Arkane Austin's System Shock-Inspired Prey (2017) Reboot

Every time I see the word “Prey” I still think about the American Indian game. I cannot dissociate my brain from the original game plus the one that was canceled. I went to Arkane forums and looked for a game called “Arkane” that’s how messed up blending IP’s can be to someone as “Prey” was still an entirely different game than the “Prey” I was playing and it does not fit.

I am enjoying the game greatly now that I got over my irritation of the volume being disastrous, the controls not working right, and a bunch of other issues that shouldn’t have been in a console release. Also, at first I was unhappy the enemies look like a direct rip out of many horror and sci-fi movies. But once again that disappointment has leveled and I’m e noting that. What I’m getting at is this game, past a few twists, makes a horrible impression, and I can only knabiehow boring watching a stream of this would be. Becaus was this game is one you have to experience your YOURSELF, not through someone else’s broadcast because at best it’s comparable to watching someone else blandly watch a slow motion movie.

I’m still not seeing ads for the game anywhere.p even thought I’ve typed it into Google a million times, it’s in my emails and typed it into YouTube. No ads, nothing to get me psyched about the game (granted I already have it). What I did see a lot of was Call of Duty WWII, a title I don’t give a crap about, and a whole bunch of smaller game titles I can’t remember. But no Prey.

I don’t think it will sell well and it’s not Arkane’s fault. It’s Bethesda corporate’s fault for how they handled all of this. Sending a cease and desist and threatening to sue an indie game developer “Prey to the Gods” I think it was, also does not help when they once again look like a bully beating anything they don’t like with the big lawyer stick.

I’m loving this game. The graphics are a bit dated, but that’s barely worth mentioning. The part I’m not nuts about is the hacking mini-game. The floaty controls are absolutely frustrating and there’s no benefit for increasing the hacking skill, other than getting access to more difficult hacks. I wish the level of hacking skill had some measurable effect on difficulty vs. skill – for instance, my hacking of level three would make a level one hack much easier (by adding time or fewer obstacles or better controls or less damage on failure, just something).

Bethesda/Zenimax is why I’m not playing this game. I’m tempted because it sounds good, and I’m sorry if Harvey and the people at Arkane get caught in the crossfire, but come on. I’m so sick of their shit.

The IGN reviewer has said he’s just run into some technical problems with the PC version towards the end of the game. Constant crashes and save file corruptions. Has anybody else had that problem?

I would disagree since it was streaming that convinced me to buy this game, but that’s just me :)

It’s a single-player game with elements that seem very reminiscent of BioShock and Arkane’s own Dishonored games. I’d be very surprised if sales were outstanding right out of the gate based on the sales numbers for those same franchises at the end (BioShock Infinite and Dishonored 2) of their runs.

Wow my last post was so messy, sorry about that. Was just tying to say I really like the game now, but if it doesn’t sell well Bethesda corporate will blame Arkane and “us” gamers instead of taking a look at themselves. Someone at Corporate just had to use the IP they paid too much money for, Bethesda corporate continues to use lawyers to abuse the American legal system, they pushed the game out before it was ready, and then also didn’t define and dissociate the game well leading up to release.

What I love about this is probably exactly what others hate: it’s a single-player game, and not afraid to own that, with a heavy emphasis on exploration and just enough combat and tension to keep you on your toes. I like games like this, where I don’t feel rushed in my exploration but there is enough risk to make me cautious. I think it slots in somewhere above Mankind Divided in terms of enjoyment, but somewhere below Human Revolution, in the Deus Ex context. It’s maybe 80% of System Shock 2, in that department, by my admittedly idiosyncratic measurements.

My only complaint is the limited weapon variety, especially compared with System Shock 2, Bioshock and Deus Ex. I wish I had an SMG or assault rifle, and some more melee weapons. They explain this as being due to this being a scientific facility but given what they are researching, a better armed security force would seem reasonable. Other than that, I think the game is really good, not as good as Deus Ex but more fun than Bioshock.

I agree that I really want a medium-range weapon-- the pistol doesn’t cut it.

I would prefer an assault rifle more than a SMG as the shotgun already works quite well at short range.

The pistol, if you can actually hit with a full clip, with just one upgrade can take down a lot of stuff. It’s the hitting that’s tough, for me.

I had like four boxes of shotgun shells! WTF? Is there just one shell per fucking box!?

Yes, because it is not accurate at medium ranges. That was my point.

A full box, as created by the fabricator, contains 12 shells. I spent almost all my material son shotgun shells for a good portion of the beginning, untilI found a much more attractive item to fabricate… neuromods.

Worst . . . hacking . . . mini-game . . . ever

Yeah, given the ranged ability of some of the enemies, it would be nice to have a weapon with more range. I really have trouble believing I’m largely stuck with a pistol and a shotgun. A high powered revolver and assault rifle would be nice.

I have played so many hacking minigames across gaming, but this one is fairly quick so I don’t mind it. Bioshock had worse.

And this game is long btw. I am 25 hours in and I am still getting new sidequests. I am doing everything though.

Yeah, I’m finding it quite meaty; I just don’t get some of the criticisms I’ve seen online that it’s like only ten hours long or whatever. I suppose you can blitz through most of these games if you really want to, but why? Reminds me too much of when I had to review games on a deadline. Ugh.

Someone did a speedrun of this game in 20 minutes yesterday

Speed Run for System Shock 2 currently stands at 12m34sec. I’m sure Prey will come down to that territory eventually too.

By clipping through geometry with the gloo gun.