I have two almost three times and after the third I will a 4th time on steam. Part of me wants a sequel but because if what kinda gane it is a sequel will never do the Original justice nor will it feel in any way at all the same or better.
The game didn't sell well cuz the title is shit and boring. If they called it something with "-shock" in the title and marketed it Bioshock-esque, it would've sold a million times better. Like "NeuroShock" or "AfterShock" title would obviously sound a million times cooler than "Prey" and make way more money. The "Prey" title killed this game.
yeah the title killed it, but let's not forget system shock did not sell either. Unfortunately games that don't hand it to you don't sell as much, even tho prey was very player friendly without mods.
@@Shodanrua Well, System Shock was before BioShock, then Bioshock got SUPER POPULAR, hence popularizing the "-Shock" title in video-games. So since Prey is after BioShock, it would have a better chance at selling well if it was called "Aftershock" or "Neuroshock.
@@A-Dubs398No; because people are dumb. It breaks special requirements for todays average IT gamer nerd. Titles don’t destroy games, especially suitable & simple ones.
The first time I played it, it was okay and somehow I stumbled on the best ending without using neuromods. The second time I played it in French years later, it instantly shot up to my top 5 games ever.
Prey and Prey: Mooncrash are two of the best im-sims ever made, hands down. As others have noted, it is almost criminal how underrated/underplayed they are, and I think that falls squarely at the feet of Bethesda for forcing the name Prey on it rather than PsychoShock.
It’s tragic this game didn’t sell as well as it should have, leaving the arrival of a sequel nebulous. It’s even more tragic an sdk or level editor was never released so the fans could carry it on.
I heard they wanted to call it PsychoShock. I love this game. My partner watched me playthrough it and we had a great time. Its easily one of my favorite games. The only thing that could get me more excited is the System shock remake coming in March.
Is the remake still coming out? Google says it was release in March but I can't find a single review or actual coverage of the game or release and only the Demo appears to be available in storefronts. There doesn't seem to be any info of it being pushed back to a later release either. At this point I'm starting to question whether the game is nothing but vaporware.
Yes, calling it Prey (2017) when another PC game called Prey (2006) existed shows lack of thought, but it is an AA grade game, just short of greatness. (So apparently is Prey (2006) in different ways). I would have called it ..........System Warp.....
No I'm right...they simply could have called it Prey 2... but yeah I should have classed it AAA, but its still not in GOAT 25 list. But for open world RPG/shooter fans its essential.
@@michaely6665 calling it prey 2 would still piss off Fans of prey 2006 and set false expectations. Psychoshock or just Talos one would have been enough. There wasn't a lack of thought about the name from the development Studio, it was the publishers brilliant idea to call it that, classic Bethesda move.
I'm just glad you finally got to play this and experience this badass game. Can't wait to dig in! As I'm working a Deathloop script now, I'm actually very much in need of a contextualization of a game that unequivocally plays to Arkane's strengths, not one that seems to sell out to industry trends. This'll be of immense help to there as well as just being a standard banger from you!
Arkanes Magnum Opus and Raphael Colontonios Swansong from the studio he created. The best immersive sim and a love letter to the entire design philosophy. Perfection wrapped in a nice blanket of badass.
honestly I've played a lot of immersive sims, action shooty-shooty games and even rpgs and rts games, and yet Prey is still the game that remains in my memory.
Me too, I recently played the system shock remake and went to replay prey right after I beat system shock. That immersive sim gameplay loop is so addicting to me.
@@IamtheWV17 Bioshock was never really trying to be a pure immersive sim. Its mark on the industry is because of its iconic setting(s), story, politics and strong atmosphere. In those areas, it's far more memorable than Prey. Prey is great in terms of mechanic complexity but you can easily prefer Bioshock without being "unenlightened". lol. The story in System Shock 2 is also substantially better than Prey. SHODAN's introduction in that game is so unsettling. Perfection.
@idakev I honestly think Prey's story and setting surpass system shock 2, while being roughly on par with the original bioshock. Although it's very reliant on the player engaging with optional content. It's incredible if you're the kind of player to read every email and do every minor side mission... but I imagine it might seem bland if you race to the end. I find that's also the case with Dishonoure.
Hearing that "Good morning Morgan" bit and the music at the end of the intro felt like returning home after a long trip. I've completed Prey many times, bought it on at least 2 different platforms with the dlc. The game has left me with such a profound mark that Talos 1 feels like another home to me, even though I've spend literally many hundred times more time on Warframe's Orbiter.
I love your reviews good sir! So glad you brought attention to this wonderful game. Quick note: Dr Calvino's workshop recording actually shows you a secret compartment you can open by placing his mug on the weighing scale by a wall. If you look at him through the glass after his assistant leaves, you'll see him open this secret compartment. There are also emails from his workstation that he requested a weighing scale be fabricated that opens when an exact weight is put on it. It's such an awesome little investigative piece, I wish they had much more of this.
The boltcaster has 3 primary uses: 1. Interact with buttons and screens. This only really comes up a handful of times, but in those handfuls it's very nice to have. 2. Cystoids. Besides just chucking props at them, it's probably singlehandedly the most effective solution against them, especially in zero-g. 3. Portable distraction device. Nearby enemies will investigate the sound of the darts landing, so it's very useful for either leading enemies to ambush sites you set up, or alternatively to point enemies somewhere else to make it easier to sneak by.
I think the biggest reason this game bounced off of so many people is the enemy design. The inspiration behind the function of the enemies was great. I just know personally nearly all of them being amorphous goo creatures or uninteresting robots later on got old really quickly and left the enemy visual design feeling rushed and uninspired. It also didn't help that the combat felt like it lacked weight/impact. I feel like just a couple of tweaks could have really expanded this game's reach and legacy.
i get your point but for me personally, the enemy design was really neat, the "wtf is this?!" factor really added to the strange alien feel. also i loved the idea of the nightmare, that thing was really awesome and creepy as hell!
I agree, I didn't play this game because I thought the black goop monsters looked straight out of scooby doo for me. Did not fit the carnage they are supposed to he capable of, that and they just aren't scary.
The first two thirds of Prey are world-class. My disappointment came in the final third. Once you reach a certain level of power, the mystery and fear regarding the Typhon is gone. In the beginning of the game, they are just.. there. You get no guidance on how to handle them, you have no idea what they are capable of. By the end, you know exactly what they are capable of, and its not scary.
It shows really bad at the end when those tendrils that come out aren't actually dangerous. I enjoyed the escalation and the lobby would suddenly change and become a challenge again. Too bad the end was more set dressing and not you interacting with the infestation as an environmental hazard everywhere.
This is my only complaint, too. The last third of the game was a lot of wandering around and backtracking, and the Nightmare turning out to be far too easy to cheese and not all that scary. The big climactic scene near the end though? Absolutely fantastic.
