What do you think about the story? *SPOILERS*

[FrozeN91]

Topic.

I thought it was extremely good! And after you talk to "the hidden" it get's even better :)
I felt the story was very emotional and I got very attached to the characters and everything.

The story is GREAT imo :D :love:

Please, feel free to discuss. Spoilers are welcome :cool:

[d3ad connection]

The story was the best I've seen in a video game so far.

[Wolle]

I agree. The story was really good. The ending was exceptional. I would have liked to know a bit more about Jen and Enisi, though.

[0marTheZealot]

It was okay. Ending made up for it though.

[FrozeN91]

Bump. I want more! More! Opinions. Opinions. :p

[avatar_58]

The story was the best I've seen in a video game so far.

Well not really. RPGs and adventure games have done better, but only because its much easier for them to.

[d3ad connection]

Well, I was thinking about FPSs at the time. :P oops

[Orochi Avlis]

Great ending. Loved it. You felt like you actually accomplished something and it in turn rewarded you.

[9Nails]

Did they explain that little girl? I might have to play it over again and see what that was all about.

[Orochi Avlis]

The wraiths started to cross over when you came back the first time.

[9Nails]

I forgot where it was, but there was some still's of Jen being taken away. They rotated about 3 stills. And there were 3 of Tommy Spirit Walking in the same area... Any way, it really looked like Jen was dancing with the thing! I thought it was Alien Propaganda at first! hahahahaha

[Draco]

It was pretty good, all things considered.

Unspecific thoughts:

- I didn't expect Jen to survive. The game dangles the character in front of us just enough to know she's not getting out of this alive. Plus, Prey is partially coming out on the heels of Quake 4, and I remember the "Oh, it's a friend of mine! No wait, he's attached to a Strogg robot" scene.

- I liked the 'Tommy is the reason why the Wraiths are here' twist; I wish it had been explored more. I'm very glad HH decided to alter the Wrath Enemies so that you're clearly fightning ghosts, rather than the actual children. It would have been pure shock, and not in a good way.

- The "spirit gunk" didn't mesh with the overall plot. Tommy knows the ways of the ancient spirits? Yeah, I can cope with that. The Sphere being caked in spirit-accessable materials? Not as much. I would have liked if it had been more clear that the Spirit Gunk and Spirit Sigils were placed during earlier NA captures.

- The final video/animation of the Sphere going into the sun was well done, and for something so simply, it felt good. I'm not quite happy with the "Hay, our NA god put you back on the Earth" part, though. I can't quite say it properly, but the emotional power of the Sphere-into-sun thing made me feel that Tommy knew he was going to die, and didn't care.

- I was a little unhappy with Tommy's "Despite the fact that I have just died, and am now back on Earth, talking to my Grandfather, whom I saw turn into Paste Thick-and-Chunky Sauce moments before, I am going to claim this spiritual stuff is complete crap" bit. Especially later on. "No Gramps, I'm not going to learn the special abilities of my tribe, despite the fact that the other things you've taught me saved my life multiple times" bit.

- The Hidden were, in my opinion, underutilized. By the time we have a chance to learn a little about them (and I mean little... they were humans, right? Or not?), they get Dead.

ugh, that's it for now. I'm tired.

[0marTheZealot]

I

- I was a little unhappy with Tommy's "Despite the fact that I have just died, and am now back on Earth, talking to my Grandfather, whom I saw turn into Paste Thick-and-Chunky Sauce moments before, I am going to claim this spiritual stuff is complete crap" bit. Especially later on. "No Gramps, I'm not going to learn the special abilities of my tribe, despite the fact that the other things you've taught me saved my life multiple times" bit.



This was my biggest gripe with the story. He literally has risen from the death and still says he doesn't believe in that mystical crap. I mean what else can he be shown?

Also, not elaborating on the 7 trials really sucked. Would have been nice to see more of the mysticism in the game.

[avatar_58]

It was pretty good, all things considered.

Unspecific thoughts:

- I didn't expect Jen to survive. The game dangles the character in front of us just enough to know she's not getting out of this alive. Plus, Prey is partially coming out on the heels of Quake 4, and I remember the "Oh, it's a friend of mine! No wait, he's attached to a Strogg robot" scene.

- I liked the 'Tommy is the reason why the Wraiths are here' twist; I wish it had been explored more. I'm very glad HH decided to alter the Wrath Enemies so that you're clearly fightning ghosts, rather than the actual children. It would have been pure shock, and not in a good way.

