|
About the ending. The reason why 'it was all a dream' trope is criticized is that the plot becomes void because of it at the end. It's usually used as a lazy way to end a story where the protegonist wakes up and finds himself back to square one, nothing happened. But you can tell that they wanted Prey to specifically address that issue and imo they succeeded. What you experienced happened in the past, it was a simulation showing the sequence of real events with some room left to influence the outcomes and for you to react freely. There were consequences to the story and the choice you make at the end absolutely needs the protagonist to have gone through the simulated past events. If I tried to pinpoint the specific writing trope I'd argue that what the game uses is more of a giant flashback sequence rather than 'it was all a dream' because of how the writers addressed the problems with it. Palpek fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Nov 9, 2019 |
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 13:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 20:05 |
|
|
To be fair i didn't really understand the ending either until i let it stew for a bit and read others' impressions on it. But i think it's the closest a game has ever gotten to framing its own medium. You're playing a game about playing a game, and about the struggles of a creator to meaningfully engage with their art. Off the top of my head, i can't think of any other game where the happenings ended up being meaningful or relating to you, the player, instead of you, as the player avatar, to this degree.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 13:40
|
|
|
That's my reading of it, that Arkane were testing me as much as the in-universe characters were.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 13:45
|
|
|
Floodixor posted:What builds did you all lean towards in your first playthrough, and why? Any regrets? I just installed everything that looked remotely interesting, human and typhon. I did end up leaning very heavily on Psychoshock in the mid-to-late game; it's a completely beastly power, hitscan, loads of damage, and shuts down enemy abilities. Before that it was all the shotgun for close-in work and the Q-beam for sniping. No regrets on power selection; being able to play with the whole buffet of powers is great, and you have a lot more flexibility there than you do in SS2 thanks to the ability to manufacture neuromods en mass. I do regret not bothering with the stungun at all, though, it's mediocre when you find it but when fully upgraded it's easily one of the best weapons in the game. I've been considering playing it through again either all-human or all-typhon, but those both have issues: - all-human means you lose out on all the cool typhon powers; IIRC human is entirely passive bonuses except for the - all-typhon means you get all the powers, but are restricted in your ability to use them because the psi pool upgrades are considered human upgrades -- as are health and inventory capacity upgrades! That said, it might be fun to do all typhon/no kills and all human/100% kills just to see how people react at the end. SCheeseman posted:That the entire game is a trolley problem test for Typhons is heavily telegraphed from the very start. Yeah, I suspected that or something like it partway through Psychotronics, and was certain of it by the time I was done with Crew Quarters. There's even at least one early ending that all but spells it out (using the escape pod at the top of the arboretum). So the twist at the end didn't surprise me at all. Or rather, the fact that it was all a simulation intended to evaluate Typhon capacity for empathy didn't surprise me, the fact that Earth is already overrun did. Nor did it damage my enjoyment of the game at all. It's also fun to speculate about how much of what you experienced in the game are things that really happened to Morgan, now implanted into the Typhon as memories, and how much is Typhon Yu going through the simulation -- i.e. at what point in the game do you make the transition from "things the Typhon remembers doing" to "things the Typhon is actually experiencing". The most obvious answer is "right at the start when you wake up", but I don't think that's the only possibility.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 13:51
|
|
|
The ending was such a minimal blip on my radar for this game. The game itself was so amazing and fun, and I found the ending to be a very simple “oh that’s clever” kind of thing before immediately diving back in for another playthrough
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 14:04
|
|
|
Synthbuttrange posted:I had some fun but a lot more frustration. And after that ending I just uninstalled the thing, no matter that I hadnt completed mooncrash Hey so Mooncrash is such a different gaming experience and has nothing to do with Morgan Yu. You're doing yourself a huge disservice by not playing it. It's a truly unique game and a ton of fun.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 14:36
|
|
|
synthbuttrage
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 14:40
|
|
|
Synthbuttrange posted:Dont be patronizing, I know I'm playing a drat computer game. Thing about how the plot was framed. At the start, after seeing Morgan's full message and meeting January, Recording-Morgan explicitly tells you that Talos 1 has to be destroyed and everyone aboard has to die, including you, because the risk of the Typhon spreading is too great. Everyone has to die, even you. That is the game giving you explicit permission to do whatever you want to the NPC's. Feel free to kill them all, they're already dead. It's not promising you any sort of reward for being nice to the NPC's, in fact, it's the opposite. If you try and help them, January gently criticizes you, reminding you that you don't need to do that, everyone is expendable. The whole main game is saying, "you're in a world where there will be no lasting consequences for you to face. How will you treat the people you meet along the way?" Synthbuttrange posted:I am laughing that Alex thought 'Alex is an rear end in a top hat Simulator 2032' would turn around my feelings on humanity though. Get someone else to shake my hand and I'd have been way less inclined to kill everyone. But that's exactly the point! Saving a nice person or becoming friends with them is easy. It's saving or becoming friends with someone you don't like which is hard. I doubt that it's a coincidence that the simulation version of Alex is portrayed in an adversarial and jerkish way. Palpek posted:stuff I know the game's been out for ages, but most people in the thread are still using spoiler tags out of courtesy for new players who can wander in.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 15:10
|
|
|
SCheeseman posted:I guess you failed the test. This isn’t the one. Start over.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 18:16
|
|
|
The whole simulation sequence kinda clicked for me when I first saw the "flashbacks". It helps that I played an old xbox game called Breakdown with a similar plot involving simulation
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 18:35
|
|
|
ME: all this Prey chat is making me want to play it again, I think I'll fire it up on Nightmare/Survival Typhon Only MY DAUGHTER, entering the room to see me in the Talos Lobby: "it's the squeaky dart game! I want to play with the darts!" I am now required to get to Morgan's office with a crossbow in hand and then give her the controls. (When she was 4 I let her wander around Morgan's office firing darts at everything for a while and apparently that left an impression, although she's never played any other part of the game.)
