Creature Triple Feature 5: Prey (2017), Soma, Bioshock

In Prey, you awaken aboard Talos I, a space station orbiting the moon in the year 2032. You are the key subject of an experiment meant to alter humanity forever – but things have gone terribly wrong. The space station has been overrun by hostile aliens and you are now being hunted.



The radio has gone silent on PATHOS-2. As isolation bears down on the staff of the remote research facility, strange things are happening. Machines are taking on human traits and alien constructions have started to interfere with routine. The world around them is turning into a nightmare. The only way out is to do something unimaginable.



BioShock is a shooter unlike any you've ever played, loaded with weapons and tactics never seen. You'll have a complete arsenal at your disposal from simple revolvers to grenade launchers and chemical throwers, but you'll also be forced to genetically modify your DNA to create an even more deadly weapon: you. Injectable plasmids give you super human powers: blast electrical currents into water to electrocute multiple enemies, or freeze them solid and obliterate them with the swing of a wrench. No encounter ever plays out the same, and no two gamers will play the game the same way.

Right I'll have a try of prey later it was the most popular so I'll complete it first. I also have soma to play after that. I'm wondering if it's worth switching off the enemies as I've heard that they are a hindrance to the game and the games is much better without them.

I won't be playing bioshock as I've already completed it. In terms of horror the first level gives off these really creepy vibes. Especially with the splicer and the buggy. But it quickly loses alot of it's horror elements after the first boss in the game and you start to realize there it very little punishment for death. Never the less it is an excellent game with a fantastic story. The audio logs help flesh out rapture and what it was like before the disaster and why fell into disrepair. There also that plot point which I believe alot of people know about but I won't spoil for now until we perhaps discuss the story thread of the game.

All hail NeuroShock... I mean, Prey o/

Arkane Studios did a banging job with Prey, creating the possibly best immersive sim in first-person you can get on the market these days. Yes, it sucks we didn't get Prey 2 and how this game has almost nothing to do with the name, but who cares if the core mechanics of what we got are soooo good, seriously. Some people actually went on to boycott this game for that reason and for Bethesda being the publisher, the clever minds behind Dark Messiah and Dishonored deserve far more recognition than they received.

Anyway, I highly recommend to upgrade your inventory and leverage, the first reduces the backtracking and the second allows you to fully utilize your environment as a weapon, very useful with so many props lying around or blocking paths.

Right just finished my first session

I've reached my office and watched the looking glass video. I now need to get around my brothers interference.

From what I've played it feels like an arkane studios version of bioshock but the mimics unlike bioshock seem to be a keep this constant dread about them. When you hear the noise of a mimic it makes you start trying to find where the mimic is in the room and yet they can still easily jump you.

Still I'm trying to explore and finding some things too difficult atm (playing on normal) I'm wondering if i need to upgrade before taking on some rooms it's kinda forcing me down some routes but I might try em again they don't seem that perspective

Prey is the best game released in the past 5 years, objectively and subjectively speaking. It never frustrated me greatly. Never had any terrible barriers. And, best of all, it never stopped getting better. It enamored me within the first 5 minutes of it; the ability to pick up and throw props was nostalgic. From there, it's uphill all the way to the end. It doesn't peter out or level off. Whenever you think the game has run out of tricks, it throws a new one at you. God, this game is brilliant. I hope Arkane can do another one, because it's the closest I've played to a perfect game.

Bioshock, I also played, and it's okay. But in comparison, it's a poor man's Prey. It's also a spiritual successor to System Shock, but it never reaches the same heights as Prey would come to reach.

As far as horror, Bioshock has more general horror ambiance throughout, but Prey does better at retaining palpable tension. Bioshock is "hey, look at all the dark corridors filled with debris and killer junkies" where Prey goes "this room seems pretty calm; it'd be a shame if something bad were to happen."

Soma, I've been meaning to play. Guess I will now. As I've said before, not a horror fan, but the description always tantalized me and it has invincibility mode now. Too bad it doesn't have VR support :(

Bioshock, Prey and SOMA on the same month. "Game of the month: the abandoned facility edition".
The three games interest me A LOT, and have been always on my "to play soon" list.
I don't have Prey yet, but I will wait until the end of month for some halloween offer, meanwhile I will play the other two.

