"We got all these cool alien powers you can use. We have teleportation, mimicking objects, pyrokinesis, telekinesis, mind control, and even..."
"Nah no thanks. I'll just make my shotgun a weapon of mass destruction and increase my speed to the point that I'm playing this like one of those modern boomer shooters."

Yeah I didn't use the unique alien powers. They come at the cost of the space station's security system becoming hostile towards you, but in retrospect that isn't as big of a downside as I thought. Doubly so that you can have some alien powers without being marked for death by the automated turrets around every corner of this dying space station.
The example above is not how I was playing at first, however. At the beginning it's difficult to brute force your way through the Typhon invaders. They can kill you very easily and are very spongy in return. You have to get into the rhythm of stunning them with the GLOO cannon or stun gun, then whacking them with your wrench. It didn't help that the last game I played was Cultic, a game where you could strafe and jump all over the place with an arsenal that atomizes the opposition. Took a while to get into a more slow, careful mindset; needing to respect the enemy more then I'm use to.
It wasn't bad by any means, but it wasn't firing the neurons (HA!) other games usually give me. Sneaking and stealth killing is fun, but I have a bigger preference towards more aggressive and reckless playstyles.
Turns out I just needed to be patient. It's one of those games where your extremely weak at the beginning, but slowly the tide of power turns to your side. I still couldn't disregard the Typhon's capabilities, but I really like that. I'm reckless, but I love bobbing and weaving between different enemies; keeping track of what each can do and the on-the-fly decision making. Even when I was at the point of power, I still found myself sneaking a lot; though this time is what because I wanted to be sneaky to get the drop on my foes.
Prey is a game where you're gradually adding more tools to your toolbox, and most of these tools come in the form of neuromods. As mentioned at the beginning you can get a lot of crazy psychic powers, but you can also get hacking abilities, mobility enhancers, common stat upgrades to health and damage, and so forth. This isn't rare for a "immersive sim" by any means, but it helps gives decisions on how you want to play the game which I'm all for. Does have some good ole "immersive sim glitches and jank", but not as bad as other games; plus it was never anything a reset couldn't fix. Though that t-posing, headless astronaut flying on-screen was terrifying...
Speaking of scares, this was more of a horror game then I expected. Nothing "pants-darkening" but it did get me good a few times. I do like the setting a lot and how every npc, whether dead or alive has their own name. It's small, but adds some much-appreciated character and makes me more sympathetic to (most) of these character's deaths.

And without giving away specific details, I always admire a game where you can fight off nihilism and go from a survivor to a hero... or not. Play it your way or something... or don't I'm not your parent... seriously that shotgun can get borderline broken with enough investment its great

Reviewed on May 05, 2023


6 Comments


11 months ago

Good review, really hits on what makes the game work with the different playstyles. Imo it's worth even a partial replay just to see how different the other styles like going all in on the alien powers can be.

11 months ago

@Silverhand Thank you kindly! This game does have NG+, so a quick replay to experiment with Typhon mods is a good idea.

I will also say, this review is completely coincidental with Redfall's release. I had no idea till today that Arkane developed it.

4 months ago

This game really itches my 90s/00s brain, I wish immersive sims were more prevalent.

8 days ago

I wholeheartedly recommend doing Typhon Neuromod Only and No Neuromods playthroughs.

8 days ago

@Nilichi After about a year since playing it, it might actually be time for another playthrough. That's an interesting challenge for sure, but I don't know if I could part with DOOM shotgun with how good it feels to wield. Definitely would use more Typhon powers though.

8 days ago

@AlphaOne2 If you do so, be sure to start the new playthrough on either a new profile or after deleting the user savefolder first. There's a longstanding save bug where progression items and enemy death status can wrongfully carry over from past playthroughs.