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

[Blaine]

It's not a matter of survival horror levels of resource management, but a matter of simple game balance. If I beat your game on high difficulty and I have 69 repair kits and 30 medkits, and never actually had to strategize and think about my choices, i.e the entire purpose of these choices in the first place, then you failed as a designer.

How many should you have had left, by the way? Exactly 0? I agree that there are somewhat too many resources in Prey, but you may be overestimating the average gaming journalist's ability to play through a game. It's a shame, but yes, they were making the game for a wider audience than the Codex alone.

Also, resource consumption is one of the easiest things to tweak with mods, and I'm sure there is one.

 

[Acrux]

In fact, there's quite a good one

https://www.nexusmods.com/prey2017/mods/40

PREY CORE BALANCE MOD - Version 1.3

CORE BALANCE is a modification that seeks to improve Prey's game balance without substantially altering its core design.
Neuromod skills, chipsets, status effects, etc. are essentially the same, but numbers are tweaked to even out the viability of strategies, while also reducing the abusability of certain systems.
The player's strength will start out on par with the base game, but they will have a longer route to unstoppable godhood, with fewer no-brainer skills and more playstyle flexibility.
The total number of Neuromods needed to fully upgrade Morgan remains roughly the same, but overabundant resources are reduced and character progression is slightly decelerated.
Survival Mode options are now finely tuned to provide the intended depth and challenge, where in the base game they were easily trivialized by resource balance and other numerical oversights.
Far from simply nerfing everything, this mod aims to enable greater creativity and player expression by bringing underpowered options up to par, so every Neuromod and chipset is an interesting choice.
Enemy designs and hazards are also rebalanced, with some previously undodgeable attacks and instant death events mitigated, and enemy resistances made more intuitive and explicit for the player.
This mod is NOT designed purely for hardcore players, though there are optional modules to suit them as well as more casual players and everyone in between, making for a highly tweakable experience.
CORE BALANCE is Prey as it should have been; retaining all of the nuanced gameplay that Arkane is known for, but with none of their famous balance mishaps!

 

[agentorange]

When will Arkane make a game that isn't an inferior clone to other games that came out 20 years ago?

"when will this company stop making games that learn from great games of the past that people pretend are flawless and unapproachable"

if Prey had been made with a ps1 graphics filter and marketed as a RETRO BOOMER IMMERSIVE SIM people like you (homosexuals) would have sucked it off non-stop. they stopped btw. they make nigger games for retards now. but hey at least they arent copying great games of the past right lol

 

[Ash]

It's not a matter of survival horror levels of resource management, but a matter of simple game balance. If I beat your game on high difficulty and I have 69 repair kits and 30 medkits, and never actually had to strategize and think about my choices, i.e the entire purpose of these choices in the first place, then you failed as a designer.

How many should you have had left, by the way? Exactly 0? I agree that there are somewhat too many resources in Prey, but you may be overestimating the average gaming journalist's ability to play through a game. It's a shame, but yes, they were making the game for a wider audience than the Codex alone.

Also, resource consumption is one of the easiest things to tweak with mods, and I'm sure there is one.

There is no justifying it. Difficulty options exist. Especially when Bethesda's Fallout games have hardcore mode equivalents. Modes that change and add a ridiculous amount of features in a meaningful way. You know, I initially blamed bethesda, but even when Arkane finally did patch in survival mode or whatever it was, it was total shit. Changed like 4 things and was terrible in its execution of said things. They add next to nothing and RoSoDude had to hack-fix it with what little access there is.

I find it very, very strange. Arkane are just clearly compromised, as if Dishonored 1/2/DotO isn't evidence enough.

And yes, we have Core Balance mod. But that is taking a 7/10 game and improving it in a very limited way (mostly balance only, as the name implies). Without mod tools it can never be brought up to 8 and beyond.

"you may be overestimating the average gaming journalist's ability to play through a game"
" It's a shame, but yes, they were making the game for a wider audience than the Codex alone."

So you are defending a game made for retards. Gotcha. Defending it with shitty arguments. There should have been a hardcore mode. On launch. That is actually good and extensive.

 

[Blaine]

I'm simply stating a fact.

Another fact is that not only are we never going to get another SS2, we also aren't ever going to get another Prey, even though you found it to be mediocre.

 

[Ash]

Another SS2, most likely not. Another Prey? It depends how much further society keeps declining. Things are not looking good.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

if Prey had been made with a ps1 graphics filter and marketed as a RETRO BOOMER IMMERSIVE SIM people like you (homosexuals) would have sucked it off non-stop.

No, I wouldn't have, but at least that would be more honest about the derivative nature of these games.

they stopped btw. they make nigger games for retards now.

Deathloop isn't any more of a nigger game than Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider. At least the black woman in Deathloop isn't a complete abomination like Billie Lurk. And Deathloop really isn't that different from Dishonored in terms of the "imsim" meme design. Both series are just as "woke", too, if that's what you're thinking; so is Prey.

but hey at least they arent copying great games of the past right lol

I'm glad they're not, actually. Because nobody is going to pretend that vampire shit is in the same league as System Shock like Arkanefags do with Prey, so I won't have to see that faggotry brought up in discussion about games that are actually good.

 

[Bad Sector]

Besides which, many of we Codexers are incredibly autistic when it comes to scrounging every last nut and bolt and using them as efficiently as possible, and frankly in many games with acknowledged stringent resource economies I still find myself with loads.

