Every gamer knows the feeling of looking at a screen full of shortcuts for games, yet not a single one gives you that feeling of I want to play this right now. If you are having that feeling lately or you are simply looking for a new game, Prey might just be the game for you.
Here is a bunch of reasons why you should or should not get Prey. The information in the article is basically spoiler free, any information given in this article goes no further than the first 10 minutes of the game.
The story in short
The gameplay
What makes Prey different from most games is the environment is being used not just as obstacles and visual filling. The environment tells stories and gives hints to interesting facts, places or even events happening on the space station. Some of these events even take place while you play a game and can be influenced by you. This is something that often frustrated me in other games. There would be this really interesting piece of lore, but if you chased down a lead it turned out to be nothing but world-building. In Prey when I found an interesting clue, it almost always leads me to something interesting.
Another big advantage of the game is that almost always there seem to be at least two different solutions to a problem. If one solution just does not fit your playstyle you could always try to look around to see if there was another way to solve your problem, even in the main storyline. Dealing with enemies in this game followed this example just as much. Stealth, straight firepower, ambushes, abilities and even more. It always feels like you have many ways to deal with your enemies. All these things combined make Prey feel like a game where creative problem-solving is both fun and rewarding.
The upgrade System in Prey is definitely also a plus. You can upgrade yourself in many ways.The upgrades you choose have a lot of impact on both gameplay and even the story. You really look forward to your next upgrades just to get that cool new ability. Its also very fun to just look at what skills you could combine for the best impact. This great upgrade system makes it so you always look forward to getting more skill points.
Reasons why prey might not be your game
There is of course no game that everybody enjoys, so here are a bunch of reasons why Prey might just not be your game. If you are a person who does not enjoy sci-fi games, you should probably not pick up Prey it is full of sci-fi from weaponry to visuals and enemies. Like with most games which allow a lot of freedom you will likely find a few moments where the game physics are going to get a bit weird. In some cases, this might end up killing you. But do not worry too much about it, it only happens occasionally.
An important thing in this game is that the combat is supposed to be played smart, do not expect you can face every enemy head-on. It might go fine at first but at some point, you will run out of ammo. If you don’t like having to play around with limited ammo and resources, by playing smart. Prey might just not be your game. Another thing about combat in this game is that like most Arkane studios games your hp goes down fast. The game is simply balanced on playing the fights smart, you are not meant to take a few hits head-on without any trouble. This will mean that especially on higher difficulties you will die in just a few seconds. If you are prone to get upset by sudden deaths, it could be smart to try lower difficulties or maybe just not play the game at all.
Final word
Congratulation on getting to the end of this essay, as you can see by the size of this article Prey is one of those games that really had an impact on me. If you decide to pick it up I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did, or maybe just a little bit less just so you end up binging the game 12 hours a day a few days straight.
