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

[baturinsky]

I suspect Q-beam can be effective against groups, because it explodes targets. Cysts, maybe?

 

[Jasede]

Once upgraded, at least on Hard, the Q-beam is excellent against everything, and surprisingly ammo-efficient. (On Hard)

 

[ciox]

I find the Q-Beam pretty terrible in anything approaching close quarters, even fully upgraded, simply because it doesn't sneak attack, crit or flinch enemies, so you're just asking to take some damage. Getting it to create chain reactions is also hard since enemies rarely bunch up, never seen it happen.

If you want to get rid of a bunch of cysts try a Typhon Lure, it triggers nests, attracts ALL released cystoids in a large radius, and it never gets destroyed or used up by cystoids suiciding on it.

 

[Luckmann]

Yeah, the Q-Beam is usually terrible at taking out cysts unless you've got an amazing, amazing aim. Just shoot them with the nerfgun.

 

[SharkClub]

Q-Beam with the right suit chip that lets you move faster while firing it (and the gloo gun) is really good, especially when the Q-Beam is fully upgraded. And yeah, towards the end of the game you get ammo for it everywhere from all of the operators you're killing.

 

[Israfael]

Well, that depends, I preferred to ogranize them into my own Luftwaffe, kinda fun to watch a gang of them cutting the Typhon and the unhacked operators in pieces in 2-3 seconds

As I said, Q-Beams main plus is the fact that it's non-lethal to certain extent, so you can't cook the civilians if you try to shoot the telepath (and I used Q to kill all 3 of them that control the people in Living Q and Arboretum). It's just there's only a few of them (and a pair of Technos in the core) that are suitable for such treatment, hopefully DLCs would provide some more variety and challenge (game copies count is slowly rising, it's probably above 1M for all platforms combined)

 

[Jasede]

Well, right now I am at the part where you defend the cargo bay with turrets; the beam was fantastic there, spreading energy to everyone. Shortly after, there were many encounters with many bunched up mimics/phantoms as well, where it came in handy. It's also a quick and easy way to kill the nightmare as I had, at the time, run out of shotgun ammo. (For reference, I made over 200 shells by now; I still keep running out. And my aim is not that bad.)

Honestly, all the weapons are pretty good, even the pistol. Sadly I also have the bug someone else mentioned where in my playthrough, not a single SMG or assault rifle or rocket launcher has spawned.

 

[rezaf]

Finished the game. Bit of a rollercoaster ride for me.
Went in knowing almost nothing about the game, and early on I was like GOTY. Finally a worthy System Shock clone.

Then the game kinda lost some traction and I kept running out of ammo, which made the game a lot less enjoyable.
Also, at some point I tried to google where to find the actually useful weapons and ... yeah, that didn't go so well.
Tracked down the golden pistol, upgraded it with a ton of modules and spent a couple of hours hauling lotsa stuff into small closets and then recycling everything with grenades. This allowed me to stay somewhat supplied with enough pistol ammo, but it truly was a chore. Hours (combined) of resource gathering, plus an hour or two additional hours just hammering the 9mm ammo button on the 3D printer ... a game shouldn't force me into such timewasting.
Also lost the connection with the plot for a bit during that time.

When I continued, I triggered the quest which makes all the operators appear, and I was borderline rage-quitting before I realized just how effective the stun gun is against the suckers.
Tried to resolve as many sidequests as I could (I'll admit had to use google for the Treasure Hunt and Smuggler Ring) and then went to the ending (which was quite underwhelming imo).

A major game design mistake, imo, was actively discouraging using the alien neuromods. I only know the my descriptions, but they surely spice up gameplay and make ammo less of an issue. Plus, I got a single one - telekinesis - and even so the game told me I was just barely below the threshold of being considered alien. And I only found a single location to use it. Pfft. Also, SS1 had tons of weapons, all with different ammo types. They should've included that stuff.

Still, by and large, I was at 9.5/10 early on, but would drop my score to 7.5/10 max now. Sad.

 

[toro]

Finished the game. Bit of a rollercoaster ride for me.
Went in knowing almost nothing about the game, and early on I was like GOTY. Finally a worthy System Shock clone.

