One thing to note (as I am sure others will): the unskippable credits was a bug, fixed in a later patch. When I played I could skip the credits instantly (though I waited a couple of minutes until the replay of the pre-crisis events finished.)
January talking about the purpose of existence is the best part of the game imo. Glad you included most of it, although you left out the great line about deciding your purpose if you weren't made for one.
Great analysis of a game I loved. But I'm surprised you didn't mention one aspect I felt was key, and thoroughly compelling in this game; or perhaps you don't share my view. I felt this game featured some of the very best world building of any 0451/Immersive Sim game. In fact, better than most games outside of full RPGs. I felt it built a fabulous rich, deep and believable world. Talos-1 felt true to me in a way that no other -Shock/Immersive Sim game world has come close to. The realistically proportioned environment with its close detailing felt like a real place that real people could and did occupy (falling down only at the end by not having nearly enough beds - unless they intended to imply that the rest were lost in space.) As important if not more so, the characters and their stories, mostly told through copious and intersecting emails and audio logs, felt believable and human. I felt true pathos hearing of the D&D games and the tussles of blossoming love affairs, amongst the wreck, ruins and corpses of the subsequent catastrophe. As a result Prey's world stood out for me as few others have as a real place, where real people lived and worked and played, like normal people would. A clear difference from, for example, the BioShock games, whose worlds were beautiful but ultimately shallow and easily shown to be no more than pretty facade, and where characters were mostly painted in broad, generic strokes, with little focus beyond the central cast. That for me was one of the major wins of Prey. I felt it has come the closest of any such game to really immerse me in a simulated world, albeit with the usual caveat of doing so after it all went to hell. (Playing on max difficulty I also loved the tricky combat and the necessarily resulting gathering/crafting loop - so all those extra twists at the end were mostly welcome, even if it did get rather easy towards the end.)
In a way Prey pulled this off well. I found myself eager to read all the texts and e-mails, I wanted to know more about the world, the monsters and so on. I got so immersed into the world that when I was presented with the alien powers, I chose not to take any of them. Not a single one. I felt like it would have some grave consequences and in a way it would have, but only with the turrets I think and some changes in the ending. Most of the skills were really great too, some typical buffs and such and the slow down thing that I didn't pick, felt kinda off. I feel like that slowdown(combat focus or something) was added there just for console players as the game apparently is really tricky with a controller. I had a pretty challenging time on PC too because the mimics especially were so damn fast, but nothing I couldn't manage. Overall it had some flaws here and there, but nothing too big and like I said earlier, the world really sucked me in. Why? Because the game made me look for stuff and didn't tell me much at all if I didn't look for info. When a game forces info down your throat all the time, you start to hate the world.
Between this and horizon zero dawn, we got some very fantastic world-building this year. But I really do give props to Arkane studios and their classy games
actually every single character on the station has a bed, and although part of the crew quarters has a hull breach you can still explore those ones via the airlock
I honestly thought this was the best game i've played in the past 5 years. Some parts of the game were kind of ruined by glitches or faulty blends of story/game interaction, but i still loved the game. 10/10/10/10
chictApi totally agree with you. To me Prey is the modern equivalent of system shock 2, wich totally tried to be. It has his flaws for sure but even loving the dishonored series this is my fav Arkane's game. Also the ending is by far the best one that Arkane has pulled off by far (especially when compared with the ok ish and by the numbers ending of D1 and the "we need the game to end somewhere so this is it" of D2)
Add me to this list. Marketing totally passed me by and I ran into 1 game breaking bug (fixed it eventually), but I haven't had that system shock feel for years.
I agree. Beautiful and very atmospheric game. I like Errant Signal's commentary on it but think it was a tad harsh - in particular the suggestion that it doesn't do anything new but is merely a well polished '0451' game - I found it to be full of creative ideas, from the base-enemy mimicking objects, the puzzles involving using the looking glass, the whole GUTS area... And in any case - I hadn't played anything that captured the original spirit of Deus Ex / Systemic Shock 2 since, well, since those games.
*This game is a hit or miss for people* : - All of my friends hate it, but they love games like Overwatch, Assassin's creed etc. - This, to me, is the greatest game of 2017, the best fps that came out over the last 10 years along side of The dishonored franchise, the Resident evil reboot and few others. it has its flaws that I'm well aware of, but this game is such *the definition of everything I love about a game* ; its an anti fps, its low key as hell, and I love it. - Tbh this game just makes me too damn happy. - We could never have another immersive sim of our entire life, I wouldnt be sad. This game is system shock 2 and bioshock mashed together. Its such an underrated masterpiece. Could talk about it all day long.. Glad some other people love this game as much as I did. the fact your comment got a 100 likes gives me faith into the gaming community
The majority of the 'action' might be combat with the faceless Typhon, however a big aspect you've overlooked for the majority of the game is world-building. The game went to incredible lengths to make Talos1 feel like its own place, every room has a story of what it was before and after the outbreak, each and every crewman is accounted for with a great amount of work put into emails, audio logs and so forth that tell us a story, even all the dimensions of the entire station fit together whether that be inside or out the station. I would also say that you are missing out on the angle of empathy that the game is going for. How much you empathize with the lives of the people of this station, how much length you go to pick up the pieces to understand what is going on. 'Looking through the looking glass' is something the devs very much wanted to combine with how you as a player empathised with the situation of Talos1. The player like a Typhon might just feel that it's just a game, a series of foes to punch your way through and on some level Prey does try to peel back the curtain and poke you to think about how you played the game at the end. I do agree though that the majority of the game falls a bit flat because of its reliance on a linear series locked door quests. Exploring new areas of the station is fun and interesting but the main storyline is mostly disconnected from that. On some level you even acknowledge this, saying that the end of the game feels long in the tooth because you are now going back through old areas that have already been explored. Once the locations are known, there's less fun in backtracking even if the same rooms are now filled with combative robots, or the boss Typhon. To me in the end, I like the premise of the game. Alex has tied up a Typhon to basically say to it 'let me tell you the story of my people'. He then watches to see how you think and act, how you handle the situation, how you think if literally put in his brother's shoes, how much you *empathise*. In this case, it seems that Campster spent his time focusing on looking through the looking glass to almost the exclusion of everything else, breezily dismissing most of Alex's story as a long boring combat sequence. I think we failed. This isn't the one. Start over.
Considering that my first reaction to the Apex Typhon's appearance (after "holy crap what is that thing?!" and "on second thought, I can probably take it") was "oh crap Alex is exposed and unconscious, I need to get them out of sight ASAP!" Considering that Alex was basically the antagonist up until that point, the game sold me *hard* on the sibling bond thing. It wasn't just Alex ( I very quickly developed a soft spot for Danielle Sho, along with most of the D&D group (sorry Zach, I hardly knew ye)), but considering that saving Alex was a reflexive action on my part to a horrifying monster attacking (which for all I knew would instantly kill me if I hung around for more than a few seconds) rather than a fully deliberate and thought-out one for mechanical gain, I'd say the game's attempt to get me to empathize with fictional characters and fictional relationships was a rousing success.
@@dominiccasts Yep, when that sequence happened, I sort of went into a panic making sure that I got Alec to safety as quickly as possible. Arkane did a great job portraying a flawed but relatable human being.
another excellent piece chris. I'm very interested in the Calvino character, especially after seeing so many Italian surnames in the credits. the reference here is to the late Italian writer (and subject of my doctoral dissertation) and I wonder how prey's themes overlap with his later works.
I absolutely loved this game. I enjoyed it far more than anything else I played this year...and yes that includes Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn...I guess I'm just really into immersive sims. The environmental storytelling, the atmosphere, the ambience, the "lived-in" feeling that the entire space station has...it's all done so well. I especially loved some of the unexpectedly good segments like your first time through G.U.T.S., discovering the new Typhon powers for the first time in Psychotronics, min-maxing your build around Neuromod crafting, some fun enemies like the Poltergeist, etc. I agree that the beginning 1/3rd is the strongest part of the game. You feel so weak and you're terrified of everything, you think you're the only one left alive and one blow from a Phantom can kill you. I was sneaking around with explosive canisters in hand for so long until I finally found the Shotgun. It has all the makings of an excellent immersive sim and I easily got my $60 worth out of it.
It's not a big improvement over "Psychoshock". Plus, if you're going for that 0451 pseudo-profound pretentiousness, neuroscience isn't going to cut it; you need to talk about the _Psyche_
Joseph Anderson also proposed another interpretation on Alex's character. In the story, everyone seems to hate Alex making him out to be a tyrant. According to the characters you talk to and the information you find lying around, he's the only one that wanted to enslave the Typhon. However, this contradicts every single appearance of him in the game. He is calm and incredibly reasonable. In the audio logs, he even seems very sympathetic towards the Typhon. Anderson's reading says that Alex wants to shoulder all the blame for what happened to the Typhon. He wants to give you a reason to save humanity by making all of them appear innocent; according to the simulation (the entire game), humanity was oblivious to what was really happening to the Tyhpon. However, if the crew members were really oblivious, which you are told they were, it is itself either a huuuge plot hole, or, much more likely, a narrative that is being force fed to the player character through the simulation, by Alex. In other words, this video never considers that the game itself might have been an altered simulation that tries to manipulate you, an expanded version of that tutorial section. The video does bring up something that only strengthens Anderson's interpretation: looking glass technologies are themselves a metaphor for the player's own 2d screens 'presenting a pretend 3d reality that is, in some superficial level, believable to you in the moment'. Since the game itself draws a parallel to deceptive realities found in looking glass tech., wouldn't that imply that you can't trust the illusion before your very eyes?
