I have to say, I Prey (2017), like, I do not regret that it had to take place in a hurry, gulp, instead of kebabs in the May weekend.
During this special thank you to Bethesda – a year ago, the publisher took an extremely unpopular decision to stop issuing press copies of their games before the official release ( we wrote about why it’s bad for everyone, including players).
But even so, I can not get angry and curse, because the game came just in me, I got what I expected.
At the same time I understand that the “game of the year» Prey will not and will not receive mass recognition.
Arkane either could not, or did not even try to do “for all” – the Prey very blurred genre framework, it is difficult and does not try aiming to entertain the player.
Any her strengths easily you can wrap a disadvantage, it desperately needs to understand the players involved. This is truly the author’s work, which will be enjoyed not for everyone.
The only aspect of the game, which is definitely not in dispute – the music. Below you will find four of the best songs from the soundtrack Mika Gordona (we talked about it in the article on the establishment of Prey ),
who deserve a place in the playlist of any connoisseur of electronic music. Incidentally, we recently talked about sintveyve predicted the direction of a bright future in popular culture – that “sound» Prey sintveyva just very much.
Sound design is almost flawless – the music perfectly matched to the locations and the game situation. Several bright tracks emphasize and complement the perception of the important plot points, but the rest of the sounds organic and soft ambient music.
Background threads modulate the atmosphere and mood for each location, but it is not perceived as music. The same problem was, for example, in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – sad Fields of Ard Skellige beautiful, but too much pulls the attention.
But technically sound frustrating, at least on the PC. Speech in the game is not too much, but voice messages and audio diaries played very quiet – I had to turn on the subtitles to dismantle anything. In addition, surround sound is not always enough depth, the NPC voices are often heard somewhere nearby, although the characters are far away or in the next room. It’s unpleasant, but nothing that will not correct a couple of patches.
Russian dubbing of “SoftKlab”, by the way, is excellent. I switched him to better hear the dialogues, and did not regret, with the explicit order or Feil intonations notice was not possible. But the cues that actors recite bored unemotional voices do occur, albeit rarely.
Visually station “Talos-1” reminds (sometimes too) of Delight of BioShock – lush aesthetics of America 20’s with wood paneling and gilding are combined with utilitarian metal shell of scientific and industrial sectors. But the levels themselves in Prey give much more “air.” The station is divided into several sectors, among which you can move freely.
All locations layered and rich – each has a different purpose and different from the others in design and organization.
In laboratory Psychotronics, for example, a corridor structure, in the main hall four floors with ten rooms, and the arboretum under the dome on the top floor – it’s all a huge park with dense vegetation and rocks, among which are placed gravilifty to smaller locations such as the bridge and the housing cover .
But at this level, skillfully directed the player to get lost here very difficult. Even without a map is usually clear which way to come to the story, and what – to secondary missions.
Arkane – excellent architects, their levels are always encouraged to search for unconventional routes and detours. But far more important is that they are never forced to do anything, in any room or cache can be accessed with the minimum of special skills.
The ability to hack locks, lifting heavy objects, or becoming a small items can make your life easier, but often in inaccessible places can be reached by simply searching an alternative point of entry or Poryskav of searching password surroundings.
