Prey

 PC
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
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  1. MadclownJack
    Jun 8, 2017
    7
    I can't believe I'm saying this after getting so pissed off at the game in the beginning, but I liked it. It has its charm. It's nothing special, for sure, it nearly chokes on all the cliches. It seems well made. The battle system can be harsh but you get a better hold on things as you progress further along. It does get repetitive after a while, since the map is a "space station". TheI can't believe I'm saying this after getting so pissed off at the game in the beginning, but I liked it. It has its charm. It's nothing special, for sure, it nearly chokes on all the cliches. It seems well made. The battle system can be harsh but you get a better hold on things as you progress further along. It does get repetitive after a while, since the map is a "space station". The moments of "suspense" accompanied by ear-bleeding sounds or "music" and all the loading instances can grind you down, sure, but it was nice. The characters were well made, the twist however predictable, still managed to get a chuckle out of me. It's a good game. Nothing special, but still worth the time.… Expand
  2. mijxero
    Jun 3, 2018
    7
    I love the atmosphere of this game and the setting. It gains a lot of bonus points for really letting you tackle most situations in so many different ways. So a lot of complaints could be countered by the way I chose to play. For me, the gunplay felt weak and ammo was somewhat scarce, but with the fabricators and skill system you could basically break down everything you find into ammoI love the atmosphere of this game and the setting. It gains a lot of bonus points for really letting you tackle most situations in so many different ways. So a lot of complaints could be countered by the way I chose to play. For me, the gunplay felt weak and ammo was somewhat scarce, but with the fabricators and skill system you could basically break down everything you find into ammo and weapon upgrades. Using the alien powers is pretty cool too.

    I think my biggest complaint is really how good the game gets (combat aside) and then farts out one of the most dissapointing ending(s) possible. This game really would have benefitted from a new game plus mode too, but unfortunately doesn't have one. All in all, it's a good game but has its flaws that hold it back from being truly great.

    All in all, the game is fun and worth a play through, just be aware of the problems before going in.    … Expand
  3. Ihitkids
    Feb 28, 2018
    7
    When Bioshock and Dead Space give each other a special hug you get PREY. Atmosphere and ambience are amazing, the weapon variety is solid, the shooting mechanics are acceptable and the graphics are above average. This game is worth at minimum a rental but I recommend a buy. 10/10 Would special hug again.
  4. Hack
    May 31, 2017
    7
    I initially didn't recommend this game after my first playthrough but I did something I've never done before and that's replay a game I didn't enjoy the first time and I'm glad I did. After finishing my first run I discovered I had missed a lot, mechanics, quests etc, and this was the reason I disliked the game so much so I started again and I have just finished it for a second time andI initially didn't recommend this game after my first playthrough but I did something I've never done before and that's replay a game I didn't enjoy the first time and I'm glad I did. After finishing my first run I discovered I had missed a lot, mechanics, quests etc, and this was the reason I disliked the game so much so I started again and I have just finished it for a second time and now I would recommend it.

    The story is very interesting and it's told well, with great voice work from top to bottom, Prey also has multiple endings so replayability is an option if you like to get your monies worth. The general audio is also very good, helping to create a creepy atmosphere. Gameplay wise it's solid, there are plenty of weapons and gadgets to dispose of the Typhoon and I really liked the recycle and re-purpose mechanic. Visually it was also very good, with some great character models and environments. The one area it wasn't so great was performance, while definitely not bad at all it wasn't always smooth, some areas dropped for no apparent reason and there was some hitching at times, but nothing that ruined the overall experience too badly. Overall a solid package.

    One bit of advice is to take it slow, don't rush through the main story, there are many minor and major side plots to discover and I missed almost all of them on my first run, don't make the same mistake    … Expand
  5. PublicNuisance
    Nov 13, 2020
    7
    I want to say first off that I don’t think Prey was a bad game. Some of what I’ll say will sound a bit negative but overall it is a solid game. It is like a space version of Bioshock and Dishonored but it has worse combat than either of those. It has many things it did well but I didn’t enjoy the combat much. I found there to be too few weapons to use for my liking. There is a shotgun;I want to say first off that I don’t think Prey was a bad game. Some of what I’ll say will sound a bit negative but overall it is a solid game. It is like a space version of Bioshock and Dishonored but it has worse combat than either of those. It has many things it did well but I didn’t enjoy the combat much. I found there to be too few weapons to use for my liking. There is a shotgun; pistol and a wrench as your main weapons. There are some grenade type weapons you can use that have different properties and there are powers you can choose to learn. Overall though I wasn’t interested in the alien powers and found the environmental attacks such as throwing furniture at enemies cute but not something that I wanted to do often. I also didn’t like the zero gravity parts as I found moving around annoying as I kept flying past where I wanted to go. There were also some timed missions which is a game feature I despise. Another game idea I hate that was used was respawning enemies. After killing all enemies in an area I could return later and there were new ones there. Now they weren’t the same ones, it was trying to say that the aliens were moving about the ship and nowhere was safe but the timing was way off. I could leave an area and return seconds later and there would be new enemies. You may say the game doesn’t follow real time but the timed missions were indeed using real time so I maintain it was poorly done. Many objectives were also very vague about where to go or what to do. Others were very specific or easy to figure out so it was a toss up on whether I would enjoy the mission. Lastly I was hoping that there would be some explanation about just what the Nightmare Typhon was but it never came. This thing stalks you across the station and even if you kill the thing it will come back later and hunt you more. I thought that maybe it would play a bigger role than just annoying me but I was wrong.