I wouldn't say the simulation paints humanity as innocent. A lot of higher up people within Transtar clearly new about the ugly reality behind nueromods and how creating them required murdering people (even if those people were criminals, although we can't be sure they actually WERE criminals, as the one guy explains that his record was exaggerated in order to ease the mind of whichever employee had to press the button to kill him). In addition to the scummy activities that Transtar higher ups were involved in, there was also the inclusion of the psycho impersonating the cook, and there was the inclusion of Walter Dahl. I think Alex tries to paint HIMSELF in a better, yet imperfect light. But I feel like the simulation he provides to the player/the typhon clearly highlights the atrocities that humanity is capable of. Alex could've easily provided a simulation in which humanity appeared totally innocent, but I think on some level he knew that doing so would only be a detriment to his ultimate goal of forcing the typhon to "really see" humanity
Strongly disagree about the momentum being killed towards the end. I spent a lot of the game covering each area with a fine comb and then as everything began kicking off towards the end I felt more compelled to pick up the pace. Because I was so familiar with the layout I was able to leap and dash my way across the terrain when the game called for urgency (which it definitely did with the crew being at risk or Dahl riding the elevator up to the Arboretum. This is one of the few games I've played where it really felt climactic. The fake ending felt a little deflated but then the true ending after the credit made the whole thing feel complete. This is my game of 2017 so perhaps I'm willing to gloss over some of its flaws but the run up to the end wasn't one of them in my opinion.
Agreed. The first time I went through every area so painstakingly slow to get every piece of information and resource I could find. When the stakes were raised I wasn't having to worry about having to do all of that resource gathering through a brand new area, which is what actually would have killed the momentum of the ending. Since I knew I already grabbed everything, all I had to worry about was traversing the area as fast as possible without the mega Typhon grabbing me. I think it's pretty brilliant.
I just played through the game recently and yeah, this was my experience as well. Those tasks that stretch out the game let you actually make use of the mastery of the station that you've developed, and with that mastery - and knowledge that you've already scavenged what can be scavenged - they go by really fast. I ended up even continuing it into a NG+ run, because once you've experienced having to sneak and be really careful and conserve resources everywhere, being totally in control in Prey turns out to be a lot of fun.
one thing that I've noticed about this game is that it's much better on subsequent plays. My first play felt too overwhelming and all over the place, there were just too many things to do, texts to read and gorgeous places to visit, but on my second run I could focus on the mechanics and the secondary plot quests, which not only made the game shorter but also much easier in general. this game is awesome and thoroughly enjoyable. 9/10.
Dang. I can't believe you were so harsh on prey in this video. Been watching your video for years so I expected you would love it. I'll sum up my response by just saying that prey is one of the few video games I've played that feels intrinsically rewarding to play. It's not about the destination but how you got there.
For people interested in this game and having trouble committing after hearing ES talk about the third major part after scanning the coral, using your research notes found in a sub category under the data tab will assist you with fighting the machines. You can also pull up weaknesses and immunities as a quick reference when you pull down your psychoscope and target an enemy, however the notes give you more details into their patterns and gives you recommendations on how to combat them. I do not believe Prey is a hard game even with all the survival modifiers and on Nightmare difficulty, but I don’t see any reason to not make Research it’s own dedicated section in your menu so all players can see it clear as day.
My take is that the entire game is basically preparation for the ending. There's just enough poking and prodding at the idea of (subjective) reality that you're aware that there is definitely SOMETHING going on, even if you don't predict the twist, and I really like that it's basically an empathy test. I think that's a great way to look at and design games, although you're right of course that 90% of the game being shooty sneaky doesn't have an awful lot to do with that. But there are more choices throughout the game, even if a lot of them are morally pretty one-sided, as you say. The balance was a bit off, but I enjoyed playing it so much, and the ending really worked for me. Too bad it bombed and the genre is probably dead for a while again =\
Another point I want to make: Alex and Morgan are the rare example of asian characters given the leading roles and portrayed in non-stereotypical ways. Super refreshing for me
Why is this "refreshing"? Can't you see that highlighting the race/gender of characters just because they are that race and gender is the reason that people hate this SJW mentality of overemphasizing, right? I just don't understand this kind of mindset. Do you need the validation of having someone your own race/gender be a protagonist to relate to a character? Do you honestly think that emphasizing is the right approach to representing minorities rather than just having them be realistic, well-rounded characters who are respected for that? If you think that non-stereotypical asian characters are a "rare example" in entertainment you really need to broaden your horizons.
If you don't care about the race of a character, then why are you so bent out of shape when someone else is happy about the portrayal of asian characters?
ThatGuy7431 because like all anyone wants to do anymore is race bait. I literally don’t care what race you are I treat you well regardless. Maybe that’s a you problem, bud.
Conner Darrell What do you mean all anyone does is race bait? I only found one comment addressing Alex and Morgan's race, and it was a pretty innocuous compliment in my opinion.
ThatGuy7431 you’re looking at the comment that is race baiting. And by anyone, you’re right, let me be more specific in talking about Social Justice Morons who led to people hating liberal politics and having an idiot like Trump elected. Congrats for being both stupid as hell and low key racist.
You really summed up what I've been thinking about Prey across multiple play throughs. I absolutely LOVE the opening (Even on it's own, the idea of the apartment simulation and smashing through into the real world is a super cool idea) and the early game of picking what path you want to go down first with powers and approaching each fight with a plan or spending valuable resources without one is an incredible feeling. It's not quite stealth (Unless you stick hard to stealth) and not quite horror, but feels like a nice mix of each. But in the middle of the game, it feels like that just kind of... falls apart. Even if you get into Fabrication and start fabricating neuromods as soon as you can, it still felt like I was always working towards some new power no matter how many I made. But towards the middle of the game, you have a ton of every resource except for one bottle neck (Either minerals if you're making ammo or exotic materials if you're making neuromods) and even playing on nightmare with immersion mods for minimal HUD... it stopped feeling challenging. It lost the feel of the first part of the game of planning for every fight. I found that unless I deliberately set rules for myself (Only picking up light and/or valuable items, no inventory upgrades, only using found ammo instead of fabricating), I was breezing through it. Not to mention that trying for a wrench and/or powers only playthrough is frustrating because of the lack of wrench upgrades/bonuses (Especially if you get screwed by RNG) and the fact that scope chips (Also RNG) are the only way to reduce power cooldown, so if you favor one, you're running around until it recharges or fall back on another. I certainly enjoyed sections of the game, despite the fall off in the main plot and game play. I think in 0451 style, the stories about the side characters and showing the game's world is executed very well. The little stories in both the arboretum and the Crew Quarters make them both my favorite areas, game play aside, and that those stories in general really make Talos 1 feel real. And I do think the themes of identity and what's real or "true" comes across very well; Even when the main plot loses its way a bit the side stories and environment drive those points home just as well. Maybe the patched it by the time I picked it up, but I was able to skip the credits. I wish the ending was a bit more fleshed out but still think it's wonderful, given that it isn't an "It's all a dream" cliche but has been hinted at since the beginning of the game, and I think it does a good job of wrapping up the game even when the final hours falter. I've been a huge fan of yours and your videos for awhile but just never quite found the right time to comment, but even with it's issues, Prey's a game that really resonated with me (And watching your video just makes me want to play it again), and you've put into words quite a few things that have been running through my head about it as well as bringing up some interesting points I never considered. Awesome video as always and I can't wait to see what comes next :)
Have you checked out Joseph Anderson's video on Prey? It's stupidly long like all his critiques, but I think he provides a pretty swell alternate take on the ending that I hadn't considered. That's not to say that alternative contrarian interpretations are inherently superior, but it casts Alex and the player character in a bit of a different light that feels worth considering.
Hunter M Someone needs to introduce Mr. Anderson to the concept of brevity. His videos are way longer than they ought to be and I have a suspicion it's for TH-cam money, like a writer bring paid by the word.
Rory Stockley Like Alexander Pope once said, length =\= depth. It seems to me that he prefers to meander, repeat himself, use many words to say a simple idea, keep to a small vocabulary, not organize his thoughts well, and improv his points. His video on Little Nightmares is a good example.
I'm 100% sure I've watched this before. But I enjoyed this re-watch, and wanted you to know that your work here is valuable. Very valuable. An inspiration to others and possibly the best in your particular field. I know this comment is 1 in 300 but please hear me and know your work here is awesome and worthwhile.
I sincerely hope that in-game choices aren't a reflection of our true selves. Because the crimes i committed in paradox grand strategy games i'm going to hell.
Thank you for making this video. For longest time I knew I didn't like Prey as much as other people did but I couldn't tell why. This video helped me to put my feelings into words. Once again, thank you.
