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Prey (2017)

Started by Blue Jam, May 01, 2017, 01:02:57 PM

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Bhazor

#30
Not enjoying it as much as I hoped I would. Mostly just the game feel especially compared to Bethesda's last two shooters. I mean I know its a completely different game than Doom but it just feels so slow and floaty. Worst part being the size of my character's hitbox which seems to extend a full four foot in all directions around the screen. It doesn't help when it seems every enemy has a giant floating energy ball attack that appears behind you and will kill in two hits. Really like the no gravity sections though, strikes a good level of fiddliness where maneuvering feels satisfyingly tough without ever taking too much precision. Reminds me of the Descent games.

Story and writing has been fairly bland though. Definitely not as good as Soma and the world itself feels too disjointed and gamey in contrast to the Bio and System Shock games.

Blue Jam

Now might be a good time to get the game- it's under thirty quid on Amazon for all platforms and the last few patches seem to have fixed all the bugs. That's a relief- one of the bugs had caused me to lose my upgraded stun gun, meaning I couldn't save a few humans and had to shoot them instead- oh well, I guess I'm playing this as Bad Morgan now.

Quote from: Bhazor on May 27, 2017, 03:02:54 PM
Not enjoying it as much as I hoped I would. Mostly just the game feel especially compared to Bethesda's last two shooters. I mean I know its a completely different game than Doom but it just feels so slow and floaty.

That may explain why I'm enjoying this more than you are- perhaps if you like Doom you won't like Prey, and vice versa. I had a go at Doom before getting this and really struggled to get into it. I had been concerned that the combat in Prey would be too Doom-like, and while the Phantoms are not unlike the Demons, I've been relieved to find this game feels very different.

I may give Doom another go once I've finished Prey, but it'll be a while- I'm 30 hours in and still only about to go into Deep Storage. I'm just having too much fun exploring at a leisurely pace and pissing about completing side quests. I'm not normally one for gathering collectables and XP but here I'm enjoying the way the side quests add to the story, get you more items and (mostly) don't feel pointless.

Quote from: Bhazor on May 27, 2017, 03:02:54 PMIt doesn't help when it seems every enemy has a giant floating energy ball attack that appears behind you and will kill in two hits.

That's what I love about this game: being a puny human outwitting huge and powerful alien enemies feels so satisfying. The Phantoms are absolute fuckers though, yeah. For Phantoms I've found that just setting up a few turrets and going "Psssst! Over here!" (preferably with the Nerf gun) then watching them go kamikaze is the best way. Ditto for Telepaths- I wasted a lot of ammo on the first one I encountered before realising that a couple of turrets will make very short work of the big slumbering beasts. With the Nightmare I always just run and hide rather than wasting ammo trying to kill it- it's powerful but it can't get into small spaces, it's like a Dalek in that it has one really shit weakness, though I think it can get up stairs. The Nerf gun is fun to use on Cystoids (cheers, Junglist): they'll chase after the foam bolt like a cat with a laser pointer and then self-destruct.

If you have no turrets, stealth is the way to go- get the stealth and sneak attack neuromods and you'll find you can do a lot of damage to an enemy while it's unaware of you. Upgrade the weapons too- this makes a lot of difference to the shotgun (which is a melee weapon in this game- it's useless from afar but does a huge amount of damage up close) and the Q-beam, which is a bit crap unless you increase the power and firing time. It took me a while to figure out how to take on the Phantoms but I'm enjoying the combat a lot more now I'm sneaking about and catching them unaware.

I love the fact that the Nerf gun seems pointless before you figure out all the things you can use it for, while the Q-beam makes you think "Giant laser? FUCK YEAH" before you try it and note that the batteries run out after two seconds- the "crap" weapons seem to be the best ones. Also the way the big and powerful enemies are actually some of the easiest to defeat/hide from, while the smaller ones can really shit you up if you don't get the jump on them. The spacewalk bits are just lovely too, and they contrast nicely with the rest of the game where you're running about a claustrophobic spaceship feeling a slight sense of dread.

Blue Jam

Quote from: biggytitbo on May 27, 2017, 02:27:55 PMas good as it is, the retro-future art direction feels incredibly well worn at this point, having featured in countless other games.