    Now let me state what the game did well. The story was great and the further it got in the more I enjoyed it. I loved finding audio logs; emails; notes; etc that helped fill in the gaps on just what happened on Talos I. The voice acting was well done across the board. The trauma effects were fantastic. If you choose to turn it on there are trauma effects that can happen to your body based on certain injuries. You can become concussed; get radiation sickness; break bones; hemorrhage blood; etc. They were very well done in terms of the little details. When I was concussed everything became blurry at times and light was disorientating. When bones would break from a fall you could hear the bones crunch while walking and you limped. When you were hemorrhaging blood you left bloody footprints. The inventory system was well done and reminded me of Deus Ex. The system of being able to recycle items to build other items was well used. The graphics overall were pretty good. Facial detail and fire detail were a bit poor but the colour use was good as was the detail on weapons and objects.

    I played Prey on Linux using Wine and Lutris. The game did have some technical issues. It crashed to desktop while loading a game once. It also froze once during the end credits and once during game play. Overall the performance was good. It did get laggy for a literal second or two sometimes but it wasn’t frequent and it never lasted longer than a couple seconds. The frame rate was usually over 80 FPS. There are 5 graphics options; 4 AA options; 4 AF options; and an FOV slider that went from 60-120. Alt-Tab worked. You can manually save whenever you want aside from when on elevators. There are 20 save slots although with the auto saves the game does at points there can be more. I played version 10966486 (38551) from GOG. You can change the difficulty settings at any time.

    Game Engine: Cryengine
    Disk Space Used: 27.5 GB
    GPU Usage: 0-99 %
    VRAM Usage: 3255-4178 MB
    CPU Usage: 14-41 %
    RAM Usage: 3.0-4.4 GB
    Frame Rate: 27-144 FPS
    Settings used: Highest; SMAA2x; 16xAF; adaptive resolution off

    So in the end did I have fun ? I did. I didn’t enjoy all of the game but I enjoyed enough of it to finish it. The good outweighs the bad. I finished Prey in 26 hours 47 minutes. I paid $14.99 CAD for it and would place it’s value closer to the $20 range. If you’re looking for a pure shooter it won’t fit the bill but if you’re more into adventure than pure action than it has enough to offer.

    My Score: 7/10

    My System:

    AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 5700 XT Gaming X 8GB | Mesa 20.0.8 | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB | Linux Mint 20 | Mate 1.24 | Kernel 5.8.0-25-generic | Wine 5.21 | DXVK 1.7.2 | ACO Compiler | Feral Game Mode    … Expand
  6. PrincessRose
    Aug 27, 2023
    7
    This is a fun game. I found it mostly enjoyable and immersive.
    When I play this game I don't want to stop.
    I spent a lot of time just mucking around putting all objects I could pick up from all the rooms in the Talos lobby into the exhibition room just because I can and I like doing it. I like that you have a choice and can choose to play as a female or male Morgan Yu. I liked    This is a fun game. I found it mostly enjoyable and immersive.
    When I play this game I don't want to stop.
    I spent a lot of time just mucking around putting all objects I could pick up from all the rooms in the Talos lobby into the exhibition room just because I can and I like doing it.

    I like that you have a choice and can choose to play as a female or male Morgan Yu.

    I liked thoroughly exploring every area and trying to find everything.

    The story is ok, but not exciting or interesting enough.

    I dislike that enemies are kind of boring all are way too simular black gloopy things of various size. Combat doesn't feel fun, it feels strange and floaty.
    There weren't any fights that were particuarly thrilling or exciting.

    Never bought the DLC as I found out it is timed, I hate anything that is restricted by time as I like to take my time and thoroughly explore and not have to rush, I also dislike and don't play any rogue type games, so this DLC is everything I dislike in a game.

    It can be buggy as when I got enough points to hack the safe at the start lab area I could jump down but could not go back through as the helicopter room walls had no openings to go through. I managed to jump back up, though that area should not be blocked and is a bug.

