Octopus Overlords

IceBear wrote:Yes, this is very much like System Shock. I like it

I played several hours of the PC version last night. It is a great game. So far, I am not seeing anything overly buggy or off in the PC version. More on this as I play.

I like that you can go back to areas that you have already played as you unlock skills so you can repair those items you couldn't before, for example.

This is a fun game but I wish you had more weapon variety. I wish I had an SMG or assault rifle and I wish there were more melee weapons than just a wrench. I understand the game fiction behind the availability of weaponry but that could have been worked around. Weapons seem so limited compared to similar games such as Systems Shock 2, Bioshock, or Deus Ex (which the game reminds me of).

So are you guys saying this isn't a game about a disgruntled native american who's "in tune with the spirit world" walking through a ship full of alien sphincters?

BTW I never thought of this but found a "staircase" to an inaccessible area that someone had made from GOO.

As for weapons I have the wrench, a pistol, GOO gun, shotgun, a neural disruptor, a few grenades (emp and matter converter) and I feel like something else I am forgetting

Edit: I remember - the Nerf...er sorry, foam dart... crossbow.

NickAragua wrote:So are you guys saying this isn't a game about a disgruntled native american who's "in tune with the spirit world" walking through a ship full of alien sphincters?

Yep, and it hasn't been for a long long time.

I'm really enjoying this game. I find the exploration fun and the mobs are fun to fight. I think they really mean for you to use multiple weapons to kill most enemies. Something to immobilize/debuff and then something to do the damage with, so I'm not finding myself wishing for other weapons.

They did so many things right. The collectibles are very well done, and don't even seem like collectibles. The skill points are completely based on exploration. Typically I like earning XP, but I really like how this game has the skills working.

Thumbs way up on this one.

Worst . . . hacking . . . mini-game . . . ever.

Grifman wrote:Worst . . . hacking . . . mini-game . . . ever.

True

I am *really* enjoying this. It totally has that SS2 vibe, and I'm finding the story really interesting so far. I'm about 7 hours in so far, so things could change, but I really like the weapon balance and combat mechanics.\

I do find it odd and a bit amusing how certain people on the Steam forums are really bent out of shape that this isn't Prey 2. Some people are way, way too emotionally invested for reasons I really can't fathom.

Effidian wrote:

Grifman wrote:Worst . . . hacking . . . mini-game . . . ever.

True

When I hack I pick up my Xbox controller and do the hack. It is uninspired but otherwise serviceable (was just have trouble with my mapped movement keys and my old reflexes)

The hacking game was clearly meant to be played on a controller with an analog stick, which would be fine except I am playing with mouse and keyboard.

However, the game breaking thing for me (and a few others) is this weird "3D" red/blue shadow behind the text I can't figure out how to get rid of. It's not there for all the text but it's there for say book text. It's both migraine and nausea inducing for me. So far, the few of us that are seeing this haven't been able to make it go away. I fear so few of us are seeing it that a fix may not be forthcoming. I am not playing due to this despite liking the game otherwise.

JCC wrote:The hacking game was clearly meant to be played on a controller with an analog stick, which would be fine except I am playing with mouse and keyboard.

I am too...except for the hacking game

Overall, I'd give this game so far an 8 or 8.5 out of 10. For me this game isn't about combat, it's about exploration and survival. Haven't tried sneaking all that much but this is a very "Deus Exy" game in that there are often several ways to get somewhere (vents, keycards, hacking, climbing, etc.). Figuring out how to get into a place is really fun. I'm overjoyed when I break into a supply room and find more "stuff" so I can build more "stuff". The enemies are challenging, but GLOO is my best friend so far. All of this scourging may wear thin by then end but so far I'm enjoying the change of a giant scavenger hunt while being hunted myself.

That said, there are two things that keep this game from getting a 10/10 (and it's really close). One, the weapons are lackluster. A pistol and a shotgun are your main weapons, and that is boring, and the range for your most powerful and necessary weapon, the shotgun is very short. The shooting just isn't that fun. Given this is practically an homage to System Shock 1/2, they really needed more weapon variety and something that works at mid range as those games did.

The other deductions are for the hacking game. On a PC it's just awful. I really dread the higher difficulty hacks because the level 1's are hard enough as it is. I usually save and have to reload several times because it's so bad. This is the most annoying minigame I"ve seen ever, and that covers a lot of stuff.

But I really do like this game so far.

Weird...I seem to be killing stuff with my pistol in less shots than the shotgun. Crossbow is good for distraction. I need to try the disruptor still

Grenades have been useful where I usually don't use them

As for the hacking game just keep an Xbox controller plugged in and when you hack switch from mouse and keyboard to the controller. There were just enough games that were easier with a controller that I bought one a few years ago. Really a great purchase

Ah, I just thought the hacking game was uninteresting, not difficult (using keyboard and mouse). I will say that I finished the level 1 versions with far less time left than the higher level versions, so I'd say that it gets easier as the difficulty rises.

