Prey Just Isn't All That Fun.

Well I just finished playing the demo & while pretty & mindbending with the gravity stuff, it did have very much the 'corridor sim' feeling of D3 so I was pretty much done with it by the end of that demo.

Now, if people started telling me that you wind up roaming freely round the interior of that sphere thing, shooting up aliens with big cool vehicles etc I'd be buying the game at lunch but, well, comments here indicate its mostly just more corridors so, nope.

 

*bump*

I just finished Prey and wanted to comment on the good time I had with it, but then I made a mistake. I have reread this thread. What can I say. You people are crazy. In a crazy way.

You have to acknowledge that Prey delivers variety in spades. If you go through the game you'll notice that only two classes of puzzle are ever reused as-is (turn off laser barrier as spirit; pass forcefield as spirit), everything else is always modified, mixed with other elements, different, refined.

The voice acting, music and ambient sounds are totally top notch. The graphics are great. And the gameplay is fuckin' crazy intense fun.

This game definitely belongs among the most enjoyable shooters I've ever played. It's certainly heads and shoulders above forgettable mediocrity (say hello to the likes of Star Trek: Elite Force and Star Wars: Republic Commando). I'd say overall, for me personally, Prey ranks right there with Max Payne 2, although those are obviosly very different games.

 

i to enjoyed it (thanks for reminding me to finish it!). i thought it was VERY clever in spots, and had very high production standards/quality.

 

So you want to run through level after level looking at the same textures and normal maps and shooting the same enemies with the same gun for 7-8 hours, Guden?

 

I think you're just being very negative. "Run around and kill stuff" aptly describes a majority of all computer games ever made. Saying a game does just that is not fair.

Many many many fps games look like pale c&p jobs in comparison to this. I will not name it, but you know which game I have in mind right now. If you don't need variety, fine, but you can at least acknowledge that it's there. There's no need to dismiss it as if it were a disease or something.

Xen was just piss-poor game design.

Again ... you're very negative about that aspect, and at the same time you dismiss its importance. I don't understand you

I'll just recount a few forms of gravity puzzle found in the game. There are many more.

• reach exit on the ceiling by inverting gravity (basic form)
• reach exit on the ground (past an obstacle) by inverting gravity twice
• pass force field by inverting gravity in spirit form (refinement)
• reach a bridge in middle of the room by inverting gravity twice (refinement)
• get box across obstacle (by inverting gravity) and use it as a stepping stone toward the exit
• move that block through that maze on the walls (you'll know if you've played it)

You may call this primitive combination work, but it is very well executed in its presentation.

There are actually some optional puzzles in the game where you can get extra ammo when you drop off a wall-walk "in the wrong place" or drop down chasms in spirit form.
Yes, of course the puzzles in Prey are just combinations of the basic game elements. The point is that Prey has more of them (Spirit walk, wall-walks, gravity, portals), does pretty interesting things with them, and presents it all very well.

*sigh*

I'll take the "wtf whoah!" moment while walking across two planetoids, each with their own gravity, connected by a couple of pipes and dropping "down" to what had been "forward" a second before over an extra enemy any day. Seriously.

 

On a sidenote...

...Prey sure aint't fun anymore if you purchased it via the Triton download service. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, especially the part about the legal status of an offline patch.

 

According to Bluesnews, yes. Just look under the Sunday, October 8th headline.

 

I am bumping this old thread since I just bought prey for $19 and played through it.

I quite enjoyed it. Some puzzles were pretty good, and I found it an excellent game.

I do have criticisms of course, but they are the usual ones for FPS games.

I hate it when it isn't clear which buttons are usable, items movable etc..


The spaceship you fly around in was very cheap from a dev standpoint, but it worked well so they made a good decision there. There was a few puzzles that were good with spirit walking where you could fall through portals etc... also it was nice that you could go through a door real quick before it closes and then spirit walk about to find stuff etc... Anyway it could have been better but it was very good IMO.

 

So does anyone know what the ghost girls were about ?????

 

Was covered on the 2nd page of this thread.

 

Where? I just looked and couldn't find it...

 

#20.

IIRC, the player is told (shown) that they're possessed by 'spirits of the dishonored dead' (i.e. the wraiths you fight in the post-physical-death mini level). The game seems to be missing some exposition on that front, though.

 

thats the wraiths the red + blue ghosty things

doesnt explain the little girls

 

i've been meaning to finish this title. i have quite a backlog. thanks for the reminder! i thought this game clever and fun. not sure what new title got me to stop playing before i was done.

 

IIRC, you see one of them entering/posessing a girl on first level before she kills a boy and the ship-mother voice talks about wraiths and such things not happening before the player arrived.

 

I didn't hate Xen.
It may not have been the best, but the game had to go somewhere. The insecurity of having lots of separate floaty bits in a surreal dreamlike dimension was a slightly novel take on what would've been the general 'alien base' norm.

I still bloody love the original Half-Life.
I play it every couple of years and still think nothing has yet come as close to being the perfect interactive, albeit clichéd, b-movie as this game. But then, perhaps you have to have a soft spot for b-movie clichés to feel that way. I dunno.

 

yeah. Everyone always seems to be complaining about the Zen levels. But I just don't remember disliking them when I played them so long ago.

 

I liked them as well.

I was much more impressed with HL1 at the time then HL2 though...