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

[Spukrian]

The achievements are indeed borked. I finished the game using only human neuromods, then again using only typhon neuromods and a third time using only human neuromods, yet somehow I didn't get the "Split Affinity" achievement.

 

[DalekFlay]

I know I did it with only human ones, that's good enough for me, but it is weird.

 

[Ismaul]

yeah it sucks when you don't get your participation award to show all your imaginary friends as a proof you don't have a tiny dick

really robs you of your sense of accomplishment

 

[samuraigaiden]

Fuck achievements, seriously.

 

[Multidirectional]

Achievement grinders deserve all the pain they get and more.

 

[Spukrian]

Achievements are fun if they are a challenge to get. I do think getting achievements for just advancing in the story is a bit boring...

 

[Daedalos]

Prey is definitely still a very fresh positive experience in terms of recent explorative fps rpgs.

For sure my goty 2017, i'm thinking about replaying it with alot of mods and I never finished the DLC. But man, that first playthrough, quite a ride and immerseful.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Not only immerseful, but also enthrallalating, entertabulous, and intelligornt!

 

[Wunderbar]

I do think getting achievements for just advancing in the story is a bit boring...

statistics of how far into the game average player advances.

 

[DalekFlay]

I usually play GOG versions so I don't get a ton of achievements, but there are two reasons I sometimes care about them... 1) Neat challenges like beating Dishonored without powers or finishing Deus Ex 4's prison DLC without augmentations, and 2) seeing what percentage of people got to the end or made X or Y decision.

 

[RoSoDude]

I do think getting achievements for just advancing in the story is a bit boring...

statistics of how far into the game average player advances.

I actually did an ad-hoc analysis of the game's commercial failings based on the Steam achievements.

[...]

However, I think it goes beyond just those things and that Prey failed to connect with many its players, meaning fewer people completed the game and recommended it to their friends. This is supported by the global Steam achievement stats to date: while 83.7% of players have acquired a Human ability (almost certainly with the first Neuromod they obtained in the Neuromod Division), only 59.2% of players met January in Morgan's Office in the very next area. This means that at least 23% of players dropped the game during a very short period in the beginning of the game. Only 37.7% went on to access Deep Storage using Danielle Sho's voice samples halfway through the game, and based on the other common achievements I'd estimate that just above 30% of players actually completed the game. This is a poor level of engagement for a game that was already struggling to find its audience (for a direct comparison, 67.4% of Dishonored players completed its second mission, a good 50.3% were still playing up to the fourth mission, and 40.2% of players completed that game). To understand why Prey did poorly compared to contemporary games of its ilk, we have to understand why 23% of players stopped playing right after the game opened up and they acquired their first ability.

[...]

 

[DalekFlay]

I would guess a lot of those people installed it near release, played around with it to see what it was about, then saw it getting really open and in depth and decided to put it off for later. A later that never came. Isn't that kind of common though? I mean maybe those percentages are worse than average, but I feel like steep drop-offs like that are the usual.

 

[JDR13]

That, or the mainstream in general simply has the attention span of a goldfish.

 

[HansDampf]

Almost every game shows these achievement patterns. 50% of players dropped F:NV after the tutorial.

 

[V_K]

Finally started playing this for real (I'm very much one of those people in RoSoDude's post) - and gosh, either I'm getting super old or this game requires an indecent amount of attention focusing and concentration. Even mimics notwithstanding, I constantly fail to notice things - pipes to climb, ledges to crawl, and most of all fucking keycards. My stupidest fail so far was when I failed to notice the teleconferencing card lying right in the fucking Morgan's office. I went through half the lobby swinging wrench at phantoms until it occurred to me that it's a 2017 game so there's no way that's how it's supposed to go and there should be something in the office to take me directly to next stage. It was not since my very first attempts at playing adventures that I felt so dumb in a game.

 

[Zombra]

Finally started playing this for real (I'm very much one of those people in RoSoDude's post) - and gosh, either I'm getting super old or this game requires an indecent amount of attention focusing and concentration. Even mimics notwithstanding, I constantly fail to notice things - pipes to climb, ledges to crawl, and most of all fucking keycards. My stupidest fail so far was when I failed to notice the teleconferencing card lying right in the fucking Morgan's office. I went through half the lobby swinging wrench at phantoms until it occurred to me that it's a 2017 game so there's no way that's how it's supposed to go and there should be something in the office to take me directly to next stage. It was not since my very first attempts at playing adventures that I felt so dumb in a game.