Then the game kinda lost some traction and I kept running out of ammo, which made the game a lot less enjoyable.
Also, at some point I tried to google where to find the actually useful weapons and ... yeah, that didn't go so well.
Tracked down the golden pistol, upgraded it with a ton of modules and spent a couple of hours hauling lotsa stuff into small closets and then recycling everything with grenades. This allowed me to stay somewhat supplied with enough pistol ammo, but it truly was a chore. Hours (combined) of resource gathering, plus an hour or two additional hours just hammering the 9mm ammo button on the 3D printer ... a game shouldn't force me into such timewasting.
Also lost the connection with the plot for a bit during that time.

When I continued, I triggered the quest which makes all the operators appear, and I was borderline rage-quitting before I realized just how effective the stun gun is against the suckers.
Tried to resolve as many sidequests as I could (I'll admit had to use google for the Treasure Hunt and Smuggler Ring) and then went to the ending (which was quite underwhelming imo).

A major game design mistake, imo, was actively discouraging using the alien neuromods. I only know the my descriptions, but they surely spice up gameplay and make ammo less of an issue. Plus, I got a single one - telekinesis - and even so the game told me I was just barely below the threshold of being considered alien. And I only found a single location to use it. Pfft. Also, SS1 had tons of weapons, all with different ammo types. They should've included that stuff.

Still, by and large, I was at 9.5/10 early on, but would drop my score to 7.5/10 max now. Sad.

I don't know what is the deal with Arkane and discouraging some play styles. They did the same bullshit in both Dishonored games and now in this one.

Maybe there is some rationale behind it but I don't really care. It sucks.

 

[Jasede]

I think it'd be okay - if the pay-off were worth it. A unique ending sequence. (Not ending - an entire different story branch with gameplay elements)

Or maybe a 'true ending' - I'd really like, for example, there to be a special ending for using no neuromods. I like that sort of thing.

 

[ciox]

I think it'd be okay - if the pay-off were worth it. A unique ending sequence. (Not ending - an entire different story branch with gameplay elements)

Or maybe a 'true ending' - I'd really like, for example, there to be a special ending for using no neuromods. I like that sort of thing.

True, I'd do pretty much anything to

Spoiler

be the real Morgan and not a gay ink ghost.

 

[Durandal]

Being discouraged of playing with alien powers is overblown
Most turrets in the game aren't even deployed at first to shoot at your alien ass, increased Nightmare spawn frequency means jack shit if you have Psychoshock and the only niggle is making stealthier playstyles with alien powers more difficult than normal

It's nice to see Arkane finally doing something to prevent magic being the best and most OP choice in their games (Arx Fatalis: just use fireballs lol, Dark Messiah: you get a fucking invincibility spell, Dishonored: every ability), but upgraded weapons and Combat Focus already have that covered

 

[Cyberarmy]

Maxed Combat Focus is borderline cheating.

 

[Zetor]

Being discouraged of playing with alien powers is overblown
Most turrets in the game aren't even deployed at first to shoot at your alien ass, increased Nightmare spawn frequency means jack shit if you have Psychoshock and the only niggle is making stealthier playstyles with alien powers more difficult than normal

It's nice to see Arkane finally doing something to prevent magic being the best and most OP choice in their games (Arx Fatalis: just use fireballs lol, Dark Messiah: you get a fucking invincibility spell, Dishonored: every ability), but upgraded weapons and Combat Focus already have that covered

Regarding the bolded part: I had zero alien powers and the nightmare still spawned like 8 times total. Wasn't a completionist playthrough either -- ~22 hours or so in the end.

Spoiler

It actually spawned enough times to trigger the Mixed Signals subquest AND almost completely use up the 4 "GTFO" satellite uses it provided. Throughout all this, January kept berating me that the nightmare is a consequence of Morgan using too much typhon stuff... even though I only used human augs.

I suppose it's arguable that the neuromods themselves are made of typhon stuff (see also the engineer's revelations in the DRM sidequest) and/or Morgan used a lot of the mods in earlier test/simulation runs... but eh.

Do you get even more nightmare encounters if you install typhon mods?