- The "spirit gunk" didn't mesh with the overall plot. Tommy knows the ways of the ancient spirits? Yeah, I can cope with that. The Sphere being caked in spirit-accessable materials? Not as much. I would have liked if it had been more clear that the Spirit Gunk and Spirit Sigils were placed during earlier NA captures.

- The final video/animation of the Sphere going into the sun was well done, and for something so simply, it felt good. I'm not quite happy with the "Hay, our NA god put you back on the Earth" part, though. I can't quite say it properly, but the emotional power of the Sphere-into-sun thing made me feel that Tommy knew he was going to die, and didn't care.

- I was a little unhappy with Tommy's "Despite the fact that I have just died, and am now back on Earth, talking to my Grandfather, whom I saw turn into Paste Thick-and-Chunky Sauce moments before, I am going to claim this spiritual stuff is complete crap" bit. Especially later on. "No Gramps, I'm not going to learn the special abilities of my tribe, despite the fact that the other things you've taught me saved my life multiple times" bit.

- The Hidden were, in my opinion, underutilized. By the time we have a chance to learn a little about them (and I mean little... they were humans, right? Or not?), they get Dead.

ugh, that's it for now. I'm tired.


Very good, you touched on some of how I felt as well. Although I didn't really know *what* would happen to Jen until it did, but then I never played Quake 4 retail.

[Komb.at]

The moment i saw Jen i was like "whoa, i've seen this allready". This time however it saddened met though, in Q4 i just blasted the guy with much delight.

[9Nails]

It was pretty good, all things considered.

Unspecific thoughts:

- I didn't expect Jen to survive. The game dangles the character in front of us just enough to know she's not getting out of this alive. Plus, Prey is partially coming out on the heels of Quake 4, and I remember the "Oh, it's a friend of mine! No wait, he's attached to a Strogg robot" scene.

- I liked the 'Tommy is the reason why the Wraiths are here' twist; I wish it had been explored more. I'm very glad HH decided to alter the Wrath Enemies so that you're clearly fightning ghosts, rather than the actual children. It would have been pure shock, and not in a good way.

- The "spirit gunk" didn't mesh with the overall plot. Tommy knows the ways of the ancient spirits? Yeah, I can cope with that. The Sphere being caked in spirit-accessable materials? Not as much. I would have liked if it had been more clear that the Spirit Gunk and Spirit Sigils were placed during earlier NA captures.

- The final video/animation of the Sphere going into the sun was well done, and for something so simply, it felt good. I'm not quite happy with the "Hay, our NA god put you back on the Earth" part, though. I can't quite say it properly, but the emotional power of the Sphere-into-sun thing made me feel that Tommy knew he was going to die, and didn't care.

- I was a little unhappy with Tommy's "Despite the fact that I have just died, and am now back on Earth, talking to my Grandfather, whom I saw turn into Paste Thick-and-Chunky Sauce moments before, I am going to claim this spiritual stuff is complete crap" bit. Especially later on. "No Gramps, I'm not going to learn the special abilities of my tribe, despite the fact that the other things you've taught me saved my life multiple times" bit.

- The Hidden were, in my opinion, underutilized. By the time we have a chance to learn a little about them (and I mean little... they were humans, right? Or not?), they get Dead.

ugh, that's it for now. I'm tired.


For the Spirit-Accessible areas, I look at it like this... It's just a game! But then, one could also argue that the Hidden have placed those there since they have been on the Sphere for some time...

You're right; it would have been nice to see the Hidden a little more. But then, the Hidden were helping others survive but were not 100% trusting to Tommy to be among them until late in the game.

And I agree about the perception in a lack of willingness Tommy had about the Spirit stuff. He didn't believe in any of that to begin with, and was more focused on getting Jen back. At the time, it was a distraction for him and clouded his judgment. But hindsight is 20/20...

Tommy could have created a portal to get back to Earth. If a god was going to manipulate your life to move you back to Earth, they should have woke up a few hours earlier - about a minute before he was going to be abducted would have been nice...

:D

[Zegraphoob]

The story is very basic and cliché, nothing like we were promised in interviews. but the ending was good. I liked the voice acting (Oh... my... god) but hated how he kept whining to his grandfather. It's part of the story, but Tommy should have said it in a more respectful way. I mind, because I control that character after all. There was only one sentence where it was good: "All this cherokee crap it's one bunch of superstitious bullshit". The way he said it was... adorable :D

[Rifter]

I thought that the spirit goop, and the inscribed symbols were placed by the hidden. I doubt that it just "popped up". :-)

It also seemed to me, that the Art Bell show explained who the "hidden" were. They were like the incas or something... some "lost tribes" from the Americas. I think Art was talking to a psychic about what was happening, at the time.

