Prey (Xbox One)

[DaHeckIzDat]

I recently signed up for Xbox Gamepass (but not Xbox Live) and decided to give Prey a go, and not since Darkest Dungeon have I both liked and disliked a game so much at the same time. The story is engaging, the space station is fun to explore, and the combat has some innovative ideas that I haven't seen before. But the combat is also what's keeping me from loving it.

First person is NOT the ideal way to fight small, scurrying critters, and that description sums up at least half of Prey's enemies. The idea that mimics can morph into anything, making you paranoid that any piece of innocent looking set dressing might try to attack you, is cool. But in my experience so far, mimics will jump you before you even notice whatever it is they're disguised as, so they may as well not have bothered and just spawned them in normally. They then proceed to run around fast enough that you'll probably have trouble keeping track of it, and chip a good portion of your health bar down whole you're spinning around trying to find it again. Then there are the phantoms. They're bigger and easier targets, but the way they teleport around makes it harder than it should be to get a bead on them. Whacking stuff with your wrench is easier, but it deals less damage and can only be used a few times before you have to catch your breath.

Luckily, you have a glue gun (or "gloo" as the game calls it). Not only does it let you create platforms that allow you to move around levels however you want, but shooting an enemy with it enough times will immobilize it, giving you a free hit before it breaks free. Unfortunately that doesn't fully fix things, since in typical survival horror fashion ammo (and the stuff you need to craft it) is scarce. Run out of ammo for your gloo gun, and you're out of luck. Aiming can be a little finicky at times too, especially when you're not shooting at point blank range, so you'll likely end up using up a ton of gloo bullets on each enemy that don't even hit them.

I'm only a couple of hours in, though. Some time later in the game, you get superpowers of some kind as well, so maybe everything comes together at that point. As it stands now, with the weapons and equipment I've got, Prey feels like a game filled with good ideas that weren't quite play tested enough.

[DrLitch]

Agreed here, the thing with this game that is so frustrating for me is that it could have been one of the best games of this generation. What should have been a fun exploration type title with RPG elements ended up a survival type stealth title. Sneaking around this game to save on ammo just is the pits. I made around 7 hours of game time and gave up when I was out of ammo. Could have been so much more if weapons did more damage and they were not as stingy with ammo.

[DaHeckIzDat]

Could have been so much more if weapons did more damage and they were not as stingy with ammo.

I've never liked when games mix RPG elements with guns. Swords and magic make sense, but leveling up how much damage you deal with guns just sounds silly. What are you doing, making the gun shoot harder?
I also hate games that are stingy with inventory space. I get that its supposed to raise the tension by forcing you to choose what's worth taking with you and what isn't, but it always just annoys me. "Oh, look, another chest full of crafting materials I really need to make more ammo, but I'll have to leave behind because the guns I need that ammo for are taking up 90% of my backpack space. How fun." /sarcasm/

[BlasteroidAli]

My fave game of last gen. 60 hours in.. probably more. It gets easier the more you play the more you understand the game. It is a game I encourage you to play more of.