    It's an enjoyable and fun game to play through at least once. The ending was interesting, though quite disappointing.    … Expand
  7. SuperkenGaming
    May 7, 2017
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Prey
    From Fun and Scary to Slow and Boring
    Prey is a first person survival horror game that seems to be heavily inspired by deus ex…
    you start the game by choosing your male or female character…
    You’re an experiment... and then things go wrong... the space station you’re living in has been overrun by aliens and guess who they’re after?
    You of course…
    The game starts out pretty interesting and terrifying...
    There are mimics around…
    this is all you know
    and at first all you have to fend for yourself is a wrench...
    And these mimics... they can be anywhere…
    as they take the shape of random items in the world…
    Randomly running into them was terrifying and made for many great jump scare moments…
    honestly a wrench and mimics is all this game needed it… but it didn’t stop there…
    it tried to do too much and they game becomes a boring drag because of it..
    This game reminded me a bit of deus ex and bioshock…
    mostly on the deus ex side though…
    There are neuromods around the world that you can pick up to unlock new skills
    these skills include the basics like being able to lift large objects, increase your health, or be able to hack locked doors…
    and you have to choose carefully because these skills are expensive and neuromods practically hardly exist compared to the prices…
    made even more ridiculous when you unlock even more mimic type skills from scanning enemies later on in the game.. it’s just too much for how little the game pays out…
    Speaking of too little to go around…
    health, and pretty much everything else…
    It doesn’t matter which difficulty you play this game on.. It’s going to be brutal…
    enemies are sponges even against fully upgraded guns... they do insane damage…
    And the food you find around only gives about 5 health... which is nothing... med kits are extremely rare…. And your health only regenerates to around 30…
    so you’re gonna die a lot…
    you can recycle trash at machines for materials or use recycle bombs for materials and then use these materials to craft medkits and ammo.. But still... these items aren’t all over the place and doesn’t necessarily make med kits or ammo extremely accessible... they’re still rare even with this crafting machine
    No worries you can just stealth around enemies…
    sort of…
    because they have magnets in their head…
    the game tricks you into believing they’re attracted to noise because of certain lure bombs you can use
    but this is a lie… I know this is a lie because there’s one mission in particular where you have to collect voice samples… one part of this mission challenges you to stay alive while a song plays.. After hiding in the room and failed I thought okay, clearly these enemies are attracted to the noise... ill click play and run down the hall and hide away from the room…
    I did this and guess which room the enemies came to?
    Not the one with the song playing... the one I was in just sitting there waiting for me to enter their line of sight to they could attack me…
    and this waiting happens a lot... they won’t move, they will sit and wait until they can see you
    it’s annoying and emersion breaking
    This game has its moments…
    its surprisingly varied considering you’re stuck in a space station…
    it’s fun and thrilling at times running from enemies while you try to find key cards and information to progress…
    But it’s also just as annoying since the game is inconsistent with telling you where to go to progress…
    sometimes your location is marked on the map.. sometimes you have to just feel your way around and search everything while dealing with monsters…
    The game also have a few progression bugs that will cause you to back in and out of a save..
    Which isn’t too bad since you can save at anytime youd like…
    As well as performance issues if you play too long..
    the inventory and weapon wheels start to lag…
    Bugs aside, Prey ultimately suffers from imbalance…
    There are far too few materials, health, or ammo for how spongy and excessive enemies are in this game..
    they become a nuisance instead of a scare…
    I could easily see this being a game of uncertainty with only a flashlight, a wrench, and some mimics…
    But instead Prey sets out to frustrate you for 16 hours… its becomes die and try again to get just a little luckier this time while dealing with over powered monsters… While I definitely did enjoy moments of prey… I didn’t enjoy most of the moments of prey… I give Prey a 7/10    … Expand
  8. Rewenom
    Sep 14, 2018
    7
    Плюсы:
    -Отличный сайндрек
    -Неплохой графический стиль -Интересные перестрелки -Вариативность решения различных задач -Есть отсылка к ДжоДжо Минусы: -Убогая графика -Отсутствуют постановка и харизматичные персонажи -Чрезмерно много бектрекинга -Скудная архитектура уровней(в рамках жанра еммёрсив син) -Очень мало сюжетных событий в середине игры -Мало видов оружия Итог: Я    Плюсы:
    -Отличный сайндрек
    -Неплохой графический стиль
    -Интересные перестрелки
    -Вариативность решения различных задач
    -Есть отсылка к ДжоДжо
    Минусы:
    -Убогая графика
    -Отсутствуют постановка и харизматичные персонажи
    -Чрезмерно много бектрекинга
    -Скудная архитектура уровней(в рамках жанра еммёрсив син)
    -Очень мало сюжетных событий в середине игры
    -Мало видов оружия
    Итог: Я разочарован. Бегать 20 часов туда-сюда по станции ради двух неожиданных сюжетных поворотов (в начале и в конце игры), занятие абсолютно неинтересное, особенно когда эти повороты совсем тебя не удивили.    … Expand
  9. RedCrow
    May 11, 2017
    7
    This game is very creative and annoying at the same time. The difficulty can be hard if you make it hard on yourself or it can be easy if you just think about how your approaching enemies. Its nothing like Dead Space but more like a first person "Deus Ex" or just "Dishonored" in space. I had fun playing it but the fluidness of the story is slow and pulled down by constant loading timesThis game is very creative and annoying at the same time. The difficulty can be hard if you make it hard on yourself or it can be easy if you just think about how your approaching enemies. Its nothing like Dead Space but more like a first person "Deus Ex" or just "Dishonored" in space. I had fun playing it but the fluidness of the story is slow and pulled down by constant loading times going from room to room. It almost kind of ruined the ending for me maybe a little. The graphics are good and the game runs great at 4k ultra so it gets points there. There are glitches and a few minor hiccups but the developers get major points for jumping on the issues within just two days with a beta patch. Unlike Mass Effect Andromeda's Multiplayer which will never be fixed. Also maybe this game just should have been a movie instead of a game or make it more like Alien Isolation. The game needs to be engaging but most of the time feels like a chore. Was it Worth $60 yes just barely.… Expand
  10. passionne
    Aug 21, 2017
    7
    Pros :

