I’m a big fan of the Prey shotgun, with the clean, smooth display on the side attempting to disguise the punchy spray when you fire it into a squishy ink monster
2 Likes
I think System Shock 2 is significantly harder than Prey, for what it’s worth; the economy is more controlled (which can also be read as: there are fewer secret nooks – Prey’s level design conceit, boxes within boxes, really gets them overboard with extra resource drops).
I want to break down the phrase ‘boxes within boxes’, because I think it’s such an important thing for this game – spaces are designed to showcase the superstructure and the living space jammed inside it, and there are gaps all over. This gets them a more flexible and organic interpretation of the played-out ‘air duct to crawl through’ design, and it allows them to think of their spaces as onion layers, if they’re up to it. The geometric complexity of these spaces can be phenomenal, and it supports varied hiding, chasing, trapping, and environment manipulation (goo gun) play. It’s also a good excuse to reinterpret environmental opportunities – the pipes with coolant and explosives are linear instead of a point, and can be used more flexibly and tripped accidentally in more catastrophic ways. The superstructure allows the level designers to mask the effect so the ‘wall of fire’ doesn’t encompass the whole level.
It’s such a good design!
4 Likes
okay actually this game is really quite very good and it isn’t too easy anymore. I’m trying to round up sidequests and getting my ass kicked everywhere I go.
the spaceman sections are breathtaking and the level design is masterful. I really enjoy the writing too! they do a great job fleshing out all these minor characters and side stories in a way that is much more engaging than reading documents and listening to a bunch of audio logs usually is.
7 Likes
it’s more backloaded than you’d expect these sorts of games to be, I put it down in the first hour then the second than the third before finally reaching a point where it impressed me
it’s nonlinear in ways that everyone takes for granted can’t be done at that budget, I don’t think the set of people who eagerly play 0451 games but aren’t happy with them going through the motions is huge but it’s extremely well considered for what it is
2 Likes