Demo First Impressions

[Denz]

This game has been polished to death, and the results are here \o/

[Geir]

this is what I think of the game, mixed up thoughts include:

Spoiler:

show spoiler

The details are nice at full. I didn't even mind low quality when I played through the demo. I like the touch about the wolves there. For the spirit world, they sure force you to do a lot of walking. I'm having problems with the main character's textures on full quality, though, but it must be my video card that's the problem. Oh yeah, you can't see your feet. You guys said that Prey would be slower then Doom 3... it actually is not, not even on full quality. Oh yeah, when you press that special button and get to look out into the sphere, I think that was a picture and not an actual 3D object. And I didn't like the detail on the humans in the beginning of the game, I saw big ploys. I didn't understand why the people the main character encountered were almost but-nakid... could they have something to do with the humans that attack you? I think the other protagonist that saved the main character was Russian for some reason... probably because he said brother. Oh yeah, and if you shoot the human attackers' heads off, they somehow can still run up to you. The special picture should really be removed and it would be great if you made the head move in the some parts of the game to give the illusing that he really is talking.

OH, AND I LOVE HOW YOU CAN USE A LIGHT AND A GUN AT THE SAME TIME!

Overall, a great game that will surprise the fans of FPSers everywhere... it will make them think.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by jet jaguar 2.0

- The gravity walk ways were just as nauseating as I expected.

You haven't even seen the good stuff. There's far worse to come.

Originally Posted by Orochi Avlis

You know, it's unfair how 3DR is really going to end up with all the credit although Human Head developed the game.
No disrespect to 3DR of course. They were a pivotal role in the development as well.

We don't hide from it at all. Human Head made the game. We produced. It was all based off of an original idea we did back in 1995 internally at 3DR. HH deserves a shitload of credit.

And wait till you guys see the 360 version. Venom deserves a lot of credit for making that just as good as the PC version and getting good performance over there, too. That's a bangup job as well.

Originally Posted by Tang Lung

JUDAS F****** PRIEST!

All in all, HH and 3DR have, by the impressions of the demo, made a classic..taking FPS in the direction they should be taken. And JUDAS F****** PRIEST!

In the licensed music, there was also going to be a Black Sabbath song. It got cut. I was bummed. I'm the guy who also does www.black-sabbath.com - so I was all psyched about it. Espeically since it was't just Iron Man, Paranoid, or War Pigs. Was gonna be a track from the Live Evil album with Dio. Voodoo I think. I was all excited, and then it was cut. Bummer.

Originally Posted by RedSplat

Oh, I missed the new 3Drealms logo animation, expected it to show up when i ran the demo.

And people wonder how that much content got into 449Mb? Non essential things got cut in a demo.

[Damien_Azreal]

Everybody I talk to about the demo I just rave about it to them. A few co-workers were asking about it today, like "What the f*ck is it?"
This being a small little country town in the middle of the bible belt... things such as this get overlooked.

I told them about it and said just download it... you'll love it. I promise. They did and saw the 3DRealms logo and started giving you guys all the credit. I was quick to tell them to check out Human Head's site.

[Draco]

I'm very impressed by the demo, especially the 'world in a box' as someone mentioned.

Of course, I don't think the HH/3DR are understanding that "wanting to vomit since it's so disorienting" is a thing to avoid, not praise.

[Noam sane?]

This is the most satisfying demo I have played since Deus Ex.
Back then I stopped playing the demo about two thirds of the way through in order to run out (at about 8:30pm) to purchase the game before the local CompUSA closed. If Prey was available now, I swear, I would have done the same thing this morning shortly after the opening scene in the bar!

The voice acting is top shelf. It's as good as it gets in any form of professionally rendered entertainment.
The game character personalities, relationships and dialogue are fully fleshed out in an intelligent and mature way with a concise yet sympathetic rendering of detail that drew me into the drama from the opening moments.
The art work and technical display set the tone of the various locations in a credible way.

The plot contains echoes of engrossing entertainment that I have liked from the Doom, Quake and System Shock 2 games to late night radio! (I wonder if the non-USA people will get the radio bit that was such a delightful surprise for me?)

The game play is, for me, a perfect mix of action, puzzle and strategy.

One more thing... I liked it.

[ZuljinRaynor]

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

I told them about it and said just download it... you'll love it. I promise. They did and saw the 3DRealms logo and started giving you guys all the credit. I was quick to tell them to check out Human Head's site.

But you still told them 3DR did something, right?

[oak man]

sweet Im downloading!

[December Man]

This was some shit. It reminded me so much of the new War of the Worlds.
Spoiler:

show spoiler

I mean with this blood drawing or whatever, it reminded me much of it. And that scene with the two kids. Sweet Jeebus! Was that some bastard shit!

