Sign in to follow this  
SpiderMonkey

Prey demo

Recommended Posts

What do people think of the Prey demo? The guys over at Shacknews are totally orgasming over it, which makes me a little timid of posting my opinion there, since I'm just not feeling it.

I like the wall walking and the portals, I'm so-so about the spirit stuff, but I got the feeling that the demo didn't really do much more than introduce the concepts: I'd like to see how they get developed further.

I think the Doom3 engine (the non-ETQW variation) is one of the most restrictive engines in recent memory, and is responsible for most of what I dislike.

- The lighting is dynamic, great, but it's ugly and frustrating how quickly everything fades to black.

- All the objects in the game are built with really simplistic profiles to avoid casting complex shadows, making everything feel bloated and blocky.

- There are never any more than 3 enemies on screen at once.

- The environments are almost exclusively corridor based, with two directions to move in - forward and back.

- Those two facts makes combat extremely simplistic - just a matter of pointing your gun at the enemy and backpedalling if appropriate.

- The over-use of specularity means that environment styles are restricted to shiny metal and shiny wet flesh.

- The facial animation is utterly inadequate, with a focus instead placed on fancy environmental animations. Inevitably this means over-complex machines doing vague and generic tasks and stupidly elaborate door-openings.

I could probably go on for another couple of paragraphs, but my point is this: The only thing that feels different between Doom3, Quake4 and Prey is the cross-section shapes of the corridors, the shapes of the doors, and the shapes of the weapons.

Beyond the portals (which are very cool), it feels like the same tired game as its engine-brothers. I can't decide whether the portals, wall-walking, etc redeem it or are just a brief distraction: a clever way of disguising the broken corridor-shooting-backpedalling dynamic by hiding the corridors.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

But holy shit that intro level was cool.

Man I loved the jukebox and especially the song that started playing when things started happening. :)

Also Judas Priest! :tup:

The portal technology was very well done in the demo levels, there were lots of stuff in the demo that reminded me about Duke Nukem and 3D Realms' traditional tricks. Like that you could interact with a lot of stuff and use almost everything.

Of course the dark lighting athmosphere can be said to be D3-like, but I don't really care, because I loved D3.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I really liked the demo. I'm buying this game for sure.

I think Prey is a lot better than Doom 3 and Half Life. Being restricted to only small areas might be a bit of a downside. But at least the presented world is great. I enjoyed every minute I played in the game.

Prey isn't half as dark as Doom 3. Even Half Life 2 was darker (I'm talking about lighting ofcourse).

As for only 3 enemies max.. well.. it's not Serious Sam ;)

I really enjoyed the creativity they put in the level design. Half Life 2 simply had a very boring level design. Doom 3 was about 90% the same. The Hell part was cool, but only 1 level :( Ofcourse it's a bit difficult to judge how the rest of the game is. But so far I really enjoyed liked the levels. The "orb with the giant" part rocked.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I handled PR for Prey until just a couple of months ago, so I can't possibly be any more biased than I am.

But I still think the game rocks.

If you haven't yet, try multiplayer. If you like DM (and don't suffer from motion sickness), you'll have a blast. If you don't...you can safely skip it. Me, I love DM, so I love Prey deathmatch.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I thought it was meh. The only cool things about it were:

  • The first level, which made it seem like it wasn't just another shooter.
  • The portals
  • The wall-walking.

The graphics, I thought, were pretty ugly. Hi-tech, but ugly. Also, the physics were terrible. Everything felt like it was made of styrofoam or something.

Also, the story and the business with spirits and stuff seemed boring. And the voice acting wasn't that great.

Interestingly, this is a quote from Voodoo Extreme:

How 'bout that Prey demo? I was really impressed at how much detail there was in the game. Flipping through the jukebox songs, changing channels on the tv, playing video games in a video game. I screwed around the bar for like 30 minutes before "the real demo" even started! Bad ass stuff.
I wonder if he'll notice how the only interactivity the game offers after the bar sequence is buttons.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I didn't think this was going to be any good (3D Realms :crazy:), but I recognize excellence when I see it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well it's only 3DR publishing it as far as I'm aware; the development itself is all Human Head.

How does the game run? My machine isn't fantastic with its Nvidia 6600gt, AMD 2800+ and 1GB of RAM, and has trouble with stuff as far back as Battlefield 2. I don't think I'll bother if I'll have to run it with shit settings to be smooth.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Well it's only 3DR publishing it as far as I'm aware; the development itself is all Human Head.

Correct...sort of. 2K is the publisher, 3DR is producing it, HH is developing it.

How does the game run? My machine isn't fantastic with its Nvidia 6600gt, AMD 2800+ and 1GB of RAM, and has trouble with stuff as far back as Battlefield 2. I don't think I'll bother if I'll have to run it with shit settings to be smooth.

