Having dived into Arkane titles for the first time last year with the Dishonored trilogy, I finally understood what the fuss was about. Their games have this unique feel to them that infects everything from level design to movement, from world building to aesthetics. I had a fantastic time with Dishonored 1 and 2, and I also enjoyed Death of the Outsider (though not as much), so I’d been itching to give Prey a go for quite a few months.
I can now say it has become my favourite Arkane to date, and it made me realise how much I love the way they make their games. The agency they give you in approaching missions, traversal, combat and exploration is a real standout within the modern gaming space and it really resonates with me. I’d say that I still prefer the aesthetics of D1 overall, that D2 likely reaches higher level design heights, and that I might give both games the edge when it comes to verticality. But in everything else Prey takes the cake, even if only marginally in some respects.
From the (very Arkaneish) intro, I was hooked. Like the Dishonored games, Prey comes with a fantastic sense of atmosphere and presentation, and it also very quickly puts you in the thick of it. But unlike them, here I felt a much bigger sense of isolation. There’s something about TALOS I that builds up the tension in a really awesome way, and for the most part, you feel an air of vulnerability that goes hand in hand with the story. And what a story! To me this is clearly Arkane’s best one yet, an enthralling, deep narrative (packed with lore, twists and a great post-credit scene) that makes you want to keep untangling it until the end. As sci-fi survival horror goes, this is almost up there with SOMA in my book.
There are so many other things that Prey does exceptionally well, however. I’m going to briefly go through the main ones as to not bloat up this post too much: 1) level design and traversal is, as expected, fantastic, with well interconnected levels, great verticality and a backtracking system that never feels tedious; 2) enemies are fun to fight and I had zero issues with AI, which doesn’t happen all that often. Mimics might have become my favourite enemy of any survival horror, with the way they hide in literal plain sight, instigating real tension in the early moments; 3) rewarding exploration is one of the things Prey does best. Every detour you decide to take leads you to useful loot, to another piece of the world building, to uncovered secrets. You play the game exactly the way you want to play, and not only does Prey not castigate you for it, it validates you; 4) last but certainly not least, gameplay is, in pure Arkane fashion, the game’s main calling card. It feels great to experiment with virtually every single aspect of its mechanics, from the environmental interactivity, to the degree of build customisation, to the abilities you can put points into (I think this is probably the best studio out there when it comes to designing character abilities), to the very creative weapons you can play around with. A gun you can use to create new pathways? Check. An ability that allows you to take the shape of any object to reach otherwise unreachable locations? You got it. A grenade that lets you eviscerate everything down to their literal basic components? Sure. This level of plasticity in a game is so incredible to me that I’m not quite sure how such a thing is possible, even by today’s standards. I honestly don’t think Prey gets enough recognition not only for the relentless creativity in its approach and implementation, but for how simple and logical it makes it look.
As high as my praise for the game is, there are a couple of things in the game that are annoying enough for my to not give it top marks. The smaller ones are very tolerable: map could be a bit more useful in the vein of early Resident Evil or Silent Hill titles, some objectives could do with a bit more clarity, and there’s still some lack of polish - the biggest offender being missions getting retriggered if you go back to certain places (which doesn’t cause a problem but stays in your objectives permanently). But there are two things I really didn’t like. One was the zero/low gravity sections. This is almost certainly a me thing because I never, ever enjoy them in games (had the same exact issue with every title that has this, from Dead Space to Observation), but since there are a lot of those in Prey, they got on my nerves. The other issue, which is certainly not a me thing, was the insane amount of chatter you get in your ear - for all the sense of isolation the game brings you, you’re also constantly receiving calls and listening to logs. I sometimes found myself simultaneously listening to an audio log, an incoming call and an NPC who was right in front of me. This superimposing auditive overload happens often enough that it is able to frustrate and take you out of an otherwise deeply immersive experience, and I think it could’ve been handled differently.
However, there is nothing else I would criticise the game for. This became my personal favourite title to date within the so-called immersive sim genre. Prey is an achievement in interactive and flexible game design, and has elevated Arkane to one of my favourite studios currently. And this is all without even mentioning Mooncrash, a fantastic expansion that turns the world of Prey into a completely different beast with fun roguelike survival tones undertones.
As cool as it sounds, ‘Prey' was a poor choice for a title. I remember hearing about this game when it came out and immediately associating it with a remake of the 2006 game. I was going though a gaming hiatus back then, and because I instinctively brushed it off as a ‘reskin', it was years before I gave it a second look. Coming into it now, I realise how deceived I was over that title, and I have a feeling I may not have been the only one. Prey is not only its very own thing, but from every angle you look at it, a fantastic gaming experience, one that deserves all the late appreciation it got. 9/10