Meh, I'm a n00b so I'm enjoying it- here's a gallery of the posters, adverts, warning signs etc found about Talos 1, which some of you may also enjoy:

https://imgur.com/a/royHg#gcEvjWy

Bhazor

Put in a few more hours and it's definitely improved. Got two movement upgrades and now it finally feels like I'm controlling an actual human rather than a cube of meat on wheels. The phantoms have become a lot less irritating once you upgrade your weapons and start finding turrets everywhere. I have tried playing with stealth but I quickly noticed how the AI just can not handle it and how their path-finding routine just makes it too easy to escape. Basically windows are their greatest nemesis and if you can get 10 feet off the ground you're safe. So I've been essentially playing balls out combat (with a little ambushing) and fortunately the combat is pretty satisfying once you get the shotty. It is a shame mimics (which are the best part of the game) get sidelined after the first few hours and are pretty much replaced by the beehives which are just shit honestly. Really like the telepath fights, particularly the way they run in terror when you disable their abilities and it flips over with you chasing the bastard through the level.

As for the setting, still not blown away. Mechanically its huge and filled with nooks and side areas and it is impressive how much black there is left on my map. There are whole decks I've barely touched yet. But fortunately it's also littered with hard locks where after an exciting 20 minute battle through a maze you're left with a door you can't open and have to slog it all the way back to the main path until you're given the key. In writing terms there is a ton of great touches in the art and incidental details, particularly the garden and crew quarters, but the stories are all pretty bland and it lacks the thematic oomph of Bioshock or the grounded "20 years in the future" feel of Deus Ex. I'd say A for effort with all the unique assets and sheer scale but a C+ for quality.

Blue Jam

Quote from: Bhazor on September 28, 1974, 12:39:48 PMit's also littered with hard locks where after an exciting 20 minute battle through a maze you're left with a door you can't open and have to slog it all the way back to the main path until you're given the key.

In this game there is (usually) more than one way to get into a room...

biggytitbo

I'm making slow progress through this, mixture of getting continually lost and having to replay bits countless times because I have no ammo and can't get past one of the shifty fuckers. No idea how far I am through it and it is all still fun, but but I reckon another day or two and my patience will start to wear thin.

amnesiac

^ same here. Pretty much hate this game so far IT'S TOO HARD it's just a million ways to die in space AND I'm playing it in easy mode. It's also quite depressing, the overall aura is one of bumdom. It took me a while to get into Fallout 4 which I ended up loving and maybe that'll happen here.

Blue Jam

Quote from: Bhazor on May 28, 2017, 09:38:09 PM
Put in a few more hours and it's definitely improved. Got two movement upgrades and now it finally feels like I'm controlling an actual human rather than a cube of meat on wheels.

If you're playing on a console try whacking the controller sensitivity settings up- on the Xbone at least the sensitivity is set really low by default, and I found that changing it made a big difference. Now, if only I could whack down the sensitivity for the Netflix app...

Quote from: amnesiac on May 30, 2017, 09:54:34 AM
IT'S TOO HARD

I've been reading the Prey subreddit and I've noticed a lot of people saying they're finding the game too hard despite being seasoned gamers and playing on Easy or Normal. I got my first ever console six months ago and I'm doing alright on Nightmare- it's still bastard hard, but enjoyably so. I see a lot of people also claiming the game is like nothing they've played before, so I'm wondering if not being used to the conventions of gaming is an advantage here.

After running out of health and ammo early in the game I realised that playing it like a regular shooter is not the way to go. Exploring, then looting and recycling everything you can get your hands on seems to work out well, especially if you stumble upon a locker room or a kitchen. Always pick up weapons even if you end up with multiples as you can recycle them or dismantle them to get spare parts, and you will need loads of those for when the Typhon keep busting your turrets. Also being really stingy with ammo helps- turrets, explosive canisters and oxygen bottles are your friend (and so are sofas if you get the neuromod that lets you pick them up and chuck them).

(If you're out of food and medkits the water coolers and sinks are a lifesaver, and if you can find a toilet with four sinks, even better.)

amnesiac

I'm absolutely rubbish at games so if normal gamers are saying it's hard then I'm absolutely fucked.

I watched a walkthru to see if I was missing something fundamental, was I just doing it WRONG by gluing the monsters then smashing their faces in with the wrench? but no, that's what normal people do as well.

I did pick up one hint *not a Spoiler if you're not thick like me* in the hardware room you can build glue steps with the glue gun to get onto platforms! that did NOT occur to me. At the top of one is a hardware schematic to create some cool weapon that I could really use. Also another Fabricator.

Basically I'm fucked.

