Prey

Totally worth it, Prey was so, so good! Definitely took me a while to get around to finishing the DLC, but once I finally finished everything I could I already started to miss it. Dishonored 1 has a special place in my heart, but I have to admit Prey might be Arkane Studios at their best! They have created such a perfect rendition of the already unique 'Dishonored' formula that I can't draw comparisons between anything else other than their other games. As another one of their immersive sims, It's insane how they can produce so much high quality content and package it so neatly here, I thought that Dishonored 1/2 set the bar but Prey absolutely met my expectations for both lore items and storytelling in comparison, this game definitely surpassing all of their previous games in the latter category for sure. The story here, including it's DLC 'Mooncrash' have a good underlying plot that kept me entertained through and through. Character dialogue and motivations feel real to the surrounding context and personalities, nothing ever felt forced or out of place, all more or less elevated by the overarching sci-fi concept that I felt was very much 'SOMA' esque, both which spiritually feel the same and one that I haven't stopped playing around with in my mind in the same way as SOMA's concept, really trying not to spoil anything lol. Both the main game and it's DLC containing surprising and interesting twists and turns all throughout that branch off in satisfying ways, which actually feel consequential depending on your decisions. I can't help but agree with a point I had heard regarding this, saying that your choices feel so important because the game never tells you if what you did was right or wrong, you become the judge rather than a notification telling you 'So-and-so will remember that' or anything, which was nice, led to more judgment in the hands of the player than what the game leads on initially. Another peak in Arkane's games is its actual 'immersive' portion of 'immersive sim', that being you can play however you want with the mechanics provided. Here instead of supernatural abilities from Dishonored, you are given a kit of very unique alien 'Typhon' powers which you can choose to use as much as the slew of fun weapons at your disposal, just like Dishonored. I can't stress enough how Prey has perfected this formula both in story and combat, the execution here is amazing. I could go on and on about the weapon/enemy interactions, how the game feels and just how much creativity is lent to the player in every aspect of the combat but I digress. Some smaller aspect's of Prey that I appreciate, maybe even more than the Dishonored games, is the voice acting, sound design and soundtrack. Voice acting was really good, but coming from Dishonored 2 it wasn't much of a high bar in the first place lol. Sound design was emaculate, just as much as the soundtrack was fitting for the setting. Just some smaller points I wanted to mention, but Prey was amazing. Absolutely a must play for Dishonored fans, if not there is still so much to love about the game that I know I have thoroughly enjoyed, absolutely one of 2017's best games. 8.5/10, the yuri subplot in the middle was definitely a highlight lmao