    - story and unexpected end - stressing atmosphere - technical optimization - gameplay : mix of weapons and powers like Bioshock - quite long - recycling is a very good idea Cons : - low resolution textures which make the game graphically average - world divided in areas, separated by loading times - hacking too annoying and difficult : fortunately, I solved this    Pros :

    - story and unexpected end
    - stressing atmosphere
    - technical optimization
    - gameplay : mix of weapons and powers like Bioshock
    - quite long
    - recycling is a very good idea

    Cons :

    - low resolution textures which make the game graphically average
    - world divided in areas, separated by loading times
    - hacking too annoying and difficult : fortunately, I solved this problem by downloading a mod on nexus site which strongly facilitates hacking
    - secondary missions not very interesting.    … Expand
  11. Anarion13
    Dec 1, 2017
    7
    New Prey left me with some mixed feelings after I watched the final credits. It is a combination of mechanics from good ol’ Half-Life, Deus Ex, and Bioshock, in my opinion. And it feels like, trying to take the best from all worlds, Prey fails to 100% succeed in any of the directions it chose.

    Gameplay is okay. I’m a hardcore fan of FPS titles, and Prey feels mediocre - most of the game    New Prey left me with some mixed feelings after I watched the final credits. It is a combination of mechanics from good ol’ Half-Life, Deus Ex, and Bioshock, in my opinion. And it feels like, trying to take the best from all worlds, Prey fails to 100% succeed in any of the directions it chose.

    Gameplay is okay. I’m a hardcore fan of FPS titles, and Prey feels mediocre - most of the game the most efficient way to deal with enemies was to shotgun the **** outta them. Or, in the worse scenarios, glue them first - and then use your shotgun. Yeah, you could use some other methods of exterminating your enemies - but you really don’t have to, as this combo is working in 90% of the cases.

    Role-playing element is rewarding, I liked the progression system, it seems balanced and interesting.

    Overall stylistics of the game is fine, but it just can’t stand comparison with the detail-rich and monumental worlds of Bioshock series (though it resembles it in many ways).

    I didn’t enjoy the story that much, for me Prey failed to create emotional connections with characters, and the final twist in the plot is too predictable to be surprised.

    My final score is 7 - I had some nice hours playing Prey, but unfortunately the mix of the “borrowed” components doesn’t result in a spectacular, memorable result.    … Expand
  12. dgrein
    Jan 30, 2021
    7
    Aviso de que escribo esto habiendo dejado el juego incompleto, ¿Por qué? Básicamente el sistema de combate me parece pésimo, pero la historia, ambientación y sonido de este juego son maravillosos. Si no te importa un sistema de combate malo y tosco como él solo, disfruta de una historia jodidamente inmersiva.
  13. AMBO
    Nov 19, 2022
    7
    Made a lot of memories with this one!! i recommend everyone to give it a try :)
  14. bancandrei
    May 13, 2020
    7
    I was asking myself where would it go after the stellar opening? And the answer is pretty much nowhere. It stagnates for a couple of hours and then it ends. Ending is pretty good and makes you reframe the story. Too bad the meat of it is a bit lacking. The genre definitely does not seem to be my cup of tea.
  15. kezzyhko
    Jul 26, 2020
    7
    ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍
  16. SergeiZ
    Dec 22, 2020
    7
    Delightful plot.
    Interesting puzzles and quests.
    Terrible combat mechanics.

    My rating would have been higher if the option to buy the Prey had not been removed for the sake of this game (i mean game from 2006).
  17. ErayTellezi
    Jul 12, 2021
    7
    14 saatin sonunda bitirdim. Normalde bu tarz yan görevlerin ve keşfin bol olduğu oyunların her yerine girer çıkarım ve her şeyi yapmaya çalışırım. Nitekim bu oyunda ilk yarısında öyle oynadım. Görev harici her yere girip çıkıyor, zor olsa da key card bulup odaları keşfediyordum. Gördüğüm yan karakterlerin görevlerini aksatmıyordum. Ancak ilk yarısından sonra oyunda neredeyse hiç yan görev14 saatin sonunda bitirdim. Normalde bu tarz yan görevlerin ve keşfin bol olduğu oyunların her yerine girer çıkarım ve her şeyi yapmaya çalışırım. Nitekim bu oyunda ilk yarısında öyle oynadım. Görev harici her yere girip çıkıyor, zor olsa da key card bulup odaları keşfediyordum. Gördüğüm yan karakterlerin görevlerini aksatmıyordum. Ancak ilk yarısından sonra oyunda neredeyse hiç yan görev yapmaz oldum ve düz ana görevden ilerledim. Bunun ilk nedeni etrafta dolaşmanın zor olması. Her yere girmek için nerede olduğu bilmediğiniz bir key card bulmanız gerekiyor. Bir iki neyse de bir yerden sonra sıktı ve uğraşmak istemedim. Diğer nedeni aynı yerleri dolaşıp durmaktı. Farklı görev için geçtiğiniz aynı koridordan ellinci kez geçmek sıktı. Normalde açık dünya oyunları bunu fast travel ile çözerler. Oyuncu aynı yerden geçip durmasın, sıkılmasın diye. Bunda o özellik de yoktu. Diğer yandan sürekli spawnlanan düşmanlarla uğraşmak baydı. Lan aynı koridordan ellinci kez geçiyorum zaten, bir de aynı düşmanı aynı yerde neden karşıma çıkarıyorsun. Combat zevkli değil ki üstelik. Bir de çoğu yan hikaye olarak tatmin edici değildi. Onu oraya götür, şu bozulmuş tamir et. Bunların peşinde saatlerce koşmak istemedim.

