Arkane PREY - Arkane's immersive coffee cup transformation sim - now with Mooncrash roguelike mode DLC

[Durandal]

literally bioshock in space

 

[Latelistener]

>TranStar

 

[Morgoth]

I want to be a TrannyStar.

 

[Siel]

I liked the music in the trailer.

... then I remembered Mick Gordon was doing the actual game music.

 

[Leechmonger]

Those enemies look so unsatisfying to shoot.

 

[Siel]

“We never became involved in a discussion about taking over the Prey IP,” Colantonio continues as we dive deeper into the surprise resurrection of this seemingly dead franchise. “We were already making a game that was set in space, and had aliens, and was in first-person with all these interesting mechanics. Then Prey 2 got cancelled and, given the timing, the opportunity was there. The name became available, and it’s a great name for a game. Our game had a like-minded premise, so [Bethesda] asked us, ‘how do you feel about taking on the name?’”

“If you look closely at Arkane Studios,” points out Colantonio, “you can see we started with Arx Fatalis, which was a homage to the Looking Glass developed game Underworld. Those same people made System Shock, which was Underworld in space. Then those same people made BioShock, which was System Shock under water. So when people say our Prey is like BioShock in space, I find it funny. Yes, we’re influenced by the Looking Glass way of thinking – in fact we have some of them as employees – so the Looking Glass spirit is very much a part of Arkane.”

“We wanted Prey to feel grounded in the real world,” lead designer Riccardo Bare reveals as he sets the scene for the game’s playground. “So we went back to the 1950s and the Soviet versus USA space race: then we began to twist things. We posed what if questions, like, ‘what if JFK didn’t die? What if he had then doubled-down on the space race?’ In that world, by the year 2035, the technology will be way more advanced than it is in our real world.”

“Events unfold on their own,” confirms Colantonio. “We rely a lot on a simulation engine as we really like that kind of game. Take the Mimic for example, an alien that can turn into any object – that’s never scripted. Even the designers don’t know what objects it is going to turn into: it can just make the decision in the middle of combat and go, ‘I want to hide now, what’s around?’ There are other interactions that happen across the station that you may or may not witness, depending on whether you are there.”

“Think of the crafting system as the 3D printer of the future. You can break an object down into its ingredients, then find a fabricator and, if you have the plan – and there is a plan for every object in the game – you can create it. So you can adapt to your playstyle; you may want to break down all your shotgun shells so you can make more medikits, for example. You can choose to ignore this economy of the game completely, but as you can recycle things, I think most people will use it”

“Actually, Metroid is a good analogy for Prey. Everything is continuous and it all makes sense as one space, as opposed to abstract missions that are separated from each other. So you can always go back to old places and unlock areas or shortcuts.”

“There are two families of neuromod upgrades,” Bare explains. “One family is human-related, like being a better hacker or better at computer science.” One such ability is Leverage, which gives you the strength to pick up and move large objects. We saw how this ability can be upgraded: initially it only helps in clearing areas to aid progression, but by level 3 it’s a key part of your arsenal, enabling you to heave giant objects across the room and down corridors with impressive force.

“The other neuromod family is alien-related,” Bare continues. “The way that you upgrade these powers in Prey is by studying the aliens, and what you unlock is based on what aliens you meet and study. So your power is directly related to them and some are harder to study than others. You may need to glue one into place, for example, so you can use the psycho-scope – an item you collect – to gather data about them.”

“Some of the aliens on the space station are sensitive to the player upgrading themselves,” adds Bare. “The more of those alien upgrades you put into your brain, the more that aliens can sense that there is another animal with powers like them – and they will come after you. So you might be in the middle of the game, you install an alien neuromod, and then you hear a roar because they are on to you.”

“We love to be surprised by the mechanics. If a playtester shows us a shortcut they’ve worked out using the tools, we shrug and go, ‘well, it is what it is.’ We could block it or stop it, but it’s more fun to just say ‘yes’ to the player. Some people will find shortcuts by using our tools in ways we did not think of, and I think that is cool. We like to reward players on the goal, not define how they get there as that does not matter.”

“In our scenario, where JFK survived, the space station has been orbiting the moon since the 1960s,” Bare offers as an example. “Over the decades they kept building and it kept getting bigger, so you can see those layers on top of each other. So you will walk into areas that have a design informed by the sixties and seventies. You might peel back the layers further and find a lab that feels Soviet and submarine looking. This feeling is subtle; you just pick up on it subconsciously as you play.”

“When we started to work on the aliens, we wanted to stay away from the main archetypes everybody uses: the insectoid, the humanoid with the big head and so forth. We ended up going towards the paranormal, more immaterial and ethereal feel, with psionic powers. They look different, but they are all connected together. I can’t tell you more about their home planet and motivations without revealing something key to the story, but they all have a purpose. As individuals, but also as a race.”

“Even though there are horrific moments and it can get scary, the game is not focused on tension and survival. We say it’s more psychological because from the very start we raise that question about identity and you working yourself out. Who are you?”

“The survivors can help you figure out who you are,” suggests Colantonio. “For example, one character might want something from you, and another character something else; so you must choose which way to go. You get to interact with them and choose their fate, most of the time. And those decisions will have a big impact on the ending.”

http://www.pcpowerplay.com.au/featu...dium=social&utm_campaign=pcpowerplay_autopost

 

[Ivan]

sounds like System Fatalis

 

[Machocruz]

Inb4 play testers never make it to Deck 2 because an alien told them they couldn't go there.