Plus the game looks sweet and it runs sweet even on my 2 year old system on medium. Only some stuttering here and there and moments of short pause when the game saves. I was never really hyped up about Prey, but now... I just hope the latter game keeps up the same pace.

[peoplessi]

DAMN! The game rocks!

[Travis]

I played a bit of single player and one match of MultiPrey, and I have to say, I love it.

The gravity crap is nauseating, in MultiPrey I couldn't stop jumping around because it was so cool.
I liked the jukebox & games in the bar. Nice touch.

I'm not one for puzzles & things like that in games usually, since I tend to be easily frustrated.
But the whole portal business is unique, so I'm enjoying it.

I loved the portal-in-a-box-leading-to-other-portal-that-places-you-in-other-box
thing, my jaw was open.

This is GOTY so far for me and the full version isn't even out yet.

[Merzbau]

Originally Posted by December Man

This was some shit. It reminded me so much of the new War of the Worlds....And that scene with the two kids.

The girl in the movie was MUCH scarier than the one in the game.

[GH Illustrations]

I can't stop playing the demo, simply amazing stuff

Kudos to all the artists, the art direction is brilliant. . . .

Safe to say this is the best demo I have played.

[degicank dot comr]

It totally brings back the feeling of playing good shareware games of the 80's and early 90's. Why aren't game publishers doing stuff like this anymore? The graphics are awesome! This game gives my P4D 2.8Ghz with 1.5G ram a run for its money... forget 1280x1024... cant handle it.

[Nexus_sa]

Awesome. Just simply awesome. Great job HH and 3DR

[Noam sane?]

Originally Posted by degicank dot comr

It totally brings back the feeling of playing good shareware games of the 80's and early 90's. Why aren't game publishers doing stuff like this anymore? The graphics are awesome! This game gives my P4D 2.8Ghz with 1.5G ram a run for its money... forget 1280x1024... cant handle it.

It must be your video card! I have an old AGP motherboard with a 2.4 P4 with 2 gig of ram (for music programs) and a BFG 7800GS OC video card that I recently got just to play Oblivion.
I ran the demo smoothly with 4x AA and 16x anisotrophy at 1280 x 1024.
The only technical glitch that I had was some video "tearing" when spinning on the horizontal axis which didn't bother me at all since the game is so engrossing. I didn't see an option for V-sync however so I just lived with it. Look into a video card update it just might be time for you.

[RipNLa]

This is SO freaking awesome.

Honestly, haven't had THIS feeling when playing a game since I first played Duke3D. I tried explaining it to my friends that it has a 3dRealms FEEL to it, and I couldn't explain it.

The puzzles are interesting enough. Gravity flipping puzzles are kinda fun actually. I totally LOVE that you don't ever DIE haha, that's so cool. I like not dying.

Graphic settings all defaulted to superhigh on my system (Dual Core Opteron 165 and 7800GT) and ran fine. Doesn't look as good as Unreal 3 Engine, but there are plenty of really nice effects in it. ex, hand dryer effect where you can SEE the air coming out of it, and fire's heat effect etc.

Which brings me to interactivity. TOTALLY reminded me of Duke3D. I played a little bit of Half Life 2 recently so I know there's a fair bit of interactivity in there as well. But yeah, I think this is where I got that "3DRealms FEEL" from. Video games in arcade are playable, jukebox is controllable (good music!), and in the bathroom the toilet seat is liftable and droppable haha, I thought that was so funny! And of course you can flush it. There's obviously a lot of attention to detail because when you turn on a faucet your hand swings across it one way, but when you turn it off, the hand swings across it the other way. Nice touch.

Also liked the dialog in the game. Weapons are also pretty darn cool. For a second there I thought they brought the freeze gun back, but you don't get to smash them Duke style hehe.

The only thing that bugged me was that the music in spirit mode is always the same. That'll make you regret "dying" after awhile I'm sure. I thought the AI was fairly decent as they take cover, hide behind corners etc. Obviously not DIFFICULT, but that could just be a setting?..

As for MULTIPREY. Spent a good few hours testing things with my group of friends. I think the spirit bow may be overpowered. I ABSOLUTELY love the alternate ammo types for the leech gun. We call it SUNNY DELIGHT because its got "THE POWER OF THE SUN!" I also liked how the proximity bugs (green grenade ones) work like sticky bombs..

I haven't tried throwing them ON a person with the alt fire though..does it stick on them and run around on them before it explodes? THat'd be SOOOOOO COOL. A semi-risky way to humiliate someone since its not instant damage/kill. Especially if the bugs are making a buncha noise for them to hear

Telefragging traps are kinda cool too btw...

Anyways, yeah, I want the full game. Good stuff.

[mysteryperfecta]

Overall, I like the demo.

*Though not as polished as HL2, imo, I like the presentation, and feel that the story is actually more engaging than HL2. Both games give you a great sense of place... that you ARE THERE.