    Konuşmayan karakterimizle, tesiste yaşanan felaket hikayesiyle bana Half Life'ı anımsattı. Keşfe açık olması, her yere girip çıkabilmeniz ve keşfederken kullanacağınız yöntemin (hack, ağır eşya kaldırma gibi) tamamen sizin oyun tarzınıza ve dağıttığınız skill puanlarına göre belirlenmesi serbest bir oyun deneyimi sağlıyor. Skilleriniz ikiye ayrılıyor, büyü gibi doğa üstü yetenekler ya da mühendislik falan yeteneğiniz artırdığınız insani yetenekler. Büyü çok kasarsanız korkunç yaratıklar peşinize düşüyor, daha çok kaos oluyor, normalde size saldırmayan taretler sizi düşman olarak algılıyor.

    Oyundaki craft sistemini beğendim. Topladığınız ıvır zıvırı geri dönüşümde organik madde gibi şeylere dönüştürüp, 3d yazıcıda onları hammadde olarak kullanıyorsunuz.

    Düşmanlar çok çeşitli olmasa da yaklaşımınız düşman türüne göre değişiyor. Hepsinin zaafı olan silah veya skill farklı. O nedenle tek bir silahla oynayamıyorsunuz.

    Hikaye anlatım tekniğini çok sevmedim. Notlar, ses kayıtları ya da telefonla görüşmelerle hikaye anlatılıyor. Bunları takip etmesi bir süre sonra yorucu hale geliyor.

    Oyunun sonunu yani yaşadıklarımızın bir simülasyon olduğunu tahmin etmiştim ama yarı insan yarı yaratık olduğunu ve dünyanın zaten mahvolduğunu düşünememiştim.

    Sonuçta teoride güzel oyun olsa da atmosferi ve tekrar eden görev yapısı nedeniyle bir süre sonra sıkıyor.    … Expand
  18. Mullon
    Jun 18, 2022
    7
    It's okay? It's a perfectly serviceable immersive sim with all the bits you like that work competently. If you can't play Deus Ex or System Shock or BioShock or Dishonored and need an immersive sim fix you should give Prey a shot. It has all the stuff you like, the email reading from Deus Ex, the stealth parkour from Dishonored, the history buff lore from BioShock, the space stationIt's okay? It's a perfectly serviceable immersive sim with all the bits you like that work competently. If you can't play Deus Ex or System Shock or BioShock or Dishonored and need an immersive sim fix you should give Prey a shot. It has all the stuff you like, the email reading from Deus Ex, the stealth parkour from Dishonored, the history buff lore from BioShock, the space station crawling with alien monsters from System Shock, the weapon and ability upgrades from Deus Ex, the audio logs from System Shock, (the headcrabs from Half-Life), and the morality choices from Dishonored. Just don't play Prey if you want something novel, or a mystery that pays off, or an ending that's satisfying.… Expand
  19. petrkozak13
    Dec 15, 2022
    7
    This game is not for everybody. I expected "Dishonored in space" and that's not exactly what Prey is. It's way more stealth based, slow and your character is for most of the game hugely under-powered. I love Arkane and Prey definitely isn't a bad game, just a one I didn't enjoy as much as I thought.
  20. rodericrinehart
    Jan 2, 2018
    6
    Prey has elements that are 9/10 or better and other parts that are 4/10 or worse. It has a solid story, good atmosphere and ambience, and only crashed once. I couldn't stand the repetitive traveling in zones and I really didn't enjoy the combat. I would've much preferred a 6 hour game with the story compacted in there. Honestly, I would've preferred Prey as a walking simulator - and I'mPrey has elements that are 9/10 or better and other parts that are 4/10 or worse. It has a solid story, good atmosphere and ambience, and only crashed once. I couldn't stand the repetitive traveling in zones and I really didn't enjoy the combat. I would've much preferred a 6 hour game with the story compacted in there. Honestly, I would've preferred Prey as a walking simulator - and I'm someone who loves Deus Ex and Dishonored and enjoyed Bioshock, but I was just waiting on this game to end the last half or more. The stealth options are not anywhere near what Dishonored or Deus Ex bring.… Expand
  21. kingzardoz
    May 27, 2017
    6
    If you've played Deus Ex and Bioshock/system shock 2 then you don't really need to play this game. Prey copies parts from those games and doesn't bother to put a new spin on anything. The first half of the game is ok but eventually you run out of new enemies and weapons and it just gets boring. The side quests have mostly interesting stories but there is a lot of backtracking andIf you've played Deus Ex and Bioshock/system shock 2 then you don't really need to play this game. Prey copies parts from those games and doesn't bother to put a new spin on anything. The first half of the game is ok but eventually you run out of new enemies and weapons and it just gets boring. The side quests have mostly interesting stories but there is a lot of backtracking and eventually I just got tired of it all. I played the game on nightmare and overall it was easy until the heavy robots show up at the end and then I had to emp and hack everything at which point the game became tedious 100% of the time. The devs ran out of interesting and new combat scenarios and eventually you're just running around with no interesting gameplay while you move the story forward. The story is interesting though and it certainly does provide a fun twist on a bioshock like story but without interesting combat you're just running around pushing buttons and looking at loading screens. If you are going to play this game I would suggest playing it on Normal or Hard difficulty because Nightmare will just add to the tedium for the last 30-40% of the game.… Expand
  22. Avadon
    May 21, 2017
    6
    Prey is a slow-burning survival-shooter in the vein of System Shock. It could have been amazing, but unfortunately the developers made a lot of mistakes:

