Chairs Made of Monsters--Prey

My experience with XBox Game Pass came to an end recently, but not before I was able to play a couple of excellent games.  By far, my favorite game from the experience is Prey.  Prey had been loosely on my radar prior to Game Pass, but I just hadn't heard enough about it to motivate me to look into it more.  It sat on my Steam wishlist for awhile and then I finally took it off.  Well, it's firmly back on the list and I'm planning on snapping it up the next time it goes on sale--one playthrough is not enough for this absolutely awesome game.  I am very surprised that I hadn't heard more about it--in my opinion it's very underrated.

The story in Prey starts off with you choosing your character (there's no agonizing character design decisions to be made--you choose a male or female character.  Since the game is first-person you don't see your character other than in the initial character selection screen.).  Your character is about to embark on an exciting experience as part of scientific research taking place on a space station.  Before you go into space though, you have to complete a few simple tests (which are very confusing at the beginning of the game--they are stupidly easy and simplistic...it makes no sense).  Things quickly get more complicated as your character progresses through the tests and witnesses an attack on the scientists conducting the test--a small, agile black headcrab-like creature disguised as a coffee cup kills a scientist!  Your character is utterly confused as alarms start blaring and the testing environment disappears.  What now?  The only option is to try to escape the testing rooms to figure out what is actually happening...but that weird, black blob thing is out there!  As your character navigates their way out of the test rooms, they discover that the testing environment which appeared to be on Earth, is actually an elaborate ruse!  You were actually on the space station the entire time!  What the heck?  The rest of the story involves exploring the alien infested space station and working to figure out 1.) how you're going to get off the station/a solution for the station and 2.) the story behind the events on the station.  Things get much, much more complicated, but I don't want to spoil it.

Some gameplay stats for reference--I am a completionist and tried to do as much exploring and complete as many sidequests and tasks as I could.  My total playthrough clocked in at somewhere around 30-40 hours (I did quite a bit of exploring and the game could definitely be completed much more quickly).  I felt like the game was the perfect length--not too short and not obscenely, pointlessly long.

Pros:
+Amazing setting--it's sort of like BioShock meets space.  The station is broken up into different zones based on the type of activity that took place there; since it was a research station there are various labs scattered throughout the station.  There are also areas where the mundane daily tasks took place on the station--crew quarters, the medical offices, the cargo bays, and the shuttle bay.  Even though the station is in space, the interior has been designed with a sort of future meets retro feeling.  It's an Arkane game, so you can expect tons of detail (think Dishonored).

The graphics are gorgeous and it looks amazing.

+Talents lend themselves to multiple playstyles.  You can try to be stealthy and sneak around enemies (as much as is possible); you can take skills that bulk up your combat-based skills with better weapon damage and a larger pool of health; or you can put points in skills that help you manipulate the environment through hacking.  Eventually you unlock a complete new pool of talents that also give you....a more diverse set of talents (it's kind of spoiler-y, so I'm not going to go into detail about it).

+Exploring all the nooks and crannies of the space station is fun.  There are many sidequests and side tasks.  One of the side tasks that I (sort of weirdly) enjoyed was trying to track down all the crew members on the ship.  Throughout the various areas of the ship are security stations that track the location of every person on the station.  Many crew members have been killed, but tracking down their remains paints a picture of the chaos taking place throughout the station.  Many of them also were carrying personal communication devices called transcribes which will unlock short audio recordings.  These recordings help reveal the story about the station and the events leading up to the apparent alien invasion.  Finding remains isn't a simple, linear affair and can require some creative problem solving to figure out how to navigate to sometimes hard to reach locations.  There are generally multiple paths and options to reach certain areas.  Not every area in the station is a part of the main story but every area is worth exploring.

One of the more interesting parts of the station is the fact that you can find and unlock various airlocks.  The airlocks allow you to traverse the outside of the station--you are basically floating through space!  It's a very cool feeling at first, but it's also painfully slow.  Exploring the exterior of the station is important because there are certain areas that have been damaged and are only accessible by finding where the breaches have occurred and then accessing them from the outside.  There's also the reality that there are fewer enemies on the outside of the station--by travelling from airlock to airlock you can avoid enemies who have respawned in the interior.