Okay I'm on board with most of this except the "do they live or do they die" thing being a video-gamey thing. So, in the beginning of the game and as it's shown many times throughout, Typhon are not supposed to empathize in any way. Which is why when you make the choice to save any human, you are rejecting your typhon side and embracing your human side. Of course that's only put into context after the end reveal (also why this game needs multiple playthroughs to experience everything) but regardless, it's still you choosing whether or not you want to be empathetic or not and that's basically the whole theme of the game (and why there's multiple achievements for it). Who are you? Are you human, are you typhon? Are you both? Or are you neither? That's the main theme of the game and it resonates with what January asks you when you go to scan the nodes: what is your purpose, Morgan? What were you made for? And part of choosing which identify you want to be is based on who you choose to be throughout the campaign. Every side quest, every mission, basically everything in the game feeds back into who Morgan is as a person. Are they even a person at all? So yeah, its definitely not filler but more so there to reinforce your choices at the end. Of course it's not hammered into you constantly so it can feel looser than other story elements that you're forced to witness but otherwise, the middle of the game is actually the most important part of the game BECAUSE of how it all loops back into its main themes.
I'm surprised you didn't appreciate the false Cook more. It wasn't a question on whether you kill him or not, it's just that Arkane's recent games try to give you as much freedom to kill NPCs as they can. The Cook provides a lot of good suspense to the Apex typhon's arrival at the end of the game, and otherwise has some good dialogue about morality.
I think it's also worth mentioning how, because you don't know about other options until towards the end of the game, the decisions you make over who lives and dies on Talos I are made with the apparent knowledge that you're going to destroy the station in the end. In that light, the decisions are less game-y, at least in my opinion - saving Mikhaila or Igwe, for example, becomes somewhat of a question about mercy killing. It's also implied that the neuromods that have been produced on Talos I are going to result in the spread of Typhon regardless of if the station is cleared of them, because that exotic material is in the brains of about 8000 people, if that announcement in The Yellow Tulip is to be believed. Thus, in my opinion, the decisions are more complicated than "do you save people or leave them to die". That's my take, anyway. I think the themes are broader than just identity and truth, but those are also prominent.
>.> I actually really liked the third segment because...honestly, I really liked exploring the station, and the changes to the station made scrambling through it again with first murderbots and then with a uber typhon.
Normally I don't care about spoilers in your videos, as I usually don't have a way to access the game you're talking about or have no interest in playing it. This one? I watched the first three minutes, fell in love with it, and swore not to watch the rest of it until I played through it myself. Fast forward a few weeks, after getting the game for Christmas and playing through it, I finally watched the rest of this. Your analysis is spot-on, as usual. I didn't even see all the stuff about Calvino, I must have forgotten to go into his quarters. And yeah, the game does drag on a bit at the end (stupid laser murder bots) and that does take the wind out of it, but overall I really really loved the game. Glad to see that you did too. It's weird. I never really got into Dishonored, but this game suckered me in right away. Congrats Arkane on a job well done!
Goddamnit, you long-form video game critics and your videos about games I haven't played yet. (Adds to Watch Later list) That makes you, Noah Caldwell and Joseph Anderson with Prey videos on there.
jessi74 the 3 are exquisite reviews, Noah Caldwell not only reviews the game but compares it to the original Prey and finds some interesting links between the vision of the two
Not sure if I missed it, but Calvino may also be a reference to Italo Calvino, who would tie in pretty well with the themes of artificial spaces, mind, and imagination
One more literary reference in there: it sounds like the Looking Glass designer Mr Calvino could be a reference to the author Italo Calvino, perhaps best known for If On A Winter's Night A Traveller. Which is a postmodern story about the reader, trying to read If On a Winter's Night A Traveler, but finding that every copy contains a different story, each of which is experienced in part as you read through the chapters. Or there's his Inivisible Cities, which is about a fictitious conversation between Marco Polo and Khublai Khan. This book discusses 55 different cities, to show the breadth of the Khan's empire, but they all end up being reflections of a much smaller part of the world. I'm not quite smart enough to tie this fully into the themes here, but there's enough postmodern musings in his work and in this game that I feel the naming choice is not a coincidence.
The flaw in the idea of using an extended simulation (or, a video game) to judge a person's character is that the average player *dies* about a hundred times before reaching the end. It conditions your behavior. Your genuine responses get you sent back to try again until you fall in line. In other words, they're giving you nothing but a hammer and judging you for treating all your problems like nails. It's a limitation of the medium. Anyway, there's a lot of cool stuff going on here. Someone told me about the D&D sheets, and I assumed it was just a cute pop culture reference, but it's actually there to reinforce the narrative themes? That's awesome.
Those first two acts were some of the most enjoyable time I've spent playing a game this year, but when the kill bots showed up, I checked out. The last few hours I spent with Prey were running between loading screens to fulfill the end state, which is sad. Could they not have thrown some human combatants at us at that point? The implications of wholesale slaughter probably would have raised a more loaded debate for the ending scene, deconstructing Typhon Yu's reaction to human aggression. For a game I so thoroughly enjoyed going in, it's frustrating to see it fall apart so spectacularly in the end.
That would have been neat, though personally I'd been leaning hard on the Stun Gun since around the halfway point, as it is the quickest way to save humans from Telepaths, so it wouldn't have changed my approach to the end section much. On the other hand, I wonder if the use of operators wasn't originally intended to be used as a direct nod to the fact that most of the entities testing Typhon Yu are themselves operators, and thus your destroying operators might be more affecting to them.
the entire game's interior design (which is fantastic) is exactly the same type of design seen in dishonored 2. not only the portraits but the vertical elongation scheme of all the furniture and rooms being way taller than they need to be. overall, the interiors all look fantastic and found myself spending alot of time look at the furniture just as i did in dishonored 2
I didn't mind the ending half, infact I liked it. The sense of constant urgency and the sense that "I might not be able to do all of these". I thought it was great. It made me feel very tense, however, the one part that did feel a bit forced was the whole military guy and his murder bots. They did set that up earlier, but I kept thinking "do I really have a reason to go after this guy? why? yeah he's an asshole, but so is everyone else on the damn ship"
Excellent video, especially your point/apt examples for just how poorly the landing is stuck that you make at 14:10. This game had a better story than it managed to execute, and while it is far from supremely frustrating since it still capitalizes on it enough to remain a game I thoroughly enjoy, I still think their ultimate twist deserved more fare than it got. (Not to say it didn't have any--there are MASSIVE amounts of foreshadowing to the twist even on the cover of the game itself, but relegating it to a post-credits sequence truly did not do it justice. The fact that the moral choice aspect is more about a significant story payoff than a gameplay payoff really means this needed the full force of the narrative focus.) Also, I very much like and approve of "0451 games" to refer to this brand of games.
So I haven't finished this game, so keep that in mind when I talk about your take on the final twist. That being said, I think I can see the thought process of the developers making the twist a post-credits scene. It could be an attempt to make the players think that what happened on Talos I was real, and that there's no further mysteries to uncover. And then, when you get to the end of the simulation (the credits), you realize that you've also ended the in-universe simulation. That being said, I haven't played the game, so I'm not sure if that will be my reaction if/when I finally DO finish it.
+Errant Signal reveal after credits means some players would quit on the credits without seeing the reveal.. and still think they were the other character
I'm really glad I waited a little while to finish this game. Had the credits been unskippable for me I might have missed the real ending, which would have been sad. As it is I thought the end of the game was fantastic.
I wish you emphasized the connection between the themes of this game and classical Gnosticism more. The rejection of physicality as an artificial lie, created in ignorance and serving as a trap and a prison seems to resonate very strongly
Clearly the after-credits sting is just a reference to Human Revolution. I didn't know about that for years even after I replayed the game several times.
Enjoyed most of this analysis! One notable omission tho - when discussing themes, how did you miss the Trolley problem at the beginning of the game, and how that theme came through in so many of the missions throughout the game? The resolution of most missions is not just “do the video game thing of kill the bad guy or spare them”. It’s an interesting exploration of humanity to choose to save the people right in front of you, even if they’re doomed by the inevitable death of the station’s destruction. And the ending mission ties in perfectly to this - should you destroy the space station and everyone on it, or should you load everyone onto a spaceship to escape, even if that risks Earth’s safety? Many of the game’s missions also tie into this idea. Anyway, glad you could somewhat enjoy the game, despite it feeling inconsistent in your opinion. I loved the gameplay, the atmosphere, and the weight of the choices in this game, and can’t wait to see what Arkane Austin does next!
If I was making the game, I probably would have put the ending after the credits too. I figure the credits would be part of the Looking Glass simulation, so the reveal would only happen once the simulation was completed. Of course, I'd probably try to make the credits shorter too.
I think your criticism is spot on. Incredible opening, fun to play middle-section where the plot isn't really advanced, and rushedending. The payoff is really on the underwhelming side. The game is great, but with a stronger story it could have been truly amazing.
Prey... One of the most fascinating and competent games I've played that I didn't like. Way too much respawning crap for me. By midway through the game I had just started sprinting through everything rather than exploring.