    Lots of bugs, characters and quests glitching out, some hard crashes, several occasions where you go through a door and you lose items from your inventory which is devastating. Not good. It needs a lot of patching. Severe lack of    Prey is a slow-burning survival-shooter in the vein of System Shock. It could have been amazing, but unfortunately the developers made a lot of mistakes:

    Lots of bugs, characters and quests glitching out, some hard crashes, several occasions where you go through a door and you lose items from your inventory which is devastating. Not good. It needs a lot of patching.

    Severe lack of enemy variety. There's only like 5 different enemies in the game. Some of them are the same enemy, but they shoot fire instead of energy or are slightly harder variations.. Some of them you only encounter once or twice.

    The weapons feel very underpowered (even when upgraded) up until you get the Q Beam which kills even the toughest enemies within 5 seconds and doesn't even use up a lot of ammo. It's jarring, there's a crazy lack of balancing that would at least make everything moderately useful. You can craft a lot of things in the game, but the only things worth crafting are neuromods and Q Beam ammo.

    Because almost all the weapons are bad, you are encouraged to use turrets to do your work for you, but they are also useless. You set up a turret and, even against the weaker enemies, it's a diceroll whether they do the instant-teleport-melee attack which knocks the turret over and destroys it, or they sit there and get shot to death. You just sit there and reload until it works out. You might as well not bother and use the Gloo gun + Wrench against everything, until the enemies can't be killed by anything other than the Q Beam. Really dumb.

    There's a story, but for the first 15+ hours of the game nothing really happens. You are only fed tiny bits of information. If you play games for the story, you will probably get bored here before the story starts going.

    The sound levels are seriously broken. Playing with headphones, sounds of things that are next to you randomly disappear, while you can clearly hear an enemy that's 2 floors above you like it's licking your ear. Audiolog/dialogue/ambient sound mixing is completely broken, with ambient sounds often drowning dialogue and other important things.

    There are glimpses of brilliance in Prey (the level design, soundtrack and atmosphere are great), but they get smothered in bad decisions and technical issues. Get it on sale after they patch it up.    … Expand
  23. ultraviper
    Feb 6, 2020
    6
    A decent game with a few bad issues.

    The pacing is way off. Powers are unlocked super slow for the first 2/3 of the game. You can't experiment with all the different powers available to you because there aren't enough ability points to try them, and there is way way to reset your points to put them into other things. Then during the last 1/3 of the game, you get more ability points than    A decent game with a few bad issues.

    The pacing is way off. Powers are unlocked super slow for the first 2/3 of the game. You can't experiment with all the different powers available to you because there aren't enough ability points to try them, and there is way way to reset your points to put them into other things. Then during the last 1/3 of the game, you get more ability points than you know what to do with.

    The backtracking is excessive. I started skipping side quests during the last half of the game just because I didn't want go to back the same areas I've already been to 4 or 5 times for other side quests.

    The enemies hit too hard. I was playing on the normal difficulty and just about everything kills in 2 hits. There are 2 settings higher than normal so normal probably should have been toned down. Lots of fights I only got through by save scumming or cheesing the AI. Speaking of save scumming, the "quick load" key should load the last point where I used quick save, NOT the last time the game decided to auto save on its own (usually in the middle of a fight where I'm at 5 health).

    The nightmare events should have just been removed from the game. A giant alien comes from nowhere and you have to kill it or hide. Killing is out of the question because it just takes too much ammo, health, etc. So hide it is. You have to hide for 3 minutes. Three. minutes. Nobody likes sitting in a game doing nothing for 3 minutes. It's not fun, it will never be fun. But this game has you do it over and over and over again.

    Also there are two loading screens for every transition for some reason? The first loading screen actually has a progress bar, then when it fills up, it goes to... another loading screen, this one without a progress bar. Weird design choice.    … Expand
  24. sweet
    Dec 21, 2022
    6
    I could have liked this game a lot if it weren't for the banal techbro plot that was obvious from the very beginning. When you know where the story is ultimately going, it's not conducive to making people care about what happens along the way.

    There was plenty of other stuff not to like too, like the resource harvesting grind, the unsatisfying and overly complex combat against damage    I could have liked this game a lot if it weren't for the banal techbro plot that was obvious from the very beginning. When you know where the story is ultimately going, it's not conducive to making people care about what happens along the way.

    There was plenty of other stuff not to like too, like the resource harvesting grind, the unsatisfying and overly complex combat against damage sponge enemies that are much the same black smear or annoying bots.

