I think it’s supposed to come out today, though I thought I saw it on the shelves already at CompUSA a couple days ago. I’m a little burned out on FPS even though the last several have been pretty well done (F.E.A.R., HL2: EP1, etc.). However, I’m tempted to pick this one up based on good reactions from they guys at PC GAMER magazine on their PC Gamer Podcast. Among other things they praise the storyline, which is nice.
Anyone got it? Anyone interested? If I pick it up, I’ll post my reactions here in this thread, if requested.
I’m slowly playing through it (slowly, I say, because I’m in the middle of moving). I’m enjoying it, although I think the use of portals is being done more as a gimmick than anything else (boy, the portals would’ve rocked in [IAmerican McGee’s Alice*. The storyline seems kind of interesting, but I don’t know how much story they’re going to have when you spend the entire game inside a giant spaceship.
One thing I don’t much care for are the weapons- so far, they’re nothing really new (except for the gun that changes depending on what node you drain, but even that one seems to result in fairly typical shot effects).
Definately liked the demo, but I did feel like they had developed a lot of really cool concepts but then didn’t and weren’t going to use them to their fullest.
Short, simple, graphics are major on the cheap, but it demonstrates and executes a really neat gameplay concept. Valve hired these guys and is supposedly going to release a game called “Portals” set in the HL2 universe that features this as a real gameplay element.
There is supposedly a modification for Prey that allows you to create portals yourself.
It’s nice to know that even in the face of alien armaggedon, psuedo-Native American mumbo jumbo is there to save us. :rolleyes: And it’s trying way too hard to be Half-Life.
That said, not bad. The portals and wall walks are cool, and the magic powers are not bad, once you get past their presentation. I did like how you have to fight to come back to life.
I liked the demo, but I heard that the full game clocks in at something like 8 hours or less, even if you take your time to appreciate the details (like the Coast to Coast radio call-in). The gravity is interesting, and the multiplayer levels show that an FPS has finally gotten the idea that concepts like “up” don’t have to be constants.
That being said, I wouldn’t buy it at full price. Drop it down to $25, and then we’re talkin’.
I got the full game and finished it this weekend (yeah, I need to get a life…). The Pros and Cons listed above seem pretty accurate to my experience.
One big pro is that there were very few of those “where the fuck do I go now?” moments, which I hate. Which might be a con to the people who complain about games being “on rails”.
Well here’s my review, having played through what I think is about half the game.
Overall, I’m finding it enjoyable. The game is based on the Doom 3 engine and it certainly shows. Every texture is shiny and, for the most part, the “environment” boils down to a series of hallways and rooms. Things are dark. The good news is that it isn’t as maddeningly dark as Doom3. So far there have been only a few instances to use the flashlight…err, I mean Zippo lighter, and they’ve only been for a brief second. No firefights in the dark.
The game is fairly creepy, though in a “messed up” sort of way rather than a Doom3 “monster closet” or a F.E.A.R. “what the fuck was that shadow?” kind of way. It’s the basic malevolent alien abduction type thing (though I’ve heard the plot develops a bit more later), but the interspersal of real-world pieces gives a somewhat haunting quality (i.e. a crashed passenger plane, school bus, etc.)
The whole gravity manipulation thing is interesting, though a bit nauseating at first. All in all mostly a gimmick, though it’s good to see some FPS conventions being challenged. As Revtim noted, there aren’t many “where do I go” moments, mostly because you can assume that when you hit a dead end, it’s simply a matter of flipping gravity somehow and walking out the door on the ceiling. I’d say, though, that the rooms are strange enough (it is an alien spaceship after all, I guess) that you never really get the gee wiz feeling of walking on the walls or ceiling. It’d be interesting to be able to tromp though a normal house with gravity flipping abilities. Make me a ninja and I’m there! I guess you could sort of do this already with the aliens in Aliens Vs Predators many years ago. Again, though, just futuristic space hallways.
Generally great weapons make a great FPS. What would Half-Life 2 be without the gravity gun. Prey somewhat disappoints here. Your standard, ever present gun is rather lackluster in both sound and visual effects. The fact that you can use the secondary like a sniper rifle makes it somewhat remisicient of the pistol in Halo, though somehow not as cool. The leech gun is a cool idea, though. Basically this gun and suck one of (so far) 3 types of energy to use as a weapon. Lightning energy is probably the best, which makes it something like a cross between a railgun and HL’s gauss gun. There’s also a cold energy which makes it some kind of close-range freeze torch. And finally a “red” energy which makes it just about the most run of the mill plasma gun since the original Doom plasma. The other gun I’ve got so far is a very lackluster (and extrememly weak) chaingun with a secondary as a grenade launcher. It seems there are two more guns left to come, but taking simply a WILD ASS GUESS I imagine them to be some variant of a shotgun and/or a rocket launcher. We’ll see if they’re any fun.
