Mini prey review from a seasoned gamer

[nossr50]

First off some numbers
Graphics - 9
Sound - 9
Fun - 9
Replay - 8
Difficulty - 2 (I am being generous here)

I will start with some issues..
Prey was a very fun game, the main issues I had with it were the frustrating combat, although you really cant die or lose in this game in any way, in fact you could go through the whole game without saving literally. I found the games cool environments and vehicle sequences to more then make up for the extremely easy difficulty of the game, the only other thing that bothered me were the weapons, no they didn't suck in design IMO, they sucked in use though. They weren't very useful at all unfortunately, they all ran out of ammo after 2-3 monsters, forcing me to use my machine gun most the game (until later on when ammo is everywhere). Some of the monsters are downright unfair unfortunately, like the spaceships that attack you are incredibly hard to kill when you are low on ammo, and incredibly hard to dodge. Theres also these monsters that come out of the walls through things resembling female body parts, they take a lot to kill and will rape you usually.

Great level design and interaction keeps the game fresh and fun for most of the game, there were a few moments that felt a little dragged on though. Walking up the walls is fun but its also frustrating to aim at monsters when you are doing so, all the puzzles were very simple unfortunately. I am a big fan of puzzle games so this was a bit of a disappointment. I don't know the target audience for this game but I'm 17 so I found the puzzles as simple as press a switch here at the right moment, etc.

So overall, the way the weapons are used in the game is frustrating but the great level design and decent story kept me from being bothered by the weapons or combat. I will say I feel the games combat is way too hard later in the game and probably impossible if there was a penalty for dying, but since there is no penalty for dying the most it will do is make you do the death walk a lot. The game is beautiful to look at and is very fun to interact with, if the games combat and weapons were better It would probably be a AAA game for me, but since these things often bothered me, I will say I give prey about an 8.7+/10. Better then most FPS I have played.

Summary: Go out and buy prey.

I haven't wrote a review before, so I hope this doesn't suck.

[Quason]

Respectfully, you're all over the place here. You complain about the combat being "unfair" and "way too hard later in the game", and then complain about the game being too easy in the same breath. Which is it?

Also, isn't it possible that the combat is difficult BECAUSE there's no penalty for dying? The ability to bounce back after a death would give the developers a lot of leeway as to how difficult they could make the encounters in the game, and that's exactly what I see here. Several Hunters appear behind me and mow me down before I have a chance to react... if I had to reload a save, I'd be annoyed, but since I can simply shoot some ghosts and come right back for revenge, I just laugh about it and go on about my business.

[Jigsaw]

This immortality is also part of the story. Yes, the Sphere and it's inhabitants were powerful and undefeatable for hundreds of thousands of years. Yes, a normal mortal human being would be ripped to shreds in no time. And that's what they do with Tommy. It's only his unique ability of coming back from the dead that enables him to finally beat the Sphere. You see, the combat being too hard and at the same time being too easy is an essential part of the game. I quite liked the approach. :)

[nossr50]

I suck at reviews, forgive me.

[9Nails]

I like how the Hunters start out by calling you just "Human." Later on they will call you "Warrior." And near the end, they call you "Death Walker." It is a subtle, but clever use of words to identify that the player is really becoming a nuisance to the Sphere.

I like Aprilia's, so I'll forgive if this is your first review :)

[Antosa]

Yesterday evening, I have finished Prey.

My score is 95.

I believe that Prey is the better game that I have never played and I have played many games.
From Duke Nukem 3d in then I believe to have played nearly all the FPS realize and also many titles to you them of other kinds RPG, Adventures and RTS.
Recently I have played Oblivion, HL2: Episode 1, Age of Empire III, Fear, Cod 2 and Sin: Emergence.
If just you had to find an aspect negative in Prey it is that the game is too much short.
I do not feel myself of giving a every score to single aspect of the game, I believe that the game goes estimated in its complex.
I Task that Prey has one great history, great playability, of the great personages (Tommy on all), one great graphics, many innovations and a great audio.

Still it compliments to 3DRealms and Human Head Studios

[CameO73]

...like the spaceships that attack you are incredibly hard to kill when you are low on ammo, and incredibly hard to dodge.

One handy tip to kill these bastards a little more easily: when you're flying in a shuttle you can use the tractor beam (right mouse) to lock a robot or another shuttle. They can't go anywhere, and can be shot quite simply. Oh, and the red balls that are shot by the robots, can be destroyed too (never knew that until my second run... just dodged 'em everytime).

When you're afoot, it's a whole different matter: try dodging and circling around the robots/shuttles and use the leech gun (somehow there's always a leech point in these situations).