    There's one enemy that is hilariously lame and deserves special mention, because I think it's one of the most poorly designed enemies I have experienced in gaming. When you encounter this enemy, literally the best way of dealing with it is to simply walk away and do something else or check your phone for a few minutes while it's screeching away in the background. Yeah, it's an enemy so ridiculous the best way of beating is to stop playing the game!

    There was plenty of good too, like the exploration, interesting and much more enjoyable side quests, organic upgrading and the multiple approaches to objectives. A lot of this was well thought out and I had a lot of fun trying different things, or even discovering I could have done *this* instead of *that*. The good stuff was good enough to keep me going through the whole game to the end.

    Unfortunately the obviousness of the main story and the complete apathy it induced towards the NPCs and the main quest ruined the game for me. I was hoping it was going to surprise and not do the obvious, but it didn't. I killed them all in the end, and didn't feel bad about it in the least.

    Also, the game seemed to become increasingly unstable the further I progressed, with crashes on transitioning maps, disappearing weapons, passive enemies and more.

    I'd like to see another game with the good parts but with a less brain dead setting and more interesting enemies.    … Expand
  25. AJCk19
    Jul 19, 2023
    6
    It is definitely not terrible, but it doesn't do anything to reinvent the wheel for anything. My best description of it gameplay wise—is a new gen 4k remaster of something like Dino Crisis, Resident Evil 1, or/and Dead Space.

    However if you are new to this type of stuff or haven't really been able to get your survival horror fix in a while. This game is going to be at least a 9 out of    It is definitely not terrible, but it doesn't do anything to reinvent the wheel for anything. My best description of it gameplay wise—is a new gen 4k remaster of something like Dino Crisis, Resident Evil 1, or/and Dead Space.

    However if you are new to this type of stuff or haven't really been able to get your survival horror fix in a while. This game is going to be at least a 9 out of 10 for you.    … Expand
  26. Sjalka
    May 20, 2017
    6
    What i liked about Prey:
    - the Art-Deco design and the overall design of the environment in terms of immersion - at least in the context of a sci-fi space station that defies basic physics like gravity.
    - the general level design and complexity of the environment (meaning clutter and overall immersion of walking around something that has been lived in and used) - the story - which is    What i liked about Prey:
    - the Art-Deco design and the overall design of the environment in terms of immersion - at least in the context of a sci-fi space station that defies basic physics like gravity.
    - the general level design and complexity of the environment (meaning clutter and overall immersion of walking around something that has been lived in and used)
    - the story - which is not very deep and complex (its rather a 101 sci-fi "wake-up-no-idea-what-happened" story) but well presented via visuals and conclusions.

    What i do not like:
    - the gunplay - i cannot pin it down to a single reason - but i find the pacing unsatisfying. Weapons feel to have very little impact imo and or feel odd.
    - the AI - and i do not mean that the AI is particularly bad. But i felt like - at least in my experience so far - the AI seemed to charge into melee range in an instant most of the time - and kind of exploited the VERY narrow field of view; with the hit indicators being quite imprecise.
    - the aliens are anything but scary. There are a few jump scares - but their design is simply too simple.

    Also - and maybe it is just me, because i only casually played the game so far - the ability to mimic objects might be too perfect. They jump out of no-where. I would have preferred it if they imitated an object "almost" perfectly - so that i would be forced to pay much more attention to detail to spot them. Since they seem to be perfect in that regard - i do not need to pay much attention at all - i just need good reflexes.

