Mediocre So Far--But Why Exactly?
And on that note, I guess my second complaint is how claustrophobic the settings are. I mean, crawling around inside the intestines of a spaceship should be close-quartered, but even the areas that are supposed to be expansive--like the crashed airplane--seem crushed together. I realize this might be on purpose, but again I come back to the expansive, open-ended areas of HL2, the incredible draw-distance and the horizons, which are so freeing and seem to suggest so many possibilities with gameplay. I realize Prey's claustrophobic feeling is an effect of the Doom engine as well. However, I didn't seem to mind the close quaters as much in Doom--demons in your face around every dark corner is simply what Doom is about. But in Prey, the claustrophobia gets annoying--almost like there's too much going on? Or maybe I'm showing my age (if I play longer than 2 or 3 hours straight, I develop a rip-roaring headache for some reason-ha!).
Of course, the game looks and plays great, no trouble there. The voice acting is fine, and the characters are OK. But the "intentional surprises"--the entire bar getting sucked up into the ship with Heart on the jukebox, the bloody school-children ghosts, seeing the grandfather mashed into bloody bits--none of it has had much impact on me or drawn me into the game. Very puzzling indeed. Anyway, I'll finish the game, but I'm simply not psyched to do so. Weird.
I like Gamespot's reviews because the reviewers are hard critics, indeed. I often think they are too harsh with their ratings, but I appreciate their professional viewpoints. And when they rate something as excellent, I know they mean it, and I know it's worth the moolah. Before playing Prey, I thought their "7.5 -OK-But-Not-Great" rating must be more evidence of underappreciation. But you know, once again, I think they may be right on target...