Great video! Just wondering, before putting an end to your "Summer of 0451" proyect, could you do a video on "System Shock 2"? I know you´ve talked about that game before, but it would be nice to get your full insight on it.
On a sidenote, is there any reason this shares the name of Prey 2006 instead of being an original IP? I mean, they may as well have called it Ghostbusters or The Thing.
yes and it's a deep rabbit hole, in a nutshell Bethesda basically killed the studio that made the original prey because they weren't making Prey II fast enough for their zealous restrictions, so sacked them and gave the franchise to a completely unrelated dev team which made this.
My guess is sort of related to what I said in the video: The working title was Psychoshock, the marketing peeps at Bethesda said "Hell no" to that, and when they scuttled the Human Head driven Prey they came back to Arkane and said "Hey, we have this title with semi-positive existing brand recognition already available, sooooo...." But again, that's 10000% conjecture on my part.
...An 0451 Avengers sounds pretty awesome, actually. Though I can't decide if it would be cooler if it was characters from a bunch of 0451 games coming together, Avengers-style, or if it was just an 0451 game set in the MCU.
I realize this discussion is kinda old, but I myself only finished the game a few days ago, so I finally got to watch this video now. It is an excellent video, and I agree with most of what is said, but I do have to wonder... Could it perhaps be argued that having crappy endings is another 0451 game tradition? I mean, it isn't across the board. Deux Ex had an excellent ending. But all of the mainline -Shock games (with the possible exception of System Shock 1, which I haven't played) had had crappy endings. System Shock 2's truncated SHODAN reality, Bioshock's boring Fontaine fight, Bioshock Infinite's tower-defense final level. For me, having Prey kinda run out of steam in the final act was merely continuing in the path it set out for itself: to become the ultimate -Shock game. But then, I wasn't terribly bothered by it from a gameplay perspective. The murder-bots were what made my investment in level four Hacking finally seem worth it, and gradually making my way through the shuttle-bay, sneaking up behind and hacking all the bots and turrets was one of the most fun sections of the game for me. I thought the reveal of the Apex typhon was visually really cool, too, almost Lovecraftian in its scale and menace. I am fascinated by the idea of this inky black presence just lurking in the blackness of space, and I just wish the game did more with the concept.
I thought the whole January/December thing was really cool, it sucked any trace of reliability out of January's character and left you uncertain who to trust as the game went on, even if you didn't do December's ending. Also, frantically dragging Dahl's unconscious body through a surprise zero-g segment while trying to remember where the medical stations were so you have a way off the station was great.
I'm pretty late here, but I'm pretty sure that one of the guys in the game being called "Calvino" is a not so subtle nod to Italian author Italo Calvino. Not having played the game, I can't say if it's just a passing nod or if the game has a thematic connection to his works, but just know that there could be a way of interpreting the game through another literary lens
Critics were sort of mixed on this game. I absolutely adored this game. I completed it twice. I usually don't finish games anymore. I loved Prey. I love Mooncrash even more.
I think the reason they hid the big twist at the end of the credits was largely because they were implying the credits were part of the simulation. I think it's actually really clever, but I can understand the frustration. Also, I don't know how the game is on PC, but the credits were totally skippable for me.
Do a look at how Dirty Bomb's approach to free to play games should be an example to other developers and also how their movement system changes the pace of your typical Obj shooter, dramatically. A look at why AoE II's online multiplayer meta is much more focused on macro economics compared to Starcraft's. A discussion of DUSK and it's (quite possibly perfect IMO) attempts to be a true recreation of old school single-player shooter gameplay. Why we'll never see a rerelease of NOLF or NOLF2. The impact and importance of RTCW on the FPS genre. Why micro-transactions for player gear is a perfectly accepted mechanic in most East Asian MMORPGS and even FPS games.
Good video. I just beat the game for the first time, and I don't know if you missed it on your playthrough or it was patched in later (likely the latter), but the credits are skippable.
What's wrong with combat? What would you rather the game had been? (since I didn't play the game I don't understand if the complaint at the end was that the game isn't 'survival horror enough' or that you think another genre would have fit the game better)
There's nothing wrong with combat, per se! It's just that the game becomes about *nothing* but the combat at points - long stretches where the only thing the game asks you to think about is how to shoot or avoid enemies. And again, as 0451 problem solving levels go, that's a good premise, and it's quite fun! But inventing ways to shoot or avoid enemies, no matter how creative the game lets you be, doesn't really feed into the game's thematic interests. It's a game that stops and talks about identity regularly, and also a game that questions the relationship between artificial/constructed worlds and identities within them, as well as notions of some sort of 'true' identity. That's the thematic thrust of the written story. When you can go three or four hours of active gameplay without running into stuff that furthers those ideas at all, it kind of results in a bumpy game when viewed through a thematic lens: the game is about these big questions of reality and identity... unless it's currently more interested in how you sneak into that office and get the keycard so you can get around having to fight that room full of mimics. Not that breaking into that office isn't fun, but it is far removed from the ideas the game is interested in.
I would say if you stop and read notes and listen to logs you can pick up on those things within those stretches of gameplay though. You don't want the game to be too in your face with the theme.
I found the use of extended combat sections fairly effective at drawing me in. I know that sounds weird, but I found that because I couldn't just power-fantasy my way through the combat, I had to become very keen on the goings-on in the world, which really drew me in, which helped me take in and get more out of the audio logs and emails scattered about, helping me to more firmly empathize with the characters. It also helped sell the conflict between the two main end goals, since it makes clear just how much of a threat the Typhon are. Then again, I'm a more mechanically-driven player, so I tend to be blind to narrative elements unless the game is pretty much nothing but narrative elements (like Myst) or it makes exploring the narrative elements relevant in some way to my extended survival (like the Soulsborne games), and Prey falls solidly into the latter category.
@@ErrantSignal does the combat not in-of-itself explore identity too, though? choosing how and when to fight off enemies. of course, it does this only to a certain degree, and with swathes of hours of it it doesn't mean much after a certain point, but id like to point to the neuromod leveling, specifically at the beginning. the game gives you a very clear-cut ultimatum with January: any cell of typhon material brought to earth is presented as a potentially cataclysmic event. once you explore psychotronics, the realm psionic abilities is open to you. learning any of them, to the player's knowledge, means that should you go with the explosion ending that you must, if your intentions are truly altruistic, stay on board for the greater good of humanity. the game contextualizes that choice in a matter of identity in such a complex matter from there-on.
I have to admit that I'm kind of confused about one thing. You said that the final choice (take his hand or kill them all) was a choice between two different Morgans. Which Morgan would have chosen to kill them all?
now I want to play it but it'll never run on my computer. ha, I think 2012 was the last year I could play new releases. I should save some money and upgrade.
![Prey vs. Prey [Total Spoilers]](/img/n.gif)
not sticking the landing is kind of an 0451 staple too
Hahaha, this reminds me of SS2's godawful stinger now.
So true 😂, like bioshocks last area the proving grounds and the boss fight with atlas. What a terrible way to end an otherwise great game.
One thing to note (as I am sure others will): the unskippable credits was a bug, fixed in a later patch. When I played I could skip the credits instantly (though I waited a couple of minutes until the replay of the pre-crisis events finished.)
Just beat the game a half hour ago. Couldn't skip the first time, could skip when I went back to see the other ending.
4 years later still can't skip credits the first time around.
I love the fact the games "choices" were hidden behind normal gameplay mechanics.
January talking about the purpose of existence is the best part of the game imo. Glad you included most of it, although you left out the great line about deciding your purpose if you weren't made for one.
Great analysis of a game I loved. But I'm surprised you didn't mention one aspect I felt was key, and thoroughly compelling in this game; or perhaps you don't share my view. I felt this game featured some of the very best world building of any 0451/Immersive Sim game. In fact, better than most games outside of full RPGs. I felt it built a fabulous rich, deep and believable world. Talos-1 felt true to me in a way that no other -Shock/Immersive Sim game world has come close to. The realistically proportioned environment with its close detailing felt like a real place that real people could and did occupy (falling down only at the end by not having nearly enough beds - unless they intended to imply that the rest were lost in space.)
As important if not more so, the characters and their stories, mostly told through copious and intersecting emails and audio logs, felt believable and human. I felt true pathos hearing of the D&D games and the tussles of blossoming love affairs, amongst the wreck, ruins and corpses of the subsequent catastrophe. As a result Prey's world stood out for me as few others have as a real place, where real people lived and worked and played, like normal people would. A clear difference from, for example, the BioShock games, whose worlds were beautiful but ultimately shallow and easily shown to be no more than pretty facade, and where characters were mostly painted in broad, generic strokes, with little focus beyond the central cast.
That for me was one of the major wins of Prey. I felt it has come the closest of any such game to really immerse me in a simulated world, albeit with the usual caveat of doing so after it all went to hell. (Playing on max difficulty I also loved the tricky combat and the necessarily resulting gathering/crafting loop - so all those extra twists at the end were mostly welcome, even if it did get rather easy towards the end.)