When you are mimicking an object, you are not affected by environmental hazards such as fire or electricity. And if you level it up and mimic a turret, you get infinite ammo at the cost of easily replenishable psi. But yeah, it only really matters on highest difficulty, when resources are scarse.
This was so well done and such a joy to watch! After finishing the game 2 weeks ago I watched several indepth reviews and commentarys on Prey. They made me love the game even more and your review is among my favorites. I really enjoy your narration style and could listen to you for hours. I highly enjoyed the way you structured the review, it made a lot of sense and captured the different aspects of the game really well. Thank you for putting out such a indepth and thoughtful review for one of my favorite games.!
The Huntress Bolt caster is a great utility weapon! Outside of its ability to interact with buttons and computer screens, It's also used to lure typhon away from or to a specific spot which is great for sneaking around or setting up traps. In one specific case it is used to great effect as an actual weapon. When shot at a nest or close to a cluster of Cystoids, they will follow the bolt and explode when they reach it killing most if not all of them.
I usually hate the Pre-release bonuses in games but I am so very glad I got the pre-release gear in PREY. The margrove (name) is Much better than the shotgun. Especially when you upgrade them both. And whatever else was in the pre-release loot.
i like how after all the reviews i see, when i start running out of long video essay stuff about topics i like, i can always count on Nth Review to likely cover a game for me :)
I played the game during Christmas 2022 and oh my what an amazing experince i also played it without giving Morgan any alien powers to keep him human in my mind.
Your editing is so fluid in this one, boss; easily your best and I can feel a sense of fluidity in your writing here too, like you had a really good time and are just able to make something great in response. humor was effortless and very you! also i had no idea this game had a new game plus, one of my absolute favorite things. that makes my inevitable 2nd and 3rd playthroughs all the more enticing.
1:32:41 Ackshually, if you looked up, you would see an opening to where you can scale over that wall and into that room. Heck, there is another room to the right where you can also drop into. The verticality is in this game is really great.
1:27:55 Does anyone know what he means when he said by "that Mae Whitman"? Is there some sort of controversy with her? I did always think it was weird how the official Prey OST had a male singer for that song instead of, you know, Danelle singing it.
Prey (2017) [oh boy, what a name...] is everything that i could have wished for of a System Shock 3 and it's the reason why I'm not even all that bummed out by SS3 development having gone the way it did. The amount of "fuck around and find out-ery" going on in this game is mindbogglingly immense. Even though we both seem to have focused on mostly human abilities for our first playthroughs, yours sounds so vastly different from mine. The game just offers that many different approaches to all kinds of scenarios and uses for abilities that you'd never even imagine before messing around with them. Like, something that happened very early on in my playthrough was me coming across that doorway in the main lobby that was blocked by heavy objects. And immediately I became so utterly transfixed by getting past it that getting Leverage 3 was my main goal. And I can't stress just how transformative this goal was for my entire playthrough. Having pumped my first Neuromods into Leverage 1 and 2 instead of any proper combat abilities I quickly found myself outmatched whenever trying to approach any typhons with my meek pistol. It didn't take long until I figured "What happens if I take this incredibly heavy looking object using Leverage and hurl it at the typhon instead?" Seeing it die right after completely changed how I approached combat encounters, barely using weapons at all and mostly focusing on Engineering skills to use the station itself as my strongest weapon. And the most amazing thing about this is the fact that you don't even need Leverage 3 to get past that blocked of doorway in the lobby. As I found out much later, Recycler Charges do just as much of an effective job at clearing out paths blocked by objects, and you get some nice resources out of them to boot! The entire time the thing that became my main motivation could have been dealt with right at the beginning, if only i had messed around with different tools in my sandbox a little more. At the same time, I can't imagine how that alternative playthrough would have gone, as I would have never discovered the power of hurling heavy things at enemies, had it not inspired me to go for Leverage in the first place. And there are so many other points in the game just like this where two different players might take two vastly different approaches, completely transforming the way they play this game for the first time. Truly a game worthy of its legacy...
@@Danlovar I have had insane brain damage and personality drift is not a laughing matter. I cry to thing that I would pass over. Caring is huge and I have received a LOT of MRI and I can see my brain from back the and now. It has received more growth in a lot of places but it has shrunk too. That's just what brains do XD. He was a tool in his recordings and January was annoying and I killed it fairly early on and I did NOT want it to kill December. They were all Morgan at some point XD. A huge shame that they couldn't find the time for the other months
I have heard that Prey 2017 is an excellent game, which makes it all the more tragic and angering that Bethesda decided to force these devs to use the name of an older franchise for "profit", not only hurting this games sales, but also permanently killing off the original franchise completely. It sucks that I'll never get to revisit that old universe ever again, outside of the small slice we are given.
Coming off a long Bioshock jag I thought I’d do some retro gaming and bought what I thought was the game first named Prey. Wrong! I gave it a try before yelling at myself. Kiss a year of playing any game other than Prey ‘17 goodbye. I love this game and its challenging DLC, Mooncrash. I play it every year now.
It was originally supposed to be named Neural shock. That would have been a much better name that explains the game so much better literally right out of the box. I think that the name, Pray, is largely at fault because it confused a lot of people about where this game fit in and what it's genre was. If it had been named Neural shock, EVERYONE would have understood what kind of game it was. Yet another example of the publisher totally screwing the developer.
I'm creatively bankrupt from playing AAA games, I hated playing Prey, but loved watching everyone else play Prey and do it more creatively and have more 'fun' than me just shooting things.
For me it was a refreshing take on an rpg genre, my mind was blown when it was all smoke and mirrors literally .. and turning in to a cup I mean it was fantastic down to recycling items for materials and the detail they spared no expense on
Hey Nth, I've been planning to play this since it came out and just never got around to it. I watched your review when it came out and decided to get on it. Still didn't happen until I picked up a steam deck earlier this month. Holy crap it is amazing and a really good example of the best things about immersive sims. Thanks for continuing to put out excellent reviews, I think they're spot on.
I'm going to be the pedantic jerk here, but the Hacker in SS1 didn't have amnesia. He was in a healing coma. He didn't lose any memory, he just woke up after most of the crap went down, and caused a lot of crap of his own.
I've played it twice and still not once installed a single alien neuromod. Every ability I actually wanted was always in the normal skill trees so lucky me never gets attacked by the station.
You should actually try a Typhon run, it really changes the feel of the game. Like I say in the review, it's not that bad that the turrets don't like you.