*Though pretty similar (and not as polished as what I've seen from Doom 3), I think the visuals are good, with nicely detailed environments. They're certainly the slimiest I've ever seen. Please let there be some variety down the line.

*Gameplay is fun. Certain features are introduced better (spiritwalking) than others (gravity-flipping). I think the constant reminders that yes, I'm looking for Jen, are a bit much. Not just that I happen to see her a lot in the flesh for such a large ship, but that she happens to be on many of the monitors, coincidentally. It's OK if the player loses focus on the ultimate goal at times; with all that's going on, Tommy would.

Overall, it seems that most people are really liking the demo. Congrats to HH and 3dr.

[FullMetalJacket]

I enjoyed it. I LOVED that we got more than ONE level, which seems to be the standard for most demos these days-- anemic! The gameplay was great, the enemies and sound were cool. When you first get taken into the starship, the game does a great job of developing a sense of foreboding and making you feel helpless. When the aliens first attacked the bar and started disintegrating pieces of the ceiling, I was like HOLY !@#@#*#%#$^%! I liked the weapons and interactivity and Tommy's one-liners, it all brought back memories of Duke3D.

Overall, the demo is pretty sweet. Too bad my computer doesn't agree! I was lucky to get 15FPS on 640x480 with everything at Low. Of course, it'd help if my schizophrenic videocard would stop claiming that it isn't receiving sufficient power.

[Smoke Tetsu]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

You haven't even seen the good stuff. There's far worse to come.

I can't say much that hasn't been said before but I wanted to say that I totally dug the wall walking and gravity flipping and stuff like that I took to it like a fish to water. I totally look forward to more crazy stuff in the full version!!

[Xerxes]

How do you get rid of the annoying intro(run the game, wait for it to load, the damned thing with the comments and white background)? Guess I'll look around in the pk4 if Winrar can open it and replace it with a blank movie if that's what it is...

Anyway, I can't see the menu cause I get some scrolling horizontal lines with parts of the screen that shouldn't be there.. Looking around the config...

Nice to see Alt-F4 work(never does in most games).

[Fluke]

Very awesome, thanks 3D Realms for bringing 'originality' and 'quality' and 'no cut corners' back to gaming. I will play this demo to death and be hooked to Prey for a long time. It's nice to play a game that is far from a carbon copy of another. I was distressed greatly 10 years ago or so but I'm sitting here with glee now.

I might barf playing Prey, but it will be good barf.

thanks again!

[Acid]

Wow nice demo, the bar bit at the start was cool..

Awesome stuff.

[Yatta]

Originally Posted by Xerxes

How do you get rid of the annoying intro(run the game, wait for it to load, the damned thing with the comments and white background)? Guess I'll look around in the pk4 if Winrar can open it and replace it with a blank movie if that's what it is...

Please let me know how that goes. I'd like to remove it for myself as well.

[Duke's New Chainsaw]

I was into it since the game began, then it had to go and end.

[Marty]

when I heard Judas Priest i was thinking if Joe had any say on the music used too bad Black Sabbath was cut.

another thing I loved about the demo were the two crate portals were Tommy could walk in an infinite loop and also shoot himself. I can only imagine the portal use in the rest of the game will be awesome.

Tommy cussed alot for a demo. f**k was used like 5 times? Gets me thinking if Duke will cuss alot too... "yippe-ki-ay mother f**ker"

this was by far a generous demo, like Duke3d was, giving you the first chapter.

[hive33]

Finished my second play through with the demo in single player mode. I enjoyed it. I haven't had that low a level of annoyance while playing a game in a while.

What I liked:
1. Bar-interaction of the sink, hand dryer, and even the condom machine. The various writings were funny and very true of a seedy dive bar. The character even noticed the bar was low on a certain alchahol. Of course the mini games were nice. The juke box is also great as well as the TV. Pay phone-well finding change in the slot would of been cool.

2. I liked the feeling of discovery that the alien ship held for you. It actually felt like an alien world and the way the sense of becoming comfortable in it was done great. There were also a few mysteries set up as well. Who was your mysterious savior and what was a spirit doing in the physical world? Who is the mysterious voice? There was kind of a vibe that there were two of you. Kind of like an alternate you. Maybe that is explained later with the portals...

3. The model of the planet was very cool. I didn't get it at first but then it clicked. Awesome part of the game.

4. Seeing yourself in some weird dimensional portal.

5. The nostalgia the game creates similar to the sci-fi movies of the late 70's-80's.

6. Weapons-the attention to detail on these was awesome. The little canisters on the leech gun. The eye sight on the machine gun and the two modes on the gernades.

7. The last battle scene on the demo with the bar. If you wait before you go in the room the aliens argue over the juke box and one even goes yes when a song plays. No wonder they took the entire bar. I saw those boxes of booze scattered about. Those aliens want to party down. With Judas Priest playing in the background the alien fight was just cool.

