This was great because immediately upon entering the Pytheas hub a Moon Shark spawned. By escaping I had unlocked the use of the engineer who started out with a wrench and the ability to instantly summon a friendly turret. It felt pretty good to guide the hideous Volunteer to whatever safety he hopefully reached. At the start of a new run, this currency can be cashed in to equip a character with guns, consumables, or any number of helpful items. For the most part, any one run of Mooncrash feels rewarding because finding a dead body, picking up a blueprint, killing a Typhon, or completing some other small objective rewards a kind of currency. After getting my bearings and nearly dying several times because I had virtually no resources or abilities, I made it to an escape pod after maybe an hour or two of stumbling around. I entered into the central “hub” of Pytheas where access to the other sections of the Moonbase branched out. My first run of Mooncrash was surprisingly successful. These objectives range from collecting fabrication blueprints to escaping Pytheas in a specific way with a specific character. To prevent players from feeling directionless, a laundry list of objectives is provided under the pretense that they are being handed down by Kasma Corporation as tasks required to complete your contract. Some may lament that the environments aren’t random but because the difficulty of Mooncrash can grow intense, having familiar landmarks is actually a boon to enjoying a run. If all the characters die, the run resets and things shuffle around a bit. The structure of each of Pytheas’ levels remains the same but weapons, items, and enemies are randomized each time. But Mooncrash does things differently from Prey.Īrkane twists the formula of Prey and shapes it into a roguelike. From there, the objective is simple: escape Pytheas. After walking through the first door, players are attacked by the shape-shifting Mimics and only have the use of a trusty wrench to bludgeon them to death. The Volunteer is the first available survivor who leans towards an upgrade path with Typhon abilities. Players start Mooncrash as the “Volunteer,” a bald guy with a truly gnarly facial scar. But outside of the core “simulation” there isn’t going to be much else to latch on to. Similar to Talos 1, Pytheas has different wings and sections that tell environmental stories with little to no words. Mooncrash is more focused on gameplay than expanding on Prey‘s universe, however. The alien Typhon race is there, along with the GLOO gun, so players will feel right at home. Just like on Talos 1, throughout Pytheas there are emails and books to read that continue threads from Prey. It’s a simulation of a simulation, and for Prey fans it’s a juicy enough premise. Players take control of the hacker who takes control of the only five people known to survive whatever transpired on the Pytheas Moonbase. Most of Mooncrash is conducted in a simulation run by a hacker employed by the Kasma Corporation. And let’s be honest, who is really playing Mooncrash without having at least jumped into Prey?Įven with this DLC, Arkane is not straying from the heady mind trips it put players through in the base game. It isn’t necessarily a direct continuation of the story but a knowledge of the setting and events of the main game helps players appreciate the DLC more. Prey: Mooncrash is an expansion of the base game, taking place in the same general timeframe as Prey. In essence, it’s more Prey and another chance to dive into Arkane’s world with a clever, appropriate twist. Maybe that’s why the release of Prey: Mooncrash is so exciting. Psychological horror, tense gameplay, and deep science fiction lore were all present, yet it still didn’t feel like enough to propel Prey deeper into the minds of gamers and critics as 2017 came to a close. Similar to Bioshock and System Shock, Prey‘s space station Talos 1 blossomed with gameplay permutations that could make any encounter feel unique. The depth of choice of previous Bethesda games was there. But just like Dishonored, Prey plucked from the best and wore its influences on its sleeve. It didn’t have the Nazi-killing gusto of Wolfenstein or the lineage of Doom. Despite being made by Dishonored developer Arkane Studios, Prey didn’t seem to resonate with the masses. In the stable of Bethesda first-person games, Prey is also the runt of the litter.
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