Too bad, not a single game I'd really want to play was chosen. Prey is definitely not for me. I've tried playing Bioshock before and I just... can't play it. Nope. Or maybe... I could give it another chance after all these years? Probably not though!
I could give Soma a try, but only if I can find it for cheap. That one's not a shooter, right?

In any case, I have not even finished playing Alan Wake yet for last month, lol. I probably wont have the time for all of these games.

I´m very pleased with the selection of games this month. I wanted to play Prey (2017) for a while now and the only reason I haven´t yet is because I got the ending and a major plot point spoiled for me.
I´m pretty sure that I´m going to like it despite all of that. I love Bioshock with all my heart and I did know about "Would you kindly?" before I played it.

I did watch a playtrough of Soma on Youtube and the story is really great. I have no interest in playing it myself even without enemies and I still get an existential crisis just thinking about it.

I've already beaten all 3 games at least twice (BioShock 4 times) so I'm out this month. I love all 3 of them, SOMA being my favorite of the bunch. I also loved Prey's DLC.

SOMA's enemy interaction is mediocre but the game has great systems and story. They do an excellent job of making you feel like you are interacting with real devices. I didn't know anything about the game going in, and had no hype. It ended up being one of my favorite games in the last 10 years.

I started SOMA tonight. Sadly, I suspect I've discovered the ending twist, which disappoints me. I'm rarely one to speculate on where a story is going - it's more interesting that way - but the description says the game raises questions about identity, consciousness and existence itself so I'm guessing that after my damaged brain is scanned, the whole game is basically a dream caused by sensory bombardment in the healing simulation. I'll admit that's a good twist, if it turns out to be the case, but now I'm frustrated by this knowledge. I guess that's the human condition, though? Too aware for our own good...

I started SOMA tonight. Sadly, I suspect I've discovered the ending twist, which disappoints me. I'm rarely one to speculate on where a story is going - it's more interesting that way - but the description says the game raises questions about identity, consciousness and existence itself so I'm guessing that after my damaged brain is scanned, the whole game is basically a dream caused by sensory bombardment in the healing simulation. I'll admit that's a good twist, if it turns out to be the case, but now I'm frustrated by this knowledge. I guess that's the human condition, though? Too aware for our own good...

Do you want to know if you are right or not? I mean you said that you´re frustrated by this knowledge so confirming or denying it might help with your enjoyment of it.

No specifics just yes or no: It is not a dream and the game is much deeper then you think. Prepare for an existential crisis if you´re the kind of person that likes to over analyse stuff.

BTW if anyone is looking for a copy of Bioshock - it's really cheap on GOG.com at the moment =)

I started SOMA tonight. Sadly, I suspect I've discovered the ending twist, which disappoints me. I'm rarely one to speculate on where a story is going - it's more interesting that way - but the description says the game raises questions about identity, consciousness and existence itself so I'm guessing that after my damaged brain is scanned, the whole game is basically a dream caused by sensory bombardment in the healing simulation. I'll admit that's a good twist, if it turns out to be the case, but now I'm frustrated by this knowledge. I guess that's the human condition, though? Too aware for our own good...

Whether you are right or not... Just know that even on a replay, I still enjoyed the story immensely. It's worth the time.

I've played Bioshock and Soma from this month's picks, both top notch games. Prey will be my priority if it runs well on my machine I'll replay the others if I can as well. Look forward to hearing how everyone gets on with them.

edit: I think I have 1 remaining spare steam key for SOMA so if anyone doesn't have it yet and wants to partake, send me a PM. I suppose it'll just have to be a first come, first serve basis.

After playing the first hour of Prey I could kick myself for not playing it sooner. I hate that I got spoiled on some very important plot points and that is definitely going to affect the way I play, but that doesn´t make the game any less fun.

After playing the first hour of Prey I could kick myself for not playing it sooner. I hate that I got spoiled on some very important plot points and that is definitely going to affect the way I play, but that doesn´t make the game any less fun.

Prey really makes a quick impression. Get ready for that feeling to never stop :)

I'm curious, what plot points were spoiled? I suspect I know, but maybe it's something not as severe as that...

After playing the first hour of Prey I could kick myself for not playing it sooner. I hate that I got spoiled on some very important plot points and that is definitely going to affect the way I play, but that doesn´t make the game any less fun.

