I'm glad I finally went back to give this game another shot because it's really great! It gets slightly experimental with the immersive sim genre and that can be a little bit hit-or-miss at times and I think the final section of the game drags a bit but overall it's a well-thought out and well executed game.
I ran into some problems at first because I went in with my usual approach to immersive sims where I tried to sneak past everything and avoid combat whenever I could but it felt like Prey simply isn't built for that. Stealth feels like a way to kick off combat and not a way to circumvent it. Crouch and sneak up behind an enemy for bonus damage on an attack but after that combat pops off the same as it would as if you ran in guns blazing. You can try to sneak by things but you don't have many tools in your toolset to do much actual stealth which is then exasperated when, later in the game, you run back and forth through the areas several times over which would make stealth time-intensive and tedious. It's not necessarily an issue with the game itself because the game it absolutely designed with this in mind, but it meant that I had trouble getting a handle on things. But once I got past that and figured out how the game wanted me to approach it, I had a great time. Exploring and clearing an area of enemies and loot and information is still a very fun experience. Finding all the little nooks and crannies in an area never stopped being enjoyable and all the short stories I uncovered in emails and notes and whatnot were fun to piece together.
The open world(ish) design of this is an interesting choice when most any other immersive sim (as far as I've played, at least) goes with discreet levels. It does help to make the world feel like a singular place and I think it achieves that age old thing of "the location is a character unto itself" which isn't necessarily something games are good at. I feel like that aspect of the design did get in the way a bit when I was completing all the optional objectives and was just sprinting through areas that I already knew to be clear of enemies and items.
Overall, this game solidified my opinion that Arkane is one of the best and most interesting developers going. Every one of their games that I've been able to play has been a great time.
I ran into some problems at first because I went in with my usual approach to immersive sims where I tried to sneak past everything and avoid combat whenever I could but it felt like Prey simply isn't built for that. Stealth feels like a way to kick off combat and not a way to circumvent it. Crouch and sneak up behind an enemy for bonus damage on an attack but after that combat pops off the same as it would as if you ran in guns blazing. You can try to sneak by things but you don't have many tools in your toolset to do much actual stealth which is then exasperated when, later in the game, you run back and forth through the areas several times over which would make stealth time-intensive and tedious. It's not necessarily an issue with the game itself because the game it absolutely designed with this in mind, but it meant that I had trouble getting a handle on things. But once I got past that and figured out how the game wanted me to approach it, I had a great time. Exploring and clearing an area of enemies and loot and information is still a very fun experience. Finding all the little nooks and crannies in an area never stopped being enjoyable and all the short stories I uncovered in emails and notes and whatnot were fun to piece together.
The open world(ish) design of this is an interesting choice when most any other immersive sim (as far as I've played, at least) goes with discreet levels. It does help to make the world feel like a singular place and I think it achieves that age old thing of "the location is a character unto itself" which isn't necessarily something games are good at. I feel like that aspect of the design did get in the way a bit when I was completing all the optional objectives and was just sprinting through areas that I already knew to be clear of enemies and items.
Overall, this game solidified my opinion that Arkane is one of the best and most interesting developers going. Every one of their games that I've been able to play has been a great time.