Prey

9 January 2018

👍 Recommended (53.3 hrs on record)

I went in blind and got more than I dared to hope for.

At first I thought I was playing a linear story-heavy horror game. Pretty soon the game kindly informs you that it's a modern take on System Shock instead, Looking Glass and all. It absolutely nails the atmosphere of panting and sweating through the corridors of a spaceship, but instead of the overt threat of a rogue AI you're running from something alien.

The level design is absolutely top notch. The setting is very immersive. There is a great sense of verticality to the levels, and the game amply rewards exploration in forms of audio logs, email & visual storytelling. The feeling of threat is constantly present in the first half, counting bullets with each and every encounter, having to resort to wrench at times. The GLOO gun was a stroke of genius, letting me forge my own path through the levels.

There are a few minor flaws. The hacking minigame was completely redundant, I honestly didn't fail it once during my entire playthrough. Typhon didn't quite reach the levels of SHODAN / The Many as the antagonist.

Arkane & Bethesda have my sincere thanks for daring to release a single-player game like this in 2017. I can only hope it did well financially and we'll see more in the future.

🔗