I made it about two hours with quest markers turned off before I gave up and turned them on just so I could fucking get from A to B. I don't have this problem with other games. Something about Prey is visually overwhelming.

 

[Wunderbar]

I had the same issue with Dishonored 2 and Deus Ex MD. Games have busy visuals.

 

[DalekFlay]

I made it about two hours with quest markers turned off before I gave up and turned them on just so I could fucking get from A to B. I don't have this problem with other games. Something about Prey is visually overwhelming.

I had the same issue with Dishonored 2 and Deus Ex MD. Games have busy visuals.

Turned objective markers off in all these games before I started them and never had an issue finding my way. You guys are old fogies.

 

[Wunderbar]

All modern games have a problem of very busy and cluttered visuals.
Usually in popamole games it doesn't really matter because interactable objects are rare, but in Arkane games (and Deus Ex MD) there is a lot of interactable objects and it is hard to distinguish them from props.

Early 00s. A table with a piece of paper - that piece of paper in most likely an interactable object, you can read it and get some important info.
Current day. A table is full of rubbish - there are stacks of paper, separate pieces of paper with something scribbled on them, books, paperclips, pencils, cups, pencil cups. Which of those items are interactable? Who the fuck knows, just hover your camera until something highlights.

 

[Butter]

I've played a lot of immersive sims this year, and there's a clear difference in clutter between the old and new ones. Prey seemed especially bad in this regard.

 

[DalekFlay]

All modern games have a problem of very busy and cluttered visuals.
Usually in popamole games it doesn't really matter because interactable objects are rare, but in Arkane games (and Deus Ex MD) there is a lot of interactable objects and it is hard to distinguish them from props.

Early 00s. A table with a piece of paper - that piece of paper in most likely an interactable object, you can read it and get some important info.
Current day. A table is full of rubbish - there are stacks of paper, separate pieces of paper with something scribbled on them, books, paperclips, pencils, cups, pencil cups. Which of those items are interactable? Who the fuck knows, just hover your camera until something highlights.

I don't know what to tell you, I don't have this problem. Usually items of importance are designed to stand out and I notice them just fine. Not saying you don't have this problem, but I just don't. I dislike the idea that more detailed rooms are "bad," so I hope there's more of me than there are of you.

 

[JDR13]

I've played a lot of immersive sims this year, and there's a clear difference in clutter between the old and new ones. Prey seemed especially bad in this regard.

Where are you finding all these immersive sims?

Regarding Prey, I find it odd that so many people struggled with "visual clutter". I played with a minimal HUD and can recall only 1 instance where I had trouble locating something. It was a computer I needed to use early on, and I passed it several times before I realized I could interact with it.

 

[Butter]

I've played a lot of immersive sims this year, and there's a clear difference in clutter between the old and new ones. Prey seemed especially bad in this regard.

Where are you finding all these immersive sims?

Regarding Prey, I find it odd that so many people struggled with "visual clutter". I played with a minimal HUD and can recall only 1 instance where I had trouble locating something. It was a computer I needed to use early on, and I passed it several times before I realized I could interact with it.

I've played 3 Deus Ex games, 3 Thief games, 2 Dishonored games, 2 System Shock games, Prey, and Arx Fatalis this year. All the ones from 2010 or later have tons of objects that may or may not be interactable, and it causes you to spend more time in each new area figuring out what's important and what you should be trying to do.

 

[JDR13]

I've played a lot of immersive sims this year, and there's a clear difference in clutter between the old and new ones. Prey seemed especially bad in this regard.

Where are you finding all these immersive sims?

Regarding Prey, I find it odd that so many people struggled with "visual clutter". I played with a minimal HUD and can recall only 1 instance where I had trouble locating something. It was a computer I needed to use early on, and I passed it several times before I realized I could interact with it.

I've played 3 Deus Ex games, 3 Thief games, 2 Dishonored games, 2 System Shock games, Prey, and Arx Fatalis this year. All the ones from 2010 or later have tons of objects that may or may not be interactable, and it causes you to spend more time in each new area figuring out what's important and what you should be trying to do.

Dude, you should go outside more.

 

[Ismaul]

outside

What is this strange place you speak of? At least give us the address of the website!