Here is how I use weapons and a couple of the skills, I'll put this in spoiler tags to be safe.
Finished up my first run last night. Great game. I think I'll try another run playing a different way, but we'll see if it can hold my interest if I do it immediately.

I agree it was disinteresting...I'm pretty meh about it...just don't think it needs the "worst hacking minigame" title that was thrown at it. It's just meh

Well, right now, this is my GOTY. This is about as System Shocky as it gets without being a direct sequel. I hope the guys doing System Shock 3 do well, because right now, this is the game they have to beat.

Prey finally goes on sale. Very tempted to try it.

$39.59 34%

...
... Someone has beaten Arkane’s PREY in just under seven minutes

Youtube’s “seeker TV” has shared a video in which he completed Arkane’s PREY in less than seven minutes. This is the fastest speedrun for PREY and Seeker used some glitches in order to access the game’s later stages. It’s a really cool speedrun, so be sure to watch it!

YouTube

Using glitches doesn't really count, IMO.

Grifman wrote:Using glitches doesn't really count, IMO.

I'm with you. Exploits are one thing. But glitches is basically cheating. Now that's fine if it's your thing, but I wouldn't allow it in the same category as "legit" speed runs. Obviously it still counts as completing the game.

I picked this during the Steam sale and so far I'm really liking it. I thought the start was a little slow but it picks up fast and definitely captures the SS2/Deus Ex vibe.

Grabbed this on the Xbox after trying the demo and I'm really enjoying it. It sucks you in and immerses you quite well. Just did my first EVA before shutting down for the night last night.

I guess it has a demo now, title is "Free Trial" - watching the trailer it is the first hour.

http://steamcommunity.com/games/480490/ ... 0631210874

In related news it is half off on steam right now ($29.99 through 8/29).

...

... This mod for PREY improves view distance, particles & reflections, allows all lights to cast dynamic shadows

Our reader ‘jmx777’ has informed us about a new mod he is currently working on for Arkane’s PREY. This mod allow all lights, including the flashlight, to cast dynamic shadows, improves view distance in order to reduce pop-ins, improves overall ambient occlusion effects, particles and reflections, and corrects shadows for the original light sources.

Moreover, this mod allows all decals (blood, gloo, bullet holes, broken papers, broken glasses, etc) to stay on screen until the player leaves the level.

The first version of this mod has been released and is available for download from here.

Do note that this mod will affect your game’s performance. As jmx777 noted, an NVIDIA GTX 1060 (paired with an i5 3570k, 16gb ram and ssd) was unable to maintain a constant 60fps experience at 1080p (there were some drops to 50fps in space and in Arboretum w/many Thypons around).

In future releases, jmx777 will work on the game’s physics for all the objects, pushable lights, breakable lights.

Enjoy!

I'm late to the game (story of my life) but I just spent about an hour with it this evening and was rather impressed. I loved the story opening - didn't see the setup coming at all. It absolutely feels like a mix of Deus Ex (the original) and System Shock 2 (so far). Really enjoying it so far, but the creatures are freaking me out a bit. Thanks again SIM!

Only the creatures are freaking you out so far? I played through the trial a little while back and really liked it. I finally picked it up last week, but haven't gotten around to continuing... I'm playing XCOM2 for like the 11th time instead.

Managed to get a few more hours in over the weekend. This game feels like a love letter to System Shock 2 - it's fantastic. At first pass, it feels like you could be playing a simple FPS, but once you start digging there's so much going on. Between the information that's hidden on computers or sticky notes to areas that are only accessible through careful observation and exploring. It's overwhelming at first, but once you start to figure out the game world, I think everything falls into place quite nicely. Really enjoying it so far.

So, I'm left handed, and like mouse1 and mouse2 to do specific things. Game has hard coded mouse2 to cancel select on the wheel menu. I found the config file, changed it, but the game just re-writes the keybinding when it loads.

It's ridiculous. I've set up a profile for my mouse to switch the 2 buttons when I'm playing Prey, but it switches it even in the menus and other places where traditional mouse button functions are fine for me.

How hard is it in 2018 to let us map our own keybindings?

Why is mouse2 hardcoded? This problem bit me in the ass with PUBG too until they patched it for release, so I had several months where I just didn't bother to throw grenades.

Grrr.

Goo, I don't know if this will break things, or if it will screw up your game for those more traditional functions, but could you change the config file and then make it "read only"?