[Kruel]

Too often I felt like the character was playing me, rather than the other way around. I guess most interactive games are like that, but I would've listened to the grandfather rather than rushing off to save the girl. I mean the dude's old, and he's a ghost... he knows better. ;)

I guess I'm still spoiled on Deus Ex.

Storywise, I thought it was pretty good. The ending was top notch.

[OnyxBMW]

I loved the story of this game. Everything art bell made this game even more awesome.

Also, the hidden were explained quite thoroughly (granted it was brief when they were explained).

It was basically a: "We were once harvested like yourself from another world, some of us managed to break free and hide deep within the sphere" sorta thing, and then awaiting someone to come who could free them all.


The spirit goop? This makes more sense to me for a few reasons: Most of the people in the game who were hiders seemed to be native american to some degree, so they'd be able to place hidden and necessary items over the place. Along with that, the controller of the sphere (the mother, doy) also had to get down into the sphere the same way tommy did. In fact, I'm willing to bet that the person before her and the one before that one still also arrived in that room the exact same way, so them constantly traveling over the same place probably left a residual goop that built up over time, but at the same time the sphere itself got damaged in multiple places. Or, perhaps, the goop itself is a representation of the spirits of the ancients helping your spirit past an obstacle.

Continueing on, I thought the story through the main game was also very well done. It's not just a literal story progression. It's more than that. It's more than "everyone's abducted, save jen, enisi dies, continue saving jen (this time releasing her from her prison), jen gets captured again, kill jen :(, swear vengence, you get the idea.

The story is also how tommy saves everyone. Every time he went to one of the new areas, it was a story. Every new battle? storry. Every word he says is an experience the player probably also experiences, and that is a story as well.

I honestly didn't know whether or not jen would die, but I knew that something was horribly wrong when I came up to the chamber where jen was inside. Then, when she said "I can't feel my legs", thats when you knew she wasn't going to live.

IMO, the entire game was incredibly well written, from beginning to end. They could have explored more avenues with the game, but I still feel they did a superb job, and such minor shortfallings are trivial at best.

THEN, when you get to the end, you see all the various story elements inter-weaving back to a single point and the entire game just explodes from there (good thing).


It is a bit...eh...assinine that tommy is saved at the end. I could imagine him saying something like "i'd rather die and be with jen than control the sphere" sorta thing, and then destroying everything.

However, sadly, they decided to not off tommy and make him give the ultimate sacrifice to save the earth and all other respective earth-like world which, IMO, would have made the entire story better.


Regardless, the entire story was incredibly well done. In fact, if it weren't for the story, I would have stayed away from this game, as it falls into an archetype I prefer straying away from.


Again related to jen: I never once thought that she'd die in the end, until after I saw her in the one chamber. Sure, she was constantly being dangled in front of you, but that didn't mean she'd definitely die in the end.

Ahh well, kudos to HHStudios on creating what is, IMO, the single best story for any FPS game (and a great one compared to many RPG's and RTS's/etc) This truly was worth ever penny, and demands rememberance for years to come!.

Just to add in now: I wish they did explain the wraiths better. They were the biggest nuiscance IMO, but they could have at least explained why they were in the world and what they were doing, even if it was just to wreak havoc.

Adding one more: I still think tommy would believe the "the spirit crap is, indeed, crap" even after dieing and resurrecting, because tommy had such a firm belief before. Besides, he may not have believed it, but he still recognized it. The simple fact is, he not once wanted to actually be in the spirit world, and he saw it as a nuiscance keeping him from his goal of trying to save jen.

[Draco]

It was basically a: "We were once harvested like yourself from another world, some of us managed to break free and hide deep within the sphere" sorta thing, and then awaiting someone to come who could free them all.
The spirit goop? This makes more sense to me for a few reasons: Most of the people in the game who were hiders seemed to be native american to some degree, so they'd be able to place hidden and necessary items over the place.


Which one is it? You can't answer it, because the Hidden weren't fleshed out enough to even have a proper origin. If they come from another world, they can't be responsible for the Deus Ex Spirit Goop. If they come from Earth, their mentioning of other races at the end is false.


In fact, I'm willing to bet that the person before her and the one before that one still also arrived in that room the exact same way, so them constantly traveling over the same place probably left a residual goop that built up over time, but at the same time the sphere itself got damaged in multiple places. Or, perhaps, the goop itself is a representation of the spirits of the ancients helping your spirit past an obstacle.


