The "What Did You Think Of Prey?" Thread

[Karlitos]

Prey is good as you would expect something 3d realms are involved with to be.

Great imagination, some nice original map and gameplay elements and a real attempt to add a little extra spice to a well done genre.

If I had to gripe I would say better AI and more variety would have been nice. Because you are condensed into such linear and claustrophobic maps *as seems to be the trend these days* it can easily become a little same old very quickly.

I really enjoyed the game but really after the mid point it was a little repetative. In bigger environments, more opens spaces, more ways around the map, switches, hidden walls that kind of thing it can create the illusion of variety by varying the approach and method used, when you dont have that it can quickly become very rinse and repeat.

It has the innovative thinking and clever touches that characterised Duke 3D, but without the sprawling maps with their multiple ways around and variety of hidden places, it just doesnt keep the sense of freshness throughout the game.

Still it runs great, has loads of "wow cool" moments, and lots of very clever and different touches so id say its one of the best shooters to come out in sometime. Well done 3dr.

[Foxy]

/agree

[crunchy superman]

/agrees as well, but give Human Head the gratitude - they did all the heavy lifting.

[Foxy]

*insert generic 'Play Rune (by Human Head) too it rulez!' plug here*

[mr. pinky demon]

It was a good game, a fans game and that all that matters. Its just not fps of the year.

[Foxy]

Wrong topic sparky.

[mr. pinky demon]

Im just saying its not the kinda of game to be a FPS of the year type game. Forget to say material so sorry there squirt.

[Foxy]

>> The 'VGA award' thread is thattaway -->

[Xaar]

I think I loved it so much because it actually had some PUZZLES that are sorely missing in most games. I adored all the atmosphere and then getting into a room and thinking. Hmm, well what now?

[Straw Dog]

Originally Posted by Karlitos

Prey is good as you would expect something 3d realms are involved with to be.

Great imagination, some nice original map and gameplay elements and a real attempt to add a little extra spice to a well done genre.

If I had to gripe I would say better AI and more variety would have been nice. Because you are condensed into such linear and claustrophobic maps *as seems to be the trend these days* it can easily become a little same old very quickly.

I really enjoyed the game but really after the mid point it was a little repetative. In bigger environments, more opens spaces, more ways around the map, switches, hidden walls that kind of thing it can create the illusion of variety by varying the approach and method used, when you dont have that it can quickly become very rinse and repeat.

It has the innovative thinking and clever touches that characterised Duke 3D, but without the sprawling maps with their multiple ways around and variety of hidden places, it just doesnt keep the sense of freshness throughout the game.

Still it runs great, has loads of "wow cool" moments, and lots of very clever and different touches so id say its one of the best shooters to come out in sometime. Well done 3dr.

I hate posts like this. Some people can't just say something nice about something they like. They feel obligated to come out with the old chesnut 'if I had to gripe'.. always after saying something like, 'I loved the game'.

If you like a game, and want people to believe your post is trying to convey that, then don't go on to bitch about it for 3 paragraphs. You don't HAVE to gripe. There's no law that says if you wanna big something up you have to follow up your 2 lines of glowing praise with a far larger rant about what you didn't like. In fact from reading Karlitos's post here I'm left thinking he hated most of what he saw and experienced.

Lets see... it starts with 'This game is good as you expect from 3d realms. Nice original maps, gameplay and a little extra spice (whatever the hell that means??) then we move swiftly into... rubbish AI, poor variety, linear levels, claustrophobic maps (err... didn't he just say 'nice original maps') repetetive gameplay, only an illusion of variety, maps too small and constricted (again with the map contradictions?) not fresh enough.. oh and then a congratulations to 3Dr. I'll bet they're cracking open the champagne as we speak.

Dude, re-read your post.. why didn't you just say... 'I hated this game, it bored me to tears and I think I can do better, here's a list of what I think you should have had in the game' ...because thats exactly how it reads.

Yeah... freedom of speech and all that.. its a wonderful thing and this is just my personal opinion on this thread. I just think you shouldn't try and dress up a moaning post as a complimentary one when its as transparent as this.

[mr. pinky demon]

Because with all good games comes flaws, if you dont like the way he does things then stfu and deal it. You dont see me going over to 3dr and bashing every employee over the head with a purple didlo ,like in gta san andreas, trying to get them on for finishing dnf which is off topic and i know but deal with that. LOL

[bobthefish]

ok, i had a radion 9200 in my computer, and prey had really good graphics for such a crappy videocard.
i got a g-force 7800 (for only 60 bucks Canadian! what a deal!) and instantly, i was shocked at the frame rates and detail i was getting out of it.
it still amazes me! i only have 512 mb ram and a 2.2 ghz processor, and its running better then ive ever dreamed of!
well, thats the thing, even pc-gamer said that it runs well on many systems. must be verry well coded!