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 20:52
|
|
|
The_White_Crane posted:Body of the Many is hot garbage though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 21:06
|
|
|
Synthbuttrange posted:hm. I mean, it's called an immersive sim for a reason.  Also, the ending signifies that it wouldn't matter what you did because the outcome would have been the same--the Typhon would've reached Earth one way or another. At least by framing it as a simulation, if the result is positive, there's the possibility that the Typhon can be reached to somehow in order to reverse the fate of Earth, in a sequel that'll never happen.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 21:26
|
|
|
ToxicFrog posted:ME: all this Prey chat is making me want to play it again, I think I'll fire it up on Nightmare/Survival Typhon Only Now I want a team-PVP game mode called "Dodge-Dart" where the only weapons are Huntress boltcasters and typhon cystoids.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 21:54
|
|
|
I get where Synthbuttrange is coming from at least. When I finished Prey for the first time the ending felt really bad to me. After letting it settle for a couple weeks I found that I didn't mind it so much. I still don't think it's a terribly strong ending, but neither do I think it's bad. I guess the difference for me is that right away I felt that the game was so good up until the ending that I was at peace with the game. side_burned posted:I have played SS2 a half dozen or so times since it came out and have never beat because how bad the Body of the Many is. You're soooo close though, Body of the Many is only an hour or so long. It's bad, but at least it has the decency to be short. I still hold a grudge against it though, my roommate had never SS2 and he saw I was playing it so he came to watch but of course I was in the body, and had to be like "Noo I swear it's a good game it's not like this..."
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 22:51
|
|
|
Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I know the game's been out for ages, but most people in the thread are still using spoiler tags out of courtesy for new players who can wander in.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 23:03
|
|
|
I feel like I'm lucky that Deus Ex: Human Revolution's ending was so awful to me every ending I might not like otherwise in other games aren't so bad! But I do like Prey's ending. Can totally get why other people might not, but it's an ending that's good to have a nice sit and think about afterwards.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 23:16
|
|
|
Mike the TV posted:Hey so Mooncrash is such a different gaming experience and has nothing to do with Morgan Yu. You're doing yourself a huge disservice by not playing it. It's a truly unique game and a ton of fun. thats what people said about Prey, I'm not falling for that poo poo again.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 23:42
|
|
|
Prey: Mooncrash stands as the only rogue-lite that I not only enjoyed, but actually finished.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 23:49
|
|
|
Synthbuttrange posted:thats what people said about Prey, I'm not falling for that poo poo again. jeez, the ending soured you that much?