TheBloke agreed wholeheartedly. I think this game's probably got the best art design I have ever seen
In a way Prey pulled this off well. I found myself eager to read all the texts and e-mails, I wanted to know more about the world, the monsters and so on. I got so immersed into the world that when I was presented with the alien powers, I chose not to take any of them. Not a single one. I felt like it would have some grave consequences and in a way it would have, but only with the turrets I think and some changes in the ending.
Most of the skills were really great too, some typical buffs and such and the slow down thing that I didn't pick, felt kinda off. I feel like that slowdown(combat focus or something) was added there just for console players as the game apparently is really tricky with a controller. I had a pretty challenging time on PC too because the mimics especially were so damn fast, but nothing I couldn't manage.
Overall it had some flaws here and there, but nothing too big and like I said earlier, the world really sucked me in. Why? Because the game made me look for stuff and didn't tell me much at all if I didn't look for info. When a game forces info down your throat all the time, you start to hate the world.
Between this and horizon zero dawn, we got some very fantastic world-building this year. But I really do give props to Arkane studios and their classy games
actually every single character on the station has a bed, and although part of the crew quarters has a hull breach you can still explore those ones via the airlock
@TheBloke Thank you for your comment. Agreed.
I honestly thought this was the best game i've played in the past 5 years. Some parts of the game were kind of ruined by glitches or faulty blends of story/game interaction, but i still loved the game. 10/10/10/10
chictApi totally agree with you. To me Prey is the modern equivalent of system shock 2, wich totally tried to be. It has his flaws for sure but even loving the dishonored series this is my fav Arkane's game. Also the ending is by far the best one that Arkane has pulled off by far (especially when compared with the ok ish and by the numbers ending of D1 and the "we need the game to end somewhere so this is it" of D2)
Add me to this list. Marketing totally passed me by and I ran into 1 game breaking bug (fixed it eventually), but I haven't had that system shock feel for years.
I also loved it.
I agree. Beautiful and very atmospheric game. I like Errant Signal's commentary on it but think it was a tad harsh - in particular the suggestion that it doesn't do anything new but is merely a well polished '0451' game - I found it to be full of creative ideas, from the base-enemy mimicking objects, the puzzles involving using the looking glass, the whole GUTS area... And in any case - I hadn't played anything that captured the original spirit of Deus Ex / Systemic Shock 2 since, well, since those games.
*This game is a hit or miss for people* : - All of my friends hate it, but they love games like Overwatch, Assassin's creed etc. - This, to me, is the greatest game of 2017, the best fps that came out over the last 10 years along side of The dishonored franchise, the Resident evil reboot and few others. it has its flaws that I'm well aware of, but this game is such *the definition of everything I love about a game* ; its an anti fps, its low key as hell, and I love it.
- Tbh this game just makes me too damn happy.
- We could never have another immersive sim of our entire life, I wouldnt be sad. This game is system shock 2 and bioshock mashed together. Its such an underrated masterpiece. Could talk about it all day long..
Glad some other people love this game as much as I did. the fact your comment got a 100 likes gives me faith into the gaming community
Funny how no one seems to notice that in-game's RPG "Fatal Fortress" is a reference to Arx Fatalis
I mean, it is literally the same name.
And it took me completing the treasure hunt to get it.
The majority of the 'action' might be combat with the faceless Typhon, however a big aspect you've overlooked for the majority of the game is world-building. The game went to incredible lengths to make Talos1 feel like its own place, every room has a story of what it was before and after the outbreak, each and every crewman is accounted for with a great amount of work put into emails, audio logs and so forth that tell us a story, even all the dimensions of the entire station fit together whether that be inside or out the station.
I would also say that you are missing out on the angle of empathy that the game is going for. How much you empathize with the lives of the people of this station, how much length you go to pick up the pieces to understand what is going on. 'Looking through the looking glass' is something the devs very much wanted to combine with how you as a player empathised with the situation of Talos1. The player like a Typhon might just feel that it's just a game, a series of foes to punch your way through and on some level Prey does try to peel back the curtain and poke you to think about how you played the game at the end.
I do agree though that the majority of the game falls a bit flat because of its reliance on a linear series locked door quests. Exploring new areas of the station is fun and interesting but the main storyline is mostly disconnected from that. On some level you even acknowledge this, saying that the end of the game feels long in the tooth because you are now going back through old areas that have already been explored. Once the locations are known, there's less fun in backtracking even if the same rooms are now filled with combative robots, or the boss Typhon.
To me in the end, I like the premise of the game. Alex has tied up a Typhon to basically say to it 'let me tell you the story of my people'. He then watches to see how you think and act, how you handle the situation, how you think if literally put in his brother's shoes, how much you *empathise*. In this case, it seems that Campster spent his time focusing on looking through the looking glass to almost the exclusion of everything else, breezily dismissing most of Alex's story as a long boring combat sequence. I think we failed. This isn't the one. Start over.
Considering that my first reaction to the Apex Typhon's appearance (after "holy crap what is that thing?!" and "on second thought, I can probably take it") was "oh crap Alex is exposed and unconscious, I need to get them out of sight ASAP!" Considering that Alex was basically the antagonist up until that point, the game sold me *hard* on the sibling bond thing.
It wasn't just Alex ( I very quickly developed a soft spot for Danielle Sho, along with most of the D&D group (sorry Zach, I hardly knew ye)), but considering that saving Alex was a reflexive action on my part to a horrifying monster attacking (which for all I knew would instantly kill me if I hung around for more than a few seconds) rather than a fully deliberate and thought-out one for mechanical gain, I'd say the game's attempt to get me to empathize with fictional characters and fictional relationships was a rousing success.
@@dominiccasts Yep, when that sequence happened, I sort of went into a panic making sure that I got Alec to safety as quickly as possible. Arkane did a great job portraying a flawed but relatable human being.
another excellent piece chris. I'm very interested in the Calvino character, especially after seeing so many Italian surnames in the credits. the reference here is to the late Italian writer (and subject of my doctoral dissertation) and I wonder how prey's themes overlap with his later works.
I absolutely loved this game. I enjoyed it far more than anything else I played this year...and yes that includes Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn...I guess I'm just really into immersive sims. The environmental storytelling, the atmosphere, the ambience, the "lived-in" feeling that the entire space station has...it's all done so well. I especially loved some of the unexpectedly good segments like your first time through G.U.T.S., discovering the new Typhon powers for the first time in Psychotronics, min-maxing your build around Neuromod crafting, some fun enemies like the Poltergeist, etc. I agree that the beginning 1/3rd is the strongest part of the game. You feel so weak and you're terrified of everything, you think you're the only one left alive and one blow from a Phantom can kill you. I was sneaking around with explosive canisters in hand for so long until I finally found the Shotgun. It has all the makings of an excellent immersive sim and I easily got my $60 worth out of it.
Neuroshock?
Hehehe, this works too
The canceled Prey 2 wasn't in any way similar to Prey either so I'd rather this be called Prey than whatever it was that they showed that one time.
It's not a big improvement over "Psychoshock". Plus, if you're going for that 0451 pseudo-profound pretentiousness, neuroscience isn't going to cut it; you need to talk about the _Psyche_
Joseph Anderson also proposed another interpretation on Alex's character. In the story, everyone seems to hate Alex making him out to be a tyrant. According to the characters you talk to and the information you find lying around, he's the only one that wanted to enslave the Typhon. However, this contradicts every single appearance of him in the game. He is calm and incredibly reasonable. In the audio logs, he even seems very sympathetic towards the Typhon. Anderson's reading says that Alex wants to shoulder all the blame for what happened to the Typhon. He wants to give you a reason to save humanity by making all of them appear innocent; according to the simulation (the entire game), humanity was oblivious to what was really happening to the Tyhpon. However, if the crew members were really oblivious, which you are told they were, it is itself either a huuuge plot hole, or, much more likely, a narrative that is being force fed to the player character through the simulation, by Alex.
In other words, this video never considers that the game itself might have been an altered simulation that tries to manipulate you, an expanded version of that tutorial section. The video does bring up something that only strengthens Anderson's interpretation: looking glass technologies are themselves a metaphor for the player's own 2d screens 'presenting a pretend 3d reality that is, in some superficial level, believable to you in the moment'. Since the game itself draws a parallel to deceptive realities found in looking glass tech., wouldn't that imply that you can't trust the illusion before your very eyes?
I wouldn't say the simulation paints humanity as innocent. A lot of higher up people within Transtar clearly new about the ugly reality behind nueromods and how creating them required murdering people (even if those people were criminals, although we can't be sure they actually WERE criminals, as the one guy explains that his record was exaggerated in order to ease the mind of whichever employee had to press the button to kill him). In addition to the scummy activities that Transtar higher ups were involved in, there was also the inclusion of the psycho impersonating the cook, and there was the inclusion of Walter Dahl. I think Alex tries to paint HIMSELF in a better, yet imperfect light. But I feel like the simulation he provides to the player/the typhon clearly highlights the atrocities that humanity is capable of. Alex could've easily provided a simulation in which humanity appeared totally innocent, but I think on some level he knew that doing so would only be a detriment to his ultimate goal of forcing the typhon to "really see" humanity
Strongly disagree about the momentum being killed towards the end. I spent a lot of the game covering each area with a fine comb and then as everything began kicking off towards the end I felt more compelled to pick up the pace. Because I was so familiar with the layout I was able to leap and dash my way across the terrain when the game called for urgency (which it definitely did with the crew being at risk or Dahl riding the elevator up to the Arboretum. This is one of the few games I've played where it really felt climactic. The fake ending felt a little deflated but then the true ending after the credit made the whole thing feel complete. This is my game of 2017 so perhaps I'm willing to gloss over some of its flaws but the run up to the end wasn't one of them in my opinion.
