Arkane PREY - Arkane's immersive coffee cup transformation sim - now with Mooncrash roguelike mode DLC

[gurugeorge]

I don't mind minigames in principle, but I do prefer them to have some kind of thematic relationship to the thing you're supposed to be doing. One of the best thematic "hacking" minigames I thought was the one in Mass Effect where you have to match patterns of code that that are moving down the screen.

 

[Ismaul]

Minigames serve no purpose, especially hacking in Prey. You unlock the ability of hacking level 1 devices. Why force the player to play a minigame to hack level 1 devices then? It's clear the intent is there that the character is good enough to hack level 1 devices, so the minigame is just a waste of time. It's not like there's easy level 1 devices and hard level 1 devices (that might require additional investment in character skills). It's all the same level and difficulty, and you are intended to be able to access level 1 hacked objects if you have level 1 hacking, yet you still need to play the minigame. It's like if you unlocked the ability to wield the Assault Rifle in System Shock 2 but then decided to force the player to play a trivial match-3 minigame every time they switch to it while the rest of the game world paused and waited.

It's a game so there is gameplay to play tied to a game mechanic.

Your analogy doesn't work so well. If we applied what you want for hacking to weapons, it'd look like this: imagine if you unlocked the ability to wield lvl1 Assault Rifles, and just by holding one in your hands enemies it can kill drop dead around you. That's obviously ridiculous. Character skill only enables the player to access a certain type of player-skill-based gameplay associated with the skill he got, otherwise there's be no game.

The same could be said about things other than shooting. It's not an issue that all character skills have a type of gameplay that also requires player skill. Now if you want to argue that non-shooting gameplay has no place in a shooter, or that a specific non-shooting gameplay in a game sucks such as the hacking in Prey, that's something else. But it's not true that minigames have no purpose in general.

 

[Average Manatee]

Your analogy doesn't work so well. If we applied what you want for hacking to weapons, it'd look like this: imagine if you unlocked the ability to wield lvl1 Assault Rifles, and just by holding one in your hands enemies it can kill drop dead around you. That's obviously ridiculous. Character skill only enables the player to access a certain type of player-skill-based gameplay associated with the skill he got, otherwise there's be no game.

Bad analogy. There's a range of outcomes for aiming and shooting at something. Whether you hit, where you hit, how fast you fire, how much ammo you use, what type of ammo you use, etc.

Hacking has a completely binary outcome, yes you hacked it or no you failed to hack it. There's no other possibility, nothing else can influence the minigame, there's no cost to the minigame (e.g. you can't be caught and attacked while doing it, I don't actually recall if there's a cost for failing the minigame). The expected outcome of having hacking 1 is that you can hack level 1 items. If for some reason the player is criminally retarded and unable to complete the hacking 1 minigame, then the hacking 1 skill is entirely useless (which is bad design). With such a setup there's no reason to force the player to waste their time doing the minigame.

 

[udm]

I was pleasantly surprised by the lockpicking and pickpocketing minigame in Kingdom Come Deliverance. They're real time and there's a sense of urgency to complete them; failure also brings about game-changing consequences. All this is just like how it was presented in System Shock 2, as partially mentioned by HansDampf.

Another game that does minigames well is The Dark Mod. The idea of visual + auditory lockpicking in real-time synergises well and adds to a lot of tension.

 

[Ismaul]

I don't actually recall if there's a cost for failing the minigame

Electrical shock causing HP loss.

 

[LESS T_T]

Ooh, then I guess Steam version actually will get Denuvo removed?

It's (going to be) removed: https://old.reddit.com/r/prey/comments/hsdkih/july_16th_2020_update/

Hello awesome Prey community!

Today we planned to perform a backend deployment for Prey in order to remove Denuvo, but some of you may have seen a 16GB or 4GB update instead. We've rolled back this deployment, so you should no longer have any large updates for Prey or Prey: Mooncrash. The update to remove Denuvo will still be deployed, but at a later date.

Your game should be unaffected, but please let us know if you're seeing any issues!

The update is live.

 

[kangaxx]

Thanks for letting us know. I should give it another playthrough...

 

[Ivan]

One of my fav gaming moments of genuine surprise in the past few years

 

[DalekFlay]

Just started playing this finally... am I missing something or is stealth kinda pointless? Usually I love stealth but it just seems meh in this game compared to shotgunning everything.

 

[Butter]

Early game enemies get fucked on by guns and wrench. Later enemies are bullet sponges and you have to psi them.

 

[Average Manatee]

You get sneak attack damage on your guns. Which is weird and overpowered as hell. But otherwise no, trying to avoid combat is pretty much futile.

Early game enemies get fucked on by guns and wrench. Later enemies are bullet sponges and you have to psi them.

Standard weapons with combat focus will absolutely annihilate everything.

 

[RoSoDude]

Stealth isn't for avoiding combat, it's for getting the drop on enemies. All attacks on unaware enemies do bonus critical damage (which you can improve with the Sneak Attack Neuromod skills), and catching enemies unaware provides a tactical advantage. You can set up traps with turrets and throw explosive gas canisters at enemies before they have time to react, and charged wrench strikes from stealth are guaranteed to put Phantoms in a knockdown state which you can abuse to get more free hits in (if you know what you're doing you can chain multiple charged wrench strikes to keep them knocked down).

The stealth definitely has problems -- feedback is kinda lacking, directional sound is nonexistent, and I was constantly frustrated that I couldn't enter a prone state on command -- but if you view it as a means to an end you can get a lot of mileage out of the mechanic. I also recommend looking into some of the more exotic Typhon Neuromods you'll unlock later on, as they make stealth a lot more interesting than it is with just the human skills. I did a whole playthrough with my balance mod on the hardest difficulty and hardcore modules installed with a hybrid character build focused on subterfuge and indirect combat, and it was very effective at saving resources.

