It’s a Shooter, Not A Role Playing Game

Dear Reader,

There’s a modern trend in first person shooters that I frankly cannot stand. It involves the idea that I must grind experience points to level up my character. Two of the four shooters I’ve reviewed on this blog feature such systems, even though in one of them you play as a team leader of an elite commando unit that’s implied to have been in the military for at least 15 years.

I’m over it. I’m sick of it. Back in the day when you died in a first-person shooter, it was your fault. You fucked up. You used the wrong gun or you didn’t dodge attacks or you ran out of ammo.

Now the focus is on skill trees and leveling up. Spend an hour doing a certain action and now your character is better. To me, this is filler content. Ever since games like Skyrim and Fallout 3 have become popular, people seem to rate a game on how long it takes to play through rather than what that content actually is.

Farcry 3 is a great example of what I’m talking about when it comes to filler content. In the game, you start with the ability to only equip one weapon. To equip more you must hunt various enemies. You also have to do this to hold more ammo, grenades, Molotov cocktails and even money. It made some sense for the protagonist to need to learn and improve himself, but it always feels you have to do spend a good chunk of the game focusing on just farming and leveling up rather than enjoying the game.

Focused content is better than just pure content for the sake of content. Shooters such as F.E.A.R., Spec Ops: The Line and Max Payne might only be eight or so hours long, but every level feels like it’s been crafted. The story moments are engaging and the character’s progression feels natural.

RPG elements can work if it has a purpose. I feel this year’s Prey is a good example of this. The character you play as is a scientist and uses NeuroMods to improve there own abilities. The difference for me is the progression feels natural. There is no need to farm enemies or jobs over and over again to progress through the game itself. Yes, exploration is encouraged and advantageous, but not to a degree where you’re spending hours to level up.

In short:

Regards

Your Writer

 

Prey (2017) is Exactly What the ‘Triple A’ Gaming Industry Should Strive For

Dear Reader,

The title of this post is certainly a bold statement and not one I make lightly. Prey (2017) is a frankly fantastic game. It’s challenging, visually impressive, immersive and forces the player to think their actions through.

The game centers around Morgan Yu, a scientist trapped on a space station when an experiment goes wrong. It’s admittedly a fairly basic plot that’s been done before, and the premise is similar to the game System Shock 2, which is also similar gameplay wise. In fact, if I had any problem it is the narrative. It’s not bad, but it isn’t quite as philosophical as Bioshock, nor are the characters as interesting as those found in the Deus Ex series. Despite this, I’d still say the writing is above average.

Just about everything else, however, is great. The gameplay is smooth, and gives you plenty of options. Charging headfirst into a problem is a sure fire way to get killed. Proper use of your wide arrange of weapons, abilities, and environment is the key to success. I’ve often been able to turn the tables on a situation by just thinking it through and using what I had at hand.

Although it is similar to some of the aforementioned games, it does have some unique mechanics. There are a detailed crafting and recycling system that allows the player to acquire whatever items they need, so long they have the required resources. You will spend some time outside the space station, which has a very floaty feel to it. Finally, there’s a variety of enemies that all have different strengths and weaknesses. I feel part of what makes Prey great is discovering all these enemies as you play the game and figuring out how best to deal with them so I won’t discuss them any further. Just know that there’s plenty of variety to keep you on your toes.

Prey truly rewards creative players. Even if you do win a head-on fight, you’ll likely waste precious resources. Every item in your inventory serves a purpose and can be useful in certain situations, whether you’re using a silenced pistol to take out weaker enemies, or the GLOO Cannon to create platforms, fix pipes spewing fire, or even stick enemies in place. Even something as inconsequential as a banana can be a live saver with the healing effect it provides.

With all that being said, you can still play the game your way. Do you want to level up your hacking ability so you can manipulate various machines? Or do you choose to improve your strength to lift and throw heavy objects, potentially revealing new paths. Unlike a lot of games that feature a tacked on RPG stats system, Prey’s skill trees actually feel like they belong in the universe of the game, and there is a genuine sense of progression as you improve your abilities.

Visually the world looks interesting yet believable. There’s nothing too over the top or silly, and I do genuinely believe the future could look like this game does. The only issue I had with the game visually was the character model of Alex, who looked a bit too cartoony to me (or maybe it’s just the fact he’s an overweight man in a tight-fitting suit) and some occasional texture pop in. I was able to run the game on high settings without any issue, which is a relief considering some of the lazy PC ports we’ve seen over the last few years.

There’s plenty of side quests, and multiple endings, certainly meriting multiple playthroughs. I manage to spend 14 hours on my first one and I certainly see myself playing through it again in the near future.

Prey does enough to build on similar games like Bioshock and Dishonored and crafts an intriguing world for the player to explore. Unlike F̶a̶r̶ ̶C̶r̶y̶ Ghost Recon: Wildlands, this game feels like a unique experience. It’s a shame it shares its title with an unrelated Sci-Fi shooter that publisher Bethesda happens to hold the rights to, as I feel this game easily stands on it’s own merits. I’d highly recommend checking out Prey (2017), as soon as you can. It was easily worth its full price at release, and that’s not something I say often.

Regards,

Your Writer

 

 

General Update #1

Dear Reader,

I don’t intend to do this often, but I’m posting to say that I am still here despite the lack of posts. The next installment of Carrion is coming very soon. I already have a follow-up series that also occurs in the same universe.

Beyond that I’ll also be doing a review for the game Day of Infamy as soon as I get some hours into it. I’ll probably review more games, which will depend on what I feel like playing at the time. Expect to see older games rather than new ones.

Movie reviews will most likely slow down. There isn’t really anything in cinemas I want to see right now so again expect to see reviews for older movies.

Regards

Your Writer