Prey 2017 why wobbly legs? [and general comments]

[Fidcal]

I was about ready to give up the game after several hours on and off trying to get into the reactor room and part of that time fighting the technopath in waterprocessing. I hardly made any impression on it. Wasted all my bullets and emp and it health meter barely went down a fifth before I died.

Found the main cause of my troubles is that the difficulty level was somehow two levels higher than I chose. I know I chose the easiest level very carefully. I've seen this before in one game where having chosen the difficulty level early in the start process, it defaults to normal before launching. (although that might have been because some games expect a confirm on exit while others you just exit.) Another possibility I tested just now is that on the Playstation the left joypad is used to move up and down the option menus and as you do so, the tiniest side pressure changes a setting as you pass over it to reach another. I recall setting subtitles on the same page and changing it later.

Now I've changed the setting down I defeated the technopath reasonably easily. (still used most of my ammo and all my emp though.) If I'd played on easy from the start then likely I'd have accumulated more ammo and medkits by now instead of barely scraping by from monster to monster. I mean, one single enemy and I'm left with almost nothing is ridiculous. I went all the way back to cargo bay to recycle and the nightmare turned up again!

I still think the difficulty I experienced was too hard to be called 'normal'. I'd call it hard most of the time, very hard here and there, and impossible in places without enough supplies. I mean, give me 50 medkits and a 100 shotgun shells and I'd have been okay and had fun. As it is, I pick up single rounds or maybe 2 or 3 at a time! What use is that?

Will I survive the reactor room with almost nothing? Dunno.... :(

[Fidcal]

Just occurred to me that because nothing respawns and one is continuously using up resources, what happens when they all run out? I mean, currently the game is fueled entirely by progressing through the space station, consuming everything. What happens after the last banana peel has been recycled and the last bullet fired? In fact, if I'd been wasteful, I'd have nothing already and it would be literally impossible to continue. I've always been on the edge of failure as it is.

[thebigh]

Enemies respawn, at least in some areas. If you're running low on supplies you can clobber a few mimics or operators (be careful) and loot their corpses.

[chakkman]

7 hours ago, thebigh said:

Enemies respawn, at least in some areas.

Yes. Very similarly to System Shock or Bioshock.

[Fidcal]

Just finished in 97 hours, Perdition ending. Couldn't choose the other ending even if I'd wanted to because there was no objective marker anywhere that I could find so basically I had to find something 'somewhere' on the entire space station! I didn't even bother. The only clue was 'atop a tower near a scary thing' which meant nothing to me. Overall I found it outstanding, despite the frustrations, and I may well play through again, especially since I didn't complete hardly any of the optional missions. (I mean, why would I want to decrypt a message which has no meaning for me? Why would I want to save anyone temporarily when it would only delay me killing everyone?

Story plot was good but the storytelling was weak. Storytelling is how well a story is conveyed to the reader/player and includes emotional depth and immersion. 

Here are some rough personal % scores to compare it with other games I've played recently:

PREY %   LAST OF US(1) %      FALLOUT 4  %
    90                   90                              90           Story Plot
    70                   95                              90           Storytelling (emotion, immersion, clarity)
    90                   85                              95           Gameplay
    90                   90                              99           Value (one play only)
    50? 80?         20?  40?                   99           Replaying value ...  ?=future?
    95                   95                              95          Originality (to me)
    95                   85                              85          Stealth
    95                   20                              66          Climbing
    85                   66                              95          Combat enjoyment
    70                   10                              99          Freedom/Open-world/Choices
    30                   30                              90          Player game management*

*Player game management is non-gameplay stuff like game-saving, maps, inventory handling, trading/transfer menus, sub-game puzzles like hacking & lock-picking - all the little things that can be so frustrating if done badly. Hacking is fine in Fallout 4 but dreadful in Prey (only tried briefly then gave up in disgust and recovered my neuromod.) I note that lock-picking is not a sub-game in Dark Mod but part of the gameplay.

Prey also scores for zero gravity and spacewalking which was really well done.

Fallout 4 scores for in-game construction (though flawed.)

Last of Us scores for best drama.

 

[EDIT: WOW! WHO NEEDS A PREVIEW WITH A FORUM THIS GOOD AT WYSIWYG!]

[peter_spy]

Story in Fallout 4 is worth 90%? Not to mention 95% for originality... To each their own I guess.

Edited September 13, 2020 by peter_spy

[chakkman]

Yeah, wouldn't have rated those 2 points that high. 95 for gameplay seems about right though. 

[OrbWeaver]

Admittedly I haven't tried it yet for a second time, but I would tend to rate Prey quite highly for replay value because you can play the game in a different way (e.g. using more human skills vs more Typhon skills etc). There are also different objective choices you can make but if you didn't find the story that engaging maybe this aspect won't be of interest to you.

I've heard that if you do another playthrough there is an area you can go to where you get back all of the neuromods you accumulated during the first run, so you can hit the ground running with upgrades.

