Prey is quite reminiscent of Bioshock 1. So presumably System Shock, too? (I've never got around to it.) With a hack mini-game, for one thing. Also, the post disaster exploration of an Island of Doctor Moreau super-science setting. This time, a near future massive space station in lunar orbit. Realised due to an alternate history where President Kennedy lives to 100 and there’s cooperation with the soviet space, etc. As discovered by in-game background materials, of which there’s a good amount.
The game’s promotional material had put me off for a couple years, with an apparent emphasis on psychological and body horror (the eye injections). But I was glad that this wasn’t really representative. There were no jump scares, and none of the squalor or wildly demented characters of Bioshock.
Well... One antagonist kinda had a bit of a grudge to settle. Plus a few heads exploded… And bashing in the operator’s floating PC cases, to steal their resources, kinda gave Johnny 5 "No disassemble!" flashbacks... But mostly there was just the Cthulhu-esk panpsychic shadow creatures from the void... Perhaps the mimics’ scuttling might put off arachnophobes...? So, erm, maybe it was a bit spoopy!
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| "Can you get it open?!" |
The first combat was a little terrifying, too; I thought it impossible, initially; to be avoided. But eventually got to grips with the wrench, etc. An extremely intimidating opponent showed up later too. Determined to access an area slightly out of sequence, I was puzzling out tactics to deal with mid-sized specials that nearly one-shotted. After stealthing around them failed. Interesting.
So, not at-all just a walk in the park, playing on normal difficulty. I was playing to explore and accumulate everything possible (in all the non-core objective locations, first). Spending too much time scavenging every scrap to craft with, although this became a somewhat interesting diversion in itself. My heal and repair resources were increasingly in surplus. And certainly I hit a few cases where over-preparation made big fights trivial and anti-climatic. So you should probably bump it up to hard, if thoroughness is your standard approach, too.
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| 6 reinforced turrets... We're are definitely ready!! |
The simple aspect that brought me most joy was the bouncy feel of the end-game upgraded movement. Also, while more fiddly, being able to fly about in space (and broken-gravity sections) was a pleasant surprise and really added to the environmental immersion. The exterior of the station is an impressively big area, and all the interior sub-sections seem to fit within the actual model.
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| Standard jet turbine engines on a space plane? Hmm... |
There were a fair few rough edges. Mechanics wise, the recycler bombs seemed very unreliable/fiddly. Frustratingly, I had one side-mission that wouldn’t complete, presumably because I adventured to parts of the station before the plot led me there, killing a ghoul before picking up a quest that would lead me to it. It could have waited for the core progression to take me to every section instead. There’s plenty of time for that.
The voice acting is solid (I went for the female protagonist). Although some of the NPC's lines and behaviours are a little off. It felt like it was done on a relatively tight budget with the dev team perhaps stretched the scope of the title...? But overall it hangs together fine. And there’s mostly an impressive sense of openness. With it being possible to kill off several main characters at any point.
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| Fastidiously ignoring the (tame) phantom in the room. |
The plot is pretty clever and rounds off well. Not ending where the arc of the game play would have you expect; a bunch more action plus twists and turns still to come. There’s ending choices that don’t feel too cheap and implicit choices spread throughout. I liked the way they ultimately tied things up.
The weapon selection was fairly limited and down to Earth, gun wise. The shotgun was efficient and felt good, so I over-used that. The GLOO gun was the most iconic. In a similar way to Half Life’s grav gun. A flexible and plausible tool, able to slowly cake enemies (or allies) into temporary plaster casts, or create wall nubs for climbing, putting out fires, etc.
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| A dispenser 3D printing a medical operator to order (despite much talk of spare parts for them). I brandish my GLOO gun. |
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Tell me, what do you see...? Rorschach test incarnate.
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Some of the abilities are ridiculously overpowered, e.g. being able to make even the biggest terror your pet, for the same low price. But I guess you have to invest a lot of time acquiring and/or crafting upgrades to unlock all these, to find out what’s good.