+ Combat can be tough, but is enjoyable.  I found the beginning of the game to be especially tough.  The aliens, even the small ones, hit hard.  You're going to need to put serious thought into what is the best way to either avoid them or quickly take them out.  As you progress through the station you will find many different types of enemies and each requires figuring out the best way to take them out.  Enemies also respawn each time you leave an area and then return so you always have to be on your toes.  The first aliens you are introduced to have the unique ability to mimic objects--they can pop-up from basically anywhere.  Be prepared to get beat up in the first few hours of the game.

+Plenty of optional side missions to keep you busy and take you to areas of the ship which you might skip over otherwise.  Completing them is worthwhile for story based reasons and also just to find more resources or upgrades.  One of my favorite (and most difficult) side missions involved a group of workers who played a D&D type of RPG together.  The leader of this group created a treasure hunt for the members and as you find their remains (yeah, they died) you find their maps.  Unlocking the "treasure" requires interpreting the locations on the maps (which are vaguely labelled with the level designation) and then figuring out a set of numbers.  I found two of the numbers on my own and had to look up two of them--they're well-hidden and easy to miss.

+ There's the main story and then there's the story within the story.  There are tons of workstations to hack, transcribe recordings to find, and files and e-mails to read which help you learn even more about the characters and events on the station.

+ Handy crafting system.  There are tons of objects scattered around the station and everything is useful in some way.  Items that are flagged as trash can be broken down by special machines into crafting materials which can be turned into other items.  You can craft a ton of consumables (it does require finding the blueprints first--this is yet another good reason to explore as much as possible).  There were moments when I was genuinely worried about having enough consumables/ammo, but with some careful hoarding you will eventually find yourself flush with crafting materials.  This doesn't mean you can go crazy, but you should have enough to be able to craft what you need.

+Choices.  There are many choices sprinkled throughout the game, but the major one comes at the end and influences the type of ending you get.  There's also another ending (think BioShock) that really throws you for a loop (super, super spoiler-y, so not gonna talk about it) and takes into account the many choices you made throughout the game--but even then, you can still choose.  It's great!

+Weapons.  Most of the weapons you find in the game are pretty standard shooter fare--your pistol and shotgun.  But this is a game in space so you really need a cool, space-y gun.  Behold the Gloo gun!  This is one of the first weapons you find in the game and in the beginning it seems marginally useful--it shoots blobs of a constrictive, foam-like substance that hardens on contact.  In the beginning of the game it is particularly useful for stopping enemies in their tracks so you can clobber them with your one damaging weapon...a big wrench (BioShock, eh?).  However, you also have to think outside the box with the Gloo gun--the blobs of hardened foam can be used as a handy traversal tool--just plop down an ascending trail of blobs and you can reach virtually any seemingly out of reach area (and, if you want to track down all the crew members you're going to need to get creative about how you reach them).  Traversal with the Gloo gun isn't as easy as it seems though--Gloo blobs don't stick to themselves so you have to figure out the best positioning to help you climb from blob to blob.

Cons:
- No fast travel system.  There were several points where I found myself running between different areas to do side missions or tasks and I realized that I was kind of tired of it.  Enemies respawn and there's always the possibility of the Nightmare (a lethal, giant alien that periodically appears and will hunt you for 2 minutes at a time--your best option is to run and find a good hiding spot until that time runs out) popping up to derail your plans.  Eventually you do figure out how to repair the lobby elevator which does help cut down your travel time, but there's a part of me that wished for some faster travel.  There's another part of me that thinks fast travel would sort of ruin the element of surprise and the general shocking aspect of enemies popping up from anywhere.  Its a toughy.

-Travelling on the exterior of the station is really amazing at first, but the major downside is that it is cripplingly slow.  Your character uses a sort of thruster pack to help them navigate through the zero-G atmosphere.  Figuring out how to navigate in zero-G takes some getting used to.  If you're going for completion there are several crew member bodies that are floating around the exterior of the station.  A couple of them require painfully long space walks.  There are a few upgrades that you can find throughout the station which help to speed up your thruster speed, but it's still very, very slow.

