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

[ciox]

The two games are somewhat even difficulty-wise if you just compare death counts because Prey compensates for its ability to pause and fully heal at any moment by giving its enemies higher burst damage, that will just kill you fast unless you cheese your max health to meme levels. So that means you can still go down even if you have a huge oversupply of resources and abilities.

In other news I did a no guns run (only wrench, minimal amount of gloo and psi powers allowed) and was pleasantly surprised, my notes:
- with a little chipset luck you get enough psi to keep casting as often as you need
- casting psi offensively feels impactful because each main offensive power can do a lot of damage in one strike (kinetic blast, superthermal, electrostatic)
- being able to pause to cast is somewhat balanced by all the main offensive powers hurting you, so you are often still required to plan ahead or reposition after pausing or you'll take massive damage (the backlash shield might mitigate this for the cost of more psi)
- you can replace most of the effects of Gloo with psi powers in the world:
-- fires can be put out with Kinetic Blast
-- malfunctioning power junctions can be briefly disabled with Electrostatic Burst so you can run past
-- there's a power to launch yourself into the air

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Meh. Yes, I come off as a little catty in my last post, don't I? I apologize. My real point is just that I don't find either game particularly difficult, and I think that, while SS2 is obviously overall the superior game, implying that that is a function of it being so much more difficult and tactical is a pretty big exaggeration.

That said, yes, I do think Prey would have benefited from a higher level of challenge overall.

 

[fantadomat]

The worst thing about SS2 was its respawning enemies,fuck those cyber nurses. But as a whole the game is not that hard. It is well made difficulty,i finished the game killing everything that i came up against. Now if people decide to just run from point a to point b without exploring,well then the game is difficult because you don't have enough resources.

 

[Ash]

while SS2 is obviously overall the superior game, implying that that is a function of it being so much more difficult and tactical is a pretty big exaggeration.

It's a function of many things. Lack of engaging challenge being one of the most important. I would like a more interesting story, more weapons, space walks that don't suck ass, stronger simulation design, level design in the final third that isn't bland and boring, prestigious Shock-like UI functionality, non-popamole RPG systems and more, but said things don't typically fall under any "Survival Patch".

 

[Blaine]

What's wrong with the space walks? They utilize a quasi-realistic 6doF movement system (could do without the velocity cap, though; seems pointless to me) and the exterior of the station simply is what it is. If anything, it's nice to be able to actually go outside rather than the view from the windows being mere decoration, or else the space walk areas being on rails KotOR 2-style. What exactly do you want to see out there? Super Monkey Ball? Space Invaders? Mecha?

Anyway, the game definitely has flaws and should probably be more difficult somehow, but it has some strengths, too. Perhaps its greatest strength is the fairly extensive environmental interactivity and the use of contextual or discovered hints to show the player how to use tools in a certain way rather than pop-up tutorial explanations (although there are some of those, too; possibly too many). The list of novel things you can do with the cum cannon is quite long, for example.

My biggest complaint is that there aren't actually enough alternate ways to do things, and also that Repair is next to useless. Oftentimes, there's only one way to get at some walled-off treasure; there are still many goals that offer more than one avenue (either use Leverage or use Telekinesis to grab yummies from a cage, for example), but Deus Ex levels of "Wow look at these four or five ways I could have done this" are rarely achieved. As for Repair, turrets are utter shit unless you have 3+ together, and there's often no need to bother to repair recyclers and such since you can just buy two inventory upgrades and then hoard everything until you return to your office to refresh and regroup. Also, half the time you've gotta run some obstacle course to retrieve turrets from an armory or security station as though they're some sort of I-Win button—when in reality, by the time I'm combobulated enough to think of arranging some turrets, I've already walloped all the resident baddies with the wrench anyway.

The biggest problem with repair is that parts are a little too precious to use on shit you barely even need, yet not precious enough to warrant turning spare weapons into them. In fact I recently recycled a 50-stack of parts for 15 minerals and 15 synthetics, and that's why they're too precious to use on nonsense.

Oh yeah, that reminds me: EMP grenades are close to useless. I tried to use them against the first Technocomputertower I encountered, which is listed as weak to EMP, and as far as I can tell it paused just long enough to see if maybe it smelled a fart (1-2 seconds, max) before moving on.

Sick Reference Bro

 

[RoSoDude]

The space walk is lacking in tension due to no oxygen limit (present in preview builds), while the low acceleration of your thruster accentuates the stunlock-centric nature of combat against enemies that spam undodgeable energy bombs or cystoids at you if you don't just use the obvious correct tool to render them helpless. As previously mentioned, Dead Space did its space walk sections much more competently, with disorienting 3D camera realignment, limited oxygen, muffled sound, and enemies that would attack you from all angles but give you enough warning if you paid attention to respond appropriately.