I was disappointed that fully researching all monsters didn’t appear to trigger an achievement. A few Steam achievements actually require replaying the entire game in opposed ways. Sigh. There is a game plus mode, but I think that probably wouldn’t help for this. Then the Mooncrash DLC that adds more on top. I just decided to buy that, too, after completing the base game.
Overall: recommended.
► Science, technology and culture references:
I was impressed with the meaningfulness of many throwaway scenery decorations, strewn throughout the game. I'll explore all that I saw (and screenshot) on white boards and the optional book excerpts (that were kept mercifully short enough to read for those with merely mild curiosity). Also, key aspects of the game's plot are couched in some of these real world references, which I'll discuss.
Spoilers below!!!
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| • "Shannon Entropy" (above) from information theory, measuring e.g. the amount of data in a string of bits, etc. |
• "Consciousness: The Fire in The Equations, by Dr Stuart Penrose" [Fandom Wiki] - The title appears to reference real life publication The Fire in the Equations: Science Religion & Search For God (1994) by Kitty Gail Ferguson. She has written several pop science books that are biographies of famous scientists and exploring the social background surrounding discoveries. But the fictional author most certainly alludes to Roger Penrose...
• "...the eventual discovery of quantum vibrations inside microtubules of neurons" (in-game book Excerpt from "Principles of Neruoscience, 10th Edition"). Another reference to Penrose (and Hameroff), who argued that consciousness is the result of quantum gravity effects in microtubules, which they dubbed Orch-OR, orchestrated objective reduction [Wikipedia]:
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| Whiteboard in Dr Igwe's Crew Quarters. |
Penrose has argued against strong AI proponents (like Marvin Minsky, who I side with), saying that computers are fundamentally unable to have intelligence (or consciousness) because they are deterministic systems. This is a fringe view, so Dayo Igwe may be his in-game embodiment. Igwe's research is criticised as paranormal/witchcraft, in other excerpts.
The game's supposition appears to be, what if Penrose's theories are correct? But going far beyond that, incorporating panpsychism [Wikipedia], so we can have these Lovecraftian horrors that feed on the substance of intelligence itself (see below).
• Noetic - is a term relating to mental activity/intellect. So "The Noetic Field" is presumably the fictional equivalent of (e.g.) gravitational/electric fields.
• Igwe [Wikipedia] is a royal title in historical Nigeria, meaning "sky". So, Dr "Day[o] Sky" maybe, like blue sky research? Out of the box, speculative, purely theoretical thinking.
• Fermi Paradox (from "An Account of Fermi's Question" excerpt) - this famously considers why we've apparently not come into contact with any intelligent alien life, yet, despite the universe seeming very hospitable to its development [Wikipedia]. If we haven't already passed some massively limiting obstacle to sentient life, in our past evolution, then logically there must be a higher chance of some failure, going forwards. Enter the typhon, who gorge on intelligent species to reproduce and spread:
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| The typhon life cycle from the Art of Prey [via Imgur]. |
The fictional author of this excerpt, "Robert James III", might be a reference to Robert James [Wikipedia], an English physician from the 1700s, who's "A Medicinal Dictionary" enjoyed an excessive duration of success, given that he was later considered a quack - his controversially patented, antimony containing fever powder, which killed patients. Certainly many side effects of neuromods are seen.
Or Robert J Bradbury [personal blog on Wayback Machine], inventor of the Matrioshka brain [Wikipedia] concept - concentrically nested Dyson spheres for most efficient mega-scale computation. Until his death in 2011, he was also a predecessor to Aubrey De-Grey's work (trying to solve aging) and a key thinker in the SETI community, on the issue of the Fermi paradox, specifically.