Agreed. The first time I went through every area so painstakingly slow to get every piece of information and resource I could find. When the stakes were raised I wasn't having to worry about having to do all of that resource gathering through a brand new area, which is what actually would have killed the momentum of the ending. Since I knew I already grabbed everything, all I had to worry about was traversing the area as fast as possible without the mega Typhon grabbing me. I think it's pretty brilliant.
I just played through the game recently and yeah, this was my experience as well. Those tasks that stretch out the game let you actually make use of the mastery of the station that you've developed, and with that mastery - and knowledge that you've already scavenged what can be scavenged - they go by really fast. I ended up even continuing it into a NG+ run, because once you've experienced having to sneak and be really careful and conserve resources everywhere, being totally in control in Prey turns out to be a lot of fun.
one thing that I've noticed about this game is that it's much better on subsequent plays. My first play felt too overwhelming and all over the place, there were just too many things to do, texts to read and gorgeous places to visit, but on my second run I could focus on the mechanics and the secondary plot quests, which not only made the game shorter but also much easier in general.
this game is awesome and thoroughly enjoyable. 9/10.
Dang. I can't believe you were so harsh on prey in this video. Been watching your video for years so I expected you would love it.
I'll sum up my response by just saying that prey is one of the few video games I've played that feels intrinsically rewarding to play. It's not about the destination but how you got there.
For people interested in this game and having trouble committing after hearing ES talk about the third major part after scanning the coral, using your research notes found in a sub category under the data tab will assist you with fighting the machines. You can also pull up weaknesses and immunities as a quick reference when you pull down your psychoscope and target an enemy, however the notes give you more details into their patterns and gives you recommendations on how to combat them. I do not believe Prey is a hard game even with all the survival modifiers and on Nightmare difficulty, but I don’t see any reason to not make Research it’s own dedicated section in your menu so all players can see it clear as day.
My take is that the entire game is basically preparation for the ending. There's just enough poking and prodding at the idea of (subjective) reality that you're aware that there is definitely SOMETHING going on, even if you don't predict the twist, and I really like that it's basically an empathy test. I think that's a great way to look at and design games, although you're right of course that 90% of the game being shooty sneaky doesn't have an awful lot to do with that. But there are more choices throughout the game, even if a lot of them are morally pretty one-sided, as you say. The balance was a bit off, but I enjoyed playing it so much, and the ending really worked for me. Too bad it bombed and the genre is probably dead for a while again =\
Another point I want to make: Alex and Morgan are the rare example of asian characters given the leading roles and portrayed in non-stereotypical ways. Super refreshing for me
Why is this "refreshing"? Can't you see that highlighting the race/gender of characters just because they are that race and gender is the reason that people hate this SJW mentality of overemphasizing, right? I just don't understand this kind of mindset. Do you need the validation of having someone your own race/gender be a protagonist to relate to a character? Do you honestly think that emphasizing is the right approach to representing minorities rather than just having them be realistic, well-rounded characters who are respected for that? If you think that non-stereotypical asian characters are a "rare example" in entertainment you really need to broaden your horizons.
If you don't care about the race of a character, then why are you so bent out of shape when someone else is happy about the portrayal of asian characters?
ThatGuy7431 because like all anyone wants to do anymore is race bait. I literally don’t care what race you are I treat you well regardless. Maybe that’s a you problem, bud.
Conner Darrell What do you mean all anyone does is race bait? I only found one comment addressing Alex and Morgan's race, and it was a pretty innocuous compliment in my opinion.
ThatGuy7431 you’re looking at the comment that is race baiting. And by anyone, you’re right, let me be more specific in talking about Social Justice Morons who led to people hating liberal politics and having an idiot like Trump elected. Congrats for being both stupid as hell and low key racist.
You really summed up what I've been thinking about Prey across multiple play throughs. I absolutely LOVE the opening (Even on it's own, the idea of the apartment simulation and smashing through into the real world is a super cool idea) and the early game of picking what path you want to go down first with powers and approaching each fight with a plan or spending valuable resources without one is an incredible feeling. It's not quite stealth (Unless you stick hard to stealth) and not quite horror, but feels like a nice mix of each.
But in the middle of the game, it feels like that just kind of... falls apart. Even if you get into Fabrication and start fabricating neuromods as soon as you can, it still felt like I was always working towards some new power no matter how many I made. But towards the middle of the game, you have a ton of every resource except for one bottle neck (Either minerals if you're making ammo or exotic materials if you're making neuromods) and even playing on nightmare with immersion mods for minimal HUD... it stopped feeling challenging. It lost the feel of the first part of the game of planning for every fight. I found that unless I deliberately set rules for myself (Only picking up light and/or valuable items, no inventory upgrades, only using found ammo instead of fabricating), I was breezing through it. Not to mention that trying for a wrench and/or powers only playthrough is frustrating because of the lack of wrench upgrades/bonuses (Especially if you get screwed by RNG) and the fact that scope chips (Also RNG) are the only way to reduce power cooldown, so if you favor one, you're running around until it recharges or fall back on another.
I certainly enjoyed sections of the game, despite the fall off in the main plot and game play. I think in 0451 style, the stories about the side characters and showing the game's world is executed very well. The little stories in both the arboretum and the Crew Quarters make them both my favorite areas, game play aside, and that those stories in general really make Talos 1 feel real. And I do think the themes of identity and what's real or "true" comes across very well; Even when the main plot loses its way a bit the side stories and environment drive those points home just as well.
Maybe the patched it by the time I picked it up, but I was able to skip the credits. I wish the ending was a bit more fleshed out but still think it's wonderful, given that it isn't an "It's all a dream" cliche but has been hinted at since the beginning of the game, and I think it does a good job of wrapping up the game even when the final hours falter.
I've been a huge fan of yours and your videos for awhile but just never quite found the right time to comment, but even with it's issues, Prey's a game that really resonated with me (And watching your video just makes me want to play it again), and you've put into words quite a few things that have been running through my head about it as well as bringing up some interesting points I never considered. Awesome video as always and I can't wait to see what comes next :)
Have you checked out Joseph Anderson's video on Prey? It's stupidly long like all his critiques, but I think he provides a pretty swell alternate take on the ending that I hadn't considered. That's not to say that alternative contrarian interpretations are inherently superior, but it casts Alex and the player character in a bit of a different light that feels worth considering.
Hunter M Someone needs to introduce Mr. Anderson to the concept of brevity. His videos are way longer than they ought to be and I have a suspicion it's for TH-cam money, like a writer bring paid by the word.
The best length for a video from an economic standpoint is around ten minutes. Joseph Anderson just likes to go in depth.
Rory Stockley Like Alexander Pope once said, length =\= depth. It seems to me that he prefers to meander, repeat himself, use many words to say a simple idea, keep to a small vocabulary, not organize his thoughts well, and improv his points. His video on Little Nightmares is a good example.
I'm 100% sure I've watched this before. But I enjoyed this re-watch, and wanted you to know that your work here is valuable. Very valuable. An inspiration to others and possibly the best in your particular field. I know this comment is 1 in 300 but please hear me and know your work here is awesome and worthwhile.
The credits are skippable, on PC as of Aug 2017 (at least).
I sincerely hope that in-game choices aren't a reflection of our true selves. Because the crimes i committed in paradox grand strategy games i'm going to hell.
Ha! You'd struggle to not be a complete jerk in most 4X games.
Thank you for making this video. For longest time I knew I didn't like Prey as much as other people did but I couldn't tell why. This video helped me to put my feelings into words. Once again, thank you.
Okay I'm on board with most of this except the "do they live or do they die" thing being a video-gamey thing. So, in the beginning of the game and as it's shown many times throughout, Typhon are not supposed to empathize in any way. Which is why when you make the choice to save any human, you are rejecting your typhon side and embracing your human side. Of course that's only put into context after the end reveal (also why this game needs multiple playthroughs to experience everything) but regardless, it's still you choosing whether or not you want to be empathetic or not and that's basically the whole theme of the game (and why there's multiple achievements for it). Who are you? Are you human, are you typhon? Are you both? Or are you neither? That's the main theme of the game and it resonates with what January asks you when you go to scan the nodes: what is your purpose, Morgan? What were you made for? And part of choosing which identify you want to be is based on who you choose to be throughout the campaign. Every side quest, every mission, basically everything in the game feeds back into who Morgan is as a person. Are they even a person at all? So yeah, its definitely not filler but more so there to reinforce your choices at the end. Of course it's not hammered into you constantly so it can feel looser than other story elements that you're forced to witness but otherwise, the middle of the game is actually the most important part of the game BECAUSE of how it all loops back into its main themes.