As a fellow left-handed person, I feel your pain. I keep screwing things up in Prey likely for the reasons you mention, but I'm not a person that's into custom key binding. I just deal with it or end up tossing the game into the unfinished pile. I'm enjoying this game so much, I'm learning to deal with it. Sorry it's not very helpful.

Freyland wrote: ↑Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:49 pm Goo, I don't know if this will break things, or if it will screw up your game for those more traditional functions, but could you change the config file and then make it "read only"?

Huh. I don't know why I didn't think of that. I'll give it a try.

The keybinding definitions are not as easy to understand as some other games, but I have a decent idea which is the problematic one. I'll make a copy of the file and give it a try. Thanks.

I'm able to make things work well enough with the razer profile swapping mouse buttons in Prey only. It's not ideal, and will mess with my muscle memory, but it works.

I'm not a fan of black squiggly enemies, but the rest of the game seems cool. The enemies are just so generic and uninteresting looking (I knew this going in). Maybe things get better later in the game. I'm barely started.

I was nervous early on that it was tilting toward a FPS - there's quite a bit of combat early on, particularly with the spider squiqqles. But after you get to a certain point, it's more about exploring, finding clues and piecing together what happened and how you're going to progress. There's still a little combat, but it's not combat focused (from what I've seen in ~5 hours). I'm about to enter another new area and based on the advice given, I'm guessing things will shift to combat for a little bit again.

The atmosphere, and all the stuff you can do (mainly the multiple ways you can do the same thing) is really drawing me in. If you're feeling meh, just keep playing for a bit until you can really soak in the environment.

Only feeling meh about the enemies. Game seems cool. Enjoyed the early reveal and now I'm just trekking around. Just finished my office. Like I said, I've barely started.

Been putting in much more time with it this weekend and have really come to appreciate just how much *stuff* there is to do. As a player that primarily loves to explore, this game just keeps on giving. Definitely follow the side quests and don't be afraid to poke around - the game absolutely rewards creative thinking and digging. I'm also just starting to also notice just how crafty they are with keeping you on edge with the mimics. I dind't like them at all at first, but now I laugh when I go into a room and a mug suddenly rolls off a table or I come back through an area and there's an extra chair or lamp that wasn't present there 5 minutes ago. They're minor annoyances at this point, but they do a great job of maintaining tension.

I too am coming around to the nature of the game. It's much more about exploration and mystery than fighting off an alien invasion, at least early on. That reduces the importance of interesting enemies imo, and changes the tone of the game.

So far, so good.

Took me a death to figure out how the stun gun worked. I kept pulling the trigger and nothing was happening. The charge time is pretty significant.

I'm only playing on normal. Some games I play on harder difficulties, but I'm pretty happy with normal these days. I'll bump it up if it adds to the fun. My inventory is full of food and I'm juggling space so I'd guess I'm either playing on too easy a mode or that the game ramps up soon.

Gonna toss my hat in the ring on this one as well. Been playing it over the weekend. It's basically System Shock 2. Awesome. I love the multiple routes through each area, and I even grudgingly accept the bad guys revisiting areas you've cleared out.

I've finally got the hang of fighting (either that or gathered enough weapon upgrades/neuromods), so I can take on most of the alien scum, as long as I get the drop on them. Straight up fights usually mean a loss of health. For the human-sized ones, sneak up with the shotgun then blast 'em. With the 200% damage multiplier and fully upgrade shotgun that's a one or two shot kill for most. If I need to, I zap them with the electric psionic power then close in for the kill. I originally got it to deal with the annoying robots, but it turns out to be useful against just about everything else. Except the electricity-based enemy, duh. For the big guys, it's electric zap followed by a full clip from the 9mm.

Like the GLOO gun for its general utility. Need to fix a leaky pipe? GLOO gun. Create an improvised staircase? GLOO gun. Blow up some of those exploding aliens? GLOO gun.

Briefly used the stunner in an attempt to be humane. Mostly succeeded.

The microwave beam gun kind of bites. Too short range and takes too long to kill anything, and standing still while being visible doesn't really work for me here.

A couple of amusing moments, without spoiling too many details:

Well, I beat it. It was fun for like 99% of the time. I like how, just when I got to the point where I was able to routinely and comfortably handle the aliens, the game threw some new enemy types at me. Then, when I figured out how to deal with those, it threw the ultimate enemy: having to run back and forth through fifty different areas and wait for loading screens. But it didn't take *too* long thanks to the game being installed on a SSD.

Some more thoughts on enemy types:

Yeah, what the hell is with the loading screens? I can't remember the last game that had loading screens just to transition to another part of the map.

The menu acoustic guitar music is pretty awesome. Has a Tristram/Diablo feel to it. Lonely and sad.