The boltcaster is your anti-Cystoid weapon. The game flat-out tells you that they react to sound, so hitting any surface with it causes them to swarm to the spot and self-destruct. Also, in zero-G, bolts fly in a straight line until they hit something, so you can take out nests way outside of any weapon's effective range, and conserve precious 9mm and 12g rounds.
the nightmare actually just shows up whenever you first go to the arboretum, which feels like a bit of a weirdness. especially because once you have that metaknowledge there's a LOT you can do in the game before causing it to spawn for the first time, which means that you don't have to worry about getting ambushed until you've looted most of the station of neuromods and crafting materials, at which point you've potentially murdered hundreds of typhon and jammed them into your head. it's a strange contrast to a typhon-focused run, where you're gated by finding more advanced typhon species to scan them, while human can just reach godhood with an upgraded shotgun, taser pistol, q-beam and combat focus. i really liked this game an awful lot even if it probably shouldn't have had the prey name -- i think it's one of the best if not the best game that arkane has ever made. i replayed it only a couple months ago myself (finally doing a nightmare playthrough as i had no reason to before), and it really is just a good time semi-casually exploring the station, building up your strength and accumulating resources. some abilities like hacking or leverage let you bust in through the front door by slamming your head against it, or you can find small gaps to shoot darts through to open security booths or offices, or you can turn into a mug and roll your way through other gaps, it's all great. my major complaint with the game is that the last like, 10-20% of the main story just kind of rushes you through it, with the final act being somewhat unsatisfying compared to the rest of the game. prey 2 certainly has a lot of potential with the reveals at the end and the story of mooncrash, but i worry we'll never get it. also mooncrash was a far better version of what deathloop went for.
Prey was so awesome. Games have a really hard time to catch my interest, thats why I play mostly older games. But Prey really blew me away. I would pay a lot of money for a second part. The only things would want on top of the first part, would be to have more non Typhon Neuromod options and maybe a long range weapon, to play a sneaky sniper. The latter should be balanced by rarity of the ammo and very expensive fabrication. And I really want to know how the story will progress. Arcane...please!
Nice to see more of you in the video - it gives more "authorship" to it)) Regarding the game - I was so mislead by the marketing campaign (yes, including naming), emphasizing action over immersive sim features, that I've actually skipped it at first, only trying it after it came to PS+ giveaway. After giving it a try completed it twice, especially impressed with the ending and the whole concept "the game is actually a test, and the test subject is you - player, and your own human ethics". Sadly realized that probably because of people like me, who like immersive sims but skipped this gem, Arcane moved to relatively simplified formula of Deathloop(( And now they're doing some co-op vampire FPS. Forgive me, gamerkind!
One of my favorite games I've played through 3 times and enjoyed each playthrough. By the way the bolt caster is the best weapon to use against cistoids. 1 shot to pop the nest and another for the little balls to chase and blow up
I believe you missed that the very ending, where you choose between killing them all and shake hands, is still a simulation, indicating they still don't trust you. There's an inserted broken frame there, which is present during all other instances when you're in a simulation. So this ending does not undo all of the choices you made during your playthrough.
If you play the game on high difficulty + human build only, you'll really come to appreciate the gloo gun, the spark gun and the boltcaster. On high diff, with ammo sparsity + high-risk close combat, I don't think I'd have been able to manage without. The boltcaster has benefits it seems you missed, as a stealth option/lure for low-iq typhon. One example: Cystoids react to bolts, both indoors and in space. I'm not quite sure if they follow the bolt itself or if they seek out the impact site of the bolt when it hits a surface, but either way .. eventually they catch up to the bolt and detonate, damaging anything in detonation range .. explosives, other typhon etc. One well-timed bolt shot can take out one or more groups of cystoids in one go - shoot at a nest and that group detonation will take out the nest too. You can retrieve the bolt afterwards, no ammo wasted. Very helpful.
I only got Prey recently, and it blew me out of the water, its definitely one of my favourite games to date, especially the persistent turrets, you can strategically clear your routes permanently with clever turret placement and it instantly became this like chess game for me, and then i was like "oh, we have an alien skill tree" and you know how that wouldve turned out 😂
This is one of my favorite games. It's the most immersive sim I've ever played. You could feel Talos 1 being alive by reading the messages between people, audiology and seeing hope some corpses are found, which often tell a story. I'm sad that some quest lines like the cook cannot be finished by discovering he is an impostor and confronting him in a way, or getting a prompt after finding evidence he's not the chef. Mooncrash is wonderful, it took me a while to get into it, but once you connect the dots and realize the story behind the simulation, I got more eager to get more Prey content. It's sad this game didn't get as big as it should've.
1:27:48 What's problematic about Mae Whitman? I'm not being facetious, i'm legitimately curious as to why her performance was replaced in the soundtrack.
I don't know why her performance was replaced in the soundtrack, maybe something to do with rights/unions/whatever (pure conjecture). The potential problematic part is having a white woman portray an Asian woman when there are plenty of Asian actors out there to fill the role.
Originally I didn’t buy Prey because it didn’t seem to be as narrative driven as I usually like, but after seeing this I am definitely going to give it a try.
Another way to look at it is naming the old game Prey: Lost World and the new one Prey Fusion. Respectively they’re named after other games with similar elements: Prey Lost World (2006) is named for another action game that involves Psychonauts style gravity mechanics and characters getting turned into Strogg, whereas Prey Fusion (2017) is named for another albeit this time 2D game set on an isolated space outpost that’s under attack by shapeshifting hostile aliens and requires collecting special upgrades to survive.
Man, I was hoping some articulate TH-camr would do a long analysis on Prey and here we are! Thank you bro! This is a great birthday gift. I hope you have a beautiful day and a promising tomorrow.
Watched your system shock review the other night and it inspired me to download it and prey and I’m happy to discover you’ve also got a prey review up.
@1:24:44 they use it at least one other time to reveal a secret safe. But there were other clues how to solve the puzzle if you missed the video playback. It involves a coffee mug of sorts
Been searching for Prey content since beating it the other day and didn’t even know about the documentary until you mentioned it. Even the documentary of this game is a hidden gem
I love prey and Imsims but honestly plundering is one of my least favorite aspects. Even though Prey has a pretty interesting implementation with the breaking down of junk and reassembling into things you actually want, collecting all the stuff is just tedious. I think it's worse in dishonored. I'm on a MISSION. Why would I want to open cupboards under sinks in bathrooms and steal perfume? It's immersion breaking. I would rather have something big and shiny shown to me occasionally that I have to figure out how to get to. That would be worth a lot. And a time limit on my mission to make going for the thing a risk.
I agree that the logic bends a bit too far for a game like Dishonored or Thief, but InSims are built for plundering. You're supposed to find stuff in the environment and what form that takes is going to be different philosophically. I like how Prey strikes a balance between the static health kits and items the game prescribes that you can use promptly and directly and loading the levels with junk so that you can build the items you believe you need instead. I realize people do genuinely hate crafting, but I like how this game strikes that balance. I think it makes it more effective as an ImSim.
I loved this game... while I played it. After the years, all I can remember is how great space looked in it... and that nauseatingly gilded art deco mixed with sterility. Same with Bioshock games, more or less. Really dug the gameplay of these games, but their visual styles, different yet also kinda similar, are the opposite of what I find appealing. I just don't feel warm towards them, despite rationally understanding how awesome these games are. This is how my selective memory, a rather shallow phenomenon overall, screws things up in hindsight. But hey, I appreciate you reminding me exactly why I loved this Prey. It's underrated, hands down. Edit: System Shock's aesthetic I dig, though. It's a thing of its own. Not tacky and pompous at all.