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2019 23:55
|
|
|
I also think the ending is fairly weak, if thematically appropriate and foreshadowed quite well, but I enjoyed the game far to much up to that point for it to bother me. I'm sorry the experience didn't live up for you, but I also went in knowing nothing beyond some comparisons to BioShock from a friend that's never played SS2.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 00:08
|
|
|
I really like the ending the way the game gets there. Its maybe not the most creative conclusion but it's very well presented.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 00:33
|
|
|
Synthbuttrange posted:thats what people said about Prey, I'm not falling for that poo poo again. Dude, stop overreacting. The ending is thematically valid, is telegraphed heavily throughout and does not discount everything that has come before it. I would somewhat understand your reaction if it really was just a 'it was all a dream' ending, but it isn't.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 00:37
|
|
|
"it was all a dream" is pretty much the only ending takeaway that can be expected from someone who thought it was too difficult to kill poo poo with Psychoshock and the shotgun
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 00:38
|
|
|
sometimes I forget how bad the average person is at attempting to get any further past the surface level reading of the media they're experiencing
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 00:56
|
|
|
flatluigi posted:sometimes I forget how bad the average person is at attempting to get any further past the surface level reading of the media they're experiencing that starship troopers movie had some really cool explosions and that's all there is to say about that movie 
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 01:02
|
|
|
double nine posted:that starship troopers movie had some really cool explosions and that's all there is to say about that movie  it also had boobies
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 01:10
|
|
|
Re: The Ending I thought it was fantastic. There's a voice log midway through the game talking about how examination of Typhon neurological structure reveals they're incapable of higher level concepts like empathy, when then-Morgan talks about how those concepts could be introduced to Typhon minds through neruomods. Then you get to the very ending and see that the whole game has been an attempt, through the addition of Morgan's memories to a Typhon, to teach one of these aliens empathy through Morgan's experiences. Then I started thinking about the one time a few years ago I got bored in Fallout 3, pulled out my gun, and murdered an entire city of civilians just to see if I could before loading my previous save, because it was a video game and it didn't matter and they didn't matter. And considering that as a human player I wouldn't really consider video game characters to be real living people which is both correct and self-obvious, and also exactly how someone - say for example, a hostile alien - without any concept of empathy might see other people. I mean, that's brilliant? That's a perfect blending of the story idea they were trying to get across through the real-life experience of playing a video game. It's incredibly clever.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 01:54
|
|
|
just gonna repost thisLt. Danger posted:The simulation is a framing device that makes Alex, Morgan and the game itself into an unreliable narrator. Alex is a historian reconstructing the events of the past to create a useful narrative - like all histories, it is imperfect, selective, biased and more symbolic than it is comprehensive, but the past still happened and still has meaning. In fact, it is only through the telling of these flawed stories that the past can have meaning! dreams are solipsistic. the whole point of the simulation is an attempt to induce the opposite I think Prey also realises that the narrative appeal of it and its *Shock predecessor/sister/cousin games is rarely the main plot thread and more often the wider narrative built into the gamespace as a whole. with a few notable exceptions, the majority of plot beats in these games are simple traversal stuff: elevator's blocked, engines are offline, district's in lockdown. possibly why these games tend to limp across the finish line - the main plot was always more about mastering a hostile space than anything else. Prey tries to sidestep that with its ending revelation: it was never about Talos 1, it was always about, uh, Yu
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 02:02
|
|
|
People always say "videogames can't have anything meaningful to say 'cause they lack any subtlety" but when they call the main character Yu, it still flies over people's heads
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 02:39
|
|
|
Regarding the opening sequence (but don't read unless you've finished the game): I stole some construction light or something and took it up to the helipad. Threw it next to the helicopter and then proceeded to get on and take off. After landing, I get out and find the same construction light lying there and I just thought it was an oversight or a bug or something. Welp, that's my Prey story, now I want to play through it again.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 02:55
|
|
|
ending's really bad, but it doesn't ruin all the unrelated good things about prey.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 03:02
|
|
|
Prey's ending is insanely good. It's a commentary on the actual act of playing videogames. Did you, as a person, empathise with these characters even though they are just a simulation. The ending then judges you accordingly. It's brilliant.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 04:02
|
|
|
it was ok
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 04:10
|
|
|
I liked the ending to Prey and thought it was an overall good game.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 04:44
|
|
|
Mongolian Queef posted:Regarding the opening sequence (but don't read unless you've finished the game): I stole some construction light or something and took it up to the helipad. Threw it next to the helicopter and then proceeded to get on and take off. That whole beginning sequence was awesome and is part of why the way the game ended fit with the rest of the plot and wasn’t just a dumb gotcha to have a twist at the end.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 05:29
|
|
|
Synthbuttrange posted:Oh thats a good point Here, I've just put you in a simulation where I've been an rear end in a top hat to you as much as possible. Now tell me how you feel about it? Usually endings like this are cheap, I agree with the general sentiment, but in this case I think it worked. It gave a good explanation for extremes of player freedom like murdering everyone on the station and the silent protagonist. It changed my interpretation of a lot of events in a positive way, where I was left wondering things like what Morgan Prime did and wryly contemplating what a jerk people can be in games with high degrees of player freedom. The idea of humanity being totally hosed but for a last hail Mary to force empathy with cosmic horror entities also tickled me. My only fault with it was I would've liked a bit more detail on what really happened to all of the supporting cast and to Morgan Prime him or herself. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Nov 10, 2019 |
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 05:39
|
|
|
Lt. Danger posted:it was never about Talos 1, it was always about, uh, Yu
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 06:37
|
|
|
Synthbuttrange posted:thats what people said about Prey, I'm not falling for that poo poo again. Hold on, now you're saying that you didn't like the rest of the game, either?
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 07:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 20:05 |
|
|
Remulak posted:Oh goddamnit, I missed this. Also I did t get hiri protagonist until the second reading, whatever. I'm going to blow your mind within the next three seconds. I M. Yu.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 10:41
|
|