[oak man]

haha!
encoureging words, as Im getting a graphics card for my birthday along with a gig of ram

[Bowwiz]

I purchase Prey from Best Buy on the 7th of Jan for $49.99.-I just finshed playing the 1st round,and it played thru out the whole game,never had a heckup while playing!---Til the end and credits,that last song started skippin for the last minute....
This is the best FPS have played!
Over the years i've played
Unreal & Unreal tournament
Fear
Fear-EP
H/L2
The Suffering
The Suffering -ties that bind
Far Cry-Use to be my favorite
NOW- PREY!
I want to say "Thanks" to everyone who created this, for the fun i got out of my 1st playing-I feel i got my moneys worth for about 20 hours of gameplay.
This game is now Bowwiz's Favorite FPS game of all time!
Yall Rock!

[NutWrench]

Glad you liked it.

[Foxy]

gz.

What is it with all the people coming here to post stuff like this? Did HH put a 'Visit 3DR forums and post about how great this was' subliminal message into the game or something? Surely this isn't normal behaviour, despite Prey being kickass.

[predefined]

I believe its a quiet natural reaction from excitement.

I remember in the days the whole internet thing was new for me, i looked up the EA forums to say how awesome nfs3 was for me. I was so excited i created my first forum account ever just to share my thoughts.

[Damien_Azreal]

I just started a new game in PREY, played through six levels without even noticing it. Great game, no matter how many times you play it it's still a blast.

[mr. pinky demon]

Prey was a fun game but it was way to easy and cherokee mode wasnt a challenge at all. People remember challenging games as why some megaman games are so popular as well as gears of war insane mode.

[mr. pinky demon]

Prey is a really good PC game, sadly these days is really not saying anything big. But its a good game.

[Foxy]

It ownzorred, but deathwalk made it impossible to lose.

One of the best games I played last year.

-Maniac

[Mountain Man]

I think Prey is easily the best FPS since Half-Life 2. My only complaint is that the crazy shifting gravity can make me a bit queasy on occasion, but that's a small price to pay for such a kick-ass gaming experience!

[boglito]

I liked it.
If there is an expansion or sequel it is automatically a must-buy.

.bog.

[superevilcube]

Prey was, hm, how do I say it...

amazing

[0marTheZealot]

Prey was a decent game, but very flawed. The only reason it won awards was because 2006 was an extremely weak year for PC gaming.

[Mountain Man]

Originally Posted by 0marTheZealot

Prey was a decent game, but very flawed.

In what way was it flawed?

(And please don't say "Spirit Walk!" That was a deliberate design decision, not a design flaw.)

[0marTheZealot]

Originally Posted by Mountain Man

In what way was it flawed?

(And please don't say "Spirit Walk!" That was a deliberate design decision, not a design flaw.)

Dumb as bricks AI. Enemies took forever to shoot at you. Towards the end of the game, I clocked how long it took the average Hunter to shoot back and it was upwards of 4 seconds. Enemies stood in one space and side-stepped back and forth. Zero squad behavior, poor grenade usage. It was just a poor showing for AI.

Very little enemy variety. 90% of the game, you fight Hunters. Now, this wouldn't be a bad thing, but they didn't make fighting Hunters very fun. Compared this to FEAR, where you fight the same type of enemies over and over, but each set-piece/fire-fight feels different. In Prey, Hunter after Hunter after Hunter with very little excitement in the firefights.

Zero interactivity. Other than the bar scene, there is nothing to do in the game world.

Unimpressive weaponry. All of the weapons sounded weak and unimpressive. Nothing changed how enemies died (unlike FEAR/HL2 in which enemies could be vaporized, gibbed, liquified, etc).

Uninspired combat. It just didn't feel intense at all. I didn't feel threatened at any point. The combat was a chore, pure and simple. A time filler so the game wasn't 15 minutes long. What was the point of combat? You couldn't lose in any sense. Anytime you "died" you'd come back with, at the very least, 50% health and all your weapons. You didn't even lose any time nor have to re-do any parts of the game, which is the main deterrant in other games.

Predictable story. Honestly, who didn't see the "twists" coming?

Low-res textures. Biggest culprit is in the spirit world. The floor looks like it's from '98. The walls are equally as blurry. This is at 1280x1024, full details, 4xAA, 16xAF.

