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

[RoSoDude]

Mimic looks "fun", but if you can cheese through the whole game with it, then it's a bad thing. Same thing with Dishonored's powers; Blink and Bend Time are "fun", but make the game boringly easy. And it's not just because they're cheap, it's shit like recharging energy that does this. If you didn't get >80% of your mana back after using an ability, you would have to be a lot more careful about how and when you use your OP powers.

My prediction is that, just like with Dishonored, I'm going to have to impose restrictions on myself to have any fun with this game. What sucks is there's actually potential. I love the AI system that dynamically has mimics turning into nearby physics objects when you approach. That's actually a pretty novel thing. But will it even matter if I don't have to interact with it as a threat that takes resources and planning to overcome?

 

[Siel]

Mimic looks "fun", but if you can cheese through the whole game with it, then it's a bad thing. Same thing with Dishonored's powers; Blink and Bend Time are "fun", but make the game boringly easy. And it's not just because they're cheap, it's shit like recharging energy that does this. If you didn't get >80% of your mana back after using an ability, you would have to be a lot more careful about how and when you use your OP powers.

My prediction is that, just like with Dishonored, I'm going to have to impose restrictions on myself to have any fun with this game. What sucks is there's actually potential. I love the AI system that dynamically has mimics turning into nearby physics objects when you approach. That's actually a pretty novel thing. But will it even matter if I don't have to interact with it as a threat that takes resources and planning to overcome?

Prey doesn't have mana regen. Plus there are cooldowns on abilities.

 

[RoSoDude]

Mimic looks "fun", but if you can cheese through the whole game with it, then it's a bad thing. Same thing with Dishonored's powers; Blink and Bend Time are "fun", but make the game boringly easy. And it's not just because they're cheap, it's shit like recharging energy that does this. If you didn't get >80% of your mana back after using an ability, you would have to be a lot more careful about how and when you use your OP powers.

My prediction is that, just like with Dishonored, I'm going to have to impose restrictions on myself to have any fun with this game. What sucks is there's actually potential. I love the AI system that dynamically has mimics turning into nearby physics objects when you approach. That's actually a pretty novel thing. But will it even matter if I don't have to interact with it as a threat that takes resources and planning to overcome?

Prey doesn't have mana regen. Plus there are cooldowns on abilities.

I don't know what the final mechanics will be, or how challenging the game will be as a result. I'm making a prediction about the sort of design principles I expect from Prey, given what I've seen from Dishonored 1 & 2. I will be very happy if I am wrong and this game kicks your ass unless you make smart choices and play well.

 

[Durandal]

Prey doesn't have mana regen. Plus there are cooldowns on abilities.

You know, I don't really trust Arkane to balance things out with mana regen or even mana potions anymore, to the point where I have more faith in them using cooldowns in order to not make abilities easy to overuse

no Arkane game had any meaningful mana resource management to begin with

 

[Siel]

Prey doesn't have mana regen. Plus there are cooldowns on abilities.

You know, I don't really trust Arkane to balance things out with mana regen or even mana potions anymore, to the point where I have more faith in them using cooldowns in order to not make abilities easy to overuse

no Arkane game had any meaningful mana resource management to begin with

I can agree with you still the initial mana concept for Dishonored where health was consumed instead was pretty meaningful to me.
Then again no chance something like that would pass Bethesda QA sessions.

 

[LESS T_T]

So I searched briefly, one preview mentioned the system: http://monstervine.com/2017/02/prey-preview-a-look-at-arkanes-sci-fi-thriller/

Some more notes from the demo:
[...]

• There are status effects, like poisoned or shocked.
• There’s an enemy called the Nightmare that will chase you down and give you fear, which disrupts your screen and movement.

Though it doesn't sound like he experienced that in demo itself. (Maybe he just heard it from Arkane.)

 

[ciox]

I really don't think they removed all those powers, if you look carefully you'll see all the icons have to do with things not present in the short demo:
- Waves Head Icon - psionics, not in demo
- Masked Head Icon - oxygen efficiency, space stuff not in demo
- Pills/Psi Hypo Icons - chems and psi hypo efficiency, not in demo

There's still those two unused tabs but I couldn't say for sure if they actually were used.
Also it's interesting to compare the HUD pics and see what they changed, like shuffling the menu order and resizing the neuromods icon and stuff like that.

 

[V_K]

Yeah, come to think of it - why would they have a whole "Status" menu if there weren't going to be status effects? And the other two shown skilltrees are way more extensive. Would be rather unbalanced if the scientist one in the final game was twice shorter than the other two.

 

[Siel]

Plus at 18:55 you can clearly hear bones breaking:



I guess it wouldn't be good PR to have journos limping during the whole session.

 

[LESS T_T]

"Journalist Mode™"

 

[ciox]

I am a little worried about the resource management like some others.