-I didn't run into any major bugs or performance issues, but I did encounter one buggy mission.  I was supposed to find someone, I had already found them prior to picking up the mission, so the mission wouldn't complete in my log.  This is something minor, but still irritating.

Recommendation:
I absolutely loved Prey!  I cannot believe that it didn't get more buzz or accolades because it is absolutely worth playing and is totally underrated.  If you are the type of person who loved BioShock and are looking for a similar experience...Prey is a perfect fit.  I plan on adding it to my permanent collection the minute it goes on sale.

As a note, I played it on Game Pass but got a notification shortly before I finished it that it was on the list to be removed.  By now, it has probably already been removed from the service.  Just buy it; it's definitely worth it.

Keeping an Eye on the Unruly Masses--Orwell

Have you ever secretly wished that you could look through someone else's stuff?  Or secretly peep at their messages, e-mails, or phone calls?  Okay, that does sound a little bit creepy, but we've all pretty much accepted the reality that someone is reading our messages, right?  If you've ever read 1984 and thought, "yeah, I'd love to be Big Brother," look no further than the video game equivalent--Orwell.

In Orwell you play the role of an agent working for the government in a fictional country.  You have access to special technology that allows you to analyze public records (that's not creepy) and even better technology that allows you to secretly spy on the phone, e-mails, and computers of private citizens.  You're basically Big Brother....keeping an eye on everyone in the name of the common good.  Or, at least the good of the state.  The story begins when a bombing takes place in a public square.  The government wants to track down the perpetrators and bring them to justice.  Of course it turns out to not be that simple...

The gameplay in Orwell consists of looking for clues in documents, spying on the personal devices of various key figures, and trying to piece together all the actors in a large conspiracy.  Piecing together this puzzle is complex as some clues are very concrete and others require you to make a judgment using information that can sometimes be conflicting.

Pros:
+ Novel gameplay.  The entire concept of spying on people and piecing together various chunks of information into your theory about who was involved in a large plot is fresh and fun.  You get a true Big Brother feeling that is enjoyable.

+ A nice relaxing experience.  If you're looking for something that's relatively short, can be enjoyed in small chunks, and still manages to be fun, Orwell is a good choice.

+ Choices.  Part of the gameplay involves making choices--you have to suss out what actually happened from conflicting information and present the most likely scenario.  This can be tricky and requires attention to details about the people involved.  One of the other interesting pieces is that you can choose what info that you actually pass on to your even bigger Brother--you can choose to withhold valuable intel in the name of protecting the people involved.  It's up to you what you pass on and it does have an impact on the story.  There are multiple endings.

Cons:
- It can be challenging to piece together some of the more vague clues and you really only get one shot to get them right.  The game is pretty short and lends itself to replayability though, so there is the possibility of playing through it several times to see the many endings.

Recommendation:
If you're looking for a different kind of game that's short and engaging, Orwell is perfect for you.  It's the kind of game that I would put on my wishlist and wait for a sale.  It has definite replayability value and is unique.

Middle Earth: Shadow of War--Pretty, but Tedious

My adventures with the games of Game Pass continued with Middle Earth:  Shadow of War.  I was a bit on the fence about this one because I had read some very unfavorable things about it upon its release several years ago.  One of the notable criticisms was the fact that a particular part of the game seemed to have been intentionally designed as a massive grindfest with the goal of driving players toward dubious in-game purchases to make the experience less painful.  That criticism is somewhat warranted, but I will explain it in the cons section.

It had been quite awhile since I had played the original Middle Earth game and I vaguely remembered some of the characters and gameplay features  If you're like me and it has been awhile, fear not!  The controls and gameplay are very easy to pick up and there hasn't been a vast departure from the formula of the past game--you're still going to use a combination of stealth and combat bad-assery to give the smackdown to a vast array of orcish baddies.  The nemesis system is still very much a part of the game.