Oh yeah, I also didn't care for Mooncrash at all. Almost everyone seems so in awe of it, but I just don't get what's the big deal. So, glad to see I'm not the only hard-to-please bastard out there.
There is a good possibility that the phantom you play as is just using Morgan's body as a teather. Also, moon crash got way better. You dont have to play it bro, but it gets waaay better. It took me a few months on and off to get into the base game, so i understand.
Love that intro!!! More thoughts pending, I'll update as I watch :P A great point about scouring areas for goodies allowing you to appreciate the mechanical and narrative design. It's how I love to play too, and I feel that the experience was greatly enhanced because of it. I agree about the typhon ability tree. Some of the abilities feel highly circumstantial and are wasted when there are so few opportunities to use them.
After one year and almost 100 hours on Steam, I installed it again and did an only typhon run (then only human for the achievement) and it confirmed once again that Prey is a 6/10 game. The fact that typhon skills are underwhelming because they lack hacking, something you could do in SS2 with psi, makes it once again what I feared. I am glad that others like it a lot though.
I am playing this for the first time, and am falling in love with it. There are so many options, and the esthetic is incredible. A total "hidden" gem. Hidden, that is, at least to me until recently
Btw for the deep storage ceiling pipes, I believe l scaled them as you did but then used the gloo gun to get a bit higher, then letting me into the electrical hazard room
I agree with Colantonio and think an immersive sim could be a commercial success. Given the rarity of the genre, and the superficial similarities to FPS, I do think it would have to do an incredible job of tutorializing the right player mindset. I see no reason they couldn't sell.
I think there are reasons that Immersive Sims have kind of stuck to the genres they have. A bright, cheerful immersive sim would kind of clash with the strictly limited resources they give, which is what encourages experimentation and finding creative solutions to save resources in the first place. Claustrophobic corridors makes it hard to ignore enemies while making it possible to get past them without fighting in other scenarios. I think a cheery immersive sim in an open environment might just be Breath of the Wild. I guess it would be nice to see someone try it though. (Which by the way makes me want to ask: if "Immersive Sims" are just about simulationing as many systems as possible and being as interactive as possible, why don't we ever hear about maximalist open world games like Minecraft and Morrowind as being "immersive sims"? For that matter, while System Shock 1 and 2 might be interactive and have higher player choice compared to say, Doom, I don't think they're really exceptional in that respect today. I say this as someone that LOVES System Shock I just feel confused about the real meaning of "immersive sim")
The nerf gun I think was more for the fun of it, have it isn't a problem, but the thing about the mimic skill there is one amazing thing that blewed my mind after I discover it: Enter locked rooms. Let's use the security posts as an example, you put a small object like a banana or a cup in front of the small opening where you would interact with the security, climb into the table, transform into the object and just roll inside of the post! That was amazing, there is a significant amount of places where this trick can be used, and since you don't need to carry any space with you (like the nerf gun), you don't sacrifice any space of a more useful item like a weapon or health. P.S.: Gloo gun is one of my favorite weapons of all time in games, together with portal gun and gravity gun, simply love it.
Great video man, just finished it! The Dishonored connections made me excited for a potential video. Like you said in the conclusion, I am excited for what Nth reviews AREN’T today ;)
Prey is probably my favourite game of its generation, and Mooncrash is the best expansion I've ever played. I also recommend anyone who likes the theme and narrative of these games to check out SOMA. It's a walking sim rather than an immersive sim but the atmosphere and narrative theme are very much there.
![[Mr Caption] No Todds, No Masters critique Fallout 4 (reupload)](/img/n.gif)
How many times have you beaten Prey? Is there something you wish a "Prey 2" would do?
exist as prey 2
I just hope for Prey 2 to exist :(
I have two almost three times and after the third I will a 4th time on steam. Part of me wants a sequel but because if what kinda gane it is a sequel will never do the Original justice nor will it feel in any way at all the same or better.
1. I've lost count
2. I have a few lists. :)
Bring back Tommy and the spirit of his grandpa, and a bunch of weird ass portal and gravity physics.
What a great game. Deserved so much more attention and more sold copies.
The game didn't sell well cuz the title is shit and boring. If they called it something with "-shock" in the title and marketed it Bioshock-esque, it would've sold a million times better. Like "NeuroShock" or "AfterShock" title would obviously sound a million times cooler than "Prey" and make way more money. The "Prey" title killed this game.
yeah the title killed it, but let's not forget system shock did not sell either. Unfortunately games that don't hand it to you don't sell as much, even tho prey was very player friendly without mods.
@@Shodanrua Well, System Shock was before BioShock, then Bioshock got SUPER POPULAR, hence popularizing the "-Shock" title in video-games. So since Prey is after BioShock, it would have a better chance at selling well if it was called "Aftershock" or "Neuroshock.
@@A-Dubs398 I was just having this conversation on Discord. Neuroshock would have been so good. Such a shame...
@@A-Dubs398No; because people are dumb. It breaks special requirements for todays average IT gamer nerd. Titles don’t destroy games, especially suitable & simple ones.
I've played hundreds of games and Prey has been top 5 since I played it shortly after its release. Criminally underrated.
One of my all time favorites. I bought it for my dad a couple years ago and it was one of the only games that he talked about extensively.
I've played thousands and it's top 100!
@@jarlwhiterun7478 Same
@@jarlwhiterun7478 i played millions and it's in my top 1000
The first time I played it, it was okay and somehow I stumbled on the best ending without using neuromods.
The second time I played it in French years later, it instantly shot up to my top 5 games ever.
Prey and Prey: Mooncrash are two of the best im-sims ever made, hands down. As others have noted, it is almost criminal how underrated/underplayed they are, and I think that falls squarely at the feet of Bethesda for forcing the name Prey on it rather than PsychoShock.
I've been getting back into immersive sims and have never played the moon crash dlc. Probably gonna buy it this week
It’s tragic this game didn’t sell as well as it should have, leaving the arrival of a sequel nebulous. It’s even more tragic an sdk or level editor was never released so the fans could carry it on.
Thanks for playing the game! It was an honor to guide you through Talos I.
You literally told me to kms January.
I heard they wanted to call it PsychoShock.
I love this game. My partner watched me playthrough it and we had a great time.
Its easily one of my favorite games.
The only thing that could get me more excited is the System shock remake coming in March.
Is the remake still coming out? Google says it was release in March but I can't find a single review or actual coverage of the game or release and only the Demo appears to be available in storefronts. There doesn't seem to be any info of it being pushed back to a later release either. At this point I'm starting to question whether the game is nothing but vaporware.