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| [Psychotronics whiteboard in Kelstrop's lab.] CMS and ATLAS are general purpose detectors in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider, Switzerland/France), used to quantify aspects of the Higgs Boson [Cern 2015]. DØ (DZero) [Wikipedia] experiment analysed data from the CDF (Collider Detector at Fermilab) Tevatron particle accelerator, also to understand subatomic particles. Higgs boson, discovered in 2012 [Wikipedia], is a quantum of excitation in the Higgs field. Its very high energy and unstable, so was hard to detect. It was theorised to give mass (and so gravity) to subatomic particles. Popularly dubbed the "God Particle", after a 1993 pop-science book, giving it spurious air of mysticism. Lagrangian mechanics [Wikipedia] is a mathematical formulation for describing the dynamics of a system. A gauge theory [Wikipedia] is a type of field theory with an Lagrangian that's invariant under local transformations... 😵 I don't understand the equations. It's been over 17 years since I studied (and very near failed) my physics undergraduate degree. And the same symbols are used to represent completely different concepts in the various fields of physics. But these letters maybe: G - is often the gravitational constant [Wikipedia], but... Gμν - is the Einstein Tensor [Wikipedia], in his field equations describing spacetime curvature. LH - will be the Lagrangian of a Higgs. Ø - is the scalar field (with it's components in brackets, at the bottom). λ (lambda) - is often wavelength. μ - muon (like an electron with much more mass),.. or standard gravitational parameter = GM,.. or Proton-to-electron mass ratio... or various bosons...? The main part takes a form similar to the Lagrangian for the Higgs [Wikipedia]:  |
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| [In hardware Labs Looking Glass demo room.] The "SU(2)", etc, notation looks like gauge transformations or symmetries (see Higgs, above). Overall, this looks similar to a Feynman diagram (for unknown subatomic particles)? |
• Space Elevator (from "Stairways to Heaven" excerpt) - game canon has it that the US has sole control of the only space elevator, "White Stork Tower". With the rest of the world shut out from using it to much more quickly lift the materials into orbit for a second elevator.
An elevator based on a cable in tension would require materials stronger than any currently in existence (perhaps carbon nanotubules). It would deliver payloads to a counterweight above geo-stationary orbit, 35'800km up (Earth's radius is only 6370km). The existence of this structure would help explain Talos I space station having reached such extravagant proportions, in such a high orbit. Although there would be significant extra delta-V to reach moon orbit.
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| Rocket engine depicted using oxygen and elemental hydrogen. Standard cryogenic fuels, in contemporary rocketry, kept very cold to remain dense as a liquid. |
• Reyes Field Theory (in "Beyond the Stars, an Unofficial Transtar History" excerpt) - a fictional fundamental physics breakthrough that enabled the matter stripping of the recyclers, levitation of the Operators and very convenient artificial gravity of the station. Indeed, this detail avoids the need for a rotating doughnut design, that would have been impossible to explore externally.
There's no obvious real world Reyes candidate. At a stretch, perhaps Reina Reyes, Filipina Astrophysicist and Data Analytics lecturer.
The dynamics of control systems formed the core modules of my Cyberetics (later, Systems Engineering) degree. Most well known system is PID control (propotional, itegral, derivative). Nice to see this crop up in pop culture.
• Einsteinium [Es - 99] and Xenon [Xe -54]: the periodic table chemical elements on a post-it note passcode clue.
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| "Transmutation" [Wikipedia] conversion of one chemical element to another (as per alchemy) is impossible outside of nuclear reactions. "Pocket dimension" is a concept in inflationary theory (cosmology), proposed by Alan Guth [Wikipedia]. Also referenced in "Typhon Mimesis Part III" excerpt. |
• Mössbauer spectroscopy [Wikipedia] in excerpt from "Typon mimesis Part I" [Prey Fandom Wiki]. The fiction describes using this experimental technique to see if the mimic (spider-like monsters) were perfectly duplicating even the exact chemical isotopes in the objects they cloned.