Conjectures and suppositions do not a story make. This isn't a Bungie game.


Every new battle? storry.


Me shooting a Grunt isn't the story. Have you played a game with a proper story?


I honestly didn't know whether or not jen would die,


...


Just to add in now: I wish they did explain the wraiths better. They were the biggest nuiscance IMO, but they could have at least explained why they were in the world and what they were doing, even if it was just to wreak havoc.


The Wraiths were fleshed out: they were spirits that returned with Tommy. The Voice says that directly.


The simple fact is, he not once wanted to actually be in the spirit world, and he saw it as a nuiscance keeping him from his goal of trying to save jen.


Right. "I want to save my girlfriend and go home, even though 'home' is no longer there and there's a good chance humanity is going to be wiped out" is a plot.

[OnyxBMW]

My apologies - wrong thread.

Nah, right thread, we're just picking your post apart. (everything you pointed out was related to the story)

[Draco]

EDIT - never mind. O seems to want to ignore my post, so I'm guessing he's conceding. I accept.

[OnyxBMW]

I see a series of comments from me that you're seemingly ignoring. Does this mean you concede?

Nah, just havn't read it yet.

And now I have and shall comment:

I say "native american" simply due to racial stereotypes, but I'm referring to people of the NA geneology (IE people who would be ancestors to native americans, genetically similar, what have you). However, when you talk to the one leader, she does say their ancestors were harvested from another world.

Conjecture and supposition do make part of the story. Ok, maybe not every single individual kill or "Experiences" make up the entire part of the story, but you have to admit that the battle at the superportal (the one the 2 centurions come out of) is a great story, without literally being a story element that's explained.

....what?

Also, the wraiths were fleshed out in terms of how they got here, but not what they're doing here. All that was explained was "they came back with me". Then, after the school bus, they just stopped appearing and reappearing... (except maybe 2 or 3 throughout the rest of the game)

[avatar_58]

Onyx Draco is just explaining why he felt some parts of Prey were lacking, it doesn't mean the game was all bad or he is trying to make you change your mind. This is a forum you know, you *are* allowed to have a different opinion than others.

I loved the game, but I have to agree on some of his points.

[OnyxBMW]

I'm just trying to explain why I disagree with what he hates.

I know we are merely arguing opinions, however.

[avatar_58]

But all you've basically done is say "Your wrong" and that you "felt the story was well done IMO" over and over. At least attack his points directly with proof. ;) I'm not being mean here I just think an arguement should be well founded rather than a monty python skit on arguements :D

[OnyxBMW]

I am attacking his points, but there really is no proof.

Plus, any opinionated anything where there is a disagreement will turn into "I'm right, you're wrong" discussion from the first counter point.

[avatar_58]

If there is no proof, there is no counterpoint ;) What he claims is in fact true, while unfortunate, and its a matter of whether that makes the game bad or not...which I think it doesn't. All games have some issues and Prey is no exception. However frankly there are enough good points to make up for it :D

Anyway my point is if its just a "I'm right, you're wrong" thing then its not worth getting into. Otherwise this thread will never end and will eventually be locked.

[OnyxBMW]

If there is no proof, there is no counterpoint ;) What he claims is in fact true, while unfortunate, and its a matter of whether that makes the game bad or not...which I think it doesn't. All games have some issues and Prey is no exception. However frankly there are enough good points to make up for it :D

Anyway my point is if its just a "I'm right, you're wrong" thing then its not worth getting into. Otherwise this thread will never end and will eventually be locked.

Anything story-related (including shortfallings) is all related to opinion and not fact.

Someone can state a point as to when or why a specific point fails, but it is not based on fact, as I can find a point that countered his in the same area where he found a point that he didn't like.

Needs no factual evidence, as there is no fact to draw it upon but ones own experience.

However, you are right. Such a pointless debate like this is both off topic and really trivial in the end.

[noSYS]

Which one is it? You can't answer it, because the Hidden weren't fleshed out enough to even have a proper origin. If they come from another world, they can't be responsible for the Deus Ex Spirit Goop. If they come from Earth, their mentioning of other races at the end is false.

Just wanted to point out that the Hidden are actually the descendants of the Anasazi, a tribe of Native Americans who supposedly disappeared centuries ago. One theory that explains their disappearance is they were abducted by aliens, and this is the theory the game adopts. This scenario was also a major plot point in the X-Files mytharc.

[OnyxBMW]

Coulda sworn they said......oh, right, that wouldn't make sense...

Meh, the point is, they were abducted.