Yeah, i remember watching a video of someone playing Prey a couple of years ago (and supposedly they've played a bunch of similar games at the past). I found myself screaming at the screen "UP! Climb on that computer! There is stuff up there!", "FFS, you looked at the trapdoor for like 10 seconds and *fucking ignored it*!?!", "Dude, just try to throw stuff together and see what happens, why are you ignoring 9/10 of the mechanics?", etc (he also picked up the gloo gun and... completely ignored it for most of the video).

I've seen other similar videos since then (i like seeing how people react to games i've played - for the most part anyway :-P), but this one was the one that made me realize many people just outright *ignore* stuff in a game.

 

[Ash]

Part of the problem is not necessarily the people themselves as the core issue.

1. Streaming is lame, it takes attention away from the game and onto the pressure of "entertaining" for your audience. Huge distraction.
2. Gamers have been created this way, after 2 decades of being fed dumb shit.

But yeah, of course some/many people are just dumb and there is no helping them. Two decades of industry sellouts as well as dumb internet trends like streaming and getting paid for it has been a net decline for society though sadly.

 

[Multidirectional]

You could remove Prey's minigame and nothing of value would be lost

Which is what I did, I used that easy hacking mod that removes the mazes. Fuck wasting time on that shit.

 

[Bad Sector]

1. Streaming is lame, it takes attention away from the game and onto the pressure of "entertaining" for your audience. Huge distraction.

Note that this was a prerecorded video with the player only making the occasional comment so their focus was mostly on the game. I rarely watch "streamers" since in 99% of the cases they make the streams about themselves instead of the games or they only use games as mostly background noise for chatting with the viewers.

 

[Daedalos]

Recently thought about getting back into replaying Prey.

But I actually never played the mooncrash DLC, is it good? is it worth it?
Does it have any good story or story tie ins with the main game?

Not TOO big into rogue-likes, but I would be interested if there were new story nuggets ,or just an entirely new small story to explore.

 

[agentorange]

Recently thought about getting back into replaying Prey.

But I actually never played the mooncrash DLC, is it good? is it worth it?
Does it have any good story or story tie ins with the main game?

Not TOO big into rogue-likes, but I would be interested if there were new story nuggets ,or just an entirely new small story to explore.

Each character you play as has their own story, then there is also an over-arcing story that ties them all together. It is more of a parallel side-story to the main game, so it doesn't connect in any major way.

 

[kangaxx]

Yes, play it. It should be cheap now and it puts the base game in a different light (not story-wise). You're forced into playstyles that you may otherwise have ignored, and it does a good job of building a bit of tension with the timing mechanic.

Story is 'fine', like in the base game IMO. The strength is in the gameplay.

 

[Daedalos]

Hmm okay. Exploration and story was the best part of Prey, not really the gameplay, so maybe thats why I never played dlc, because it seemed very combat heavy and i didnt really think that was amazing.

 

[kangaxx]

Exploration is part of the gameplay surely. And it's in Mooncrash. Obviously the game loop is different... you can't just spend ages looting everything if you want to "beat" the DLC.

 

[MajorMace]

Prey has some very solid emergent gameplay and various customisation options. You meant to say the gunfight, didn't you ?

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Hmm okay. Exploration and story was the best part of Prey, not really the gameplay, so maybe thats why I never played dlc, because it seemed very combat heavy and i didnt really think that was amazing.

Mooncrash is a roguelike. It is nothing like base game in terms of pacing or story.
There is a lot of exploration but there's also a time limit that forces you to finish the scenario quickly. You don't actually want to fight enemies because of the survival mechanics, and the longer you take more dangerous enemies spawn.

 

[Naraya]

After beating Mooncrash "the way God devs intended" I used a cheat to disable the stupid time limit mechanic and actually 100%ed everything in my own pace. Can recommend.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

After beating Mooncrash "the way God devs intended" I used a cheat to disable the stupid time limit mechanic and actually 100%ed everything in my own pace. Can recommend.

Yeah, disabling the timer makes Mooncrash much more enjoyable for the exploration fags.

 

[Spukrian]

Just use the hourglass, people.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Just use the hourglass, people.

How about 'no' and fuck off?

 

[cvv]

Finished the System Shock remake and felt like having seconds. So I busted out my unused dusty Prey copy and gave it a spin.

The last time I respected Arkane was 20 years ago with Arx Fatalis. Dishonored wasn't by jam, Prey flew below my radar and Youngblood, Deathloop and Redfall looked like a total shitshow.

But now actually playing Prey I'm having a blast. The inspiration with SS clear and very welcome. I mean the retarded quest markers immediately reminded me how much gaming has declined - having to figure out your objectives and routes just from the logs in SS was so fucking refreshing - but on the plus side the combat on Hard in Prey is more challenging than SS combat on the hardest diff. and I feel I have to strategize and thing about my resources a bit more. Just killed my first Technopath guarding the main elevator - a bit of a shitshow but EMPs and the green ray worked wonders - so I don't have to trudge through the stupid tunnel again.

Good shit.

P.S.: Just read about Zenimax basically deboning Arkane with Redfall, apparently 70% of veterans are bye bye, so no Prey 2. This fucking industry man...

 

[Beowulf]

The inspiration with SS clear and very welcome. I mean the retarded quest markers immediately reminded me how much gaming has declined - having to figure out your objectives and routes just from the logs in SS was so fucking refreshing.

You can turn those markers off, you know. As in most modern games anyway.

 

[Child of Malkav]

You can turn those markers off, you know. As in most modern games anyway.

Yeah you can but that doesn't mean the game was designed with that in mind from the ground up. And you'll notice it.