Generic sounds. The soundtrack was good, very high quality production. However, the actual sounds were laughably generic. It was just filler, a bunch of generic, tar-pit-like sounds you expect to hear from one of those sound collection CDs. There was very little that was actually memorable. I can barely recall what the Hunter sounds like, and it's been what, 5-6 months since I played Prey? I can still remember the original HL's sounds. The chopper, the gauss cannon (tau cannon), gluon gun, Nihilanth, the aliens, the snarks, the houndeyes, everything. They were intensely memorably and unique. Even Duke3D, I can remember many sounds today, 9-10 years after playing it. But the enemies in Prey? Forget it. Generic as flies on shit. Hear it in every B-grade movie and in every game.

Very short gameplay length (under 6 six hours for me). Clocked it in at 5:47, IIRC. There's nothing to do, nothing to see in the set-pieces. I listened to every Art Bell radio show as well.

Illogical ammo/health placement. Items were hidden in wall, across a giant chasm during SpiritWalk? Come on now. It makes no sense. The aliens have no access to those areas. It makes no sense why a few clips of ammo would be hidden in the wall. This sort of lazy level balancing kills the immersion. It's like finding a 45 tera-watt plasma rifle in a WWII game. That shit doesn't belong there and it jarringly reinforces the fact that this is a game, not an experience. Logical item placement shouldn't be noticed at all. It's only when shit doesn't belong there that it stands out. The original HL did it perfectly. Valve put canisters of ammo next to dead expeditionary members in Xen. It made sense because the surveyors/explorers would have needed weaponry, first-aid and energy modules to traverse Xen. What possible sense does having 3 clips of ammo in a wall completely unaccesible to the aliens make?

[MAT]

Prey was fun and felt fresh (not the weapons since they were ordinarily boring alien gadgetary, but the story and the sphere itself) while it lasted, but it's definitely not playing in the same league with HL2 or FEAR.

For me Prey felt like the third expansion for Doom 3 - Quake 4 being the second ...

No offense! Peace!

[Dave-ros]

Prey was good, but really I could only play it twice -- maybe three times, because there are only two skill levels, and no real reason to complete the game again. Mainly I load it up as a graphical test (and to see how good my new monitor is), not to actually play through.

I look forward to any expansion pack to be made

[mr. pinky demon]

True, there is just no real reason to give it a second go.

[Destructor]

I've played Prey through twice now and quite enjoyed it. I don't know about the Deathwalk thing though as it sometimes seemed an excuse by the developers to be sloppy on getting the difficulty balance right. It seems that a lot of the times I die in the game (particulalrly in boss fights) is not because I make some sort of mistake or I didn't dodge well enough - it's just that I run out of health and/or ammo. Addtionally, constantly shooting those spirit things with the bow gets a bit repetitive. Overall, Deathwalk can just be seen as a marketing feature for the game, which doesn't really make it more fun although it does keep the game moving.

I think next time I play Prey I'll try not to use Deathwalk and whenever I die just load back to my previous saved game. I was going to do that on my second round through but just went '**** it' and pushed through. Hopefully, when I do do that I will find out how the game really fares. Although in terms of story, characters, and environments, etc. it is quite well done. It does have an ending at least!

[mr. pinky demon]

Sorta a half-life ending with a cliff-hanger.

[jimbob]

i think the game is awesome so far, i`m at the center of gravity right now so i cant give a full review. only thing i really miss is that i cant smash frozen enemies or watch them tumble to shatters

[mr. pinky demon]

Told ya, see what a few lights can do to people.

[mr. pinky demon]

Originally Posted by 0marTheZealot

Dumb as bricks AI. Enemies took forever to shoot at you. Towards the end of the game, I clocked how long it took the average Hunter to shoot back and it was upwards of 4 seconds. Enemies stood in one space and side-stepped back and forth. Zero squad behavior, poor grenade usage. It was just a poor showing for AI.

Very little enemy variety. 90% of the game, you fight Hunters. Now, this wouldn't be a bad thing, but they didn't make fighting Hunters very fun. Compared this to FEAR, where you fight the same type of enemies over and over, but each set-piece/fire-fight feels different. In Prey, Hunter after Hunter after Hunter with very little excitement in the firefights.

Zero interactivity. Other than the bar scene, there is nothing to do in the game world.

Unimpressive weaponry. All of the weapons sounded weak and unimpressive. Nothing changed how enemies died (unlike FEAR/HL2 in which enemies could be vaporized, gibbed, liquified, etc).