Apparently, their mimics did replicate such minute details, but at a divergent frequency that suggested time moving at a different rate. Presumably, they're saying that they saw the unstable isotopes breaking down more slowly, so there were more of them than expected, over time. From "Typhon Mimesis Part II", the mimics hypothetically swap themselves with the same object in a parallel (pocket) dimension (many-worlds interpretation?). But in that case, the object (in the observable world) should appear identical in its movement through time, even if time does not progress for the mimic, in an isolated dimension.
Hyperfine structure [Wikipedia] - "hyperfine splitting" (same reference as above) refers to the shifts in energy levels of atoms, resulting from interactions between the nucleus and internally generated electric and magnetic fields.
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"Fe" may refer to iron, where its isotope 57Fe is used as a source for Mössbauer spectroscopy... Free body diagram [Wikipedia], left, shows "R" opposed to "W", forces of restitution (a surface pushing up), verse weight (pulling down) for a steady state (at rest). Lower diagram - shows maybe an orbital motion. If Fe is iron, then an electron/subatomic orbit..? Equation could be the impulse (thrust) from a gamma ray emission...? v = velocity, g = gravitational force, r = radius, m = mass. v^2 is proportional to kinetic energy. Upper - looks coincidentally like the sine waves of a multi-phase (mains) power supply, or voltage verses current, etc, in a dynamic electronic component like an inductor. |
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| Radioactive Cobalt (57Co) is used to make 57Fe in an excited state, for Mössbauer spectroscopy. The depicted simple electronic circuit contains resistors, capacitor, a diode and transistor. I'm not sure what it would do (maybe oscillate). It's probably nonsense; the tiny device doesn't make much sense as a source of a massively powerful shockwave. If the typhon are a quantum phenomenon, maybe they are hinting at it producing an inverse quantum wave function to cancel them out of existence...? |
• Gulf of Tonkin incident (mentioned in "And The West Stood Tall" except) - was apparently an historical divergence point in the game's backstory. In reality, the (acclaimed) two confrontations of Vietnamese attacking US vessels are what led to the Vietnam war. But, in the game, the shaky veracity of the second attack presumably didn't lead to the US invasion.
• Extremophile organisms - in the "Terraforming Mars" excerpt, it mentions a grey moss that Alex Yu claims will make the barren planet's atmosphere habitable in due time. Named "Takakia Catherine", where Takakia [Wikipedia] is indeed a genus of mosses. At only 4 chromosomes, they have the fewest of any plant plant. I'm not sure if this simplicity would make them an extremophile [Wikipedia], more robust against the unpleasant, high radiation environment of Mars. Nor who Catherine is a reference to.
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| Appears to be simple (evaporative) distillation. I'm sceptical about the use of eels... |
• Transglutaninases (referenced in "Encyclopedia of Food Science and Cooking" excerpt) are indeed enzymes used to bond protein food stuffs in processed product, e.g. fake crabmeat, ham [Wikipedia]. Its only really used by avant-guard chefs, so I suppose its a little futuristic, if random reference.
• "Paraplexis" (e.g. in "The Neural Horizon II") - is the fictional disease which Chief Systems Engineer, Mikhaila Ilyushin, suffers from. Some [Steam community] note the similarity to the word parapraxis [Wikipedia], an alternative term for a Freudian slip. There are stereotypical psychiatry themes in other parts of the game, with sinister shrink, Mathias Kohl, and ink blot tests, etc. So maybe this is intentional.
But I think the closer connection is with plexus, which is Latin for "braid" and refers to a branching network of vessels or nerves. With just the "u" switched to an "i", in "plexis". Either for plurality, or to be deliberately not a real word. A responsible thing, to ensure that key terms from popular games don't overwhelm the search results for real illnesses. Para is a standard prefix in medical terminology for a disease of whatever.
