Prey (2017)

A carefully prepared, full-course gourmet meal for those of us who thrive on tensely-paced exploration of intriguing, intricately detailed colossal pieces of space architecture.

This game shares values with the System Shock franchise and the "metroidvania/FPS" crossover genre. Decoded: gameplay is based on non-linear exploration of a large but confined game world and involves a lot of wonderful backtracking. It's wonderful because going back to explore places that were closed to you earlier cultivates familiarity, intimacy, and surprise. The architecture itself is the main narrative device. (More on that below.) Also important is RPG-ish character development: you learn new skills, find new items, etc., and as the story progresses are able to unlock more of the architecture and harvest its secrets. Combat is also present, but really its main role is to raise the stakes, adding danger and tension. Often you are better off sneaking past enemies using your growing understanding of the architecture.

All these elements are present and excellently rendered in Prey. The architecture is astonishingly intricate and a joy to move around. Physics aren't as sophisticated as I would have liked, and the environment is not in itself destructible, but all the items you find and drop stay there for the duration of the game. The "levels" are well-crafted for this kind of gameplay, rewarding careful observation and calculated risk.

The skills and powers you gain are helpful, often fun to use, and mostly balanced. There are several paths of progress you can take, according to your preferences, and you'd be able to be challenged and get a lot out of the game no matter what you choose. The items are OK. A lot of "loot" you find is immediately useful, while some of it can be "recycled" to allow for basic crafting of more important items. Combat is also pretty good. Though not quite as elaborate as a true FPS, the enemies are nevertheless devious, beautiful, and scary. Combat balance is another issue: I played on "normal" difficulty, and found it quite challenging in the early stages of the game. As I developed skills and learned techniques in the late game, it became too easy, and felt more like a chore than a challenge. Happily, there is also a "story" difficulty mode, which allows you to avoid combat challenges altogether if they are not your cup of tea. Oh, and you can switch difficulty mode at any time without penalty. I suggest starting on "normal" to give it a chance.

One of the best elements of Prey are the optional side quests. There are a lot of them, and they are diverse, interesting, and satisfying. Some are treasure hunts for items, some are puzzles, while others involve a series of moral choices. A few are very challenging indeed. You don't have to complete all of them to finish the game, but why wouldn't you? They are what these kinds of games are all about!

And now for some quibbles. While the sound design is very good, there is almost no music, and the little there is is uninspiring. To be honest, it's not easy to strike a balance in such games between annoyance and inspiration, but Prey seems to just give up without trying. Also, the story: it's not particularly original, and also quite predictable. However, it is also layered and there are some surprise twists. Still, I would argue that the real story is the adventure you create for yourself via gameplay. The literal plot's role is to provide objectives and coherence, and it does that just fine. Finally, I wish there were a technological solution to avoid the load screens between parts of the architecture. They are not too long, but they do break immersion and continuity as you move around.

A lesser complaint is more general for the genre: there are a lot of documents to find and read in the game, and while they do provide a lot of story foreground and background, except for a few important cases it's quite impossible to get a grip on the dozens of characters and their interactions. They add a lot of flavor, but it can also be quite tedious. Who is this person and why should I care about their email to another person I don't care about? Many games of this sort have this problem, so it's not unique to Prey.

One final point: This game is not a sequel to the 2006 game of the same name, though the project was originally intended as such. While there should be no confusion at this point, it's still unfortunate that the name remained and it did cause some trouble when it was first released.

All in all, I had a really great time with Prey and highly recommend it.