RANT: Easy mode in games should be exactly that. I just want to run around with loads of ammo after a stressful day, I get enough challenges in my actual life can't you just let me run around killing monsters without even having to switch weapons, what if I had a disability!? being shit at games is sort of a disability. NON INCLUSIVE GAME.

amnesiac

I mean FFS I spent about 30mins reading in-game emails, I was like <Dinesh voice> Fuuuuuuuuuck this </> I read emails all day ALL DAY fucking thing got me reading EVERYONE'S emails.

amnesiac

I've revised my opinion to: WORST GAME EVER after No Man's Sky.

chand

Just started this yesterday, and I'm not sure how I feel. I haven't got a gun yet though, I'm essentially walking around frantically twatting the black headcrabs from Half-Life with a wrench still. I mainly feel rubbish at it; I was rubbish at Bioshock too until it finally clicked though so hopefully I'll hit some point where it becomes really enjoyable. I think my struggle so far is that I'm not really a twitch-shooter player, I like to play slow and methodically and use stealth where I can, but at the minute the enemies just seem to randomly pop up from nowhere, so I'm poking around picking up crap and suddenly the music kicks in and I'm mashing R2 losing half my health to some annoying spidery piece of shit. I'm fucking rubbish at hand-to-hand combat in first person games.

biggytitbo

Ive finished it using one of the main endings and it allows you to go back and try and do the other main ending aswell, although I can't for the fuck of me work out how to do it.


I think the length of the game is about right, even though I must have spent about 25% of it walking around lost.

Blue Jam

That was fast Biggy, how long was your playthrough and did you bother with side missions and the like? Was it the Alex's escape pod ending or one of the final final endings? I haven't tried that although I did manage to get to the escape pod by building a GLOO walkway to the pod, that was fun. I understand that the multiple endings include a Good Morgan ending which you get if you save everyone, and a Bad Morgan ending which you get if you've been a murdering bastard. If that's the case I'll be in for a bit of cosmic retribution, but I have no idea what either ending entails.

Apparently you can also "finish" the game if you jump into the helicopter blades and die at the start... even though that doesn't make sense, what with the chopper actually being a simulator.

biggytitbo

Yes Ive finished it with both the main endings now, although there's still a couple of variations I didn't try. I didn't do many of the side missions tbh, most of my side missions involved getting lost for hours at a time.

Bhazor

Quote from: Blue Jam on May 31, 2017, 01:45:10 PM
Was it the Alex's escape pod ending or one of the final final endings? I haven't tried that although I did manage to get to the escape pod by building a GLOO walkway to the pod, that was fun.

Yeah I did exactly that and was disappointed to find I couldn't do anything when I got there. I mean how great an ending would that be? Fucking off midway through the story and doing a last float by just to flip everyone off. Like the car ending in Clocktower.

Blue Jam

Quote from: Bhazor on May 31, 2017, 11:48:09 PM
Yeah I did exactly that and was disappointed to find I couldn't do anything when I got there.

Yes you can... there is a key in an obvious room in another area, though it's owner has hidden it well.

amnesiac

Sorry for shitting all over this game earlier, I got down to it and it's pretty amazing now I know what I'm doing. I played straight through from Mon 7pm until Tue 4am which I haven't done for ages, then took Tue off work to play it some more (and watch the cricket).

*some spoilers*

I've just finished Gathering Echoes and in the meantime escaped on Alex's pod so I've technically beaten the game.

My only criticisms are:
1. The frequency of the Nightmare attacks (does anyone know how to stop them?) where I just end up legging it and hiding somewhere
2. How when you leave an area, e.g Machine Room, kill the 2 Phantoms, and go back later and the same 2 Phantoms come back. Maybe it's just a way to refresh your gear but then you just end up recycling it to replace the ammo you spent on them!

There's a real depth to the game, I loved piecing together Danielle's story/ listening to her 80s song then crestfallen as you see her dying outside the fitness center. It's really strange when you find another human; I just wanted to make friends with the mad Russian 'cook' (who I have yet to hunt and kill, I think I'll use a recycler on him).

So yeah, love it, I just want to be at home playing it.

Blue Jam

#48
Blimey, I had thought I was playing it way too much but you've just made me feel a lot better, so cheers ;) I do sort of want to leave work early and play it now though...

Quote from: amnesiac on June 07, 2017, 10:29:56 AM
1. The frequency of the Nightmare attacks (does anyone know how to stop them?) where I just end up legging it and hiding somewhere

There is a side quest where you can get something to help you with them, but that turned out to be pointless when I reached a later stage in the game and had to kill a Nightmare to get to the next bit. I think the Nightmare turns up more frequently if you're installing Typhon neuromods- I'm still on my glacially-paced Human Abilities Only run and haven't seen it that often- mainly it pops up when I enter a new area and I just go back out and wait for it to bugger off.