• White Noise (excerpt) - is their colloquial name for paraplexis. Referring to spots experienced in the vision. I wondered if this name had in mind Neal Stephenson's influential "Snow Crash"? In this, computer coders are vulnerable to mind literally hacked by viewing image files in a dodgy file, that look like detuned analogue television static. There are serological (blood) and memetic vectors that also transmit the mind virus to others. Supposing that the first, Sumerian, language literally programmed the brain.
White noise most commonly refers to auditory stimuli, of course, as used for sleep, relaxation and countering tinnitus. While "White Noise Syndrome" is apparently a fungal infection on the noses of some bats, which disturbs their hibernation, killing many [Emory].
• Connectome (mentioned in "The Neural Horizon III" excerpt) - is indeed the general term for the complete wiring map of an organism's nervous system [Wikipedia]. The most current imagery of the human brain's network structure is based on diffusion tensor imaging [Wikipedia], DTI, a type of MRI.
That a "neruomod" can rewire people's brains to contain skills from another person, via an injection through the eye, is pretty silly. (Let alone the extreme physical capabilities that give the player's character.)
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| The escape pods (right) kinda look like a cross between the pods and the head of the ship from Kubrick's "2001 A Space Odyssey" (left). Or the head of a corvette from Star Wars, with the flat side circles. |
If these are not true mind-clones, then this makes it very problematic that the fictional billionaire (in the excerpt), Roark Wallace (unknown reference), successfully gave power of attorney to an emulated version of himself. Upon his biological death. But true clones, that (I think) should be possible, in reality, should be given full human rights and treated as the same person. Even if there are multiple copies (a bit of a headache).
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| Recording of Morgan and January, shown in her office looking glass. |
There is a real world company called Looking Glass Factory making holographic displays, since 2018 (after the game's release).
Looking Glass Studios [Wikipedia] made System Shock (1994), which was explicitly stated as the mould Prey that the developers were aiming for.
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| Talos vs Talos |
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| "This is the world today." Yeah, pretty much! 👀 Inset: Gulf of Mexico under-sea gas pipeline fire [NBC]. |
• Quasiparticle - the "Q" in the "Q-Beam" gun. Quasiparticles are really just a theoretical framework for simplifying the physics of uniform matter [Wikipedia]. They are not physical particles in the conventional sense. But e.g. a phonon, a quantity of sound, in a solid material, so tiny that it is discrete (quantum) so considered to behave like a particle. Or an "electron hole" in a semi-conductor material, that appears to move, as electrons shuffle over in the opposite direction, between the atoms in the solid.
For this language to make sense, there would need to some newly discovered universally pervasive ether, or something through which excitations could travel. Otherwise it's just a standard particle canon. Maybe they wanted to have the "Q" prefix, cos it sounded cool, like "quantum", but more exotic.
The problem with the Talos station is there doesn't appear to be anywhere to dump the excess heat. Which is a necessary requirement for all power generators - fundamentally heat engines [Wikipedia]. Useful 'work' is extracted from the flow of heat from a hot source to a cold sink. On Earth the sink would typically be the atmosphere, ocean or ground. Which in turn radiate into space. Spacecraft, in a vacuum, must shed waste heat directly as blackbody radiation - photons, typically peaking in infrared wavelengths.
Even the ISS has substantial radiator panels for this, and nuclear propelled deep-space craft tend to have even more. Talos appears to be coated mostly in blue, presumably solar panels. No radiators.
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| Left: repairing the reactor core in Prey. Right: the DIII-D experimental tokamak fusion reactor completed in the late 1980s. |
• Mirror Neurons - the typhon are said to lack this brain structure, although I didn't particularly think they even had brains, or even cells, per say...?
Training a typhon by immersing them in the sensory experiences of a specific person makes more sense. Embodying them. Showing event from a specific perspective is known to engender empathy for that person, e.g. in TV shows, even when the protagonist becomes increasingly unlikeable, as in Breaking Bad.
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| Pre-shadowing much..? |
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