Prey

I think you have to remember that different people's english breeds different writing results. Although I didn't know every single word written I still found reading it a more mind expanding experience (making you conceive what is trying to be said rather than just having it written) and something Ive been trying (and failing) for some time to put into my mobo reviews.
I think it's a bit Kill Bill, where you have to know a few of the references and be old enough to have watched Top Gun and Hot Shots.

 

I just found it rather difficult to read, nothing really spectacular was written and the last page seemed a little bit TOO much information.

 

Imagine a cross between doom bad guys, serious sam 2 gameplay with a few pretty cool puzzles thrown into a blender. Add a vague plot line involving cherokee spirits and you have prey. Worth a blast if you can 'acquire' it but i wouldn't lay any cash down for it imo.

 

I was wondering about this game, what it was all about. Now I know, so thanks. I don't think criticising writing style is very fair, after all it doesn't cost us anything to read it and minor mistakes arn't going to destroy our well being. But, what is a "soliloquy"? never mind I'll google it.

 

Really enjoyed this game. The demo doesn't really do the game justice, as the most fun/interesting parts are later in the game. All the gimmicky features actually do quite well to add another dimension to an otherwise Quake 4 clone. The story isn't much, but the audio is definitely something special.

Great review, but I'd probably rate it a bit higher. Nothing groundbreaking, but still great fun.

 

I've played this game thoroughly and I have to say its alright, but really not all that super.

The fact that you constantly go to that 'dream world' to shoot flying things to regain health and spiritual mana whenever you die gets tiring the 4th time it happens, and I'd rather just load up a quicksave.

The enemies are tiresome to kill not because it takes any skill, but because you have to shoot them for such a long time it doesn't seem necessary. Perhaps too much Day Of Defeat: Source has made me accustomed to something more real, but still.

And finally, it may be weird to say this but as an avid gamer that spends lots and lots of time gaming (look in the region of 35 hours a week easy), you just find some of the puzzles so stupid. I was stuck in one place for a good 10 minutes figuring out that I had unlocked the gate that was above me, which I had to move through in my hovercraft. You don't look for things like that when you play in a serious game.

Anyway if I were to review the game and give it a score, it would do well in graphics, but it would score badly in plot, puzzles and fun factor. 6 out of 10.

 

For all you guys talking about the writing, thank you for keeping it very constructive, it's actually telling us quite a bit about what would be good in the future. Just a note (I see a few mentions of 'editing')... we really try to leave individual wording to the writer, as it conveys a bit of our personalities, so that's why it wasn't 'trimmed down' to a little easier read.

We'd really like to hear more of the thoughts you guys are posing on this matter, so if anyone else would like to contribute, toss a thread in Feedback so we can dedicate some more attention to this without hijacking the review!

 

I like a good and founded read, but sometimes it was a bit over the top... Made me invest too much energy (in this hot weather), and we readers are lazy... Also, a summary would be usefull, certainly for the ultra lazy *look at pics and read summary* kind of people...

Otherwise good article and looks a good game too... altough I don't have the hardware to play it on... nor the time

Oh yeah, page 1 Pic 3 (2nd row, first one) and page 2 pic 1 are quite resembling too good to be different

 

I thought the game was really good, which pretty neatly summarizes everything following this sentence.

The fact that the main character (tommy) actually speaks is a nice change from gordon freeman. That he actually also screams and swears when shot is a very refreshing change

I'd be swearing too if I'd got shot. Plus he gets freaked out by the space ship and it makes it all seem more real.

The guns are fairly cool. The suck up some wall thingy and then shoot it at enemies gun is one of my favourites.

The game is easy and quick to beat, which is something I actually like. Spending several days on a game for me is just discouraging.

There is a lot of complexity to the combat... the hunters will snipe at long range and machine gun up close. They also like to knock you off gravity plates. The weird arachnid bug head guys have a forcefield which makes them immune to the "rockets" you can shoot at them and means you have to be thinking about which gun you use.
Ammo is fairly scarce, which is irritating, but you never completely run out since the base machine gun generates its own ammo.

spiritwalking when you die is something I REALLY like. It's better than loading a quicksave because when you come back you have health... you aren't doomed to be stuck with 5 hp for a long time.
I'm no fan of puzzles in my shooters, I prefer difficult combat to needless time wasting. There are a few puzzles, but none of them had me looking on gamefaqs so I could move on to the next battle.

