As a transformation mechanics in Prey can change the genre

Make a pre -order | All about PREY (2017)

Prey – One of the most anticipated games of the season! And most of all the plot is intriguing, not the original setting (although they are also worthy of attention), but a unique transformation mechanics presented in trailers. Both the main character and his enemies can turn into objects of any form and size. To this, if you remember, even the T-1000 liquid terminator was not capable. Developers from Arkane Studios Not at all newcomers in experiments with original superpowers, but this time they can open really new horizons in the game design.

Or not?

Evgeny Peklo, editor -in -chief of the magazine "Gambling"

The idea to turn a player into objects is not new. For example, at the base Call of Duty wonderful hide and seekers are implemented, where some players turn into some elements of levels-tables, lanterns, garbage-while others are looking for them. I shot it – it means that I found it. Similar was in Counter-STRIKE. This is perhaps one of the best pastime options with old friends with whom they played a hide and seek for the first of his birthday in the third grade.

But in a single game, the opportunity to turn into objects gives a lot of a mechanic for puzzles. For example, to go through the door, we need to become small and plastic-for example, something like a ribbon. Such an object around is not visible, but we know that it is somewhere on the elevation. Now we have to climb there ..

Feel how the chain is building? And if you introduce a timer, to become an object could only be for a short time? And if you add a restriction on the number of available transformations? And if you give a complicating condition: for example, the form persists only while you see the object into which has turned ..

Potential for compiling puzzles in such a system colossal. We add here games with gravity, all kinds of tracking cameras and enemies that you can deceive – and we get a ready -made competitor Portal. Not a https://sister-site.org/playojo/ miserable parody, not parasitization on ideas, namely a new competitive mechanics.

PROP HUNT APRILELD TRAILLER for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered.

It would be even more interesting to see cooperative tasks on such mechanics. How do you, for example, are a situation when one of the players must become a key, and the second with its help to unlock the lock? Or one turns into a shield, and the second, hiding behind it, passes by the turrets. You can, of course, go down to the banal “copied the turret, killed the enemy”, but the puzzles for me are somehow more interesting.

Oh yes, in Prey, after all, you can not only turn into things, but also disassemble any trash into molecules and build something worthwhile from it. It is more difficult to use it as a mechanics for puzzles, but I would very much like to see a similar apparatus in the new part Fallout. So that any trash that is littered is beneficial.

The abundance of garbage in role -playing games is annoying, and the molecular converter could completely solve this problem. Just imagine the world TES , where there is nothing useless. All these tons of utensils and apples, cluttering your inventory, will finally gain at least some value, turning into weapons and components of potions. Beauty!

Imagine what would happen if at least half of all the junk that you found in the wasteland could be used not only as garbage for sale.

Alexander Pushkar, Io of the editor -in -chief of Igromania.ru

I would say that the revolution actually dulled much further. The ability to make any object playable is not just a funny mechanics, but an indicator of the power of current computing systems. And now, in general, in general, the tendency is to try to simulate in the virtual space all-all-all that is possible. As here, for example, EVERYTHING, where you can be at least an amoea, even a stone, at least a bear. It is impossible to play this, you can evaluate the "gameplay" yourself:

But the main essence is that each object is interactive and playable. On the scale of the whole planet, yes.

And you can also No Man’s Sky recall. As a game she, let's say, did not take place. And as a breakthrough in science? 18 Quintillions of Star Systems Counting on the server? Sorry, of course, but both are very confident steps to the emergence of a real virtual world that exists within our. Or maybe we ourselves live in such a world created by other forms of life, simply more advanced. Here and about "People in black" You can remember, about "Black mirror" , and generally beged in thoughts about the universe.

Each item in this room may wish for your death. Welcome to a new level of paranoia!

Prey is the opposite = EVERYTHING Extreme, where the scale is more serious, but the gameplay is poorly thought out. Here, on the contrary, everything is limited to one space station, but the interaction of each object with the world is spelled out in detail. And for sure, there will soon be another Sean Murray, will combine both approaches and create a completely interactive and infinitely huge universe that is located inside the computer. He will choose a planet there, inhabit it with men created in his image and likeness, and begins to send floods, bring saviors, talk with the prophets ..

Denis Pavlushkin, author of "Gambling"

To understand the coffee pot, you need to think like a coffee pot. Move like a coffee pot. Become a coffee pot. Only then the player will reveal the truth and the metaphysical meaning of all this office and kitchen utensils, which loves to wallow under his feet in shooters or spectacularly fly apart from explosions and automatic bursts.

Many of us in the morning early would like to turn entirely into a mug of coffee.