Looking at the Gloo Cannon, just one glue unit creates a climbable blob of glue, when a glue magazine holds 100 rounds and you regularly find full magazines. That makes the glue gun almost indispensable given what you can do with it, and using its traversal function is always recommended, as a few glue units are always worth finding an item cache, and if you didn't find any extra items you lost very little glue anyway.
In general devs need to stop creating systems and mechanics that seem awesome but practically just feed the player free stuff, or very cheap stuff, it's how you ruin a game's difficulty.

Some other things I noticed:
- glued enemies take double damage, the way players used glue in the previews was very reminiscent of bioshock's one two punch
- mimics can do between 10 and 30 damage, seemingly randomly, so there's some scare/threat factor to them, but the super-casual interface highlights for alerted/seen enemies kinda take away from that

 

[Ash]

Well, in Dish you could disable much of the super casual interface, for what it's worth. Helps a little in making the game actually enjoyable.

 

[Siel]

 

[Morgoth]

https://bethesda.net/en/article/Hdrr9u28wMMAq4QEeCai8/mick-gordon-takes-on-the-prey-score

Mick Gordon Takes on the Prey Score
Mick Gordon is no stranger to space (he’s already been to Mars with the award-winning DOOM soundtrack), but the eerie, quiet halls of Prey’s Talos I are a far cry from the gore-soaked Hell found in DOOM. So when given the task of crafting a score for a more psychological thriller, the Australia-based musician took it in a completely different direction, building a diverse soundtrack that combines ambient arpeggiated guitars and heart thumping synth beats. The result lends itself perfectly to the tense, menacing journey to uncovering the mysteries surrounding Talos I and facing off against the alien threat that has taken over the station. We’ve got a little teaser of an early song called “Everything Is Going to be OK” in the video below. You can check out the full version of the intro credit music on Spotify.

“I wanted something that sounded like ‘I’m the coolest person on Earth right now. Look at me, I’m a badass,’” says Creative Director Raphael Colantonio about the intro credit music. “The inspiration was ’80s Italian disco, like a lot of French DJs have been doing for some time now: Daft Punk, Kavinsky, Justice, etc. I also wanted the music to contrast with the rest of the music in the game. It’s this big blue sky, a beautiful view of the city in a luxury helicopter, a position of power… versus being trapped in space, aloneg, vulnerable and just trying to survive.”

Why did Arkane tap Gordon for the soundtrack? “I really enjoyed his work in Wolfenstein: The New Order, and specifically the sophisticated guitar arpeggios that stood out as something unique and emotionally powerful,” Colantonio says. “So we talked with Mick about the mood of the game, the fact that it’s in space, and my desire to see some of those arpeggios. Mick came back to me two weeks later with a short test that I really loved. It featured arpeggios that sounded a bit like some of those Sergio Leone Western movies – albeit a more melancholic version – mixed with some ’80s style synths. The mix was so unique and so adapted to the mood we wanted to convey that it immediately felt like the right direction. I jokingly called the style ‘Western in space,’ and then we used that term as a filter for all of the future music Mick did for Prey.”

Prey will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on May 5. Available exclusively when you preorder Prey, the Cosmonaut Shotgun Pack includes the Margrave shotgun (a Yu family heirloom), along with three Neuromods (used to acquire new abilities), two medkits, a unique upgrade, and several other goodies that’ll help you save the world from the Typhon aliens.

 

[Siel]

Reminds me of the UNATCO theme from Deus Ex.

 

[Hines]

Big step down from Jeremy Soule and Mark Morgan, but it'll do.

 

[MuscleSpark]

Soon:
http://www.pcgamer.com/watch-us-play-prey-live-with-developers-from-arkane/

 

[Siel]

What? Wasn't it tomorow:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/125643561

 

[MuscleSpark]

What? Wasn't it tomorow:
https://www.twitch.tv/pcgamer

It just finished. Ricardo showed some new rooms in the lobby that none of the journalists got to, but most of it was stuff we'd already seen before.
Here's the VOD:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/125643561
EDIT: Nvm you got it. Also, starts 6 minutes in.

 

[Morgoth]

Dammit still only 3 Neuromod archetypes. What happened with the others?

 

[Siel]

Dammit still only 3 Neuromod archetypes. What happened with the others?

Others are alien types you unlock later in the game.
Then again no mention of the trauma related stuff but looks this was also the press demo.

 

[LESS T_T]

GameSpot livestream starts in an hour and a half.

 

[Jaedar]

Isn't this a bit early for a media blitz with the devs? The game is still 2 months out, focus on polish ffs.

 

[Siel]

I'm still concerned by the difficulty but Ricardo admitted this was played on easy.
Very exited about the secret stuff anyway. I've watched like 7-8 hours of journalists playing it but there were hidden places I didn't see in the devs demo. I believe this is why they say Arx was a big influence.

 

[Siel]

Isn't this a bit early for a media blitz with the devs? The game is still 2 months out, focus on polish ffs.

The mainstream doesn't give a shit about this game right now. 2 months is short from a marketing pov.