 

[Israfael]

I got around 4 spawns in my 22 hr playthrough (3 in arboretum, one in the cleaned out life quarters), but I did not visit Arboretum too often - I did most of the quests in bulk, so to say, and I never used any alien powahs. It could be that heavy lifting is considered to be alien power too, as you get distinct blackish 'whoosh' when you lift and throw something

 

[baturinsky]

Then the game kinda lost some traction and I kept running out of ammo, which made the game a lot less enjoyable.

PREY is not exactly a shooter. There are only two firearms - pistol and shotgun, and they are more an emergency weapons for those enemies you can not wrench effectively - such as lightning Phantoms.

Overall they did nice job making each weapon having it's niche. Maybe wrench+focus is too overused, but it's often used in combination with disabling weapons (gloo/emp/nullifier/disruptor).

 

[Darth Roxor]

PREY is not a shooter, exactly. There is only two firearms - pistol and shotgun, and they are more a emergency weapons for those you can not wrench effectively - such as lightning Phantoms.

lol what is this nonsense

 

[Cyberarmy]

Do you get even more nightmare encounters if you install typhon mods?

My GF is playing with full on alien powers and shes getting same amount of nightmares as I did. I run from first 3 of and then killed 6-7. Thats without any alien skills.

I wonder if getting combat focus triggers it too? Just because its an useable skill.

 

[Parabalus]

My GF is playing with full on alien powers and shes getting same amount of nightmares as I did. I run from first 3 of and then killed 6-7. Thats without any alien skills.

I wonder if getting combat focus triggers it too? Just because its an useable skill.

I think that might be it, I got a Nightmare spawn when I put 3 levels into combat focus, had 0 Typhon % the entire time.

 

[Jasede]

The nightmare always spawns from what I read, but powers may (!) increase the odds.

For reference, with 2 powers, I have so far encountered and killed 3: lobby, arboretum, power plant (down the reactor shaft.)

 

[rezaf]

Being discouraged of playing with alien powers is overblown

I was only referring to the story. January tells you to be really, REALLY careful, lest you'd lose your humanity (lol in hindsight) and using a single low powered one brings you close to being considered an alien by the turrets.
In gameplay terms, the turrets are a joke. At an early point in the game when I didn't have crafting for ammo or no pistol at hand I tried to set up an ambush with four turrets in what I considered defensible positions. I forgot against what type of alien, but it was really fairly early, so it can't have been a Weaver or Technomancer. In any event, the alien utterly destroyed all my carefully placed and expensively produced turrets and then killed me, wrench in hand. And that was the end of the turrets and me story. Fell back to an earlier save.

PREY is not exactly a shooter. There are only two firearms - pistol and shotgun, and they are more an emergency weapons for those enemies you can not wrench effectively - such as lightning Phantoms.

Overall they did nice job making each weapon having it's niche. Maybe wrench+focus is too overused, but it's often used in combination with disabling weapons (gloo/emp/nullifier/disruptor).

Whatever you want to call the genre(mix), wouldn't you agree Prey shares the same subgenre with the original System Shock?
If so, the latter game made the right call by having a decent selection of firearms. Being able to upgrade stuff is a nice touch, but at least in my playthrough I got the plans for replicating weapon upgrade modules very very late (basically just before endgame) and thus I was really forced to specialize. Didn't help that I lost a decently upgraded pistol at some point when transitioning between maps.

Re: Nightmares - I thought they were some of the easier aliens. First, you have the choice of just avoiding them. Without penalty, they just disappear from the map when the timer runs out. Kthhxbye nightmare.
Then, even a decently upgraded pistol will dispose of them in no time. The only trouble you can have with them if you take too long and they launch their seeker missiles with wallclip-hack. If you're low on health, this probably means reload time.

By and large, I thought the game offered far too much incentive to fall back on a quickload. Yes, you could limit saving, but that would only increase frustration. The shock games understood early that annoying the player doesn't make good gameplay, hence restoration bays.

 

[LESS T_T]

Short RPSTastic trailer:

 

[rezaf]

Short RPSTastic trailer

No kidding it's short. Bonus points for the actual trailer being only 20 seconds long, but the video 1:11.

 

[Durandal]

I'm starting to think the increased nightmare frequency is just a marketing meme, though I haven't tried running through the game with no upgrades at all so I can't say for certain.

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[Darth Roxor]

nop, gaem definitely wasn't supposed to have weapon durability