The game is a reboot of the original game back in 2006 made by human head studios. The reboot is developed by Arkane. The game actually was supposed to be a sequel made by Human Head until it was cancelled. The sequel was supposed to be a intergalactic sci-fi story where you were this air marshal who is working as a bounty hunter trying to find out why he was on this planet.
In its new setting it takes place in a alternate timeline where JFK has survived his assassination. And as a result, he is still alive at that time in order to improve technology in order to accelerate the space race.
The new story you play as Morgan Yu you play either as a male or female. And npc dialogue varies depending on which gender you are.
You are on a abandoned ship where everything seems to be not ok after waking up. You are in immediate danger and you have to find out the truth to why its chaos by a parasitic alien like creature.
Morgan Yu is a silent protagonist but here is the odd design choice. You’re A.I companion has the characters voice depending on gender and one point of the game there is this video recording of Morgan Yu depending on gender speaking to you on the actual objective of why you are on the ship.
If you want to create a silent protagonist that is meant to characterize the player leave them completely silent.
Now in the story your actions have consequence. There is multiple branching paths in the story and the ending varies depending on your choices similar to Dishonored another game that is made by Arkane. You learn more about the story from various emails,notes and audio logs. And it focuses on telling its story through the environment around you like in the Dishonored series. The story is mysterious and you learn more about the events as time goes by. And the story is quite dark and it gives this feeling of being on your own using your wits to survive an unknown threat.
The game is a first person survival horror it takes place on a space ship the entire game. The ship is fully explorable and you are always in danger. The enemies in the game are tricky to kill and you have to be careful as weapons noise will attract more enemies. And ammunition is limited so use your weapons wisely.
Now the enemies in the game are goo like parasitic creatures that shapeshift through various items that are around you. They take a lot of hits to be killed and they are often hard to hit because of they can be highly agile. And you often have to get a good amount of supplies before you have to take them on. Or you can also avoid them by stealth completely as well or distract them.
The game uses a Metroidvania style approach on gameplay where you have to find items and acquire abilities to eventually allow you to explore the ship in a entire open world setting. You have to backtrack from location to location in order to find key items required for progression.
You can approach each objective in various ways through stealth which is really recommended as you do not want to attract any attention. And going in heads on which is going to be quite dangerous because of the enemies in the game can be able to shape shift into the objects that are around. So they can fool you and attack you at anytime at any given moment.
You have to take your time and do not rush in the game or else you will die frequently. The game focuses on creating your own playstyle and finding ways to solve problems as quietly and quickly as you can without drawing attention. Similar to Dishonored another immersive sim game made by Arkane and Bethesda.
You can craft weapons and ammo through the objects that you find in the ship and this is a useful to for survival and the more blueprints you find the more better weapons you can get. It uses a lot of items so be sure you are willing to sacrifice any item that you might need in order to create a medkit or weapon. You are able to find upgrades as well and some of the upgrades requires a certain skill in order to unlock it like the GLOO Canon for example.
The ship design is pretty good. Its dark and haunting each place has a secret and you can also go into low gravity environments with your jet pack which gives for fun exploration. The ship is large and it gives a claustrophobic feel to it like the movie Alien. You can explore the ship in anyway you like and find alternative paths to reach objectives just be careful on how you explore it. You can find passwords through the notes you find in order to access computers and locked doors. Or you can be able to hack your way through if you are unable to find the password.
In the game you can acquire special abilities that alter your character. These abilities are special experiments meant to enhance the human body and increase the lifespan of humans. From increasing health to improving your skill with weapons each of these abilities can really help you increase your chances of survival.
You can even use the typhoid abilities that give you psychic like powers but beware you will be often mistaken as a typhoid on the ship and others may try to kill you. In order to gain typhoid abilities, you have to scan different kinds of typhoid on the ship from a safe distance in order to learn not only what kind of typhoid this is. But, also be able to gain access in unlocking more typhoid abilities as well. The process in the game takes time but you can be able to speed it up with modifications to your psychoscope.
You can also find microchips for either your psychoscope or suit that provides a variety of bonuses such as more weapon damage or increased accuracy for each of your weapons.
There is also zero gravity sections of the game as well where you can explore outside the ship and go to areas that may be locked off. But it can still be quite dangerous as well the Typhoon has also inhabited some of the areas outside the ship too.
The musical score is low key and haunting its pretty nice given the environment of the game.
The graphics on the CryEngine 4 are pretty good and the visuals are dark and its highly detailed just like the ship itself.
I did enjoy it and I wonder how Prey 2 could have been if it was released.
It gets 4 stars.
A fan of sci fi and horror would like this game. Along with fans of immersive sims like Dishonored.