Yes, calling it Prey (2017) when another PC game called Prey (2006) existed shows lack of thought, but it is an AA grade game, just short of greatness. (So apparently is Prey (2006) in different ways). I would have called it ..........System Warp.....
@@michaely6665 you've got this wrong actually
No I'm right...they simply could have called it Prey 2... but yeah I should have classed it AAA, but its still not in GOAT 25 list. But for open world RPG/shooter fans its essential.
@@michaely6665 calling it prey 2 would still piss off Fans of prey 2006 and set false expectations. Psychoshock or just Talos one would have been enough. There wasn't a lack of thought about the name from the development Studio, it was the publishers brilliant idea to call it that, classic Bethesda move.
I'm just glad you finally got to play this and experience this badass game. Can't wait to dig in! As I'm working a Deathloop script now, I'm actually very much in need of a contextualization of a game that unequivocally plays to Arkane's strengths, not one that seems to sell out to industry trends. This'll be of immense help to there as well as just being a standard banger from you!
Dawwww shucks! Thanks buddy!
Arkanes Magnum Opus and Raphael Colontonios Swansong from the studio he created. The best immersive sim and a love letter to the entire design philosophy. Perfection wrapped in a nice blanket of badass.
Deathloop sucks, I got bored and stopped playing like three loops in
@@jerrodshack7610 deathloop is non-linear dishonored with a co-op. it gets much better after the first mission.
honestly I've played a lot of immersive sims, action shooty-shooty games and even rpgs and rts games, and yet Prey is still the game that remains in my memory.
It really is the pinnacle of the genre to date... yet bioshock will forever hold the podium for the un-enlightened.
Me too, I recently played the system shock remake and went to replay prey right after I beat system shock. That immersive sim gameplay loop is so addicting to me.
@@IamtheWV17 Bioshock was never really trying to be a pure immersive sim. Its mark on the industry is because of its iconic setting(s), story, politics and strong atmosphere. In those areas, it's far more memorable than Prey. Prey is great in terms of mechanic complexity but you can easily prefer Bioshock without being "unenlightened". lol. The story in System Shock 2 is also substantially better than Prey. SHODAN's introduction in that game is so unsettling. Perfection.
@idakev I honestly think Prey's story and setting surpass system shock 2, while being roughly on par with the original bioshock.
Although it's very reliant on the player engaging with optional content. It's incredible if you're the kind of player to read every email and do every minor side mission... but I imagine it might seem bland if you race to the end.
I find that's also the case with Dishonoure.
Hearing that "Good morning Morgan" bit and the music at the end of the intro felt like returning home after a long trip. I've completed Prey many times, bought it on at least 2 different platforms with the dlc. The game has left me with such a profound mark that Talos 1 feels like another home to me, even though I've spend literally many hundred times more time on Warframe's Orbiter.
Prey has one of the best aesthetics in all of gaming
Well, it's no Jet Set Radio Future.
True eksetits
Well no tunic
I love your reviews good sir! So glad you brought attention to this wonderful game.
Quick note: Dr Calvino's workshop recording actually shows you a secret compartment you can open by placing his mug on the weighing scale by a wall. If you look at him through the glass after his assistant leaves, you'll see him open this secret compartment. There are also emails from his workstation that he requested a weighing scale be fabricated that opens when an exact weight is put on it.
It's such an awesome little investigative piece, I wish they had much more of this.
That intro is so awesome. I wanna experience and review this game all over again thanks to it
The intro is golden and better than most games. The game itself is a masterpiece for me.
The boltcaster has 3 primary uses:
1. Interact with buttons and screens. This only really comes up a handful of times, but in those handfuls it's very nice to have.
2. Cystoids. Besides just chucking props at them, it's probably singlehandedly the most effective solution against them, especially in zero-g.
3. Portable distraction device. Nearby enemies will investigate the sound of the darts landing, so it's very useful for either leading enemies to ambush sites you set up, or alternatively to point enemies somewhere else to make it easier to sneak by.
Literally beat this game a couple months ago, and wondered why this game was so slept on. So Happy i gave it a chance!
I think the biggest reason this game bounced off of so many people is the enemy design. The inspiration behind the function of the enemies was great. I just know personally nearly all of them being amorphous goo creatures or uninteresting robots later on got old really quickly and left the enemy visual design feeling rushed and uninspired. It also didn't help that the combat felt like it lacked weight/impact.
I feel like just a couple of tweaks could have really expanded this game's reach and legacy.
i get your point but for me personally, the enemy design was really neat, the "wtf is this?!" factor really added to the strange alien feel.
also i loved the idea of the nightmare, that thing was really awesome and creepy as hell!
I agree, I didn't play this game because I thought the black goop monsters looked straight out of scooby doo for me. Did not fit the carnage they are supposed to he capable of, that and they just aren't scary.
This is the 2nd best game ever made, behind Deus Ex.
The first two thirds of Prey are world-class. My disappointment came in the final third. Once you reach a certain level of power, the mystery and fear regarding the Typhon is gone. In the beginning of the game, they are just.. there. You get no guidance on how to handle them, you have no idea what they are capable of. By the end, you know exactly what they are capable of, and its not scary.
It shows really bad at the end when those tendrils that come out aren't actually dangerous. I enjoyed the escalation and the lobby would suddenly change and become a challenge again. Too bad the end was more set dressing and not you interacting with the infestation as an environmental hazard everywhere.
Did you play mooncrash? did you feel the same way?
@@electricmiragemediaI did not try mooncrash.
@@nakfoor1846play mooncrash. You'll stop playing because of the challenge instead of tedium 🤣
This is my only complaint, too. The last third of the game was a lot of wandering around and backtracking, and the Nightmare turning out to be far too easy to cheese and not all that scary. The big climactic scene near the end though? Absolutely fantastic.
When you are mimicking an object, you are not affected by environmental hazards such as fire or electricity. And if you level it up and mimic a turret, you get infinite ammo at the cost of easily replenishable psi. But yeah, it only really matters on highest difficulty, when resources are scarse.
"We're gonna shake things up -- like old times." Poor Morgan.
This was so well done and such a joy to watch! After finishing the game 2 weeks ago I watched several indepth reviews and commentarys on Prey.
They made me love the game even more and your review is among my favorites. I really enjoy your narration style and could listen to you for hours. I highly enjoyed the way you structured the review, it made a lot of sense and captured the different aspects of the game really well. Thank you for putting out such a indepth and thoughtful review for one of my favorite games.!
Thank you! I’ve got 18 more where that came from!
@@NthReview I watched your other Prey and new System shock video, they are all amazing!
I heard it was going to be called Psychoshock before it change to an existing IP. A lot more fitting name.
I’m my opinion prey is an extremely special and rare game, absolutely took over the mind for a few months. I love it.