Gross out points

1. Those wall orafices. Sometimes it feels like they are the ships giant anus. I need not go there with the stuff being released, except for a little bit of immodium might be in order. That's officially a gross out moment.

2. The skewering of the people. Nasty. That was Fd up. No that was Fd up


Well the death of old Grand Dad didn't choke me up but it did put a somber note on things and the pet bird was a little twang. I did notice some funky Bird movements. Seemed like the AI on the bird went a little weird. Wasn't quite as smooth as everything else.

Overall I enjoyed the demo. Best game demo I've played. I will be looking forward to the final product to see how this whole thing turns out.

I was hoping to play the 360 demo as well to compare the two but that will have to wait. If I had one word to describe the game it would be cool.

The game is just, cool. If this game builds like other FPS out there then the later levels must be totally insane.

[Travis]

This game runs very well for me, much better than Quake 4, and better than Doom 3 I think.

[CameO73]

The demo was really impressive. What I liked the most was that alienated feeling you get when you're on/in the sphere.

Apart from one technical glitch (transparent portals - I posted this in the Tech forum) it's perfect!

[Steve]

My Father and myself wanted this game back in 1996 or so. Man, he REALLY likes it... as do I !!!

game is surpassingly down right fantastic, the "gravity flipping" feature really brings a chaotic feeling to the multiplayer arena. love the feeling of not having to worry about falling

[brock2621]

I posted this in another topic as well but oh well... here are my thoughts:

This is THE most geneticly animated game i've ever seen! (what that means i have no idea?!?>???)

NEwayz, i liked the level of interactivity at the beginning. Very nicely done. The color pallets and overall tone was well done. Things that needed to stick out stuck out. Where i needed to go was well lit etc.

All of the little touches in the game were very very nice. Like when you first pick up the alien gernades and he sticks his finger close to it and it pinches him, so he then turns it upside down instead. Stuff like that MAKE the gaming experience. It's those little smiles throughout the game that make it memorable.

I had no trouble with the gravity switching making me sick. It was actually very cool to just throw myself in a circle and see things bounce around.

I wish the interaction with the grandfather when learning spirit walk was longer but it got the point across to those eager gamers who just want to keep shooting. I liked the spirit walk puzzles but they had been shown at e3 already so i look forward to some more that get me to think

To be honest, i just started hanging around the forums in the past couple-three weeks and i have to say... i have a new-found hope in 3dr (and duke) but not only hope, but a new found appreciation for them as well. So thank you 3d Realms for making this game, releasing this demo, and staying connected to your fans on this board.

P.S. I went and pre-ordered the collectors edition today

[Sayantan]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

In the licensed music, there was also going to be a Black Sabbath song. It got cut. I was bummed. I'm the guy who also does www.black-sabbath.com - so I was all psyched about it. Espeically since it was't just Iron Man, Paranoid, or War Pigs. Was gonna be a track from the Live Evil album with Dio. Voodoo I think. I was all excited, and then it was cut. Bummer.

.....

[Xerxes]

Originally Posted by Yatta

Please let me know how that goes. I'd like to remove it for myself as well.

Googling around says that the pk4 is a zip(rename it to zip and you can open it with, say, winzip) and there's a "videos" folder with some videos in an unknown format but if I extract the contents to the base directory and run Prey I get an error...

Here's a link about it: http://doom.neoseeker.com/DOOM_3/PC/...rmance_tweaks/

I figure I can change the intro to a blank movie if I get it to work with the pk4 unpacked and I find some info about what format it uses.

[CameO73]

You can easily get rid of the quote-movie: just add '+destroyer' to the shortcut (so that it reads someting like "c:\program files\prey.exe" +destroyer)

[hell-angel]

Wall walking took some getting used to for me. But now I love it and keep my eye on everywhere.
1280x1024, 2xAA, 2xAF runs good on my machine, (maybe I should turn of AA for better result, or my res to 1024 ) and the enemies are fun as well.
Things where a little bit easy though but I hope the auto adjustment picks that up later on in the game.

In short, I smell a AAA game around the corner.
Great work guys, you are my new heroes.

[Aegeri]

This is arguably the most original and most impressive FPS game I have played in years. If delaying a game for 10 years because you can't do what you wanted to originally produces this sort of game, I think we should see some more delays rather than releasing things that don't work.

Oh my god...He's a giant! OH SHIT!

[Draco]

I forgot to mention, I like the twist that the Thing That Took Over That Child wasn't an alien - it was something your character brought back with him.

[DissidentRage]

I played a little bit of it and it seems like a very solid demo. Unfortunately, my graphics card has had an overheating problem as of late so I was experiencing a lot of rendering issues and crashes.

[Xerxes]

Got rid of the intro but there's still some black flashing horizontal lines ingame(that go all the way across the screen).