Indeed it had a lot of potential, which, in a way, makes it more frustrating than a clear good-for-what-it-is experience like its contemporaries. The game really mismanages your expectations on many levels, from the mechanics and balance as discussed above, to the overarching structure of the game, to even the narrative, and this is probably at the root of the strange discomfort that the author of the video was trying to articulate, a discomfort that I largely share. That said, I do think that it does a good job of showcasing the possibilities of engine diversification within the current available technology, which it does primarily through the diverse suite of powers - many of which are highly environmentally interactive - that are implemented. It's a double-edged sword, as it is also part of what breaks the game, but diversity of options in character capacities is definitely one of the perks of immersive sims for me, and it is something which this game does deliver in spades. It also partly excuses the lack of weapon variety, as things are broken enough as is, but let's be honest, if they had tuned the late-game encounters a bit better and introduced some tougher enemy variants, they might well have been able to get away with implementing a nastier arsenal and even prevent the powers from being too OP.
Yep. I think many share our mixed feelings on the game. I'm a bit more positive on it after my replay for various reasons, and partially owing to my appreciation for Arkane's emboldened direction for the DLC. The environmental interactivity is an especially good point -- one of my favorite parts of the game is how Talos 1 is filled with objects that can dynamically become enormous hazards due to the actions of the player or his/her enemies. This makes it feel more like a real space station where firearms and explosives are genuinely dangerous beyond the strength of their payloads (if only GLOO sealant interactions were more reliable and the fire from certain gas pipes weren't invisible...). I think two more weapons would have helped weapon variety: the Psychostatic Cutter from Mooncrash for another melee option (essentially the same as the wrench but its charged strong attack is replaced with a ranged attack which costs psi, pretty cool), and the
cut disc gun with a depressed AI guidance system would have done the trick, topping the game off with four standard weapons (wrench, pistol, shotgun, stun gun) and four tech weapons (cutter, GLOO, Q-beam, disc), plus the nerf gun and the rather unique grenades. As it is, I carried all of the weapons in my human playthrough, and most of them in my alien playthrough, which is pretty boring compared to SS1/SS2.
To be fair though, this game offers so many options that it runs into the same balance issues that have plagued RPGs for decades, in fact, I consider it very close to being an RPG. You know my definition, and usually that means that immersive sims fall squarely into "hard case" territory along with Dark Souls, but I think Prey is, along with System Shock 2, much closer to the RPG side of the spectrum than most. So it's unsurprising that it runs into these headache-inducing design problems. I mean, what are they supposed to do, for example, with Neuroshock? Just make some "bossy" enemies immune to it as per the retarded Might and Magic X school of balance? The symmetric design of the abilities, while being a great feature on its own right, just makes all of this more complicated. I mean this is clearly something that would require some iteration moving forward, but the poor reception of this game is not particularly encouraging in this regard. Does Mooncrash show improvement in this area? Either way, I guess we can always hope System Shock 3 will move things forward.
I think there could have been subtle ways to balance Psychoshock. A longer cooldown (and higher psi cost?) would make it a tool to be used more judiciously in combat -- you must choose wisely which enemy to use it on in a group, or how to manage the duration of combat with bosslike enemies after it's worn off and still on cooldown. This makes it a complement to the player's arsenal and other powers, balanced by their (likely) low investment in e.g. attack power, weapon modification, or turret cheese. I take your point about the Immersive Sim's classification in the "wut is RPG" conversation since it's another type of game that you can complete with no upgrade investment of any kind, though even that in itself involves some form of character building. Is the character building system sufficiently elaborate in e.g. SS2 and does it impinge on the player's potential actions in gameplay? I'd argue the answer is a resounding yes, but there is the niggling issue of how much you can get the systems to work for you in a looser ruleset. Part of the joy of Ultima Underworld and its ilk for replacing the dicerolls of PnP with as much real-time simulation as possible is the freeform, intuitive, and flexible gameplay that results, which some have argued more truly captures the spirit of PnP RPGs than games which merely ape their mechanics and rulesets. But SS1 and Thief are clearly not RPGs, and Nu-DX and Dishonored feature RPG-lite elements at best, so there's clearly some special sauce in there that admits of some form of hybridization, like how Dark Souls is in large part an action-adventure game despite having a lot of genuinely impactful and deep RPG trappings. Anyway, Mooncrash definitely shows improvement even if its meta-resource economy is totally borked, just due to the effects of the timer, permadeath, and the character presets which add some urgency and tension to the gameplay, among other smart design decisions. The fact that you can more easily apply self-restrictions to e.g. Sim Point purchases with some anti-scum measures like no freesaving built in is also an improvement, even if not totally optimal. More impressions
here and
here.
Also, I agree on the story, such a disappointment. Both in terms of its ability to engage moment-to-moment, and its resolution, even Dishonored 1 beats it by a mile at this. That said, I think the setting is great, I haven't been engaged in a setting like this since Soulsborne: I found myself reading the scattered bits of lore and researching theories and wikis after finishing the game. That is rare for a non-storyfag like me. The atmosphere is impeccable too.
I wish I could say the same about the written material. I quite like the concepts of the alternate history, Typhon organism, Talos space station, Transtar corporation, etc., but my disengagement from the core narrative and associated material really put me off. I'd have happily read the world-building in the books if the events on Talos 1 built up any intrigue or suspense and the vast majority of audio logs and emails weren't boring me to tears with petty office drama. Something the Shock games really got right here was setting the game months after the original catastrophe, so it's no problem that nearly every audio log you find is directly related to it rather than predating it. I want to hear about how people are responding to this paranormal threat and their impending deaths at the hands of an uncaring corporate board of directors. Or the game could have centered more on various relationships people on the station had with Morgan, making it unclear who you can trust (the game already does this a
bit with Alex/January/December/the chef, but it's rather dull in its own right) and being more deliberate with the amnesia/unreliable narrarator schtick that the Shock games have exploited. I'd also describe myself as heavily prioritizing gameplay (it's probably 90% of the pie for me), but it can be hard to maintain interest when an Immersive Sim fails to draw you into its fiction. As you say, Dishonored annihilates Prey in this category, and I found myself legitimately engaged with all of its worldbuilding material and plot threads there even if the events of the story
(and gameplay cough) were fairly mundane, just because I had a good sense of what I was accomplishing in the world's fiction.
Thanks man, that means a lot coming from a guy who is a great poster himself.
All right all right, let's not gross everyone out with our public displays of affection, lest the positivity derail the bitter cynicism this board is known for.
