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| My thoughts on Prey | ||
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| Wu-banga |
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Registered Member #49
Joined: Tue Dec 06 2005, 01:37AMPosts: 1561 |
Prey, the game that people have been waiting a decade to be released, has finally come. The demo is now available here: -[link]- I have already played through this 40 minute demo and enjoyed every god foresaken minute of it. This thread just wouldn't be complete without my review, so read away my friends, as I embark on a quality gaming experience (lol) I've just played through the recent PC demo and I was impressed. I'm not entirely sure it's worth the 10 year development cycle, but it's not bad. It looks a bit sub-par graphicwise but easily playable and not very noticeable., proving, along with QuakeWars: Enemy Territory, that the Doom 3 engine still has some steam left in it (no pun intended). It controls reasonably well, with some odd and unique weapons. The mechanics can be bizarre, though. Portals, of various shapes and sizes, littered at incomprehensible points, can transport you and flip your gravity. It's really odd! But there's something rather cool about moving looking into a portal, examining what's inside it with your limited field of vision, and then going around to find nothing there. Exploration is key in this game. The art direction is mixed. It starts out very well, in a small Indian/Native American bar. The textures and lighting are brilliant, and you can see yourself in mirrors, which is a nice touch. You can interact with almost everything. I was fairly dissapointed you could do things like turn hand dryers on but not have the freedom of unrolling toilet paper all over the floor. You can change the song on the jukebox. Now i'm not big with rock music, but they had bands such as Judas Priest and Blue Oyster Cult in it. you can play the various arcade games (a game of 21/Blackjack, whatever you want to call it, a basic slot machine and a fully working Pac-Man game, albeit with a different skin). You could even switch on and off the lights and turn on the taps at the sink. I changed my controls a bit so it felt more CS:S like, by changing right-click to walk. It was not difficult at all. Once the whole alien invasion thing starts, it falters slightly. The art style is where the game shows its age. It's as though the last few years of FPS art direction, notably Far Cry and Half-Life 2, simply did not happen. It' all dark corridors, caves and neon lights. I'll say one thing for it, though, it's old school art direction done very, very well. So pristine and well designed. When you are first "abducted", the affect is amazing. In a scene reminiscent of Citadel in Half-life 2, you fly through the Alien ship, strapped to a moving track. Think of how the doors are stored in Monsters, Inc, or, indeed, parts of the Citadel in Half-Life 2 and you'll get my drift. The scene shows you the size, complexity and great design of the ship. Mutilated bodies fly alongside you. You can see your grandfather and your love interest flying too. These aliens harvest humans in a way similar to Quake's strogg, using their mutilated parts to form weird cyborg things. You see this happen to your grandfather, and it's surprisingly gruesome. You escape from your harness when a defective "cyborg" human sets off a small bomb. He seems to be in the background as you progress, helping you. An aspect of the game I did like from a a gameplay design point of view, but not from an overall design point of view, was the spirit walk feature. As your protagonist is Native American, the game is drenched in their beliefs and ways. Your protagonist is someone who does not believe in them, much as you, the gamer, will not be familiar to them, so they do not come across as different or frightening, as if the game is trying to teach you something you don't care about. By completing a task in some sort of spirit world, the land of your fore-fathers: a rather bland looking canyon, you gain access to a spirit walk. Pressing "E" brings you out of your body. You can carry out tasks like entering a room blocked by a forcefield (which obviously does not affect your spirit) and switching it off. You also have a bow and arrow, to fend your spirit from the aliens. Something about "harvesting spirits" is mentioned, but I honestly don't have a clue what it meant and don't care, either. If you're ever unsure of what do to, this luminous eagle, called Talon, acts as your spirit guide and will often perch near places you might need to go to progress. This can be quite handy. I'm unsure of the implementation of such beliefs and ways in a sci-fi videogame. It is done quite well, but still seems bizarre and out of place. They're two extremes. A surprising, but repetitive, mechanic is the implementation of physics. These "puzzles", if you can call them that, all basically revolve around the same thing. Moving these odd explosive balls of organic matter which are "excreted" by the ship at various points to doors which are blocked, and then shooting them until they explode. The variety of enemy design, even in this short demo, was also pretty good, although none of the enemies in the demo seemed that smart or difficult to kill. It has many exciting premises, many innovative ideas and many great mechanics, but they're all a bit... sloppy. It stirs things up in the FPS world, but it's not going to be a AAA title. Rough around the edges, but very enjoyable. I'd recommend you download the demo, I really did enjoy it. BTW: The pause menu has a catchy little chant   Edited Sun Jun 25 2006, 06:54PM |
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| Pac-Man |
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Chaser of Orbs
Registered Member #312
Joined: Sat Jun 24 2006, 02:02PMPosts: 193 |
SWEET! ill get to play myself! | ||
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| Night_Ninja |
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Registered Member #188
Joined: Sat Apr 01 2006, 04:34PMPosts: 261 |
Man i absolutly loved this game, did you try out the multiplay? And i think the gravity effects were done very well, and it's already a AAA title in my book
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| .4ngryToasters |
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you would
Registered Member #149
Joined: Sun Feb 12 2006, 01:08AMPosts: 2039 |
I love how you can walk on walls and stuff like that. It's always great to find new stuff in FPS shooters. | ||
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| Zad |
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Registered Member #64
Joined: Tue Dec 13 2005, 07:01PMPosts: 66 |
damn Wu, this game is sick, as in both good and nasty!!! the developers must have developed this from a crazy house thats why it took 10 years  thnk for the post, and link to the demo |
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| Angry Leprechau |
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Uber Luchador
Registered Member #189
Joined: Sun Apr 02 2006, 04:16AMPosts: 345 |
The music gives me bad memories of Turok and geting my ass smeared by raptors  . Good lookin game though.
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| DarkNarf |
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Surf Owner/Operator
Registered Member #29
Joined: Tue Nov 29 2005, 01:47AMPosts: 409 |
TUROK was da bomb!!!!!! i hear another is turok is in development | ||
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