The Huntress Bolt caster is a great utility weapon! Outside of its ability to interact with buttons and computer screens, It's also used to lure typhon away from or to a specific spot which is great for sneaking around or setting up traps. In one specific case it is used to great effect as an actual weapon. When shot at a nest or close to a cluster of Cystoids, they will follow the bolt and explode when they reach it killing most if not all of them.
Best game I'll likely ever play. Unbelievably enjoyable first playthrough
I usually hate the Pre-release bonuses in games but I am so very glad I got the pre-release gear in PREY. The margrove (name) is Much better than the shotgun. Especially when you upgrade them both. And whatever else was in the pre-release loot.
i like how after all the reviews i see, when i start running out of long video essay stuff about topics i like, i can always count on Nth Review to likely cover a game for me :)
Yay!
I played the game during Christmas 2022 and oh my what an amazing experince i also played it without giving Morgan any alien powers to keep him human in my mind.
I did the same. I wanted to beat it as a man. The irony being..
Your editing is so fluid in this one, boss; easily your best and I can feel a sense of fluidity in your writing here too, like you had a really good time and are just able to make something great in response. humor was effortless and very you!
also i had no idea this game had a new game plus, one of my absolute favorite things. that makes my inevitable 2nd and 3rd playthroughs all the more enticing.
Thank you for the kind words! New Game plus was so fun!
1:32:41 Ackshually, if you looked up, you would see an opening to where you can scale over that wall and into that room. Heck, there is another room to the right where you can also drop into. The verticality is in this game is really great.
1:27:55 Does anyone know what he means when he said by "that Mae Whitman"? Is there some sort of controversy with her? I did always think it was weird how the official Prey OST had a male singer for that song instead of, you know, Danelle singing it.
Nothing controversial, just unexpected
Prey (2017) [oh boy, what a name...] is everything that i could have wished for of a System Shock 3 and it's the reason why I'm not even all that bummed out by SS3 development having gone the way it did.
The amount of "fuck around and find out-ery" going on in this game is mindbogglingly immense.
Even though we both seem to have focused on mostly human abilities for our first playthroughs, yours sounds so vastly different from mine. The game just offers that many different approaches to all kinds of scenarios and uses for abilities that you'd never even imagine before messing around with them.
Like, something that happened very early on in my playthrough was me coming across that doorway in the main lobby that was blocked by heavy objects. And immediately I became so utterly transfixed by getting past it that getting Leverage 3 was my main goal. And I can't stress just how transformative this goal was for my entire playthrough. Having pumped my first Neuromods into Leverage 1 and 2 instead of any proper combat abilities I quickly found myself outmatched whenever trying to approach any typhons with my meek pistol. It didn't take long until I figured "What happens if I take this incredibly heavy looking object using Leverage and hurl it at the typhon instead?"
Seeing it die right after completely changed how I approached combat encounters, barely using weapons at all and mostly focusing on Engineering skills to use the station itself as my strongest weapon.
And the most amazing thing about this is the fact that you don't even need Leverage 3 to get past that blocked of doorway in the lobby. As I found out much later, Recycler Charges do just as much of an effective job at clearing out paths blocked by objects, and you get some nice resources out of them to boot! The entire time the thing that became my main motivation could have been dealt with right at the beginning, if only i had messed around with different tools in my sandbox a little more. At the same time, I can't imagine how that alternative playthrough would have gone, as I would have never discovered the power of hurling heavy things at enemies, had it not inspired me to go for Leverage in the first place.
And there are so many other points in the game just like this where two different players might take two vastly different approaches, completely transforming the way they play this game for the first time.
Truly a game worthy of its legacy...
The question of what happened to the REAL Morgan is still a mystery
The "real" Morgan must be really creepy if a person like Danielle Sho does not like him.
@@Danlovar I have had insane brain damage and personality drift is not a laughing matter. I cry to thing that I would pass over. Caring is huge and I have received a LOT of MRI and I can see my brain from back the and now. It has received more growth in a lot of places but it has shrunk too. That's just what brains do XD. He was a tool in his recordings and January was annoying and I killed it fairly early on and I did NOT want it to kill December. They were all Morgan at some point XD. A huge shame that they couldn't find the time for the other months
My favorite tactic father as many rurrets as possible into my office and just lure enemy's to me the nightmare couldn't even get to the door 😂
Buahaha, that’s pretty great
I have heard that Prey 2017 is an excellent game, which makes it all the more tragic and angering that Bethesda decided to force these devs to use the name of an older franchise for "profit", not only hurting this games sales, but also permanently killing off the original franchise completely. It sucks that I'll never get to revisit that old universe ever again, outside of the small slice we are given.
I talk about this a good bit in the video, too!
Coming off a long Bioshock jag I thought I’d do some retro gaming and bought what I thought was the game first named Prey. Wrong! I gave it a try before yelling at myself. Kiss a year of playing any game other than Prey ‘17 goodbye. I love this game and its challenging DLC, Mooncrash. I play it every year now.
It was originally supposed to be named Neural shock. That would have been a much better name that explains the game so much better literally right out of the box.
I think that the name, Pray, is largely at fault because it confused a lot of people about where this game fit in and what it's genre was. If it had been named Neural shock, EVERYONE would have understood what kind of game it was. Yet another example of the publisher totally screwing the developer.
i still dont like that bethesda recycled the prey watermark title instead of making a new one
neuroshock is the true name of this game
I'm creatively bankrupt from playing AAA games, I hated playing Prey, but loved watching everyone else play Prey and do it more creatively and have more 'fun' than me just shooting things.
For me it was a refreshing take on an rpg genre, my mind was blown when it was all smoke and mirrors literally .. and turning in to a cup I mean it was fantastic down to recycling items for materials and the detail they spared no expense on
Thanks for the shoutout my man! And now - it’s time to dig into this one, even if it’s the “Prey” game I’m a little less enthusiastic about.
Hey Nth, I've been planning to play this since it came out and just never got around to it. I watched your review when it came out and decided to get on it. Still didn't happen until I picked up a steam deck earlier this month. Holy crap it is amazing and a really good example of the best things about immersive sims. Thanks for continuing to put out excellent reviews, I think they're spot on.
You're welcome! Glad I could help!
The looking glass stuff is hilariously consistent. If you like me break all the screens, the plot things play with no visuals or context.
I'm going to be the pedantic jerk here, but the Hacker in SS1 didn't have amnesia. He was in a healing coma. He didn't lose any memory, he just woke up after most of the crap went down, and caused a lot of crap of his own.
Sure, but the result was the same: you have to figure out what happened while you were "out", so it was mechanically the same.
I've played it twice and still not once installed a single alien neuromod. Every ability I actually wanted was always in the normal skill trees so lucky me never gets attacked by the station.
You should actually try a Typhon run, it really changes the feel of the game. Like I say in the review, it's not that bad that the turrets don't like you.
Hello there, glad i randomly found this new videogame documentary channel
Yay!