I've played for 3 hours of Prey thus far, most of that time spent doing nothing but scouring a single area, and I keep thinking the same thing. For better or worse it does just feel like a new, refined Bioshock, right down to the scrounging for trash. I haven't been spoiled in the same way though so I count myself fortunate.

So, I've finished SOMA, and it was everything I expected it to be.
The story is obviously great. The atmosphere, voice acting, graphics are beautiful. The puzzles are simple but entertaining. I even liked the parts where monsters are chasing you, that almost everyone thinks that is unnecesary.
I started this one since it was the one I nominate. And from the second chapter onwards I can't leave it. It got me into my mind.
I think I have my third 10/10 here, I am so shocked by how this game clicked on me.

Now, going into the story, I think the questions it raised are very well presented: What it means to be human?, who are you? Although sometimes they were a little 'in your face' about it. I killed almost everyone of the humans, since I thought that the life they are having weren't worth it, since they were in constant suffering or crazy, and ended destroying the WAU, since I don't feel that his idea for the continuation of humanity was good, or even worth thinking about, I am with Ross on that.

I have search a little, and see that the discussions online about the restoration of humanity on earth could only took two shapes for people: The WAU or the ARK, but I feel like, if the WAU is destroyed, there is a third chance. Wildlife inside the abyss is still going. One day they will evolve, the earth surface will cool down, and the earth will be repopulated again. Some other species will be born to continue evolving and spread through earth.

So, I've finished SOMA, and it was everything I expected it to be.
The story is obviously great. The atmosphere, voice acting, graphics are beautiful. The puzzles are simple but entertaining. I even liked the parts where monsters are chasing you, that almost everyone thinks that is unnecesary.
I started this one since it was the one I nominate. And from the second chapter onwards I can't leave it. It got me into my mind.
I think I have my third 10/10 here, I am so shocked by how this game clicked on me.

Now, going into the story, I think the questions it raised are very well presented: What it means to be human?, who are you? Although sometimes they were a little 'in your face' about it. I killed almost everyone of the humans, since I thought that the life they are having weren't worth it, since they were in constant suffering or crazy, and ended destroying the WAU, since I don't feel that his idea for the continuation of humanity was good, or even worth thinking about, I am with Ross on that.

I have search a little, and see that the discussions online about the restoration of humanity on earth could only took two shapes for people: The WAU or the ARK, but I feel like, if the WAU is destroyed, there is a third chance. Wildlife inside the abyss is still going. One day they will evolve, the earth surface will cool down, and the earth will be repopulated again. Some other species will be born to continue evolving and spread through earth.

On your story notes:
Your 3rd option is a really interesting option and why I like this game.

The 3rd option wouldn't be "human" so some people don't like the thought of that but what does it mean to be human? The earth would be populated with some other life form and likely at some point as intelligent as we are, only a matter of time. Is our consciousness all that makes us "human" because evolution would likely make another conscious being.

Prey really makes a quick impression. Get ready for that feeling to never stop :)

I'm curious, what plot points were spoiled? I suspect I know, but maybe it's something not as severe as that...

I know that the main character is an alien and that if you kill humans you get the bad ending. I´m usually very careful and the only other game that got spoiled for me was AC: Unity, but that was also a terrible game and Prey is not.
Best coffee mug wrecking simulator I have ever played.

I know that the main character is an alien and that if you kill humans you get the bad ending. I´m usually very careful and the only other game that got spoiled for me was AC: Unity, but that was also a terrible game and Prey is not.
Best coffee mug wrecking simulator I have ever played.

To return the favor:

a. Yes, you're an alien, but the extent to which that affects the plot is open to interpretation.
b. I killed multiple people and still got the "good" ending, so you should safely play the way you want, because...
c. Genocide = bad is a typical paradigm. If you insist on playing that way, expect the consequences ;)

Right EoW update 1 for prey:

I've just entered the crew quarters in search of voice modules to open the deep storage. I'm also now being chased by nightmare but now have the satellite set up to distract it.

Okay a few nitpicks. First why is there two loading screen? And changing weapon at times feels slow especially when you need to quickly.

Now that's out the way this game is excellent. It took me a while to used to fighting phantoms. Especially as could easily take alot of head on damage before being defeated. This made me much more cautious when fighting them and trying to kill them indirectly (explosive canisters, oil slicks). I've now got to a point where I can take them down with a shotgun shot and a psychoshock. Still doesn't mean I've found easy ways to kill technopaths yet though.

