Prey:
Time to Beat: 15 Hours
After releasing Prey
in 2017 to an underwhelming reception, Arkane
Studios surprised fans and critics by expanding
it with Prey: Mooncrash the following year.
Shamus Young, who initially recommended Prey, extolled
the virtues of Mooncrash
in 2018.
With these recommendations I purchased the Prey
package.
Mooncrash reuses the components
of Prey, but with a twist. The player controls Peter, a
temporary employee of Kasma Corp. Kasma Corp is the more ethically
compromised rival of TranStar, the company that operates Talos I (in
Prey) and the Moonbase. From a satellite orbiting the Moon,
Peter enters a virtual reality to repeatedly review the events of the
catastrophe on the Moonbase.
The simulation relives the last half
hour of five characters; a soldier, a spy, a volunteer, an engineer,
and the Moonbase director. Each character features a number of
mechanics which distinguish them from each other. The player can
only employ the Volunteer at the start, with each remaining character
unlocked by completing specific objectives. Each character begins a
simulation with a different collection of starting equipment. Unlike
Morgan from Prey, each character is limited to certain
abilities that fit their style. The Volunteer learns psychic
abilities, while the Engineer carries a portable machine gun turret,
and the Solider is skilled in combat with additional health and
proficiency with ranged weapons. These skills are unlocked by using
Neuromods found on the base, or purchased before each mission. While
abilities and items differentiate characters, they also have two
objectives. Each character needs to escape from the Moonbase by
their preferred route. When a character completes this objective,
they unlock a story mission for themselves.
Prey: Mooncrash
includes a significant checklist of victory conditions. Collect
Neuromods, chipsets, and explore. But it also requires that the
player unlocks the five characters, completes each characters' story
mission, escapes with the five characters, and escapes using the five
possible escapes. The Moonbase features five possible
escapes; a space shuttle, an escape capsule, a mass driver, a sci-fi
magic portal, and downloading one's consciousness onto a digital
server. Each can only be used once per run, but the player can reset
the simulation whenever they want. A player might reset the
simulation because they messed up, or it became corrupted. Each
simulation starts at corruption level 1, and increases to level 5.
Each level adds new Typhon, and makes them more deadly. Instead of
advancing to level six, the simulation collapses and resets the
Moonbase. During a simulation the player reduces corruption by using
Delay Time Loop items scattered around the base. Tough enemies, like
Telepaths, Technopaths, Poltergeists, and Moon Sharks drop Delay Time
Loops on death, incentivizing and rewarding conflict. As the player
completes objectives the simulation better approximates the true
conditions of the Moonbase, and the area becomes deadly. Parts of
the Moonbase will start without power, on fire, or feature more
enemies. Eventually the player will need to complete the trickiest
objective of all, a concurrent, five man escape. Since each escape
method can only be used once per simulation, and since the simulation
becomes more difficult as it becomes more corrupt, this five person
escape needs to be carefully planned in advance. Besides good
planning, the player should undertake it earlier to avoid a tougher
simulation.
Though the difficulty of the simulation
increases as the player completes objectives, the characters improve
with Neuromods, chipsets, and better weaponry. During the sessions
the player finds fabrication plans, chip sets, and items, which they
purchase before a mission, even after resetting the simulation.
While each new simulation resets some aspects of the Moonbase, these
plans, chip sets, and items remain. Also, any Neuromods the
characters installed remain, so their abilities continue to improve.
Prey: Mooncrash improves on the
original system by adding a number of new enemies, weapons, items,
and abilities. The game also features a trauma system, by which the
player suffers burns, concussions, radiation sickness, poisoning, or
bone fractures. Bleeding causes the player to take additional damage
when running or jumping, while radiation sickness blurs the
character's vision. Traumas can be cured by the appropriate
medicine, if the player can find it.
Perhaps,
because the difficulty is supposed to increase during play,
Prey: Mooncrash is surprisingly easy at the start. Even though
the player character is weak, the Moonbase is in one piece with only
weak Typhon roaming its halls. But even completing the five person
escape didn't feel difficult. The enemies were stronger, the base a
smoking ruin, but the player characters decimated enemies with super
powers and devastating weapons. It's not that Mooncrash doesn't evoke intense moments, but that it didn't sustain them over
the duration of a mission. The Moonbase is a puzzle, and there are a
number of tricks the player can employ to negate its strengths.
Always carry two (or four) control modules to restore power to a
section, or fix the tramway. Also, always purchase the RSV-77
Neuroelectric Disruptor for each character. The reason though is a
bit more convoluted. Like Prey, many of the Neuromod
abilities are Typhon abilities. When a character has installed
Typhon abilities the Moonbase defense perceive them as a threat and
engages its defense mechanisms. The most frustrating defense is the
Typhon gates. These gates blocking passage if they sense nearby
Typhon. A character considered a Typhon can't pass, but there is a
simple work around. The gates can be disabled by an electromagnetic
pulse. The stun gun, mentioned above, provides this pulse on demand.
Players of Prey may wonder what
is the chronological relationship between Mooncrash and the
base game. The expansion seems to imply that the Typhon attacks on
Talos and the Moonbase are simultaneous. One ingenious
player found that they could see Talos I from the Moonbase. Of
the five plots, of the five characters, only one seems relevant to
the story. The events of the five stories occur in a particular
order, with the Volunteer's last. In it, he is controlled by a
Telepath, into (possibly) bringing a Mimic to Earth. The Volunteer's
story mission offers a unique twist, because the Typhon breaks him
from his containment, and as he walks towards his goal, the Typhon
protect him, fighting off droids activated to defend the Moonbase.
During Prey: Mooncrash, the
player occasionally exits the virtual reality simulator to control
Peter. After Peter finishes his assignment for Kasma Corp, they
abandon him to oxygen deprivation in his capsule. But through a
series of quick maneuvers, Peter crash lands on the Moon, locates a
space shuttle, and pilots it back to Earth. While his survival is
good news, the bad news is that a mimic hitches a ride.
One question I asked in
the last article was, how do the Typhon travel to Earth. Another
similar one is, how did they break containment? Both questions are
answered in the same way. There were many simultaneous attempts to
break containment, almost as if it were planned months in advance.
And, the Typhon made many attempts to reach Earth. Many are hinted
at, but how many succeeded? Enough.
Unfortunately Prey: Mooncrash
doesn't answer any of the other questions mentioned in the previous
article, so the ending is completely unsatisfactory without a sequel
on the horizon.
In Conclusion, Prey + the
Mooncrash DLC is a successful throwback to System
Shock 2, and Bioshock, while comparing favorably to Alien:
Isolation and Dishonored.
It's greatest strengths feature in the opening hours of the game,
with the sudden reveal of Morgan's captivity, the terror and tension
of the Typhon, and the interesting mechanics. As one explores
further, Prey retains its strengths of a beautiful station,
and wonderful level design, but the story starts to show its seams.
At the end it runs out of steam, and the conclusion feels truncated.
The Mooncrash DLC recycles the original mechanics and
fabricates them into a unique experience, that exceeds its
predecessor by condensing the experience and abandoning the broader
plot.
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