QuoteHow when you leave an area, e.g Machine Room, kill the 2 Phantoms, and go back later and the same 2 Phantoms come back.

I haven't noticed that, I thought the fuckers just kept spawning regardless, like that "Typhon coral" that keeps spreading everywhere. It took me a while to figure out that Cystoids are just baby Weavers and that they'll keep popping up unless you take the Weaver out- and that's why they kept falling on my head in the lobby.

QuoteThere's a real depth to the game, I loved piecing together Danielle's story/ listening to her 80s song then crestfallen as you see her dying outside the fitness center. It's really strange when you find another human; I just wanted to make friends with the mad Russian 'cook' (who I have yet to hunt and kill, I think I'll use a recycler on him).

I just reached a later bit of the game where there are more survivors and tbh I found them a bit annoying with all their talking- I had grown to enjoy the solitude. Sarah Elazar in particular needs to take a fucking chill pill. I also murdered the Psychotronics prisoner partly because of him being a space nonce, but mainly because he was annoying. I also murdered cute little Skillet because his voice was giving me the fear. I am going to Space Hell.

...but yes, I enjoyed the Danielle/Abi subplot, the argument about how it might be a bad idea to inject alien DNA into your brain through your eye socket just so you can play at being a pop star for a day, then the bit where you play the 80s song they made (on a keytar, presumably) and it isn't to the Phantoms' taste, to the point where they try to kill you for playing it*. Then the bit where you find Abi dead in the freezer and Danielle sees you rather than Abi and realises she hasn't made it.

Also I think everyone in this game is bisexual. It's an equal opportunities game. Or maybe they were having one big space orgy up there... this is like a playable Ian M Banks novel set in The Culture, ooooh...

*I dunno- it wasn't that bad. I had an earworm** for days- and I love the fact that the developers actually went to the trouble of writing and producing a pop song for one small bit of a game.

**So so fast the sailing ships / The outer rim the innocence...

amnesiac

I could seriously, if not play, then happily talk about this game all day..

Quote from: Blue Jam on June 07, 2017, 02:59:41 PM
There is a side quest where you can get something to help you with them, but that turned out to be pointless when I reached a later stage in the game and had to kill a Nightmare to get to the next bit.

Consider my interest PIQUED! I'm pretty sure the very first time I saw a Nightmare I killed it because I was so scared, the remnants of it are still in my office where it followed me. I'm actually a bit pissed-off I can't tidy up in there, I mean it moved the globe off my desk and everything!

Quote from: Blue Jam on June 07, 2017, 02:59:41 PM
I also murdered the Psychotronics prisoner

haha same here! I did go into the chamber afterwards and spend some time in there alone with his body by way of .. not remorse.. but no one should be alone while their soul departs (see final episode of Lost when the dog stays with Jack). His notes DID say he was a nonce though, unless I was implicated in a huge coverup I think I did the right thing, not that I'm an advocate of the death penalty but fuck it I wanted to see what would happen!

Quote from: Blue Jam on June 07, 2017, 02:59:41 PM
Also I think everyone in this game is bisexual.
I noticed this too, very fluid with their sexual roles and that, think this must happen to everyone in the future.

Quote from: Blue Jam on June 07, 2017, 02:59:41 PM
I love the fact that the developers actually went to the trouble of writing and producing a pop song for one small bit of a game.

Yes! a sidequest at that. I stopped mucking about in the menus and gave the song my full attention, what a cool thing they did and WHOM amongst us wouldn't spend their first Neuromod learning to play an instrument.



Thanks for the tip on the Nerf gun as well, I had no idea what they were good for.

Bhazor

The more I play the game the more I like it. Feels like the first game since Tyranny where I'll want to replay it as soon as I finish. Still some problems with default movement being too syrupy, rubbish AI pathfinding, really annoying telepath spamming in the later areas and the really disappointing nightmare monster



Did have a few weird bugs though like glitching into a box I was carrying, a couple hardcrashes a room where mimics were floating as if in zero g and a wierd moment where the menu screen was overlaid on the screen like screen burn.

amnesiac

pathfinding - yes this goes a bit wrong especially when you're floating in space and the green dot disappears when you're close to it

Glitches, I've had a few, but then again... had one last night where the door to the power room level (green sign) wouldn't work, not part of any quest, just one of those doors that takes you to a different level.

Currently on a quest to get some chick's medicine, although I could've just shot her in the head but I'm a #niceguy and having to go back from the depths of the power area to crew quarters or something, better be worth it, I want at least 4 Neuromods for this.