Repair would have been far more useful with weapon degradation (present in preview builds). Their resource economy would be a little tight if this were reintroduced with all else remaining the same, and would feel at odds with the comparatively low value of fortifying turrets or (worse) pointlessly repairing recyclers. I actually really enjoyed using the skill, and managing my spare parts count was oddly satisfying, but eh.

EMP grenades are definitely not useless, they give you free 3-4 shotgun hits on Technopaths, Electric Phantoms, and Operators, often enough to kill them. Maybe you didn't hit it with the full blast? Or maybe I'm misremembering. After all, I frequently opted to use my fully upgraded Stun Gun on such enemies instead.

Overall I'm not sure Prey's experiment in trying to do DX-like level design in an SS2 clone worked. Where DX offers you multiple paths to complete nearly every goal, SS2 expects you to fully explore a nonlinear maze while occasionally forcing you into chokepoints where they can make use of scripted encounters to spook and challenge you. Prey tries to open things up to allow you multiple approaches, but without much dependence on your character build, so it usually just boils down to the same exhaustive exploration as SS2 for loot (or really, trash to recycle) without much of the scripted goodness. There were a handful of moments where I felt like my character build uniquely allowed me to do something in a certain way, but most of the time my build was just about optimizing combat encounters within generous constraints. Not a lot of push/pull in the upgrade choices; I didn't really want or need any neuromods, they were just cool to have I guess. Same with my growing piles of ultimately unused resource blocks.

 

[agentorange]

I, too, thought the space walks were quite well done. Floating around in space searching for something was even at times, with all UI indicators turned off, eerily disorienting. And as far as story, setting, and plot goes, Prey is far and away better than SS2 which, after all, was nothing but an admixture of the Borg, Alien and aspects of 2001 carried over from the first game. Prey on the other hand had some thoughtful speculative science fiction elements with the 3D printers using recycled materials, neural mods, and the human simulacrum, and I especially liked the alternate history timeline based around JFK not being assassinated. Combined with the elegant art direction they crafted a believable look at a world built off the optimism people once had for space exploration, as opposed to the grim, nihilistic viewpoint that most video game sci-fi takes. Level design is superior in all regards except the size of individual areas, which do feel smaller than those in SS2; but the fact is that most of SS2 was spent running through cramped corridors, and there was rarely any exploration of vertical spaces (the few instances of vertical layouts they did have were great, like much of the Recreation Deck or the Rickenbacker pods).

It sounds like I'm being harsh on SS2, I do love the game but I think it being held up as this grand masterpiece never to be surpassed is only indicative of how little competition the game has had.

Oh yeah, that reminds me: EMP grenades are close to useless. I tried to use them against the first Technocomputertower I encountered, which is listed as weak to EMP, and as far as I can tell it paused just long enough to see if maybe it smelled a fart (1-2 seconds, max) before moving on.

Strange, I found EMP grenades to be the best option by far when dealing with the Technopaths. Hit them with an EMP then shotgun them. Especially useful if the Technopath has a few turrets under control.

 

[Zakhad]

Space walks were good. People only complain about the lack of oxygen cos they feel like it's decline from the earlier build, but the actual spacewalks are better done than any other spacewalks I've tried in games. Loved seeing idiot reviewers complaining about crashing into things and hurting themselves all the time.

I also barely used EMP grenades, just recycyled them. Technopaths can be stunned or you can use that power that disables psi.

Turrets are useless later in the game except as a source of minerals/synthetic: stack a few and drop a recycler grenade on them, they give back a decent amount. I also throw on any operator corpses if some are lying around, although their yield is much less.

SS2 is a great game but respawning enemies are just pointlessly irritating, the game has a bit of busy-work with some of the repair stuff (it's coll early on but later in the game doesn't actually restrict you so just becomes pointless clicking), and as much as some people like those alien levels and as much as there's some interesting design there at times, I have no desire to replay those parts of the game. Whereas in Prey even the military operators were kinda fun for me, I liked 0running around dragging them into fights or blocking up their access points. But YMMV.

 

[Blaine]

Strange, I found EMP grenades to be the best option by far when dealing with the Technopaths. Hit them with an EMP then shotgun them. Especially useful if the Technopath has a few turrets under control.

I've had more luck sneak attacking, sprinting away, and then repeating, if possible. If not, such as when you're dumped into a small open room with nowhere to hide (still scanned it though) and have to kill it to proceed, I generally just whale on it with power attacks, take the zapping (with the electricity resistance chip), and use a medkit or two.