It should run fine on that setup. That's better than my desktop here at work, and I can run it in 1600x1200.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

ran pretty good on my amd64 3200 with geforce 6800gt @ high detail, 1024x768

didn't play around much with the settings. In the beginning it runs pretty aweful (the bathroom scene, weird vsync rendering artifacts)

Tried the MP mode.. it's just normal DM or TDM with a interesting level design (because of the gravity) but it's quite slow, you don't really run fast or something.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Well it's only 3DR publishing it as far as I'm aware; the development itself is all Human Head.

Well, yeah, but it's based on an old, old 3DR project and the premise is pretty much identical.

It runs surprisingly well. Better than FEAR, for example, and looks way better too.

I wish it didn't have that Native American crap in it. So cliched and terrible.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
weird vsync rendering artifacts

I thought that was just me, not that they were particularly intrusive or anything. And as others have said, the game's performance is very pleasant. Your computer should be very comfortable with it, Thrik.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I rather liked the demo. I couldn't stop grinning when I first saw my own back in a portal. I even managed to snipe myself in the back! I'm not too sure if I like the whole 'I'm an indian in denial' angle tho. It is indeed a bit of cliche. But I'm sure I'll get the complete game when it's released.

Speaking of being released. What is this triton thing they promote? It sounds a bit fishy. Anyone got any experience with that?

Oh and I noticed the V-sync artifacts too. Turning on V-sync in the advanced options worked for me.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I rather liked the demo. I couldn't stop grinning when I first saw my own back in a portal. I even managed to snipe myself in the back!

It took me two shots before I figured out that was me..

I ran a couple of laps at that place with two boxes where you could go in circles with the portals. That was fun ;)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
It runs surprisingly well. Better than FEAR, for example, and looks way better too.

I was thinking the same thing. FEAR would occasionally suffer from a choppy framerate, even on a set up like mine, but Prey ran incredibly smoothly.

As far as first impressions go, I'm not sure. There were some elements of it I thought were kind of cool (like what happens when you die, or the freezey-gun) but otherwise it left me feeling a little empty. To be fair, though, I had already seen about 98% of this demo in gameplay videos over the last couple of months, so nothing really surprised me. I still plan on picking up the full game when the time comes, though I definately wouldn't go so far as to say it's better than Half Life 2.

I also have to agree with Toblix on the voice acting; Tommy in particular just sounds silly.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I dunno, I like Tommy's voice actor. I like his intonation, it's a bit quirky. He doesn't sound exactly like all other action movie/game protagonists, which is good in my opinion.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Speaking of being released. What is this triton thing they promote? It sounds a bit fishy. Anyone got any experience with that?

From what I can tell, Triton is a "me too" Steam-style thing. The major difference appears to be that the main objective is to make money from digital distribution as a retailer, rather than to empower and free developers from retailers. So I can't say I'm particularly interested in it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I dug it. I'll buy it.

I dunno, I like Tommy's voice actor. I like his intonation, it's a bit quirky. He doesn't sound exactly like all other action movie/game protagonists, which is good in my opinion.
I'm not sure how many people, say, in Europe would be aware, but some Native Americans living on reservations do have a noticeable accent. I think that the actor might be attempting to play on that a bit.

The actor, Michael Greyeyes, seems to also be from Canada, so that might add to his "quirky" delivery.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I liked the demo too, I'll probably buy it as well. Plus the gimmicks are pretty interesting and actually add to the game.

Would anyone want to try out the deathmatch mode with other people on the forums?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Well, yeah, but it's based on an old, old 3DR project and the premise is pretty much identical.

Not really. The only thing the two games have in common is a title, a native american protagonist, and the use of portals. Everything else was freshly created.

The actor, Michael Greyeyes, seems to also be from Canada, so that might add to his "quirky" delivery.

The actor is native american, so the accent you hear is authentic. Incidentally, so is the actor playing Jenny (the actor playing Grandfather is not).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
The actor is native american, so the accent you hear is authentic.
I'd hoped people would make that connection themselves. :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
The actor, Michael Greyeyes, seems to also be from Canada, so that might add to his "quirky" delivery.

The actor is native american, so the accent you hear is authentic. Incidentally, so is the actor playing Jenny (the actor playing Grandfather is not).

So he's a Native Canadian then? :shifty:

Grabbing it now, but like some people, I'm put off simply by the connection to 3DR, so my initial impressions, before playing it, are already soured. Though I imagine that in a situation like this, I can't get disappointed.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
From what I can tell, Triton is a "me too" Steam-style thing. The major difference appears to be that the main objective is to make money from digital distribution as a retailer, rather than to empower and free developers from retailers. So I can't say I'm particularly interested in it.

Riiiiiight. Because that's surely not why Valve made Steam. :rolleyes:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

don't know about triton... but I know I will never use steam in it's current form.

I have doubts on the working of triton too (the webdesign is aweful).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Riiiiiight. Because that's surely not why Valve made Steam. :rolleyes:

Steam: Primary objective: Help the developers. Secondary objective: Make money.

Triton: Primary objective: Make money. Secondary objective: Help the developers.

I didn't say Valve weren't looking to make money. I simply said it wasn't their main objective. Read more closely next time?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this