The game also rewards returning to old locations with side quests in a semi metroidvania way instead of the linear way which is done in Bioshock. Which I like as I now have tools to get into locations which I couldn't previously.

I'm really enjoying the story as well and especially the interactions you have with alex yu. He has this kinda nostalgic antagonistic to the player with this sense of pride and frustration that they are not listening to them. A big detail which is interesting to me is the lack of empathy the typhon have, sadly I already know the post credits twist but it puts the whole thing to emphasis and shows that the game ultimately is about human empathy.

Right EoW update 1 for prey:

I've just entered the crew quarters in search of voice modules to open the deep storage. I'm also now being chased by nightmare but now have the satellite set up to distract it.

Okay a few nitpicks. First why is there two loading screen? And changing weapon at times feels slow especially when you need to quickly.

Now that's out the way this game is excellent. It took me a while to used to fighting phantoms. Especially as could easily take alot of head on damage before being defeated. This made me much more cautious when fighting them and trying to kill them indirectly (explosive canisters, oil slicks). I've now got to a point where I can take them down with a shotgun shot and a psychoshock. Still doesn't mean I've found easy ways to kill technopaths yet though.

The game also rewards returning to old locations with side quests in a semi metroidvania way instead of the linear way which is done in Bioshock. Which I like as I now have tools to get into locations which I couldn't previously.

I'm really enjoying the story as well and especially the interactions you have with alex yu. He has this kinda nostalgic antagonistic to the player with this sense of pride and frustration that they are not listening to them. A big detail which is interesting to me is the lack of empathy the typhon have, sadly I already know the post credits twist but it puts the whole thing to emphasis and shows that the game ultimately is about human empathy.

Still doesn't mean I've found easy ways to kill technopaths yet though

The Combat Focus skill up to Level 2 will help whereas Level 3 will straight up break the game. There is also an overabundance of EMP grenades, but the stun duration is often not worth the risk. In fact, neither Technopaths nor Nightmare are worth the hassle, as their drops only contain their organs, unlike Phantoms.

Still doesn't mean I've found easy ways to kill technopaths yet though

The Combat Focus skill up to Level 2 will help whereas Level 3 will straight up break the game. There is also an overabundance of EMP grenades, but the stun duration is often not worth the risk. In fact, neither Technopaths nor Nightmare are worth the hassle, as their drops only contain their organs, unlike Phantoms.

I'll look into combat focus then. Tbf I've only fought two technopaths (the one controlling the lift and the one found in the neuromod department) so I haven't really had a chance to sneak past one yet

As mentioned in the Wins thread, I finished Prey. Took me 33h 48m on the Nightmare Difficulty with none of those optional modifiers active. It was surprisingly good, it was for the most part just a fairly faithful Bioshock clone, for better or worse. There are times where the game felt overly derivative of other games, Bioshock being the most notable, but mimics basically being Poison Headcrabs from Half Life 2 with a prophunt gimmick thrown on top, a lot of the sound effects coincidentally felt lifted directly from SOMA with their electrical twinges etc. It does enough to be it's own thing just at times it could feel like I was playing "It's game X but..."

I love the aesthetic the most, I love how they adapted and merged Bioshock's art deco aesthetic with futuristic sci-fi, lots of deep reds, golds and browns set against the monochromatic black and white. The station itself feels pretty viable as a location, both inside and out, and while it feels like a huge structure, traversing it never becomes too tedious or annoying. (at least not until near the end, if you are suitable kitted out and have explored nearly everywhere, if you're like me you'll be running from loading screen to loading screen just to tie up loose ends).

Story + Ending Spoilers
The story, well honestly I thought the story was kinda weak. Or more specifically, the game did a terrible job of maintaining my interest in exactly what was going on. Through a variety of issues, an overload of information at the start, a myriad of side quests, the countless emails and audio logs, and one of the worst story pacing I've witnessed, NPC's will call frequently to update you on stuff, whether or not you're maybe listening to something else like a file on a computer. Towards the end when you find some living NPC's it was was a frequent occurrence to have several of them talking over each other and making it impossible to understand what any of them were saying. I ended up forgetting what I was supposed to be focusing on and what plot points were relevant to anything. ending spoilers: A good example of this is the end sequence, I thought the nullwave transmitter was going to simply stun all the Typhon leaving them incapacitated not kill them outright, this was based on Alex saying it would just shock them all at the same time. I guess not but I would have made the same decision anyway.