Oddly enough, when looking at the mechanics of the transformations of Prey, not pictures of sophisticated and multi -layered, like a pie, puzzles, but a simple, but very persistent sensation, appear in my head. One thought: "This is fun". And not in tactically, when butterflies begin to circle in the stomach from potential places for ambushes, bypass tracks and possible masking, and in the simplest, infantile, understanding of fun. Which is from childhood, when just looking at the ragdoll physicists or ride on a virtual tank was incredibly interesting.

Arkane similar gameplay solutions are not in a novelty: in their old Arx Fatalis, For example, bread by the fire had to be cooked with your own hands. Put flour on the stone, there, from the inventory, pour water, and then attach the dough by the fire and watch how the roll is baked. Interesting? Not the same word. It is appropriate and convenient? Well … no.

Prey, however, is a special case, because it is a rare exception: here this funnyness can both just amuse and be extremely useful, even the key for the progress of the player. In some places of transformation, they need or are able to seriously make life easier for the hero, and at other time, someone may want to move to the stapler and check how interactive the world around is and whether any funny bugs will meet.

“Gimmiki” rarely receive popular love and approval, most often happens the opposite: one specific mechanics, which was supposed to “turn” everything upside down, as a magnetized attracts all the negative reviews and hatred of the public. Prey has a chance to create a reverse precedent. We are looking forward to the first shoemans “entirely for a teaspoon” and other similar.

In addition, the possible success of a blockbuster can marked an unusual milestone: the first “correct” embodiment of such mechanics in the gaming industry. Prop Hunt , Of course, it appeared a long time ago, but no one perceives it as something more than a small trinket.

Prey, with budgets and marketing capacities Bethesda , Everything is different. Therefore, it can happen that we are waiting for the Renaissance of the Shuters, completely tied to an interactive environment in the literal sense of the word. And there it’s far from going far: designers of levels will work out every centimeter of space up to the skirting boobs sprinkled with mice, NASA supercomputers will require the closing of objects ..

Maybe someone will even remember the reducing gun from Duke Nukem And he will think: “But what if you can change your body arbitrarily?"And a completely new shooter will appear: with the dynamics of scale and constantly changing, depending on the size of the player, the battlefields. Is it not beauty?

Dmitry Shepelev, editor of "Gamemany"

I will add a little skepticism to the optimism of colleagues. Prey really offers original (relatively) mechanics. But is it too original? Now I'll try to explain what I mean.

A few years ago, Luke became one of the most noticeable trends in the game design. Assassin’s Creed, Tomb Raider, Far Cry, Crysis 3 – Everywhere the heroes lifted enemies with arrows with a variety of tips no worse than Oliver Quinn from comics DC.

The apogee became perhaps the recent Horizon Zero Dawn, where almost everything is tied to various arrows. Then the hook-cat came into fashion, the last time we met in Titanfall 2, – He greatly simplified the parkour and added speakers to the action. Both onions and hook are bright examples of rather obvious mechanic, which are not difficult to weave into almost any action movie, there would be a desire.

In a cute indie toy I am Bread The player could manage a live piece of bread just "because". But in the projects of the AAA class there should be justification for everything.

Now let's remember Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. The main emphasis during the promotion of the game was placed on the unique Nemesis system, which endowed each orc with individuality. As soon as the enemy survived the fight with the hero or kill him, as he immediately turned into a “sworn enemy” – became stronger, angrier, acquired special features. For example, if the Talion wounded the orcheal leader with the help of an explosion, he flaunted a burnt mug at the next meeting.

The mechanics are really revolutionary, the strongest side of the project and an almost new word in the genre, but … more than two years have passed, and where we have seen something remotely similar to Nemesis? Everything that comes to mind is the coming continuation of the same Shadow of Mordor. Why so?

Yes, because the mechanics are completely and completely tied to the plot of the game. Opponents can “swing”, killing the protagonist, only because after his death, time does not go back, the level is not restarted from the control point, because Ranger Talion Immorta.

So it is with PREY. The main character can turn into almost anything only because this ability is due to history. Aliens, genetic experiments and other. To transfer this opportunity to another large project, it will have to be justified. A hook can be of anyone, even with Batman, even with special agent Rodriguez. But the transformation into an inanimate object, explain. Here the scriptwriters will have to seriously strain, otherwise you can meet a flurry of accusations of plagiarism and secondary.

There is a considerable probability that Prey, contrary to expectations, will give nothing to the gaming industry, but will remain a truly unique project.

Prey will make a revolution or not, we will not recognize either on the day of the release or after it. It takes time for the industry to comprehend any innovation and turn it into a tendency. But in fact it is not so important. There will be enough for us and just a great game.