The story in Shadow of War follows Talion as he continues his quest to free Middle Earth from the grasp of Sauron.  Talion isn't fully "alive," and is accompanied by the supernatural powers of the elvish wraith Celebrimbor.  A large part of the story revolves around the fact that Celebrimbor had forged another ring of power to counter the powers of Sauron (and, for other reasons that are very spoiler-y that I won't elaborate on).  The creation of this ring, of course, leads to unwanted attention and....issues.  Mixed up in the entire thing is Shelob, the spider queen, who has some very supernatural powers herself and offers up tantalizing pieces of the history of Sauron.  Talion finds himself immersed in trying to save the human city of Minas Ithil from orcish invaders.  Not one to be undone by Talion, Sauron sends in the big dogs in the form of the Nazghul--a new, wicked form of enemy.  Talion is forced to face the facts--in order to defeat Sauron, he's going to need to raise an army.  The rest of the story hinges on efforts to raise that army and work to defeat Sauron.

One of the gorgeous vistas in Shadow of War.

Pros:
+ The game looks amazing.  The graphics are really impressive and the world feels exactly how Middle Earth should feel--beautiful, large, and full or orcs.  Each zone offers up a different Middle Earth inspired feeling--a towering human city; a dark, cave-like industrial orc stronghold; a forested, critter-filled playground; and even a few icy biomes for variety.  The details in Talion's weapons and armor are also really impressive.

+ Combat is still a ton of fun.  I hadn't played Assassin's Creed prior to playing the first Middle Earth game and, after playing the AC games, I now realize how similar the combat styles are in both games.  Talion is still an orc-slaying badass who can take on a heaping pile of lesser orcs with no problems.  Taking on commanders is where the real combat happens and defeating them can be quite challenging.  Players can choose to be more stealthy in their approach or to take a more head-on path.  Either way, you're gonna have a blast stabbing orcs.

+ Collectibles, exploration, and sidequest content.  Each zone is an open-world and upon discovering and cleansing the Haedir stones, certain sidequest and collectible markers are revealed.  Players can spend time tracking down and reconstructing Shelob's lost memories, collecting lost artifacts of Gondor, or finding lost elven words to unlock the hidden Ithildin doors in each zone.  Completing these optional side activities provides numerous rewards.  The Ithildin doors in particular are good places to find legendary gear.

+ Upgradeable gear sets.  Talion can find and equip numerous pieces of gear.  The best gear can be found while taking down orc commanders and SoW implemented a tiered, colored loot system.  The ultimate prizes are the legendary tiered loot which forms sets with set bonuses.  Legendary loot can be upgraded at various levels upon completing specific objectives.  There are numerous sets in the game and someone who is dedicated to collecting could spend a lot of time trying to piece together all the sets.  Each set has its own look and the armor and weapons in the game all look really cool.

+ Talent trees with a metric ton of talents allow players to customize Talion to face every encounter.  Each talent has three "versions" that can be unlocked through investing more talent points.  Players can easily swap out talents at almost anytime.

+ Challenge quests.  As Talion unlocks new talents there are sidequests that tell the story of Celebrimbor that serve as tiered challenges.  Each quest hinges on using a newly unlocked skill to perform a certain task and how successfully you are able to perform that task will provide additional loot or talent points.  These quests can be repeated multiple times and are a good way to learn how to use Talion's new talents.

+ Forming an orcish army and storming enemy strongholds is fun (like the first few times, but I will get to that in the cons).  There are different "tribes" of orcs with different talents and abilities--the variety has very much increased over the first game.

+ Brainwash and use your orcish follows as your own personal force.  You can assign orcs to be your "bodyguard" and accompany you.  This is handy when you want backup to take down commanders.

Cons:
- Story is very forgettable.  For me, the Middle Earth games fall into the same category as the Assassin's Creed games--the settings and gameplay are the main course and the story is a side dish (it's peas).  Stabbing orcs is way more fun than the story.  Don't expect something amazing on the story level.

- Gets a bit grindy.  Part of the story involves travelling to various zones and recruiting a powerful enough army of orcs (which means tracking down, defeating, and converting several orc commanders) to eventually take on and defeat a stronghold.  There are numerous ways to do this--the best way is to adequately weaken the strength of the fortress by defeating its numerous commanders (who usually have several underling bodyguards.  Generally you want to defeat the underling bodyguards so that you're not facing several commander type orcs at the same time).  You can also invest the currency you find and earn in upgrades for your army.

