fabricator to create a consumable item of your choice (if you found the blueprint for it). There are also lots of collectibles, such as Emails, TranScribes (Audio Logs), Missing Employees, Dead Drops, Starbender Books, Notes, Keycards, Keycodes and miscellaneous messages. Want to open a door? Not so easy. You either have the Hacking skill to hack it, the Leverage skill to pry it open or you need a keycard that might be at the other end of the game. The layout of the Talos I space station is designed in an open-worldish manner. Near the end of the story you can still go back to free roam around the entire map. The map is split into several areas, all of which are very memorable and unique looking. There is a loading screen for each area.
Graphics:
The graphics are okay. Not the best, not the worst, just about average. The characters look bad and don’t have much detail. The enemies look too much alike (just some black gooey things). For a 2017 release the graphics aren’t impressive but they are acceptable.
Trophies / Achievements & Game Completion:
Some of the trophies are extremely restrictive – beating the game once without buying any skills, beating it once with only human abilities, and beating it once with only alien powers. By playing without powers you will miss out on the best parts of the game. Some of the alien powers are a lot of fun and the human abilities are a must to access certain areas and fully enjoy the game. I don’t understand how the developers thought this would be a good idea. Restrictive trophies like this rob trophy hunters of the full experience. Granted you could always do a normal run first, but those trophies require multiple playthroughs already and that in itself is a bummer.
Aside from those skill restrictive trophies the rest is quite fun. There are only 2 automatic story trophies which is unusual but I like it. Trophies should push players to do things they normally wouldn’t and Prey does just that. My favorite trophy is Escape Velocity which has you transform into a small object and use a Kinetic Blast to fly 20 meters through the air.
Sadly, there are a few slightly glitchy but obtainable trophies. For example, one character Dr. Igwe gets duplicated in two areas which can mess with the Awkward Ride Home trophy. The amount of collectibles is too excessive to be enjoyable.
Closing Words:
I’m just not feeling Prey. It has a somewhat interesting story but does nothing new or special. The abilities are fun but the trophies restrict you from using them. It’s not a bad game, it just never had that moment to truly captivate me and there are too many issues for it to be enjoyable at all times (slow pace, convoluted areas, lack of waypoints, long loading screens in every area, mediocre graphics, trophy glitches, hundreds of pointless collectibles, overly complicated relations between characters and quest givers, can’t aim weapons, little ammo, few weapons, enemies look too much alike). These are all just minor issues but combined they are holding the game back. Arkane Studios is great – no doubt about that – but if you expect the same quality as Dishonored 1 & 2 you might be disappointed.
| Gameplay *Overall Enjoyment Factor, Fascination with Game World, Level Design, Variety, Playability, User-Friendliness (Ease of Use / Readability / Controls / in-game Tutorials / Menus) |
| 6.5/10 + Different creative ways to navigate through the game world + Cool abilities – Convoluted level design – No quest markers (not even during main quests, has you running around aimlessly for hours) – Abysmal gunplay |
| Story/Multiplayer *Quality of the Singleplayer Story, Cutscenes and/or Multiplayer Modes (whichever is available). If a game has no Story or no Multiplayer it won’t be rated (thus no negative effect on score). |
| 7/10 Story: 7/10 (The story isn’t bad, it’s just too slow-paced and that’s why it can get a tad boring sometimes) Multiplayer: Not available (not rated) |
| Technical Aspects *Graphics, Texture Quality, Character Details, Lighting, Weather Effects, Animations, Loading Times, Number of Loading Screens, does it run smoothly |
| 5/10 – Mediocre graphics – Too many long loading screens (especially during last third of the story) |
| Value *Amount of Content, Production Quality, Replay Value, is there enough content to justify a purchase |
| 8.5/10 + Fair amount of content and above average story length (15h on first playthrough, can be over 20h if you go for all collectibles) + Fantastic replay value |
| Trophies/Achievements *Rates how much fun the Platinum / 1000 Gamerscore is to achieve: Are trophies fun to do? Do trophies restrict freedom of gameplay? Missable trophies? Multiple playthroughs required? Luck-based trophies? Pointless farming/grinding? Glitched Trophies? Are stats/trophies tracked correctly? |
| 3/10 Utterly restrictive trophies that take the fun out of the game, multiple playthroughs required, excessive amount of pointless collectibles, also some glitches. On the other hand, some inventive trophies that are actually fun to do, but combined it’s not an enjoyable platinum. |
| Extraordinary Score Increase or Deduction *Reserved for extraordinarily good or bad features that the other categories don’t cover (such as game-breaking bugs). This score is directly added/subtracted from the final score. |
| Nothing |
VERDICT:
You should not expect Prey to be much of a shooter. The gunplay is abysmal and resources quite limited. It rather focuses on many hours of exploration which give the game a slow pace. It has an interesting story with a lot of replay value but the outdated tech, bad graphics, absurd amount of loading screens, convoluted level designs and lack of waypoint markers are holding it back. If you liked the demo you will probably like the main game. If you didn’t, then it’s not for you.
FINAL SCORE:
6/10
Played on PS4 Pro with Patch 1.01. A free copy of this game was provided by the publisher.