SS vs Prey?

[Alterum]

Similarities and differences? Which do you prefer? I've never played Prey but am considering picking it up. Found Dishonored boring, though.

[SwordLAAAA]

ive havent played prey either, was waiting for the remake, then id replay 2, then prey. just beat remake, so i guess 2 next

[ParasiteX]

SS. Main thing missing in Prey was a central antagonist like SHODAN.

[Kain]

In terms of gameplay and freedom, Prey.

But SS really has its own unique charm with complex map layouts. And SHODAN of course.

[SurrealDeal]

They're both fantastic. Prey tries (and succeeds) at perfecting the core gameplay elements behind immersive sims. System Shock Remake is more "primordial" by design. It's more "pure" insofar as it's concerned with letting the player get lost in environments that aren't cluttered with pointless objective markers and unnecessary side quests. It's an immersive sim in the form of a dungeon crawler, which is awesome.

I'm only 14 or so hours into SS, but I'd say it's on par with Prey, even though they're very different.

EDIT: You should play Ctrl Alt Ego after you play Prey. It's one of gaming's best kept secrets.

[LtKillPuppy]

Prey would be a good palate cleanser for SS Remake. The game has fun game mechanics that work well outside of the story/setting, plus a great story to boot.

SS Remake is definitely primordial. It keeps more or less all of the original game mechanics (plus a few new ones, like inventory management and buying resources). There's no way points or objective list to help you navigate the world or figure out what to do next. While it's a blast to revisit this retro mode, at the same time it's nice that modern games track all that stuff for you.

That way I can put the game down, take a break and resume and not have to go hunting around in audio logs to figure out what I was working on.

The fact you can't leave notes on the map screen is a sore loss from the original System Shock, too.

[DYSEQTA]

Prey felt...um... empty? to me. It was obviously trying to be System Shock only better... except it wasn't. Don't get me wrong I did enjoy playing it but I feel really no compulsion at all to replay it and good games I generally do.

[chakkman]

They're both awesome.

[Audax Dreik]

System Shock and Prey (2017) are actually slightly different games. It's impossible not to play them both and see the immense influence SS had on Prey, but while Prey is closer to a richer, detailed, more action oriented immersive sim, I think the original System Shock here is much better explained as a Player vs Game kinda board game.

Think about it. Ultimately you're meant to play the game on Mission 3, which gives SHODAN a real, honest win condition. She's now another player and not just an antagonist in a story. She moves her pieces across the board as you try to check off your list of tasks best represented as a kind of score card on the status screen. You know how it shows you the laser, life pod, grove, and antenna status? Is that analogy making a bit more sense now.

System Shock is a gamey game kinda game, when you get down to it. Prey is more of an immersive experience with a story. Not to say System Shock doesn't also have a story, but I'm gonna stop talking now.

[Brian (The Schmaltzy Cynic)]

Prey is a better "game" experience in that it has all the modern accessible controls, mechanics and freedom to tailor the game and story to your playstyle. System Shock has enough mechanical complexity to stand on par with Prey, but it's a much different experience that feels straight from the '90s. No hand-holding, no guide-posting, no clues or hints if you're stuck or lost; it's simply you versus the game.

[LordBlade]

Originally posted by Alterum:

Similarities and differences? Which do you prefer? I've never played Prey but am considering picking it up. Found Dishonored boring, though.

Prey is AMAZING. Honestly, it's one of my top games for this genre (the shooter/survival/exploration style games in a contained area, like a space station).

The mechanics in Prey are great. The weapons are great. And I LOVE the alien mechanics, especially as you can pick up alien traits as you progress. There's also a great crafting system. And the fact that basically everything that's not nailed down can be turned into resources (from items to furniture to corpses).

The story is very well done. And the exploration feels rewarding. Especially as you figure your way into hard to reach places. Lots of areas have different ways to approach them, especially once you have the gloo gun, which fires these instant hardening foam shots, which you can use to create platforms and paths, or use to seal off things (from cracked pipes to doorways).

Where System Shock feels more like an old school shooter, with exploration and back tracking, Prey feels more like a survival horror experience, where you're trying to solve critical problems.

[randir14]

Prey is better overall, it feels like an evolution of SS2. SSR is better in a couple ways though. Mainly enemy and weapon variety, and sound design.

[LordBlade]

Originally posted by randir14:

SSR is better in a couple ways though. Mainly enemy and weapon variety, and sound design.

Honestly, wasn't a fan of the sound design in SS. Just felt... repetitive. Sound effects were fine, nothing to write home about.
Prey's music I found a lot more mood setting. The voice acting was good, though admittedly it's hard to top the over the top evil creepiness of Shodan (sit down GLaDOS, let a real psychotic AI show you how it's done).

But as for enemy design, Prey has SS beat hands down. Enemies in SS are pretty basic. The mutants are bland. You have various cyborgs who all mostly stand around and shoot you with whatever gun they have, but are mostly copy and paste enemies of various level of bullet sponge.
Prey has the mimics, first and foremost. And those are friggin' awesome (and make you jump out of your skin at times). I mean, they can be anything. You'll be exploring and have a coffee cup or a wrench or a chair suddenly turn into a black spidery blob (or several) and attack you. And as you fight them, when hit they'll try to get out of your sight to turn into something new to try and jump you again.
Then you start getting the larger, more evolved aliens. From the creepy humanoids, some which teleport around, to floating blobs with ranged attacks that can possess machinery, to alien polyps that fire living missiles at you.
Yeah, LOVE the enemies in Prey.

[solaris32]

Prey is better, but that's not SS's fault. SS was the granddaddy of immersive sims and as such is relatively simple and straight forward.

[LordBlade]

Originally posted by solaris32:

Prey is better, but that's not SS's fault. SS was the granddaddy of immersive sims and as such is relatively simple and straight forward.

Agreed. Prey is better simply because it had SS to build from.

[nixos]

i prefer prey 2017, but this system shock 2023 is still good and worth playing...
especially with some mods ^^
check nexus !