I still wish we got the original prey 2
The boltcaster is your anti-Cystoid weapon. The game flat-out tells you that they react to sound, so hitting any surface with it causes them to swarm to the spot and self-destruct.
Also, in zero-G, bolts fly in a straight line until they hit something, so you can take out nests way outside of any weapon's effective range, and conserve precious 9mm and 12g rounds.
Watching this video after the terrible release that was Redfall hits very differently.
Arcane has fallen atrociously since its Prey release.
I just played Prey for the first time and it’s in my top 3 single player games for sure
the nightmare actually just shows up whenever you first go to the arboretum, which feels like a bit of a weirdness. especially because once you have that metaknowledge there's a LOT you can do in the game before causing it to spawn for the first time, which means that you don't have to worry about getting ambushed until you've looted most of the station of neuromods and crafting materials, at which point you've potentially murdered hundreds of typhon and jammed them into your head.
it's a strange contrast to a typhon-focused run, where you're gated by finding more advanced typhon species to scan them, while human can just reach godhood with an upgraded shotgun, taser pistol, q-beam and combat focus.
i really liked this game an awful lot even if it probably shouldn't have had the prey name -- i think it's one of the best if not the best game that arkane has ever made. i replayed it only a couple months ago myself (finally doing a nightmare playthrough as i had no reason to before), and it really is just a good time semi-casually exploring the station, building up your strength and accumulating resources. some abilities like hacking or leverage let you bust in through the front door by slamming your head against it, or you can find small gaps to shoot darts through to open security booths or offices, or you can turn into a mug and roll your way through other gaps, it's all great. my major complaint with the game is that the last like, 10-20% of the main story just kind of rushes you through it, with the final act being somewhat unsatisfying compared to the rest of the game. prey 2 certainly has a lot of potential with the reveals at the end and the story of mooncrash, but i worry we'll never get it.
also mooncrash was a far better version of what deathloop went for.
Prey is such a great game! It's so underrated...
it really is, definitely in my all time top 5
The sales figures from this game is why we can't have nice things.
Prey was so awesome. Games have a really hard time to catch my interest, thats why I play mostly older games. But Prey really blew me away. I would pay a lot of money for a second part. The only things would want on top of the first part, would be to have more non Typhon Neuromod options and maybe a long range weapon, to play a sneaky sniper. The latter should be balanced by rarity of the ammo and very expensive fabrication. And I really want to know how the story will progress.
Arcane...please!
Nice to see more of you in the video - it gives more "authorship" to it))
Regarding the game - I was so mislead by the marketing campaign (yes, including naming), emphasizing action over immersive sim features, that I've actually skipped it at first, only trying it after it came to PS+ giveaway. After giving it a try completed it twice, especially impressed with the ending and the whole concept "the game is actually a test, and the test subject is you - player, and your own human ethics". Sadly realized that probably because of people like me, who like immersive sims but skipped this gem, Arcane moved to relatively simplified formula of Deathloop((
And now they're doing some co-op vampire FPS. Forgive me, gamerkind!
One of my favorite games I've played through 3 times and enjoyed each playthrough. By the way the bolt caster is the best weapon to use against cistoids. 1 shot to pop the nest and another for the little balls to chase and blow up
Ah yes, another review video from Deus Ex liberty island
I believe you missed that the very ending, where you choose between killing them all and shake hands, is still a simulation, indicating they still don't trust you. There's an inserted broken frame there, which is present during all other instances when you're in a simulation. So this ending does not undo all of the choices you made during your playthrough.
Prey 2017 is awesome. Thank you for reviewing it!
You're welcome!
I wish they would release a 60fps patch for the PS5
If you play the game on high difficulty + human build only, you'll really come to appreciate the gloo gun, the spark gun and the boltcaster. On high diff, with ammo sparsity + high-risk close combat, I don't think I'd have been able to manage without. The boltcaster has benefits it seems you missed, as a stealth option/lure for low-iq typhon. One example:
Cystoids react to bolts, both indoors and in space. I'm not quite sure if they follow the bolt itself or if they seek out the impact site of the bolt when it hits a surface, but either way .. eventually they catch up to the bolt and detonate, damaging anything in detonation range .. explosives, other typhon etc. One well-timed bolt shot can take out one or more groups of cystoids in one go - shoot at a nest and that group detonation will take out the nest too. You can retrieve the bolt afterwards, no ammo wasted. Very helpful.
Prey is the best immersive sim.
1:24:23 bro, u just blew my mind! I went crazy trying to figure out what the combo for that safe was!
Fun fact: if you open the fake chef’s freezer before he sends you there to off you, he runs and cowers in a corner in the kitchen
So many little details in here!
I only got Prey recently, and it blew me out of the water, its definitely one of my favourite games to date, especially the persistent turrets, you can strategically clear your routes permanently with clever turret placement and it instantly became this like chess game for me, and then i was like "oh, we have an alien skill tree" and you know how that wouldve turned out 😂
yes we do know how that turns out! :D
I love that, like Deus Ex, you can use the numpad to type in codes. Nice little touch of immersion.
This is one of my favorite games. It's the most immersive sim I've ever played. You could feel Talos 1 being alive by reading the messages between people, audiology and seeing hope some corpses are found, which often tell a story. I'm sad that some quest lines like the cook cannot be finished by discovering he is an impostor and confronting him in a way, or getting a prompt after finding evidence he's not the chef. Mooncrash is wonderful, it took me a while to get into it, but once you connect the dots and realize the story behind the simulation, I got more eager to get more Prey content. It's sad this game didn't get as big as it should've.
1:27:48 What's problematic about Mae Whitman? I'm not being facetious, i'm legitimately curious as to why her performance was replaced in the soundtrack.
I don't know why her performance was replaced in the soundtrack, maybe something to do with rights/unions/whatever (pure conjecture). The potential problematic part is having a white woman portray an Asian woman when there are plenty of Asian actors out there to fill the role.
Originally I didn’t buy Prey because it didn’t seem to be as narrative driven as I usually like, but after seeing this I am definitely going to give it a try.
It definitely leans on gameplay rather than dragging you along like Bioshock does
Another way to look at it is naming the old game Prey: Lost World and the new one Prey Fusion. Respectively they’re named after other games with similar elements: Prey Lost World (2006) is named for another action game that involves Psychonauts style gravity mechanics and characters getting turned into Strogg, whereas Prey Fusion (2017) is named for another albeit this time 2D game set on an isolated space outpost that’s under attack by shapeshifting hostile aliens and requires collecting special upgrades to survive.
No.
Stop.
I know what you are referencing.
You are butchering all 4 of those games.
@@Chloroxite No I’m not. I’ll reference whatever the fuck I want and you have no say in the matter.
Man, I was hoping some articulate TH-camr would do a long analysis on Prey and here we are! Thank you bro! This is a great birthday gift. I hope you have a beautiful day and a promising tomorrow.
Happy Birthday to you! I hope this works well as a gift!
