Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsEngrossing, brilliant, beautiful
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2018
I am a fan of games that combine quality story elements with imaginative puzzles and exciting game play, like Half-Life 2, Mass Effect 2, BioShock, and so on. Prey very much felt like it was in the same head space as Half-Life 2 and BioShock, Alien: Isolation, and with many similarities in character attribute leveling as BioShock (instead of "plasmids" you have to go find "neuromods") and System Shock (although not as tedious). The art and architecture of the Talos space station is stunning.
Some of the only real negatives of the game for me would be that the game play requires you to return to areas you have already explored "completely". A couple of the side missions are so opaque that I had to look up the solution online (there's one where you literally aim your character into space and if you have chosen the correct heading you will find the object, if you are off a little bit, you die, and it's not at all clear how you're supposed to know). There is a mechanism in the game that converts organic material into raw elements, and you can (and should, because it's fun) use it as a weapon. Unfortunately, I used it on some characters that were plot elements, and there's no way to undo that or get that info again unless you go back to an earlier save and replay it, but by the time I figured out the people I converted into raw material were supposed to provide story clues, I had already played many missions past it. Aside from that, game play actions change the story outcome and I loved that the outcomes were very different. For instance, when you encounter other survivors they often need you to help them and the characters can either live or die based on what you do.
The aliens range from easy to beat to really frustratingly difficult to beat, so it requires you to actually use your leveling abilities intelligently to combat them. I found it a little difficult to get around Talos. There is a station map you can use but it is kind of tedious to go from one side or end of the station to the other (with load times). There is a small amount of crafting to do, you build your own med kids and neuromods etc. There were a couple of levels that were either plotted bizarrely or my mind just didn't work in that direction because I had to rely on level guides and the resulting actions required were in no way logical. So just know that going in it's not an obvious game where you are funneled down a chute with no branching options.
But if you stick it out, it's very worth it. I was saddened when the game finished.