Something weird happened, I met up with these survivors, nice bunch, I did the 4 turret in Cargo Area B thing, went off for a while and when I got back they were all under mind control and I had to shoot them all in the head (even though I didn't want to)! You try your best to do the right thing but jeeez...

biggytitbo

I accidently killed all those guys in the cargo bay by installing one of the alien nueormods at the start of that mission and making the big fuck off monster come and chase me which killed them all. Which was very very funny but seemed to confuse the game somewhat.

Blue Jam

Quote from: Bhazor on June 07, 2017, 06:02:01 PM
the really disappointing nightmare monster

Someone on the Prey subreddit pointed out that the Nightmare sounds like an angry Chihuahua and now I can't un-hear the resemblance.

Quote from: amnesiac on June 08, 2017, 04:25:25 PM
Glitches, I've had a few, but then again... had one last night where the door to the power room level (green sign) wouldn't work, not part of any quest, just one of those doors that takes you to a different level.

There's one point in the game where that door stops working because a technopath has got control of it, and you have to go into the room nextdoor to kill it...

Quote from: amnesiac on June 08, 2017, 04:25:25 PMCurrently on a quest to get some chick's medicine, although I could've just shot her in the head but I'm a #niceguy and having to go back from the depths of the power area to crew quarters or something, better be worth it, I want at least 4 Neuromods for this.

If you've revisited the Neuromod division, you may have noticed the piano (which you can play), and the room where the scientists were recording the neural connectome of a celebrated composer/pianist so they could stick it in a neuromod and people could then inject his unique musical ability into their brains. Well, later in the game, one of the survivors says he's this composer's biggest fan, and would you mind going back to get that connectome for him pretty please? Yeah, sure buddy, I'll go back through this alien-infested spaceship and get that for you, just as soon as I've finished rearranging these deckchairs...

(I might get it for him and then shoot him)

Blue Jam

Quote from: amnesiac on June 08, 2017, 04:25:25 PM
Currently on a quest to get some chick's medicine

I got to the bit where you help her find out what happened to her father. Spoiler: He was killed.
By you
. I didn't bother listening to the audio log before playing it to her so I got a bit of a surprise with her reaction- and I don't think I was supposed to be laughing at it. It was well worth keeping her alive for.

Just got to the bit where the military operators first appear, before one of them promptly lasered me to death. That took me back to the previous save, where I will now be hoping OBSTRUCTION DETECTED, PLEASE CLEAR APERTURE OF DEBRIS is a clue and hastily GLOOing up all the dispensers and chucking sofas in front of them.

Blue Jam

Finished this today! Loved the post-credits psychological evaluation- bloody hell Errol, I only murdered a nonce, it's not like I bought a pint of milk from Harrods.

biggytitbo

Did you try the other endings?

Blue Jam

#57
I did the Mother Of All Nullwaves ending,  then went back and tried the Blow Up Talos 1 ending but January wouldn't let me do it with the Nullwave already in place so I'll have to go back to an earlier save for that one. Did Alex's escape pod though and had been hoping to land and get a glimpse of a Typhon-infested Earth, but all I got was another ticking off from Errol.

Going to do Typhon Only abilities on Easy and go genocidal for my next playthrough. I was a bit annoyed to find that killing the Psychotronics Nonce affects the ending, but killing mind-controlled humans doesn't- hey, I didn't want to be alone on a spaceship with a nonce, alright?

How many endings does this game have? There must be at least five, maybe six.

biggytitbo

I missed the nonce, is there a computerized nonce in the game?

Blue Jam

#59
A roboplegic wrongcock...  Nah, it's the prisoner in Psychotronics, the one you have the cboice to free or to set the Typhon on in a dodgy experiment. His criminal record is on the computer for you to read and make a moral judgement on. Apparently if you free him he claims he's innocent and gives you the key to a room, but in this game there's usually a way in without the key, and he was a bit of an aggressive shouty fucker anywah, so meh- bring out the gimp.

Killing the murderous chef doesn't seem to affect the ending either- maybe murder is where the developers drew the line, and all other crimes don't deserve punishment by hungry Typhon.

Actually I did like that whole subplot about the "volunteers" all being prisoners on death row, agreeing to be experimented on in return for having their records wiped clean, and then finding that email that tells you they all get fed to the Typhon and turned into neuromods because fuck it, they're all bad 'uns and they were all going to die anyway. Interesting when you then hear Alex explaining that the Typhon are unable to experience empathy. I've always felt uneasy at hearing that "why don't scientists experiment on prisoners instead of animals?" argument so that bit of the plot drew me in.