I'm surprised you didn't appreciate the false Cook more. It wasn't a question on whether you kill him or not, it's just that Arkane's recent games try to give you as much freedom to kill NPCs as they can. The Cook provides a lot of good suspense to the Apex typhon's arrival at the end of the game, and otherwise has some good dialogue about morality.
Just finished the game so I could watch this. What an unexpectedly fleshed out game, loved so many aspects of it.
Okk but return of the king absolutely makes its 6 endings work
I think it's also worth mentioning how, because you don't know about other options until towards the end of the game, the decisions you make over who lives and dies on Talos I are made with the apparent knowledge that you're going to destroy the station in the end. In that light, the decisions are less game-y, at least in my opinion - saving Mikhaila or Igwe, for example, becomes somewhat of a question about mercy killing. It's also implied that the neuromods that have been produced on Talos I are going to result in the spread of Typhon regardless of if the station is cleared of them, because that exotic material is in the brains of about 8000 people, if that announcement in The Yellow Tulip is to be believed. Thus, in my opinion, the decisions are more complicated than "do you save people or leave them to die".
That's my take, anyway. I think the themes are broader than just identity and truth, but those are also prominent.
Engaging Meta-textually is the new Ludonarrative dissonance
BackgroundNose Oh God why
>.>
I actually really liked the third segment because...honestly, I really liked exploring the station, and the changes to the station made scrambling through it again with first murderbots and then with a uber typhon.
This video could not have come at a better time, love Errant Signal and just completed Prey not two days ago!
Normally I don't care about spoilers in your videos, as I usually don't have a way to access the game you're talking about or have no interest in playing it. This one? I watched the first three minutes, fell in love with it, and swore not to watch the rest of it until I played through it myself. Fast forward a few weeks, after getting the game for Christmas and playing through it, I finally watched the rest of this.
Your analysis is spot-on, as usual. I didn't even see all the stuff about Calvino, I must have forgotten to go into his quarters. And yeah, the game does drag on a bit at the end (stupid laser murder bots) and that does take the wind out of it, but overall I really really loved the game. Glad to see that you did too.
It's weird. I never really got into Dishonored, but this game suckered me in right away. Congrats Arkane on a job well done!
2:27 I’m not sure if this is the first time you played it, but it looked like you were thinking “whaaat the fuuuuckkk?!?”
Goddamnit, you long-form video game critics and your videos about games I haven't played yet. (Adds to Watch Later list) That makes you, Noah Caldwell and Joseph Anderson with Prey videos on there.
timemaster1152 Joseph Anderson's review of this is excellent, for when future you gets to it.
jessi74 the 3 are exquisite reviews, Noah Caldwell not only reviews the game but compares it to the original Prey and finds some interesting links between the vision of the two
You should play Prey, its one of the best games of 2017.
Not sure if I missed it, but Calvino may also be a reference to Italo Calvino, who would tie in pretty well with the themes of artificial spaces, mind, and imagination
One more literary reference in there: it sounds like the Looking Glass designer Mr Calvino could be a reference to the author Italo Calvino, perhaps best known for If On A Winter's Night A Traveller. Which is a postmodern story about the reader, trying to read If On a Winter's Night A Traveler, but finding that every copy contains a different story, each of which is experienced in part as you read through the chapters. Or there's his Inivisible Cities, which is about a fictitious conversation between Marco Polo and Khublai Khan. This book discusses 55 different cities, to show the breadth of the Khan's empire, but they all end up being reflections of a much smaller part of the world.
I'm not quite smart enough to tie this fully into the themes here, but there's enough postmodern musings in his work and in this game that I feel the naming choice is not a coincidence.
Gretchen, stop trying to make 0451 happen! It's not going to happen
Best game in years, and best System Shock 2-like to date. it's a shame a much worse Dishonored got a lot more attention.
I agree that Prey is better and strives to achieve more than Dishonored with its story, but Dishonored is still a very great game.
?? Dishonored came out years before Prey.
Just a quick note -- the 7 minute closing credits *are* skippable. Just press ESC and go right to the ending. Not obvious, but still.
The flaw in the idea of using an extended simulation (or, a video game) to judge a person's character is that the average player *dies* about a hundred times before reaching the end. It conditions your behavior. Your genuine responses get you sent back to try again until you fall in line.
In other words, they're giving you nothing but a hammer and judging you for treating all your problems like nails. It's a limitation of the medium.
Anyway, there's a lot of cool stuff going on here. Someone told me about the D&D sheets, and I assumed it was just a cute pop culture reference, but it's actually there to reinforce the narrative themes? That's awesome.
I've missed your videos! Stoked to watch :)
i always prceived this ending like the kid that faceplants the floor during atheltism class but then gets up and does a flourish.. XD
Those first two acts were some of the most enjoyable time I've spent playing a game this year, but when the kill bots showed up, I checked out. The last few hours I spent with Prey were running between loading screens to fulfill the end state, which is sad. Could they not have thrown some human combatants at us at that point? The implications of wholesale slaughter probably would have raised a more loaded debate for the ending scene, deconstructing Typhon Yu's reaction to human aggression. For a game I so thoroughly enjoyed going in, it's frustrating to see it fall apart so spectacularly in the end.
That would have been neat, though personally I'd been leaning hard on the Stun Gun since around the halfway point, as it is the quickest way to save humans from Telepaths, so it wouldn't have changed my approach to the end section much. On the other hand, I wonder if the use of operators wasn't originally intended to be used as a direct nod to the fact that most of the entities testing Typhon Yu are themselves operators, and thus your destroying operators might be more affecting to them.
Yet another great episode. Thanks ES!
Holy shit! PsychoShock would be a dope name!
the entire game's interior design (which is fantastic) is exactly the same type of design seen in dishonored 2. not only the portraits but the vertical elongation scheme of all the furniture and rooms being way taller than they need to be. overall, the interiors all look fantastic and found myself spending alot of time look at the furniture just as i did in dishonored 2
But what happened after Tommy stepped into that portal Elhuit created in his bar?
Great Joe he went into dead franchise territory, mostly because of Bethesda
The Prey 17 director got lazy and decided to turn that portal into uncreative black goo.
I didn't mind the ending half, infact I liked it. The sense of constant urgency and the sense that "I might not be able to do all of these". I thought it was great. It made me feel very tense, however, the one part that did feel a bit forced was the whole military guy and his murder bots. They did set that up earlier, but I kept thinking "do I really have a reason to go after this guy? why? yeah he's an asshole, but so is everyone else on the damn ship"
Excellent video, especially your point/apt examples for just how poorly the landing is stuck that you make at 14:10. This game had a better story than it managed to execute, and while it is far from supremely frustrating since it still capitalizes on it enough to remain a game I thoroughly enjoy, I still think their ultimate twist deserved more fare than it got. (Not to say it didn't have any--there are MASSIVE amounts of foreshadowing to the twist even on the cover of the game itself, but relegating it to a post-credits sequence truly did not do it justice. The fact that the moral choice aspect is more about a significant story payoff than a gameplay payoff really means this needed the full force of the narrative focus.)
Also, I very much like and approve of "0451 games" to refer to this brand of games.
So I haven't finished this game, so keep that in mind when I talk about your take on the final twist. That being said, I think I can see the thought process of the developers making the twist a post-credits scene. It could be an attempt to make the players think that what happened on Talos I was real, and that there's no further mysteries to uncover. And then, when you get to the end of the simulation (the credits), you realize that you've also ended the in-universe simulation. That being said, I haven't played the game, so I'm not sure if that will be my reaction if/when I finally DO finish it.
+Errant Signal reveal after credits means some players would quit on the credits without seeing the reveal.. and still think they were the other character
Also is Lorenzo Calvino an nod to Italo Calvino.
The credits aren't unskippable, unless that got patched in later
I think this is the first time after Bioshock 1 that a big budget game questioned the "player control" by question the "character control".
"Do he die or do he live?"
Despite listening in the background, I lowkey had to open up the video again. Forgot whose video this was for a second. XD
While I am disappointed this was not a review of the original Prey this was a lovely video.
Love your videos. Keep up the great work.
I'm really glad I waited a little while to finish this game. Had the credits been unskippable for me I might have missed the real ending, which would have been sad. As it is I thought the end of the game was fantastic.
I feel you on the ending being behind credits, but at least on PC they are completely skippable.
17:46 How are those any different? _Especially_ in this scenario.
I wish you emphasized the connection between the themes of this game and classical Gnosticism more. The rejection of physicality as an artificial lie, created in ignorance and serving as a trap and a prison seems to resonate very strongly
Clearly the after-credits sting is just a reference to Human Revolution. I didn't know about that for years even after I replayed the game several times.
Enjoyed most of this analysis! One notable omission tho - when discussing themes, how did you miss the Trolley problem at the beginning of the game, and how that theme came through in so many of the missions throughout the game?
The resolution of most missions is not just “do the video game thing of kill the bad guy or spare them”. It’s an interesting exploration of humanity to choose to save the people right in front of you, even if they’re doomed by the inevitable death of the station’s destruction. And the ending mission ties in perfectly to this - should you destroy the space station and everyone on it, or should you load everyone onto a spaceship to escape, even if that risks Earth’s safety? Many of the game’s missions also tie into this idea.
