Prey

 PC
Metascore
82

Generally favorable reviews - based on 38 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 38
  3. Negative: 1 out of 38
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  1. IGN
    May 10, 2017
    40
    If the PC version of Prey hadn’t become completely unplayable from crashes and save-game corruption just as it was hitting its stride, I’d have called it a very good or perhaps even great game. Its strange alternate-history universe, sidequests, hidden threats, and detailed environmental storytelling make Talos I a joy to explore, one that’s well worth slogging through combat that doesn’t feel fresh enough to sustain it throughout a long game.
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  1. Ars Technica
    May 5, 2017
    Prey feels like the mirror image of Bethesda's recent Doom remake. That game let you dance around endless hordes of disposable beasts, making you instantly feel like a super-soldier that could single-handedly take on whatever came at you. In Prey, you constantly feel besieged by unseen horrors that you can barely handle even one-on-one, and you often pray that you can just get by without being seen. Maybe this feeling will go away as I approach the end game, but part of me kind of hopes it doesn't. By limiting your power and resources as you scrounge through its amazing architecture, Prey makes you feel like, well, prey. In a genre that seems more often focused on letting you fulfill your every power fantasy via heavy artillery, it's kind of refreshing so far.
  2. Kotaku
    May 12, 2017
    The worst version of Prey is the game its ending thinks it is, an action-y game with stealth elements about humanity and moral choices. The best version of Prey is the game that happens in between, one where you ignore its plot completely, take your time to explore every cranny, and hide in a tree to look at the stars. It fails itself when it tells you what to do, but you have plenty of opportunities not to listen to it and have a great time in the process.
  3. PCGamesN
    May 4, 2017
    Indeed, Prey is the best performing triple-A game I’ve played for many months. It’s incredibly rare to be able to boot up a game at maximum settings and get consistent reports of 90+ fps when using mid-tier hardware, but here we are. No matter how many benchmarks I ran, the reports came back clear and consistent: on a GTX 1060, an average of over 100 fps is easy to attain. [Tech Review]
  5. Rock, Paper, Shotgun
    May 5, 2017
    Prey is a game that’s smart about almost every aspect of itself, and yet with that, so crucially modest. It doesn’t yank the camera from you, doesn’t force you to sit through cutscenes, doesn’t demand you sit still and listen to its backstory. It’s content to be itself and let you find it, which is a damned rare treat in this hobby. Even more amazingly, for all its array of abilities and powers, you can finish the game without touching them, perhaps even find a narrative rationale for doing so. It lets you improvise, explore, make big decisions without needing to tell you they’re big. And yes, it absolutely does let you turn into a cup. [RPS Recommended]

Awards & Rankings

52
#52 Best PC Game of 2017
11
#11 Most Discussed PC Game of 2017
10
#10 Most Shared PC Game of 2017

User Reviews

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User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1672 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,319 out of 1672
  2. Mixed: 193 out of 1672
  3. Negative: 160 out of 1672
  1. DaemonXHUN
    May 6, 2017
    10
    This review is based on the game after completing it with all the side-quests available, except two (as far as I know). I played it for aroundThis review is based on the game after completing it with all the side-quests available, except two (as far as I know). I played it for around 25 in-game hours.

    I'm one of those people who was heavily disappointed when Bethesda cancelled Prey 2 (2006's Prey's sequel, which I played and very much enjoyed). In a way, even if I wasn't one of them, I totally understood the people who started bashing and boycotting this new Prey game. But was the hate justified?

    The short answer is no. Not at all. Based on my experience so far, I have to say this game is simply amazing in every possible way. The music is phenomenal, thanks to the talented Mick Gordon who also did the soundtrack for 2016's Doom and for Wolfenstein: The New Order.

    But what is more important though is that the game is full of very smart and intelligent gameplay design ideas. It's more than obvious that the devs well thought out every little gameplay aspect and tweaked them to achieve perfection. This game has a very high production quality.

    Also, I think I never saw a game before that so well utilized the enviroment such as this. In every single area I spent a very large amount of time to be able to discover everything, and it was a whole lot of fun. Prey mixes verticality and platforming very well with the usual, more horizontal gameplay.

    And if I mentonied exploration: the exploration/discovery is fantastic, the game is very complex and deep in terms of world building and gameplay, in fact it's more complex in a way than most AAA games out there today. The story and the lore looks promising, and I like the visual design the artists went for.

    The game clearly took inspiration from the best movies in the sci-fi genre (Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Ridley Scott's Alien). Other than that, it reminds me some of the best games I've played, such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Bioshock, Dishonored, and of course, it also has a very strong System Shock vibe. In fact, it could be called System Shock 3. It has a Dead Space feeling in a way too.

    The good news won't end here. This game is perfectly optimized. I have a rig that is around the recommended specs, and I manage to hit 100FPS average at 1080p on the absolute highest settings (EVGA GTX970 FTW, 16GB DDR4 2400Mhz RAM, i5-6500).

    This game is a joy to play. It's very impressive that it managed to grab me this much under only one hour and never let me go till I finished it. In fact, I'm still not finished (even if I completed the story). I'm starting a second playthrough now and I'll try to get the remaining achievements.
    I definitely recommend checking out this game, it well worth the money!

    If I have to say a con, it's a minor thing, but normal human-sized enemies will provide unpleasant difficulty spikes every time you face them as long as you don't get a shotgun. Fighting against them with the Glue Gun, Pistol, or Wrench is not easy, and they kill you in 3 hits on Normal difficulty. The easiest is to avoid them and/or try to throw explosives at them from a distance (red pipes).    … Full Review »
  2. Rooseweld
    May 5, 2017
    9
    Pros:
    1.Runs Very Good, Dosen't drop below 100 fps, So FAR
    2.Really like the Art-Style, has some nice Graphics and Advanced settings too    Pros:
    1.Runs Very Good, Dosen't drop below 100 fps, So FAR

    2.Really like the Art-Style, has some nice Graphics and Advanced settings too

    3. Strong story

    4. Cool Abilities

    5. Excellent level design, 10/10

    6. Reminds me of Deus Ex, Bio shock, Dishonored, and a little bit of Half life, and that's a good thing

    7. Is it WORTH the money, YES

    Things that will be fixed:
    1. Can't change FOV, in-game, but they will be adding a fov slider later on, for now you will have to go and edit the game.cfg file

    Same with motion blur, to turn off go into game.cfg add this line r_MotionBlur = 0

    If you change graphics settings in-game after that the file would be rewritten    … Full Review »
  3. kozzy420
    May 5, 2017
    10
    - Runs very well
    - Well written
    - Gameplay is awesome - Atmosphere is top notch - Not the best graphics - Reminds me most of System    - Runs very well
    - Well written
    - Gameplay is awesome
    - Atmosphere is top notch
    - Not the best graphics
    - Reminds me most of System Shock, with a bit of Bioshock, Half Life and Dead Space    … Full Review »
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