Bethesda Prey – PC by Author’s Name

This review was 5 Stars — Downgraded to 3. Reasons below.

8 May 2017
I’ve been playing for several hours and this game is awesome! I was already interested when I heard the name Prey as I played a game of the same name years back. THIS IS NOT THAT GAME! It’s not a remake. Even the premise behind it is different.
So far, it’s a combination of Half-Life, Deus-Ex, and F.E.A.R. with a dash of MYST. There is an entire mystery to solve that unfolds as you explore while picking up new abilities and figuring out how to work different weapons. I’ve had more than a few jump scares and so far I’ve only encountered three different alien species. They can be hard to spot and even harder to kill. You really have to use your imagination, the items in your arsenal and sometimes it’s better to just pick your battles, run and come back to some spots later.
As for performance, I haven’t benchmarked it but I get a buttery smooth framerate on 3 27-inch monitors (5760×1080) at Very High graphics level. My rig was built for this though with a Intel i7-6700K Quad Core, 32GB RAM and an AMD Polaris RX 480 so your mileage may vary. It hasn’t crashed on me once and looks beautiful.
FYI: The “physical” copy of the game is just a DVD with the Steam installer on it and a purchase key. YOU WILL STILL HAVE TO DOWNLOAD THE GAME. The only advantage to buying the physical copy is the 20% discount for Prime members in the first two weeks.
I’ll update this review as I progress through the game if I encounter any glitches but I highly recommend this game if your machine has the muscle for it.
———————————UPDATE 19 May 2017—————————————–
Okay, so I’m 20 hours into it now and I’m wising I’d waited. Even getting 20% off for launch day purchase was not worth it.
Here’s the thing:
When I play any form of RPG (and this is really an RPG with first-person elements), I expect a certain kind of balance between getting my butt whooped and being able to whoop some butt. I should be weak and frail in the beginning, gain some abilities that make me awesome for awhile until I come upon tougher enemies and I need to gain more abilities. This game does not allow for that. Even now, with about a third of the special abilities unlocked, I continue to get my butt handed to me. Ammo is scarce but that’s no big deal because most of the weapons are crap against the enemies anyway. Special abilities seem awesome when you get them and prove worthless when you try to apply them. Not to mention the fact that even in full armor with full health, it takes about 2 hits for you to die. All enemies have one thing in common: They’re better than you. This is after I dumbed it down to the EASIEST level. Death by loud noise and bright flash of light is not fun.
The puzzle aspect is still entertaining. I still got a nice rush when I’d use a special ability to figure out how to get into a locked room but overall, it’s like hours of puzzle solving, 10 seconds of mayhem, die, try again.
I really wanted to enjoy this game because the special abilities look really cool when applied but hitting the quickload button after every single battle got old really quick.

after 20 minutes of game it wont let me go any further. I removed the game and re-installed it but the same thing happens.

Really good game in cool space sci-fi setting. It is hard to find any parts of it where you can really complain, may be inspired by Half-Life I expected to have more weapons but this is compensated by a variety of skills. Although ones you figure out main rules game become relatively simple even on a higher difficulty. There is a specific mod that can fix it but I didn’t try it yet. I really liked cafeterias which are used for ending selection, it’s one of the rare games where they make total sense in my opinion and also don’t require to limit hardly you play style in case if you want to get a good one.

The game was sealed upon opening the pkg. Shrinkwrapped with the Security Strip intact. I put the dvd in my PC. It installed perfectly. Then in order to play the game, I had to register it online. When i typed in the 16 digit or so code, I immediately received a pop up informing me that this particular dvd had Already been registered and kicked me out of the final process. I re-entered and even substituted i’s for 1’s, o’s for 0’s..both together and alternatively. NOPE! My guess is that someone who was responsible for putting in the Code Insert was taking pictures of the Registration code, sealing the clamshell, then selling the stolen code on the Black Market. No other explanation for this to happen. So..thank goodness for Amazon’s return policy. I sent it back and was refunded then bought the game online on STEAM. Works Perfect. Its a Great Game..some call it the System Shock 3rd edition. Gonna be Fun!