 

[Drakron]

Sounds stupid.

The US won the space race you retards, they only won the Man on the Moon race but that was enough as the Soviets kinda dropped out and since that was the last, that was the last ... JFK "doubled down" on the Space Race but that didnt change the lead the Soviets had and they continued to be First until Man on the Moon that gone to USA and their own troubles with their program made then kinda drop out.

Also the Looking Glass analogy is also stupid because Looking Glass was long closed when BioShock come out AND Ken Levine worked on both System Shock 2 and BioShock, nobody would fault then from using the "Shock" (that they didnt do because EA owned it) since a key person was involved and the studio was dead, in Prey case not only its using the name entirely but also the studio is still alive without being owned by Bethesda but nobody from the first Prey game seem to be involved with this one, I get you dont want to say your owner basically scammed the name out of the creators and you are using it but really, if people are saying your game looks like this other game in space, that is not very favorable.

 

[Siel]

New gameplay demo this Thursday:
https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/803298187033251842

 

[LESS T_T]

9 minutes of gameplay released with GameInformer cover reveal: http://www.gameinformer.com/p/prey.aspx

Not available on YouTube at the moment.

 

[HoboForEternity]

fascist racist gameinformer cannot be opened in my country
fuck them all to death

 

[Sentinel]

that fucking gameplay
lmao
the most boring 9 minutes of my life holy shit
Can't believe Chris Avellone is wasting his fucking time with this garbage

 

[LESS T_T]

fascist racist gameinformer cannot be opened in my country
fuck them all to death

FREE THE INTERNET (skip to 2:14 for 9 minutes gameplay)

 

[Siel]

 

[Morgoth]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2016/12/01/why-relaunch-prey-anyway.aspx

Why Relaunch Prey, Anyway?

The original Prey came out about a decade ago, and a sequel was planned and later killed by publisher Bethesda. When Arkane revealed it was developing a new sci-fi game featuring aliens, and that it was named Prey, it seemed strange. Why reference a game that many had forgotten about – if they knew about it in the first place? Even though the action is set in lunar orbit, the reasons behind the decision are much more grounded, as we learned after speaking with Bethesda and Arkane about the project for our cover story.

When Arkane first began kicking around the idea of Prey, the name wasn’t even on its radar. As founder and creative director Raphael Colantonio recalls, the studio wanted to create a game where players were trapped in a relatively small space, being hunted. They realized a space station would be a perfect setting for such a game, and the rest of the game fell into place from that point.

As it happened, Bethesda owned the Prey IP, which seemed like a solid fit for Arkane’s new game. Or, at least, the name did. “We felt like, at its core, we liked the basic idea of Prey and what it represented in terms of aliens and you being hunted and on the run,” says Pete Hines, vice president of PR and marketing at Bethesda. “And we thought it was a cool name. If you remove for a moment the notion of any game called Prey previously, we just thought it was a cool name that evoked what this game was about. In the discussions we had with Arkane, they were like, ‘Look, if we can do everything that we have planned and whatever we want and not be beholden to anything anyone has done – shipped or canceled – and just reimagine what Prey means going forward, then we’re totally on board for that.”

Arkane is starting its game with a clean slate. There aren’t any references to the previous game, its aliens, or anything else from the past. While Hines recognizes that some players have some history with the name, it ultimately doesn’t matter as they move forward. “Whether Prey is good or bad is going to be entirely dependent on what those guys ship next spring,” he says.

 

[Morgoth]

Here is the gameplay video in glorious 60 fps:

 

[Ivan]

first person platform gun. nice. hope it's not a gimmick like Thiaf Rope Arrows.

if they nail down ammo scarcity, this could be a solid follow up to the Shock series. really want to see inventory, ammo, and combat mechanics, skills?

gameplay video:

weapon degradation
status effect on player
grid based inventory
mimic ability used for "stealth," propelling oneself in a given direction, and bypassing locked rooms
enemies must be identified (reveal weakness?)
powers can be augmented (lift lv 1,2,3) no sign of weapon modding or upgrades just yet
sadly it doesn't look like there are any weapon proficiency stats


the game looks very sleek, sterile.

 

[Morgoth]

Yeah, gives me the Shock2 vibes. They even got the shitty weapon sounds right.

 

[Rahdulan]

That was actually rather impressive, although I guess it'll depend on how much was made for presentations and how much for genuine functionality. Could've done without loading screens, though.

 

[karfhud]

Looks promising, although so far the "RPG" side seems to come down to choosing which alien abilities you pick.

Also, was there any clarification on what was MCA's role in Prey's development?

 

[Infinitron]

Prey isn't an RPG and isn't being marketed as one.

 

[DosBuster]

MCA is writing a lot of the side characters so I presume that means we'll see his writing mostly in the side quests.
This game looks good though.

 

[toro]

Color me impressed. This might be a competent SS2 homage.

+ open-world station (go anywhere from the start !?),
+ grid inventory,
+ weapons are rare,
+ glue weapon is original,
+ recycling balls look interesting,
+ research aliens for weaknesses,
+ recorded logs everywhere,
+ modified CryEngine 3,
- aliens design is meh (I prefer something with blood),
- mimic power (aliens also have some kind of blink).

It looks much better than Dishonored just because they toned down the retarded powers.

Also it looks more like a combination between Bioshock and Dead Space than SS2 (doesn't matter anyway).

They just need a good story and we are ready to go.

 

[HoboForEternity]

there's gonna be one hell of brand confusion between this, system shock remake and system shock 3