No, that’s what I meant by the zapper laser thing. But you probably thought I was talking about the stun gun, which I did find, but had limited utility as best I could tell. I just used it to take out possessed crew members.
Stun gun is also good against machines. IIRC the EMP grenade fucked up possessors severing their ties to all their captives / controlled turrets.
Did not mean to disrespect. :)
I just like talking about Prey.
No I get it, you busted me on my imprecise language. I forgot there was more than one zappy thing. Still feels like there should be more weapons, but it’s not exactly a Doom clone so maybe I shouldn’t think about it that way.
About the spoilers at the end, it’s the second thing. it all happened, but happened in the past, from their perspective. It seems they uploaded themselves to machines to save themselves when the typhoon got out of control.
On giving it more thought yeah, that seems like the only option that really makes sense. I was a bit thrown seeing Dr Igwe and the others appearing as operators, yet Alex was still looking the same as earlier in the game. But I guess neuromods can extend life, as seen in some of the health upgrades.
Seems like there are a lot of stories they could yet tell in this universe, I hope Arkane gets the chance to revisit it someday.
I just saw a two-pack of Prey and Dishonored 2 for 9 bucks. That is freakin’ nuts. You see that on games that have failed or have been written off. Is Arkane going under or something?
Does Mooncrash count?
They’re in internal studio for Bethesda, and they’ve got a pretty high profile game coming up, don’t they? Isn’t Deathloop the Prey team? I doubt they’re going under just because they’re selling super old* games at a discount.
-Tom
* in videogame years
Yeah, I know. It just seems weird seeing RDR2 and even Skyrim still selling at semi-premium prices, and seeing a discount of this magnitude on these titles.
That said, I’ll probably grab this if only to replay Prey on the XSX and to give D2 another shot. It didn’t grab my attention when I tried it on the ps4.
I don’t know much about Mooncrash actually. It’s a rogue-like add-on to the main game I think?
Correct, but it’s also more stories about the Prey universe! Arkane definitely used it for narrative purposes, and not just to make a rogue-like add-on.
-Tom
Well, I can’t argue with that. Might as well give it a shot!
Mooncrash is good fun. If you like Prey, get Mooncrash for sure.
Mooncrash is good but there is a time limit so the pacing is bit more frantic. I initially bounced off of it after the second run but this is before I understood how it worked. After several runs you’ll have enough resources to make easy progress. Especially if you unlock the stronger characters.
Well I finally got around to playing this, and yeah it’s fantastic. Definitely scratches the same itch as System Shock and Deus Ex. Now I just have to wait another month (hopefully) for the System Shock remake to come out. Why can’t there be more games like this?
Good question.
Because they are hard to make. Oh, not the graphics, or the engine, or anything like that. That shit’s easy (for AAA studios with access to hordes of outsourced studio labor.)
They’re hard to design. Good immersive sims have so many options, and threads, and interlocking systems. It takes actual, honest effort, from talented, passionate individuals, to come up with and wrangle all that neat stuff.
And you can’t crank them out quickly. They have to cook. They have to iterate. Hell, sometimes entire systems just don’t work and have to be torn out and started over. They take time.
And all of the above costs money, for games that won’t return obscene profits from microtransactions.
All of which is completely antithetical to the current AAA régime.
They’re expensive to make, and don’t sell well enough.
Immersive sims are hard in two ways: not only they are hard as you have explained because the have many options and systems, they also are hard because they also depend on good, delicate, hand crafted level design (with attention to flow, combat, puzzles, player options, and much more).
So it isn’t something like… I don’t know, a strategy game like Rimworld where there is too lots of interlocking systems and reactivity (but no real level design). Nor a traditional FPS that depends on good level design but there is no emergent gameplay. It’s a type of game that requires both.
edit: this forum works worse and worse…
All the Prey and Dishonored stuff is currently on sale at GoG for ridiculously low prices.