@@NthReview Thank you 🙏
Watched your system shock review the other night and it inspired me to download it and prey and I’m happy to discover you’ve also got a prey review up.
Yay!
@1:24:44 they use it at least one other time to reveal a secret safe. But there were other clues how to solve the puzzle if you missed the video playback. It involves a coffee mug of sorts
31:16 you ain’t slick with that 0451 reference 😂
😳
Been searching for Prey content since beating it the other day and didn’t even know about the documentary until you mentioned it. Even the documentary of this game is a hidden gem
That’s interesting because Noclip is maybe the most prolific channel making actual documentaries about video games!
The moment you break that glass wall, the feelings of give, priceless. One of the best video games I ever played.
The second you mentioned Mae Whitman I couldn't help but reflexively say, "Her?" Hahaha
I love prey and Imsims but honestly plundering is one of my least favorite aspects. Even though Prey has a pretty interesting implementation with the breaking down of junk and reassembling into things you actually want, collecting all the stuff is just tedious.
I think it's worse in dishonored. I'm on a MISSION. Why would I want to open cupboards under sinks in bathrooms and steal perfume? It's immersion breaking.
I would rather have something big and shiny shown to me occasionally that I have to figure out how to get to. That would be worth a lot. And a time limit on my mission to make going for the thing a risk.
I agree that the logic bends a bit too far for a game like Dishonored or Thief, but InSims are built for plundering. You're supposed to find stuff in the environment and what form that takes is going to be different philosophically. I like how Prey strikes a balance between the static health kits and items the game prescribes that you can use promptly and directly and loading the levels with junk so that you can build the items you believe you need instead. I realize people do genuinely hate crafting, but I like how this game strikes that balance. I think it makes it more effective as an ImSim.
@@NthReview Thanks for replying :)
If it was less clunky with too many game mechanics and tighter end game pacing, it could be a 10/10. It's got a solid 7.5 for me.
Great video, I finished it in one minute
Also: HOLY SHIT I’M IN THIS. Thanks for the shout out, my man!
I played this out of curiosity one day and I fell In love with it from start to finish
I loved this game... while I played it. After the years, all I can remember is how great space looked in it... and that nauseatingly gilded art deco mixed with sterility. Same with Bioshock games, more or less. Really dug the gameplay of these games, but their visual styles, different yet also kinda similar, are the opposite of what I find appealing. I just don't feel warm towards them, despite rationally understanding how awesome these games are. This is how my selective memory, a rather shallow phenomenon overall, screws things up in hindsight. But hey, I appreciate you reminding me exactly why I loved this Prey. It's underrated, hands down.
Edit: System Shock's aesthetic I dig, though. It's a thing of its own. Not tacky and pompous at all.
Oh yeah, I also didn't care for Mooncrash at all. Almost everyone seems so in awe of it, but I just don't get what's the big deal. So, glad to see I'm not the only hard-to-please bastard out there.
the ceiling of deep storage was useful! on the other end of the map, getting through above that locked door
There is a good possibility that the phantom you play as is just using Morgan's body as a teather.
Also, moon crash got way better. You dont have to play it bro, but it gets waaay better. It took me a few months on and off to get into the base game, so i understand.
1:43:58 *cricket chirps* 🦗🦗🦗
It's so true.
Love that intro!!!
More thoughts pending, I'll update as I watch :P
A great point about scouring areas for goodies allowing you to appreciate the mechanical and narrative design. It's how I love to play too, and I feel that the experience was greatly enhanced because of it.
I agree about the typhon ability tree. Some of the abilities feel highly circumstantial and are wasted when there are so few opportunities to use them.
A minor rave, but going from System Shock inventory management to Prey's automatic inventory management was a real sigh of relief lol
After one year and almost 100 hours on Steam, I installed it again and did an only typhon run (then only human for the achievement) and it confirmed once again that Prey is a 6/10 game. The fact that typhon skills are underwhelming because they lack hacking, something you could do in SS2 with psi, makes it once again what I feared. I am glad that others like it a lot though.
An outstanding game, worth replaying every year or 2!
Exactly what I'm doing.
I am playing this for the first time, and am falling in love with it. There are so many options, and the esthetic is incredible. A total "hidden" gem. Hidden, that is, at least to me until recently
Btw for the deep storage ceiling pipes, I believe l scaled them as you did but then used the gloo gun to get a bit higher, then letting me into the electrical hazard room
I agree with Colantonio and think an immersive sim could be a commercial success. Given the rarity of the genre, and the superficial similarities to FPS, I do think it would have to do an incredible job of tutorializing the right player mindset. I see no reason they couldn't sell.
that looking glass loading screen looks like an old irrational games logo.
when I realized I could use Leverage II objects to shove Leverage III objects, i knew I was gonna have fun.
I think there are reasons that Immersive Sims have kind of stuck to the genres they have. A bright, cheerful immersive sim would kind of clash with the strictly limited resources they give, which is what encourages experimentation and finding creative solutions to save resources in the first place. Claustrophobic corridors makes it hard to ignore enemies while making it possible to get past them without fighting in other scenarios. I think a cheery immersive sim in an open environment might just be Breath of the Wild.
I guess it would be nice to see someone try it though.
(Which by the way makes me want to ask: if "Immersive Sims" are just about simulationing as many systems as possible and being as interactive as possible, why don't we ever hear about maximalist open world games like Minecraft and Morrowind as being "immersive sims"? For that matter, while System Shock 1 and 2 might be interactive and have higher player choice compared to say, Doom, I don't think they're really exceptional in that respect today. I say this as someone that LOVES System Shock I just feel confused about the real meaning of "immersive sim")
The nerf gun I think was more for the fun of it, have it isn't a problem, but the thing about the mimic skill there is one amazing thing that blewed my mind after I discover it: Enter locked rooms.
Let's use the security posts as an example, you put a small object like a banana or a cup in front of the small opening where you would interact with the security, climb into the table, transform into the object and just roll inside of the post! That was amazing, there is a significant amount of places where this trick can be used, and since you don't need to carry any space with you (like the nerf gun), you don't sacrifice any space of a more useful item like a weapon or health.
P.S.: Gloo gun is one of my favorite weapons of all time in games, together with portal gun and gravity gun, simply love it.
Love your videos. Is "streets ahead" a reference to Pierce Hawthorne from Community?
Well, don't fall streets behind!
I would also consider it an evolution of a metroidvania because there are so many ways to traverse the space station.
Great video man, just finished it! The Dishonored connections made me excited for a potential video. Like you said in the conclusion, I am excited for what Nth reviews AREN’T today ;)
Ditto! Primarily because I already made those ones
Prey is probably my favourite game of its generation, and Mooncrash is the best expansion I've ever played. I also recommend anyone who likes the theme and narrative of these games to check out SOMA. It's a walking sim rather than an immersive sim but the atmosphere and narrative theme are very much there.