Uninspired combat. It just didn't feel intense at all. I didn't feel threatened at any point. The combat was a chore, pure and simple. A time filler so the game wasn't 15 minutes long. What was the point of combat? You couldn't lose in any sense. Anytime you "died" you'd come back with, at the very least, 50% health and all your weapons. You didn't even lose any time nor have to re-do any parts of the game, which is the main deterrant in other games.

Predictable story. Honestly, who didn't see the "twists" coming?

Low-res textures. Biggest culprit is in the spirit world. The floor looks like it's from '98. The walls are equally as blurry. This is at 1280x1024, full details, 4xAA, 16xAF.

Generic sounds. The soundtrack was good, very high quality production. However, the actual sounds were laughably generic. It was just filler, a bunch of generic, tar-pit-like sounds you expect to hear from one of those sound collection CDs. There was very little that was actually memorable. I can barely recall what the Hunter sounds like, and it's been what, 5-6 months since I played Prey? I can still remember the original HL's sounds. The chopper, the gauss cannon (tau cannon), gluon gun, Nihilanth, the aliens, the snarks, the houndeyes, everything. They were intensely memorably and unique. Even Duke3D, I can remember many sounds today, 9-10 years after playing it. But the enemies in Prey? Forget it. Generic as flies on shit. Hear it in every B-grade movie and in every game.

Very short gameplay length (under 6 six hours for me). Clocked it in at 5:47, IIRC. There's nothing to do, nothing to see in the set-pieces. I listened to every Art Bell radio show as well.

Illogical ammo/health placement. Items were hidden in wall, across a giant chasm during SpiritWalk? Come on now. It makes no sense. The aliens have no access to those areas. It makes no sense why a few clips of ammo would be hidden in the wall. This sort of lazy level balancing kills the immersion. It's like finding a 45 tera-watt plasma rifle in a WWII game. That shit doesn't belong there and it jarringly reinforces the fact that this is a game, not an experience. Logical item placement shouldn't be noticed at all. It's only when shit doesn't belong there that it stands out. The original HL did it perfectly. Valve put canisters of ammo next to dead expeditionary members in Xen. It made sense because the surveyors/explorers would have needed weaponry, first-aid and energy modules to traverse Xen. What possible sense does having 3 clips of ammo in a wall completely unaccesible to the aliens make?

Actually your complelty right. This type of game would simply rock if it was released back in the 90's.

[peoplessi]

- I liked the soundtrack, and Tommy's voiceacting. Both were suberb.
- Most of the level design was right, but there where few levels that I didn't like. Bar level was really nice, and pulled you right into the game. Prey 2 hopefully will have more use of the gravitation and more puzzles, yet simple ones enough not the get frustrated on. Details on the levels were great.
- I didn't like model of Jen, could have been more like Jessica Cannon from SiN:Emergence or Alyx from Half-life 2 Just a bit more detailed model, that's all. She is a important character after all
-Deathwalk / Spiritwalk, nice features, both of which I really enjoyed. But I expect Prey 2 to make more use of Spiritwalk, and add more twists to the Deathwalk(more variation, possibility to lose life/ammo/something). I felt that I could take on the world with Tommy since I really didn't have to be scared of dying. Though I didn't die too often, but due Deathwalk save/load rumble was avoided
-PORTALS, they are a must I had a fun time just playing with these, once I shot myself in accident through portal
-It felt like a old-school FPS, in a good way, and in a bad way
-Just a little bit too short, but that can be said on any current FPS, I rather play real intense 7h, preferring this over repetitive levels which make the playtime only seem longer.
-I have to agree that most of the time AI didn't offer too much of a resistance, in a way that they really more stood and kept guard rather than getting all over me, which I would have "hoped" in a way them to do.

BUT overall Prey was my topshooter from 2006. MultiPrey didn't really interest me that much, have played it for few hours only, but I am a online FPS "veteran" and enjoy decent multiplayer action.

and to mr. pinky demon, you don't have to quote the whole post Makes the thread more harder to read.

[mr. pinky demon]

You could of just read the original and then look at my tiny little remark and know what it was about. However, people want to do everything there way even if its not the better way.

[Shams]

I didn't like this game...had it on 360. This game takes my award on giving me a REAL headache when playing a FPS Yeah there was the LOOKS and all that unrelated weird interactive world but it was generic. I am glad I got rid of this gutter trash in my 7 day period so I could get something better....funny the eb games I bought it from had like stacks of returns sitting on the shelves(360 version). Before the flaming starts just remember everyone is entitled to their opinion and mine matters the most to me.