T w e n t y S i d e d

Like System Shock 2 and System Shock before it, I have worn this game out. I have played it to the point where it all feels too familiar. I know where the good loot is, I know which monsters I’m about to run into, and I’ve even memorized a handful of container combinations.

A big part of the appeal of this game is the suspense of not knowing what comes next. Of scrounging for resources. Or improvising when the unexpected happens. But now I always know what comes next. I know which resources I’ll need (save the nullwave grenades for Weavers) and which I can use freely (recycler grenades are plentiful, just throw them anytime there’s a big pile of furniture in your way) and when usage spikes will happen. (Need lots of disruptor rounds for dealing with the two different groups of possessed crew members in the crew quarters.)

I know how to spend my neuromods to get the most bang for my buck. (Don’t need to get the highest level of hacking until WAY late in the game, because so few worthwhile containers require it. On the other hand, Necropsy yields more Typhon tissue, which yields more exotic material, which yields more neuromods, so get that as soon as possible.) I know where the good weapons are. I know where spare turrets are stashed. I know which quests are worth doing, and which ones are worth putting off until I’m headed to the other end of the station.

The more I play, the more same-y my playthroughs get as my personal run becomes more optimized.

I wish there was DLC to randomize this stuff. Actually, I guess they sort of did that…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Prey 2017 Part 22: The Next Prey”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

I hope this doesn’t feel like I’m beating a dead horse. Elsewhere in this series I skipped over literal hours of gameplay in a sentence or two, so maybe it feels sort of weird to spend 7,500 words on these last three and a half minutes of the game.

But this is a pretty big switch-up that lands after gameplay is concluded and the credits have rolled. This is a very unusual move, and so I have a lot to say about it.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Prey 2017 Part 21: Alex All Along”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Like I said last time, Prey ends with us either “saving” Talos-1 or nuking the station, and then we get a post-credits scene where we learn the entire game was a simulation. We’re actually a ball of Typhon cells that have been implanted with the memories of Morgan Yu, and allowed to experience a simulation of her struggles aboard the station.

This reveal creates an extra layer of possible confusion, because we now have an overabundance of characters named “Morgan”.

1. The original person that worked on Talos-1 and studied the Typhon.
2. The person who originally fought the Typhon in the real world. We don’t know what happened to her, although I guess we have to assume she died somehow.
3. The virtual person recreated from the memories of #2. This is the version of the character that was controlled by the player.
4. The ball of Typhon cells that’s been tricked into thinking it’s Morgan Yu. Arguably this is the same as #3, but this reveal means that we might want to make a distinction between the two.

In this series, I’ve been referring to #1 as “Old Morgan”. To help us keep track of these different versions, I’m going to give the name “Morphon” to #4, the Morgan-Typhon hybrid.

If you’re still confused, I’m sorry. This is as clear as I can make it. The writer is really throwing us a curveball here. Again, I think that a reveal this big needs to appear BEFORE the credits, and we need to be given a little space to process it. This post-credits replacement of the plot is trying to fit too big an idea into too small a space.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Prey 2017 Part 20: Judgement Day”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.