One of the issues I ran into is that Yu throws grenades with about the same force I'd expect from a 93-year-old retirement home resident throwing her mashed peas at the television when she's feeling particularly grumpy. At least that's what I thought, until I realized that, yes, holding the button down longer allows you to throw further. If only a visual indicator were provided to show where it's going to land. Decline, you say? Man, I can sink paper balls into wastebaskets from 25+ feet away with the best of them. A force meter in a game provides nowhere near the same accuracy as real-life biofeedback, even for nerds who've never gone outside and held a ball. The only time I've been able to develop a feel for no-feedback grenade throws in shooters is if I get plenty of practice, like when I played Tribes Ascend or a year or so.

Nullwave grenades on the other hand are pretty much required for those BIG FUCKING COWARDS who summon and reanimate everything in sight.

 

[HansDampf]

I, too, thought the space walks were quite well done. Floating around in space searching for something was even at times, with all UI indicators turned off, eerily disorienting.

You mean impossible.

 

[Blaine]

Nah, it's entirely possible. I've only been on a few spacewalks so far, but generally speaking bodies will be located near clusters of debris; points of interest on or near the station will look unusual in some way; and the station is orbiting the Moon, so you can wait a bit for the Sun to come around if necessary. As for navigating in three dimensions with no defined sense of up or down, well, that's just something you gotta learn. I've spent a lot of time playing 6doF games over the years, so it's not much of a problem for me. I've also never rammed into anything above the velocity redline, because I'm not a moronic "gaming journalist" who can't figure anything out unless a tutorial popup appears to suck his dick and change his diaper.

I guess it's a slight bummer that they removed oxygen as a mechanic, but then again, it really isn't. The average modern-day SCUBA tank lasts the average diver one hour at a reasonable depth; in space, there is no water pressure, or any pressure at all for that matter. It's not too much of a stretch to assume the civilization that built Talos I can manage an auto-refilling, integrated air storage capacity that will last 20-30 minutes; and if the limit's that high, might as well be rid of it. Personally, I'm stick to shitting death of 15-second breath timers and so on in games. It's a real-time game, you sopping wet cunts. An asthma sufferer with one fucking lung could hold his breath for longer than 10 seconds.

In other news, I decided to repair the lobby turrets and set them up in front of the elevators. The very next time I entered the lobby, the Nightmare appeared, and when I returned to the elevator, I saw this:

I then piled all the additional corpses and some other junk from this area onto the turrets and recycled them all, since the corpses are only Weaver bait in my game anyway.

 

[Ash]

Dead Space did its space walk sections much more competently, with disorienting 3D camera realignment, limited oxygen, muffled sound, and enemies that would attack you from all angles but give you enough warning if you paid attention to respond appropriately.

Don't forget some of the physics puzzles and various unique obstacles. All around just that much more engaging.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Space walks were good. People only complain about the lack of oxygen cos they feel like it's decline from the earlier build

People complaining about the lack of oxygen management are retarded. The space walks are already painful and boring as fuck, I can hardly imagine just how horrible they'd be if you had to constantly run back and forth between O2 refills.

 

[Ash]

Again, as speculated it was probably going to be tied to suit integrity.
Yes, the spacewalks were boring and compromised suit probably wouldn't do much to change that, or could even make it more tedious*. Ideally the space walks would be overhauled in addition to the oxygen.

*I don't think it would be tedious with just the right allocated base time (slightly lenient as in Dead Space), it'd just be more tense and make you actually think and plan during these segments. Though, it'd all be for nought if there is still 50+ suit repair kits.
It'd also probably start off tedious, until you get upgraded boosters. But base boost speed should probably be increased anyway because it was slow as hell. Also was there collision damage when boosting into things at moderate to high speed? If not there absolutely should be, yet another potential obstacle for suit integrity.

 

[Blaine]

People complaining about the lack of oxygen management are retarded. The space walks are already painful and boring as fuck, I can hardly imagine just how horrible they'd be if you had to constantly run back and forth between O2 refills.

You already bitch incessantly about having to walk across a room in a game unless you're behaviorally enriched every step of the way, so I can only imagine that carefully thrusting around the exterior of space station rather than being beamed from POI to POI must have been excruciating for you.

I must say though that after viewing this video, I'm confident I'd feel fully engaged by cover-based Frogger in space down a linear corridor.

