I smash considered one of Prey’s many mugs with my hefty wrench. And then one other. Dead mugs in all places. I’m on a roll, so I throw a field at a lamp, shoot a chair and knock over a bin. I maintain my breath as I homicide each inanimate object I can see. But it’s the one factor I don’t discover, a small beaker in a darkish nook of a shelf, that proves to be my undoing. It flies throughout the room and transforms right into a hideous alien spider earlier than leaping at my face. I run, not for the primary time or the final, for my life.
Read extra: try our PC performance analysis of Prey.
These Mimics are the primary aliens, referred to as the Typhon, that you just’ll encounter in your trek by means of Talos I, Prey’s huge, single location. Along with an introductory twist, they drive residence an important of the sport’s themes: nothing is because it appears. Almost each room, weapon and talent reinforces this all-important message, not solely informing the tone of the sport, however the way you’ll work together with it.
As you information protagonist and scientist (protagientist?) Morgan Yu by means of the more and more harmful area station, developer Arkane takes a again seat and allows you to make all of the calls, from the large choices, like which path to take, to moment-to-moment stuff, like deal with your most typical adversary: a locked door.
Say the door requires a keycard to enter. You don’t have it. Obviously it’s essential to discover the keycard then, proper? That’s one option to do it, actually. Maybe you’ll hit up a safety terminal, seek for an worker that’s prone to have the merchandise, then go on a doubtlessly perilous journey to hunt them down. Perhaps they’re lifeless, so that you’re searching for their corpse. Maybe they’ve been remodeled right into a Typhon and also you’ll should combat them.
Look nearer, although. Is there a small hole within the barred window close to the locked door? If you’ll be able to see a terminal with an unlock button, you would possibly have the ability to hearth projectile at it. If you’ve analysis the powers of Mimics, you may rework right into a mug and simply soar by means of. Is there one thing you’ll be able to hack? Blow up? A option to get in from above or under? Every locked door is a puzzle bursting with potential options. Experimenting with the sport’s techniques, testing bizarre theories – that’s the way you’ll get by means of Talos I alive.
It’s spectacular how properly Prey trains you to take a look at the world like this, and it’s principally performed subtly, by displaying quite than telling. New makes use of for weapons, just like the useful multi-purpose GLOO gun, are revealed by the atmosphere quite than a tutorial or an NPC. At first it’s only a option to quickly cease enemies of their tracks, encasing them in a quick-hardening glue, but it surely’s actually one of the crucial vital instruments within the recreation, clearing up hazards and opening up new methods to navigate the station.
Talos I itself is expertly designed, a shocking floating metropolis that feels equally like a murals and an excellent piece of engineering. It’s an enormous, interconnected machine, with rooms linked collectively by large anti-gravity tubes, upkeep ducts and walkways, and simply once you assume you is likely to be caught, there’s all the time one thing, like an airlock, that permits you to take a shortcut, even when it’s out into the void of area.
Backtracking is, lamentably, a requirement, and there’s nothing extra dispiriting than going by means of 4 loadscreens solely to be advised it’s a must to again by means of all of them once more after simply reaching your vacation spot. By ignoring the crucial path, nevertheless, you’ll be able to spend extra time investigating these areas, and once you hit them a second time, you’ll most likely have new keycards, codes or powers that may mean you can discover them in higher depth. They change, too, filling up with new characters, obstacles and enemies.
Unfortunately, nearly all foes have one pace: assault, assault, assault. They see you after which they attempt to kill you, and there’s nothing extra to it than that. They don’t work collectively, they usually aren’t reactive in the way in which that Dishonored 2’s foes are, nor do they really feel like they’re a part of an ecology or hierarchy. So alternatives for manipulating them and getting actually artistic in fight are considerably rarer than in Arkane’s final recreation. Only the Mimics deviate from this by behaving like animals. They wait earlier than they strike, they usually conceal and flee after they’re at risk, like there’s a primitive intelligence beneath their gooey, black exterior.
However! They’re difficult. There’s a wealth of selection, and every combat – significantly early on – is a puzzling encounter. Every enemy sort should be taken on otherwise, relying on their weaknesses to particular weapons, the atmosphere they reside in, and what powers they use. You’ll need to conceal from the large, stalking Nightmares; maintain your distance from the teleporting Phantoms; knock out robots with EMP grenades and electrical skills; and usually do your homework. Watching them. Scanning them.
There are loads of nifty devices, powers and weapons that make battles really feel extra novel, too. Standard weapons, just like the shotgun and the silenced pistol lack weight or punch, and Morgan is unquestionably not a fighter, however he has a giant bag of methods. I’ve turn out to be fairly the fan of grenades that recycle all the things of their blast radius, breaking down artificial and natural enemies and objects into their base elements, good should you fancy doing a spot of crafting afterwards. Eventually, you’ll get inhuman abilities, permitting you to summon your very personal Phantoms, take management of machines, and rip them off the bottom with telekinesis.