Spoiler

• Mimic Matter: In addition to allowing you to get to some hard to reach places, this ability makes you blend in with your environment as long as you stay still. Unfortunately it can be frustrating to attempt stealth with it, as your visibility is turned up to max if you move at all while transformed, so enemies will frequently spot you moving from across the room where they wouldn't if you had simply been crouchwalking. This is something I addressed in my mod, in addition to reducing the psi drain.
  
• Phantom Shift: This ability is both a combat dodge and a stealth tool, as it leaves a double behind that will fool enemies for a short duration. Keep in mind that it simply shifts you in the direction you select with the movement keys, rather than allowing you to target a location like Dishonored's Blink.
  
• Phantom Genesis: Raise Phantoms from human corpses to fight for you. This can be surprisingly useful for turning fights in your favor, and once your Phantom is killed you can recycle their corpse for more Exotic material.
• Psychoshock: A staple of any build that uses Typhon Neuromods. Either use it offensively to nullify enemy counterattacks, or defensively when you're caught unprepared.
• Mindjack: Turn Typhon enemies into allies for a short duration. Can be crazy overpowered in many situations, as you can use it to set up battles between your enemies and then pick off the winners.
• Machine Mind: The same principle but for robotic enemies. Particularly useful in a rather annoying section later section of the game.
• Remote Manipulation: A surprisingly useful ability for how underrated it is. Remote Manipulation can augment Leverage into a telekinesis throwing power and let you pick things up too, but it also acts as a frob at a distance with a bunch of interesting use cases. Hack/repair turrets and operators at range! Open doors through windows! Activate mechanisms without computer terminals! Refill your oxygen in space or eat a banana from 30ft away! You can avoid a lot of unpleasant conflicts and hazards with a clever application of this ability.

 

[DalekFlay]

Stealth isn't for avoiding combat, it's for getting the drop on enemies. All attacks on unaware enemies do bonus critical damage (which you can improve with the Sneak Attack Neuromod skills), and catching enemies unaware provides a tactical advantage. You can set up traps with turrets and throw explosive gas canisters at enemies before they have time to react, and charged wrench strikes from stealth are guaranteed to put Phantoms in a knockdown state which you can abuse to get more free hits in (if you know what you're doing you can chain multiple charged wrench strikes to keep them knocked down).

Okay. I noticed the sneak attack thing with the coffee cup pretenders, but it just seems like I can't get to them before they change that often. Now that I have the silenced pistol though I guess that'll change, and the future powers sound good. I got the shotgun really early because I'm an explorefag, and now I just got some disintegrator or something by going back to the opening area with more hacking. I love that kind of stuff in these games... still no psi though.

 

[RoSoDude]

You can definitely get the drop on Mimics -- you're pretty much guaranteed an wrench instakill if you hit them while they're camouflaged. Can take some practice knowing exactly at what distance they'll reveal themselves, and obviously you have to predict where they're hiding. Some Mimic spawns are handplaced but others will happen dynamically, which is pretty cool.

You'll get access to psi abilities (well, other than Combat Focus) after the Hardware Labs. Wish it had been from the getgo with how the research mechanic works, but... whatever.

 

[fantadomat]

Muh just shoot any chest you find.

 

[JDR13]

I'm surprised you haven't played this until now. Easily one of the best games released that year imo.

Which reminds me.. I really need to get around to playing Dishonored 2. That's the only Arkane game I haven't completed.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

shoot every coffee cup

 

[kangaxx]

shoot every coffee cup

Shoot anything without a Post It note attached.

 

[samuraigaiden]

Just started playing this finally... am I missing something or is stealth kinda pointless? Usually I love stealth but it just seems meh in this game compared to shotgunning everything.

Play it on Nightmare with Survival mechanics turned on.

 

[DalekFlay]

I'm surprised you haven't played this until now. Easily one of the best games released that year imo.

I take long stretches off from gaming sometimes and this came out during one of those. Once I came back I pleasure-delayed it for a while, because I'm weird.

Play it on Nightmare with Survival mechanics turned on.

I dislike survival mechanics but I probably should have played it on the hardest mode like I do Dishonored. It's a pretty easy game so far, I've got like 15 medkits sitting in my inventory.

 

[Ismaul]

Muh just shoot any chest you find.

but cup a feel first

 

[samuraigaiden]

I dislike survival mechanics but I probably should have played it on the hardest mode like I do Dishonored. It's a pretty easy game so far, I've got like 15 medkits sitting in my inventory.

It's super easy. Nightmare mode is pretty much normal difficulty and the survival mechanics do little more than give you an extra reason to gather resources and interact with the game.

 

[Multidirectional]

It's a pretty easy game so far

It only gets easier. On Nightmare I was god-like by the end of game even though I didn't take any alien powers past that minimal 3 point investment.

 

[Average Manatee]

Its entirely impossible for any AAA game with RPG aspects to have anything but a heavy inverse difficulty curve. These games are rigorously tested and balanced so that even players completely blind to collecting resources who invests in all of the worst choices while rushing through the game ends up with a "fair" difficulty curve on the hardest setting, so any amount of intelligence or care leads to increasingly trivial gameplay. This goes double for games with achievements for completely disregarding the RPG leveling aspects entirely (which Prey does have).

 

[DalekFlay]

This is the type of game I'll replay a bunch of times, so I'll try "nightmare" and maybe the survival stuff at some point. Restricted runs are often fun, like pacifist Deus Ex runs or no powers Dishonored runs. Seems weird to go with no hacking or upgrades or whatever at all though. I just got the psi stuff and I might ignore that honestly, most of it seems meh when I'm slaughtering everything with sneak pistol shots and shotgun finishers (for now anyway).