 

[Ash]

Proposed Space walk overhaul DLC:

-Better visual signposting so that navigation without objective markers is feasible. From a realism POV, this should be there also because otherwise how would space walk maintenance teams navigate around the exterior of this huge station?
-More (minor) points of interest.
-More enemies. Extensive exploration of this mini-open world should be very challenging at first. High tier enemies discourage exploration beyond the exterior of the starting areas until you're stronger and more prepared akin to traditional open world design.
-Suit integrity tied to oxygen decay rate.
-Even moderate speed collisions damages suit integrity and to a lesser extent health.
-Less suit repair kits available throughout the game. Was a ridiculous amount anyways.
-More interesting interactions and events during these segments.

As for the Dead Space video above, that is a very unfair comparison. Each zero-G segment is different. That is precisely its worst or most uninteresting segment, which is understandable as it's one of the first (and thus still in tutorial phase). Many can be complex and creative.

 

[Blaine]

As for the Dead Space video above, that is a very unfair comparison.

Rubbish. I'd never do such a disingenuous thing.

 

[Ash]

Dead Space 3 had a mini-open world Zero-G area akin to Prey. Was still more interesting and engaging even though the game was decline over the previous 2. Bear in mind these are AAA games published by EA of all fricken things:

 

[Darth Roxor]

You already bitch incessantly about having to walk across a room in a game unless you're behaviorally enriched every step of the way, so I can only imagine that carefully thrusting around the exterior of space station rather than being beamed from POI to POI must have been excruciating for you.

you have some very weird fetish about moving superslowly from place to place my lad

 

[Durandal]

Airlocks acting as fast travel points between unlocked airlocks while still giving you the option to go out in space Y/N?

 

[HansDampf]

Nah, it's entirely possible. I've only been on a few spacewalks so far, ...

Please finish the game first. I've played it with a UI mod and disabled all markers. With the exception of "points of interest" which I left enabled specifically to make the space walks tolerable. And then there is also that thing near the end of the game...

 

[DeepOcean]

I didn't see much of a point on the space walks, the game moves on a linear fashion and you can't access other areas of the station out of order before unlocking the airlocks AND there is fucking nothing in there , I explored the outside of the station a bit and with the exception of very, very, few secret areas and some corpses that are mostly pointless to search for, there is zero decent content in it. I understand if someone claims that the zero g sections had the potential to be something interesting, but the way they are now, they are mostly pointless after the first 5 mins of Zero G movement coolness.

 

[Zakhad]

I didn't see much of a point on the space walks, the game moves on a linear fashion and you can't access other areas of the station out of order before unlocking the airlocks AND there is fucking nothing in there , I explored the outside of the station a bit and with the exception of very, very, few secret areas and some corpses that are mostly pointless to search for, there is zero decent content in it. I understand if someone claims that the zero g sections had the potential to be something interesting, but the way they are now, they are mostly pointless after the first 5 mins of Zero G movement coolness.

The linearity is only true early on. After you get to the GUTS you can go down to life support, cargo bay, etc., and the whole station is more or less open to you (which makes sense since this is when you've got all the game-changing gear and have been introduced to alien neuromods).

In space: there are quite a few Neuromods to find, plus several quest targets (most of which you can go to before you get the quest, e.g. medicine, disgruntled employee, stuck hatch, although the last two really require some prior knowledge). Plus there are story things that if you explore like I did right at the start reveal stuff before you would normally discover it (escape pods), and several breaches including one that has the necessary information to complete the smuggling quest without using guides or checking every damn alarm.

 

[agentorange]

Nah, it's entirely possible. I've only been on a few spacewalks so far, ...

Please finish the game first. I've played it with a UI mod and disabled all markers. With the exception of "points of interest" which I left enabled specifically to make the space walks tolerable. And then there is also that thing near the end of the game...

I have finished the game with all UI markers off. It took a very long time to locate some objectives during the spacewalks but it is certainly possible. I also had item glows deactivated. The interior of the station aligns exactly with the exterior, so that was how I navigated when trying to find things like Dr. Calvino's workshop key.

 

[Blaine]

People sure do love realism, until it becomes very slightly boring or frustrating. Then, it's decline. I have to stuff food and shit into my character's face every three minutes because muh survival and muh challenge (*fap fap fap* "Aww yeah fuck yeah I'm so good at games, jerk yourself off real hard that's a good boy, handsome boy"), but God forbid the pace of a space walk section be slow.

I don't disagree, however, that perhaps some additional tools should have been added. With a bit of realism in mind, radio beacons would have been great. You simply use a receiver to triangulate the position of a beacon, then hunt it down. That would probably too "boring" for impatient undiagnosed ADHD sufferers, but better than just the Mk I eyeball.