The plot was so-so. I mean, guy saving girl thing gets kinda old sometimes. The grandfather and spirit world situation and the twist with the boss (no spoilers from me) is very cool though. And the fact that our hero is not some shining paragon of virtue or dr raven darktalon blood is also neat.. he's just a regular joe.

Part of the reason I get the feeling this review was rushed is that almost none of what makes this game unique was mentioned. Aliens listening to earth talk radio broadcasts? (which are hilarious btw) One boss fight has you using a force field to take out the boss... occasionally you fight on mini-moons inside the main spacecraft and they have their own gravity.. your spirit animal translates the alien text for you if you look at it long enough, and will also distract enemies while you shoot their comrades, which is useful when dealing with snipers.... anyway the list goes on.

I like my first person shooters, I loved doom 3, quake 4, halo 1 and 2, so on and so forth. Prey is definetely worth a spot in the top ranked shooters, and since it has almost zero competition this year what else are you going to play?

I say give it a shot.

[edit] I had no trouble reading the review. If you were trying to sound like Tycho I think you need more thesaureses even! (thesaurii?)
I would simply have put a little more effort into describing what makes the game unique.

 

The review was great, but not all bit-tech readers have English as a native language, and certainly for them the language could be a bit discouraging to read...

 

from what I've heard from my friends who have the game, its quite fun

i played the demo and thought it was good, i wonder if steam took the idea for their portal game

 

I'll save from joining in commentary about the actual writing except to say that at the end of pretty much any review/article, I like to see a summary or something like a "Final thoughts" section. I think they give writers the chance to stop being a reviewer and take part of a different perspective - their own. I find often that you end up with a rather more rounded idea of the subject.

Now, pertaining to the subject at hand, I do feel multiplayer deserves a bit more than a single line. I think it is something of the party-piece for Prey. The first time I played the demo, I had the impression that the weak story (and it is a bit weak) was there as an excuse to try some new gameplay ideas. I actually stopped short of finishing the demo. Instead, I hopped on teamspeak with some friends and hosted a server. It was around 4 AM and after 7 hours of play that we collectively decided "Damn this is fun." That night followed up that weekend when 'MultiPrey' hijack the interest of all the attendees at what is normally a LAN dominated by BF2. Once you get past having fun with walking on walls, you get to taking advantage of the fact that your spirit can't. Honestly, I don't much like deathmatch. But when you have to use your head and bit of strategy instead of relying on how good your twitch skills are, I think it becomes fun again.

:EDIT: I should add a quick note that I did re-visit singleplayer and gave it a few hours. It's not bad and I want to finish it. There are some boring bits and the things that deficate from the walls are nothing but annoying. On the other hand, there are some very good bits that compensate. All that said, I have a suspicion that this game is going to fall under fire from the ranks of 'soccer moms' everywhere. Don't know how well 'soccer moms' translates outside the US but I think its clear what I'm refering to.

 

See other thread. Sorry 'bout that

 

For future reference, there is a thread in the feedback forum underway with some good discussion. We requested for comments like this to be put in there.

Thanks

 

This game looks really kool i think im defo going to try it out.

 

Played the demo at a lan party. I was definitely more impressed when I was just looking over somebody's shoulder.

Can't speak on the single-player but as for multiplayer, it was bland. All players hunt for one powerful gun, while plinking away at each other with a few other not-very-interesting guns. (Personally, I had my fill of organic weapons back when HL:OPFOR came out with the ol' fish gun.)

Oh yeah .. sometimes it goes upside down. [insert fanfare here] Speaking as an old-school Quaker with strafe-jumping on the brain, this was definitely not that cool. I am into fast-moving map navigation using momentum and trick jumping. This was more like solving a Rubik's cube. The 'going upside down' is just not natural at all. In at least some, if not all places, as you make a vertical orientation transition, say from 'home vertical' to '90 degrees from home vertical', your view will actually rotate on other axes as well. This may well be a logical limit of the mathematics behind these 3d game worlds, but it just didn't feel right. Hard to describe in words but you'll probably know what I'm talking about right away if you ever play the game. It's just not smooth, and you feel like your controls are being overridden by the game.

Bottom line: "not interested". Nifty in some few regards, but zero potential for long term playability, IMO. (To be completely honest: the only thing that saved it from being "meh at first sight" was its Doom engine heritage.)

 

I just bought it and have been playing for about 3 hours solid. What a fantasic game, I love the disorientation, it blows the mind. Not bad for £20 (Gamestation). This game is no clone, though the graphics are earily DOOM3 / Quake 4 like.