[stgatilov]

So, I started playing Prey.

I see many similarities with TheDarkMod controls
Mantling, leaning, crouching, grabbing objects to move and throw, even dragging bodies.

Perhaps both Prey and TDM use the same game mechanics from System Shock.
Did System Shock allow dragging bodies BTW? Dragging bodies even feels equally useless in TDM and Prey.

My brother played System shock 2 but I did not.
But my vague memory says Prey is a game of the very same kind.

[chakkman]

24 minutes ago, stgatilov said:

My brother played System shock 2 but I did not.
But my vague memory says Prey is a game of the very same kind.

It absolutely is. No coincidence that a member of this forum talked about "System Shock 3" in regards of Prey.  

[STiFU]

4 hours ago, stgatilov said:

Did System Shock allow dragging bodies BTW? Dragging bodies even feels equally useless in TDM and Prey.

My brother played System shock 2 but I did not.
But my vague memory says Prey is a game of the very same kind.

Prey is much less stealth focused than TDM, so hiding bodies serves much less of a purpose. Much like System Shock actually.

By the way, you should also give the System Shock 1 Remake a shot. While its probably best enjoyed, if you already played the original, it's still a great game anyway.

[stgatilov]

I have gone outside station.

So... I have 6 buttons to accelerate along 3 axes, mouselook to rotate around 2 axes and 2 buttons to rotate around third axis. And 1 button to remove velocity limit and 1 button combo to brake.

I suppose this is a nod to Descent (which I also did not play).
Quite surprised to see such complex controls in a modern game.

[chakkman]

1 hour ago, STiFU said:

By the way, you should also give the System Shock 1 Remake a shot. While its probably best enjoyed, if you already played the original, it's still a great game anyway.

I loved it. Awesome game.

I faceplanted at the people who asked for quest markers in the Steam forums there... Herr, lass Hirn regnen.  The game is so great, and so true to the original, because it doesn't hold your hand. When is the new breed of gamers gonna learn.

Edited November 26, 2023 by chakkman

[Fidcal]

Mmm... maybe I'll give this game another spin... (incidentally, I give Last of Us 1 a higher replay value now.)

[thebigh]

I like the base game, but I really dislike the Mooncrash DLC.

[STiFU]

2 hours ago, thebigh said:

I like the base game, but I really dislike the Mooncrash DLC.

I guess it's a matter of taste. I for one loved it, because it felt a lot more intense than the base game, due to the rogue-lite mechanic, and it forced you to explore other abilities as well and really learn the ins and outs of the game.

[chakkman]

... and it forced you to play the same area again and again and again.

Well, to each his own, but, that's not a gameplay that I enjoy.

Edited November 28, 2023 by chakkman

[STiFU]

Same area, yes, but the challenge changes every time, as the enemies are pseudo-randomized.

[peter_spy]

Edit: whoops, I'm repeating myself

Edited November 28, 2023 by peter_spy

[chakkman]

1 hour ago, peter_spy said:

Edit: whoops, I'm repeating myself

Nothing wrong with that. It's been a while.

[thebigh]

I just didn't care about the characters and I didn't find the scenario particularly interesting. Also, I don't like being on a timer. In the base game I could plan ahead and sneak around slowly and stealthily. In Mooncrash you have to Rambo it, and that's not my style.

[stgatilov]

Oh my god!
I can turn into a cup!
I love the game

[STiFU]

14 hours ago, stgatilov said:

Oh my god!
I can turn into a cup!
I love the game

Isn't that even shown in the trailer?

That feature is probably the reason why no "toys" can be found anywhere on the station. ;D 

[Amadeus]

17 hours ago, stgatilov said:

Oh my god!
I can turn into a cup!
I love the game

It's one of my favorite ways to play this game! 

[peter_spy]

On 11/28/2023 at 11:32 PM, chakkman said:

Nothing wrong with that. It's been a while.

True, thanks God I loved Mooncrash back then, etc.

  

On 11/29/2023 at 12:17 AM, thebigh said:

I just didn't care about the characters and I didn't find the scenario particularly interesting. Also, I don't like being on a timer. In the base game I could plan ahead and sneak around slowly and stealthily. In Mooncrash you have to Rambo it, and that's not my style.

The whole point of Mooncrash was to force you to apply different character strategies (not just Rambo style). Increasing pressure (timer) and some random events force you to improvise a lot and go with the flow. It's a great showcase of emergent gameplay systems, and a ton of fun, if you let go of your "im-sim habits".

I had many great moments with Mooncrash, because of "near miss" and "last second save" type of moments, typically amid total chaos of the last stretches between me and the escape pod.

That said, Mooncrash is kinda hard to get in the beginning. There are things which are totally random, other things are persistent throughout a run, then things become persistent throughout multiple runs. But the game leaves most of it to be discovered by you – which is both a blessing and a curse, because many players will bounce off it before getting to really awesome bits.

Edited December 2, 2023 by peter_spy