Anyway, glad you could somewhat enjoy the game, despite it feeling inconsistent in your opinion. I loved the gameplay, the atmosphere, and the weight of the choices in this game, and can’t wait to see what Arkane Austin does next!
I think i enjoyed this game way more than the older version.
Why is it called 0451?
Wait, it's already been a year since the Halloween episodes. Oh my god.
Not even halfway through, and I want this game.
I am still playing this game and loving every second of it, might even be my GOTY...
you forgot to mention that the title theme is a bop
If I was making the game, I probably would have put the ending after the credits too. I figure the credits would be part of the Looking Glass simulation, so the reveal would only happen once the simulation was completed. Of course, I'd probably try to make the credits shorter too.
Lozicle C. Also it kinda invalidates your decisions. I have a friend who was pissed nothing he did happened.
Well that's the big risk of doing "it was all a dream" endings.
Even if they removed the "it was all a simulation" ending, it was all a simulation and nothing he did happened. (hah)
I think your criticism is spot on. Incredible opening, fun to play middle-section where the plot isn't really advanced, and rushedending. The payoff is really on the underwhelming side. The game is great, but with a stronger story it could have been truly amazing.
Surprised you didn't mention how the "looking glass" tech connects with the main gimmick of the previous Prey game: portal technology.
Prey... One of the most fascinating and competent games I've played that I didn't like. Way too much respawning crap for me. By midway through the game I had just started sprinting through everything rather than exploring.
Great video! Just wondering, before putting an end to your "Summer of 0451" proyect, could you do a video on "System Shock 2"? I know you´ve talked about that game before, but it would be nice to get your full insight on it.
On a sidenote, is there any reason this shares the name of Prey 2006 instead of being an original IP? I mean, they may as well have called it Ghostbusters or The Thing.
yes and it's a deep rabbit hole, in a nutshell Bethesda basically killed the studio that made the original prey because they weren't making Prey II fast enough for their zealous restrictions, so sacked them and gave the franchise to a completely unrelated dev team which made this.
apparently Prey II was actually mostly done and may still exist somewhere, i hope it leaks one day, because it looked badass.
My guess is sort of related to what I said in the video: The working title was Psychoshock, the marketing peeps at Bethesda said "Hell no" to that, and when they scuttled the Human Head driven Prey they came back to Arkane and said "Hey, we have this title with semi-positive existing brand recognition already available, sooooo...."
But again, that's 10000% conjecture on my part.
all we have is our best guesses, and that's a pretty good one.
Just as I needed something to watch!
...An 0451 Avengers sounds pretty awesome, actually. Though I can't decide if it would be cooler if it was characters from a bunch of 0451 games coming together, Avengers-style, or if it was just an 0451 game set in the MCU.
Have been waiting for this one !
I realize this discussion is kinda old, but I myself only finished the game a few days ago, so I finally got to watch this video now. It is an excellent video, and I agree with most of what is said, but I do have to wonder... Could it perhaps be argued that having crappy endings is another 0451 game tradition?
I mean, it isn't across the board. Deux Ex had an excellent ending. But all of the mainline -Shock games (with the possible exception of System Shock 1, which I haven't played) had had crappy endings. System Shock 2's truncated SHODAN reality, Bioshock's boring Fontaine fight, Bioshock Infinite's tower-defense final level. For me, having Prey kinda run out of steam in the final act was merely continuing in the path it set out for itself: to become the ultimate -Shock game.
But then, I wasn't terribly bothered by it from a gameplay perspective. The murder-bots were what made my investment in level four Hacking finally seem worth it, and gradually making my way through the shuttle-bay, sneaking up behind and hacking all the bots and turrets was one of the most fun sections of the game for me. I thought the reveal of the Apex typhon was visually really cool, too, almost Lovecraftian in its scale and menace. I am fascinated by the idea of this inky black presence just lurking in the blackness of space, and I just wish the game did more with the concept.
I thought the whole January/December thing was really cool, it sucked any trace of reliability out of January's character and left you uncertain who to trust as the game went on, even if you didn't do December's ending.
Also, frantically dragging Dahl's unconscious body through a surprise zero-g segment while trying to remember where the medical stations were so you have a way off the station was great.
what is that song inn the beginning
How does this video have such low engagement? How is prey not more well known? It is such a genius game for those who like divergent gameplay.
I'm pretty late here, but I'm pretty sure that one of the guys in the game being called "Calvino" is a not so subtle nod to Italian author Italo Calvino. Not having played the game, I can't say if it's just a passing nod or if the game has a thematic connection to his works, but just know that there could be a way of interpreting the game through another literary lens
Critics were sort of mixed on this game. I absolutely adored this game. I completed it twice. I usually don't finish games anymore. I loved Prey. I love Mooncrash even more.
Do you think calling the guy ‘Calvino’ is a reference to Italo Calvino?
That's the same thing I thought
I think the reason they hid the big twist at the end of the credits was largely because they were implying the credits were part of the simulation. I think it's actually really clever, but I can understand the frustration. Also, I don't know how the game is on PC, but the credits were totally skippable for me.
I've been waiting for this!
Huh, never heard the term 0451 before.
Do a look at how Dirty Bomb's approach to free to play games should be an example to other developers and also how their movement system changes the pace of your typical Obj shooter, dramatically.
A look at why AoE II's online multiplayer meta is much more focused on macro economics compared to Starcraft's.
A discussion of DUSK and it's (quite possibly perfect IMO) attempts to be a true recreation of old school single-player shooter gameplay.
Why we'll never see a rerelease of NOLF or NOLF2.
The impact and importance of RTCW on the FPS genre.
Why micro-transactions for player gear is a perfectly accepted mechanic in most East Asian MMORPGS and even FPS games.
Good video. I just beat the game for the first time, and I don't know if you missed it on your playthrough or it was patched in later (likely the latter), but the credits are skippable.
PREY has some really creative weapons, but damnit if the starting pistol isn't the worst, most boring looking handgun mode ever to be put in a game.
What's wrong with combat? What would you rather the game had been? (since I didn't play the game I don't understand if the complaint at the end was that the game isn't 'survival horror enough' or that you think another genre would have fit the game better)
There's nothing wrong with combat, per se! It's just that the game becomes about *nothing* but the combat at points - long stretches where the only thing the game asks you to think about is how to shoot or avoid enemies. And again, as 0451 problem solving levels go, that's a good premise, and it's quite fun!
But inventing ways to shoot or avoid enemies, no matter how creative the game lets you be, doesn't really feed into the game's thematic interests. It's a game that stops and talks about identity regularly, and also a game that questions the relationship between artificial/constructed worlds and identities within them, as well as notions of some sort of 'true' identity. That's the thematic thrust of the written story. When you can go three or four hours of active gameplay without running into stuff that furthers those ideas at all, it kind of results in a bumpy game when viewed through a thematic lens: the game is about these big questions of reality and identity... unless it's currently more interested in how you sneak into that office and get the keycard so you can get around having to fight that room full of mimics. Not that breaking into that office isn't fun, but it is far removed from the ideas the game is interested in.
Errant Signal Alright, I think I understand, thank you for the reply
I would say if you stop and read notes and listen to logs you can pick up on those things within those stretches of gameplay though. You don't want the game to be too in your face with the theme.
I found the use of extended combat sections fairly effective at drawing me in. I know that sounds weird, but I found that because I couldn't just power-fantasy my way through the combat, I had to become very keen on the goings-on in the world, which really drew me in, which helped me take in and get more out of the audio logs and emails scattered about, helping me to more firmly empathize with the characters. It also helped sell the conflict between the two main end goals, since it makes clear just how much of a threat the Typhon are.
Then again, I'm a more mechanically-driven player, so I tend to be blind to narrative elements unless the game is pretty much nothing but narrative elements (like Myst) or it makes exploring the narrative elements relevant in some way to my extended survival (like the Soulsborne games), and Prey falls solidly into the latter category.
@@ErrantSignal does the combat not in-of-itself explore identity too, though? choosing how and when to fight off enemies. of course, it does this only to a certain degree, and with swathes of hours of it it doesn't mean much after a certain point, but id like to point to the neuromod leveling, specifically at the beginning. the game gives you a very clear-cut ultimatum with January: any cell of typhon material brought to earth is presented as a potentially cataclysmic event. once you explore psychotronics, the realm psionic abilities is open to you. learning any of them, to the player's knowledge, means that should you go with the explosion ending that you must, if your intentions are truly altruistic, stay on board for the greater good of humanity.
the game contextualizes that choice in a matter of identity in such a complex matter from there-on.
I have to admit that I'm kind of confused about one thing. You said that the final choice (take his hand or kill them all) was a choice between two different Morgans. Which Morgan would have chosen to kill them all?
I think he meant the choice between "blow up the station" or "try the experimental device". So not actually the final choice. :P
now I want to play it but it'll never run on my computer. ha, I think 2012 was the last year I could play new releases. I should save some money and upgrade.
Still the best intro music
"minimal spoilers," you say?
Neat I can watch this video now 2 years on
you say reasons for them not using the shock formula, but it still probably would have been a better name than prey
does benedict wong voice alex?