New skills include a price, nevertheless. Mundane stuff, bettering your gun-handling abilities, lifting heavy objects and getting extra stamina are superb, however once you begin injecting your self with alien DNA, there are penalties. You’re making Morgan much less human, you see, and the station’s automated safety is, you’ve guessed it, programmed to kill aliens. If, like me, you’re a fan of selecting up turrets and plonking them down wherever you combat – much less like a scientist and extra like Overwatch’s Torbjorn – this creates a little bit of a problem, since your mechanical buddies at the moment are intent on killing you. So you’ve obtained to sneak up on them and do a spot of hacking earlier than they’ll sit back and help once more.
When all else fails, you’ll be able to all the time simply choose up chairs, packing containers and ashtrays and toss them at shocked foes. A ceramic dish stuffed with cigar ash is a surprisingly respectable weapon, in a pinch, however may also function a distraction should you’d quite keep away from getting set on hearth or having your face torn off.
Speaking of bludgeoning aliens with ashtrays, Prey’s tone is considered one of its largest surprises. It’s completely not a horror recreation. It makes a couple of sophomoric makes an attempt at horror, positive, with poorly-timed soar scares and PG-13 gore, but it surely’s extra of a thriller with a giant dose of wackiness, the place you’ll be able to flip right into a pizza field one minute and get unnerved by the paranoia-inducing string and otherworldly synth soundtrack the subsequent. And all through, you’re questioning the character of your actuality and everybody’s motives. But when you’re doing this, don’t count on a peep out of stoic Morgan.
Morgan is, bizarrely, mute. You’ll hear his or her voice in recordings and movies and see their phrases in emails, however that’s it. Other characters will chat away as should you’re having a dialog, making it all of the extra uncommon, and it reaches its bizarro peak once you’re having coronary heart to hearts with relations and outdated mates however by no means utter a single syllable. It’s a specific disgrace as a result of it’s a recreation with numerous well-developed characters.
Prey makes use of an extremely drained system to inform unexpectedly compelling tales. You’ll be studying loads of emails and listening to an amazing many audio logs, however it’s fully value it. Even lifeless members of Talos I’s crew get correct arcs, together with a touching however tragic romance. There are loads of corpses on the station, so many who they threaten to turn out to be completely regular, however they’re not simply slabs of rotting meat. They’re individuals I care about, respect, and sure, generally vastly dislike, who I solely realized about after their unlucky demise. Discovering these friendships and grudges by means of messages and environmental storytelling brings the dying station to life.
Connecting with the crew additionally blesses the aspect quests and even fight encounters with a higher influence. Some of the Typhon have thoughts management powers – as a result of aliens – and I vividly recall the primary time I used to be pressured to combat a gaggle of my fellow people. I had no thought if I might keep away from harming them, however I went out of my option to maintain them secure, anyway, utilizing no area-of-effect assaults, sneaking previous them, attempting to deal with the beastie commanding them. I used to be elated once I managed to win the combat with no human casualties. I knocked them out after which hid them someplace secure. It seems that that is a part of the sport’s unstated morality system.
Other ethical decisions are extra overt: saving a one-time enemy. Rushing to rescue a gaggle of suffocating survivors. And, in fact, the principle quest itself, the place you’ve obtained to determine the destiny of the station, a process you’re given proper from the get-go. The dire scenario implies that most missions you settle for or ignore really feel like they’ve some type of karmic influence, even when it’s not outright expressed when you’re doing it. It’s not a matter of scoring factors, there’s no ethical indicator and no XP – you assist individuals since you need to. For a lot of the expertise, Prey eschews the gamification of morality that’s so horribly current within the medium, and it makes these decisions extra significant, despite the fact that they’re nonetheless largely binary.
By the tip, Prey flings all the things at you, shedding loads of its nuance alongside the way in which. And when there aren’t any extra nooks and crannies left to discover, simply numerous enemies to combat, its magic evaporates somewhat bit. Slow, methodical exploration is the place it shines, and fortunately that’s nonetheless the majority of the sport. It’s bizarre, intelligent and Talos I is undoubtedly going to be excessive up in my record of finest recreation places. It’s not fairly the revelation that Dishonored 2 was, missing its exact fight and reactive foes, but it surely doesn’t have any of its efficiency issues both.
It’s extra prone to be in comparison with BioShock and System Shock 2, in fact, however Prey can stand by itself. Loads of the design philosophy is likely to be acquainted, but it surely’s that first lesson launched by the Mimics – nothing is because it appears – that actually defines it. It’s a recreation of surprises and lies, with pretend endings and faux mugs. You shouldn’t belief it, but it surely completely trusts you and your wits to search out your individual options to its myriad conundrums and obstacles.
Verdict: eight/10
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