If you want to know my logic for choosing the Nullwave ending; blowing up the station is simply a dumb move. It's too final for a start and implies that the practices of using and abusing the Typhon and human subjects to make neuromods won't ever improve, change or adapt. Also since I was under the impression that the Typhon wouldn't be killed, and it was otherwise implied that blowing up the station would kill them all, it seemed like a choice between enslavement or genocide. Enslavement felt like the solution that at least gave the Typhon a chance to retaliate or improve their position; either humanity would learn to communicate with them, preventing future invasions etc. or in a worst case, the Typhon would escape again and infect Earth, the elite few living off this ill-gotten technology would be tested again for their hubris. Something January said right at the end really tipped the scales for me though, he implied that keeping the technology was a risk, and that we might be small fish in a big pond or something to that effect. To that end, if the Typhon are at the small end of the scale that 1 neuromodded "human" barely fights off a station full of them then humanity will need all the help it can get for anything worse. If stronger aliens do exist and they happen upon us, they either find us with a destroyed space station full of lost potential or they find us juiced to the teeth, and from there, if they are hostile then we stand a better chance.

As it turned out, the ending did kind of justify my suspicions anyway, Alex's true goal was communication and understanding with one of the Typhon, and from there we can only speculate how things could change. Humanity is capable of great suffering and greed, but cooperation, adaptation etc. can eventually come from that in time.

Gameplay Spoilers
From a gameplay perspective, I played as a pure human. This was one of my greatest peeves with the game though, firstly, they don't reveal the entire talent tree to you until a few chapters in when all the Typhon abilities are revealed to you. There's even some human abilities hidden until then too. The typhon abilities are revealed to you alongside a warning that turrets will treat you like an alien as well so they are introduced as a negative. I didn't know then that turrets were useless and having already dumped a ton of neuromods into human abilities I just stuck to that. What annoyed me most though, is that unlike Bioshock, Prey doesn't give you the abilities to even try. Bioshock you find every single plasmid through normal play and the choice is down to which suit your playstyle the most and thus make you want to upgrade. It's just rather unfortunate since the early game as a pure human could be pretty annoying.

Stealth is very, very buggy, frequently had enemies see me through walls and floors taking away my sneak attack damage. Ammo and resources are scarce and worst of all, pretty much every single enemy has some Area of Effect damage ability that make melee with the wrench problematic. You either waste the surprise using a nullwave grenade, half the time alerting the enemy directly to your location no matter where you are anyway, or you charge in and just eat a bunch of unavoidable damage. And at the start of the game, it did an absolutely terrible job of informing me, as a player, what exactly was going on. Etheric Phantom's AoE dropping at your feet when you hit them , and when they die without a telegraph for example, nearly impossible to see and can disappear while the damage effect is still active. Poltergeists exploding when taking damage is also a real needless effect as well.

But that frustration is relatively short lived, towards the end I was sprinting around like a mad man, calling in multiple nightmare typhon in a row and just demolishing them with the shotgun. That thing can hit for at least 279, probably more, and was a joy to use. Focused mostly on security weapons, the GLOO gun was interesting but the weapon switch felt too short to really make use of, and the Q-Beam, again neat but was too ammo intensive early on. This was kinda another problem with the game, just too few weapons. Especially without getting the powers, I got about 15 - 20 hours in, explored a lot and realised sadly I was never going to find anything new. (except the Golden Gun, which was nice but the Pistols were fairly pointless unfortunately)

I played mostly "good". I think I killed 1 human in the entire game while saving or incapacitating the others. (The one human I killed was the prisoner in Psychotronics. I initially set him free to get the door code then realised I could read his criminal record on the computer, after which I just walked in and shot him) I loved the different approaches you could take, my favourite item being the Recycler grenade. Would have been rather boring to just have a normal explosive, but a black hole generator that deletes objects and spits out their components, so satisfying to use.

Gonna stop here since this is becoming a wall of text and I'm just rambling about little things here and there at this point. TL;DR, fun game, would recommend.

I look forward to seeing what others make of it.