    All in all it did not quite catch me with its atmosphere and immersion. The gunplay is not satisfying and the story is average.... which leaves me with an average product.
    Is is worth playing? sure - average is not bad ...
    Will it provide an exceptional experience (like the first time one played Bioshock maybe)? - no, i don't think so - but it is a solid time waster.    … Expand
  27. ozymandias79
    Jun 8, 2017
    6
    So the bad guys are mostly various iterations of black goo and you even have a goo gun. Too much goo. It's hard to like Prey when it uses cryengine and doesn't look as good as Crysis 3 which is 4 years old. Mission objective's are vague, the intro tutorial is retarded, the weapons are pathetic, and there aren't enough recycler/fabricator stations to off-load all the crap you accumulate.So the bad guys are mostly various iterations of black goo and you even have a goo gun. Too much goo. It's hard to like Prey when it uses cryengine and doesn't look as good as Crysis 3 which is 4 years old. Mission objective's are vague, the intro tutorial is retarded, the weapons are pathetic, and there aren't enough recycler/fabricator stations to off-load all the crap you accumulate. Too much time is wasted finding keycards and passcodes. I'm not even going to comment on the hacking minigames. The story and ending are a bit weak too and predicable. Prey could be a lot better at all levels.… Expand
  28. singlungchan
    Jul 9, 2017
    6
    You either follow the story closely or not. I did and the game was super interesting to me. Then I hit about 70% of the game and a lot of mission failing bugs started to show, although fixable when replayed. At about the same time the game-play starts to become really annoying. The story saves it as it is super interesting, because I wasn't sure what to think most of the time. TheYou either follow the story closely or not. I did and the game was super interesting to me. Then I hit about 70% of the game and a lot of mission failing bugs started to show, although fixable when replayed. At about the same time the game-play starts to become really annoying. The story saves it as it is super interesting, because I wasn't sure what to think most of the time. The environment, while quite big, feels kind of cheap as do the enemies. In the second half of the game I juggled a lot between interested and annoyed. Good game overall, but the mediocre game-play holds it back. The exploration and story are still very good though.… Expand
  29. Ldt1
    Apr 27, 2020
    6
    This is such a unique game, i love games like system shock/ bioshock and was a massive fan of the original prey, i brought the game years ago and just never got round to playing it, so with the lockdown atm i thought now is the time! Ok first things first the game world/ space station is very nicely designed the devs obviously put alot of time / effort into it, and it shows although itThis is such a unique game, i love games like system shock/ bioshock and was a massive fan of the original prey, i brought the game years ago and just never got round to playing it, so with the lockdown atm i thought now is the time! Ok first things first the game world/ space station is very nicely designed the devs obviously put alot of time / effort into it, and it shows although it must be said that even though this game is a few years old now even taking that into account the visuals are quite dated looking but being an old skool gamer pretty graphics is just a bonus if the game plays well, great! npc's/ enemies look terrible im talking ps2 era terrible and you cant help but keep noticing that, npcs they kind of get away with, but the bland enemy designs are lazy, im not exaggerating when i say 90% are different shaped purple blobs, with a few nice touches in between which i wont spoil, considering this is using the cryengine technically it is a mess and kind of broken, from some of the longest load times ive seen in 10 years and thats using an ssd to broken frame rates when alot is happening on screen multiple times especially with multiple lasers it dropped to 5-6 fps a few times i just assumed it crashed, there is also a crazy amount of bugs, from getting stuck in floors to quests glitching out to the classic out of no where u go flying across the screen to game over from nothing. Being published by bethesda at first i actually just assumed it was using their engine as the problems r very similar to fallout 4 and the game is very similar graphically especially with the crazy long load times on area change so i was surprised to see it was cryengine which is a technically impressive engine. So is the gameplay good? yes it is, you will start off seeing a single normal phantom as a 1 man army you try and take down, to 20+hours in expertly flying round cleverly using the games unique gloo gun to plan your routes, right from the start its clear u have to be careful with your resources which you do find everywhere but alot of it is recycling junk / unwanted items to then fabricate items you need, and it works superbly, multiple times i was preying (pun intended) for a recycle/ fabricate station to appear round the next corner, or those moments when i thought oh nice! gloo gun ammo! i kind of wish they had used more of the soundtrack / music as its really good and adds to the atmosphere just not enough of it, the sound effects are unique though if nothing special, there is a classic upgrade system for weapons and (skills) via mods which again works ok and plays a part in the story, again nothing special tbh its all been done before, and the story which is a big part of this game is a nice idea but unfortunately again very avg/ txt book and again all been done before, i did enjoy it but its been done alot better in other games like ones mentioned above. So it comes down to do the technical problems and other stuff spoil the game? well no not completely anyway but yes they did have a massive negative impact on the game overall for me, without spoilers towards endgame u have to traverse across the station which again is very txt book videogame and theres nothing wrong with that but i ended up thinking did the devs actually play this bit? in 1 mad dash bit across different areas it was literally 50% load times and again bear in mind im using an ssd on a decent gaming rig, for someone on an avg setup using an old skool hdd it is gonna be very frustrating. Its prey only in name :(
    Graphics 6
    Sound 7
    Gameplay 7
    Story 5
    6/10    … Expand
  30. dypsomaniart
    May 27, 2017
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I have played through to finish.
    This game was exciting in spots, satisfying in spots, interesting and cool to explore for a while.
    Then the limited ammo and the respawning enemies started to become a drag, there were a few glitches and un-finishable quests for me, the missions and re-visiting areas became not fun at all because of the micromanaging and balancing use of scarce resources, and when I finally finished it, they tell me it was all a freaking SIMULATION and none of it meant anything?!
    I was so deflated after finishing this game, I really wish I'd never bothered, what a total lack of payoff for all the troubles and stress endured throughout the game.
    To sum up: Gaming should be fun, this was largely not fun, I persisted through it because it seemed to be going somewhere and I wanted to see how it ended, but the ending turned out rubbish.
    Don't know what the developers were thinking, this game doesnt deserve the Prey namesake.    … Expand
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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

Critic Reviews

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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
  1. Quarter to Three
    Nov 15, 2017
    60
    Many of its elements never quite come together, so there’s no payoff. The clumsy human stories, the botched difficulty curve, the dangling gameplay threads, the pointless decisions, the cool 3D printer scavenging economy, the coral, the hunters, the various survivors who need saving. If I never had fewer than a dozen mana potions, what did it matter whether I did the quest to put mana healing into the water supply?
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  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jul 5, 2017
    100
    Prey offers one of the best gaming environments in the history and builds on it its sophisticated, exciting, and unusually entertaining gameplay. A weaker story and sometimes too high difficulty does not change the fact that Arkane studios has once again produced something special. [Issue#275]
  3. PC PowerPlay
    Jun 30, 2017
    80
    A great game of action and exploration, with rich, interlocking mechanics. May be a little bit derivative, but a tonne of fun nonetheless. [Issue#263, p.56]
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