- Epilogue.  For me, this is the biggest point of contention.  You play through the entire main storyline, complete the "final" battle, and get to see how the story unfolds.  Then, you find out that the story isn't actually over!  There's an "epilogue" chapter that involves defending ALL of the strongholds you've conquered against attacks.  The bad news is that you've leveled up, your commanders haven't, so you're gonna need to go out and repeat the entire recruitment process (many times!) to adequately crew your strongholds with commanders of the appropriate level.  You're looking at hours and hours of very repetitive gameplay just to be able to "complete" the story in its entirety!  If you're a completionist...this is very frustrating.  This is the part of the game that was intentionally created to sway players toward purchasing boosts, currency, EVERYTHING just to help them finish it more quickly.  It's some really cash-grabby design and is dumb.

- Gear sets are upgradeable, but reaching certain upgrade goals is almost impossible in the main storyline (excluding the epilogue).  This is another aspect that is frustrating.

Recommendation:
I can't say that I didn't have fun with Shadow of War.  Finishing the main storyline was enjoyable, but I was frustrated by the design of the "epilogue."  As someone who is a completionist I wanted to finish it, but I didn't want to invest the hours and hours of grinding just for the benefit of seeing a short video that finalizes the story.  If you're someone who feels fine about having a nice time playing through the bulk of the storyline, it's a good option for you.  If you're someone who likes to finish EVERYTHING, know that you're in for an unneeded grindfest that is the product of some dubious design--you're probably going to want to skip it.  I would definitely look into buying Shadow of War during a sale (it frequently goes on sale for 50% or more off and it's definitely worth that price).

X-Com-Like Fun--Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

Since the remake of the classic turn-based strategy XCOM in 2012, I've realized that I actually enjoy the genre.  I'm always keeping an eye out for other TBS games that might scratch that itch for doing a lot of thinking (and usually a lot of messing up and getting team members killed).  Mutant Year Zero:  Road to Eden is the the perfect game for someone who is looking for some TBS action.

Bormin, Selma, and Dux are your badass mutant squad.

The story in MYZ involves a post-apocalyptic scenario where humanity has been virtually wiped out by a devastating plague (...odd, right?).  A few plucky humans have managed to survive and establish settlements that are located in safe areas.  Due to the lingering dangers of the plague, humans cannot venture outside of these safe zones and require the assistance of special scavengers called stalkers.  The stalkers are mutants whose backstory is very hazy--Bormin is a bulky, wild boar; Dux is...a duck!  As stalkers they are sent on missions to recover resources throughout the area (Norway or Sweden).  The stalkers aren't the only ones who are after the resources left rotting around the game world--a wide array of enemies prowl the lands.  Ghouls are mutated humans who want to eliminate the non-muties (and your mutants, of course); the land is also patrolled by packs of wild dog-like creatures and deadly robots--the remnants of an automated police force used during the plague.  The story gets complicated as a very essential character goes missing and is found to have been kidnapped by the ghouls.  The ghouls appear to have some sort of insidious plan for the remnants of humanity.  It's your job to figure out where the missing character has been taken and to unravel the true motivations of the ghouls.

Pros:
+ Even though the basis of the gameplay is TBS, there's a good story underneath.  The XCOM games lean more heavily on the gameplay and the story is much more forgettable.  The core story of finding the lost character gets more complicated the farther you advance and the mutants learn more about their own origins.

+ Squad of fun characters.  In XCOM your soldiers are merely pawns with specific abilities and they don't have personalities or backstories.  The mutants in MYZ are voice acted well and players are able to get to know their quirks.  As you progress through the game you find other mutants who will join your squad.

+Exploration aspect.  Each area can be searched for resources (scrap, weapon parts, chests) which can be used for upgrades or, in the case of chests, can contain consumable items or weapon or armor items.  You're not simply plopped onto a map and told to find the baddies and kill them and should try to search as much of the map as you can.  The resources you find can be used to upgrade your gear (weapon parts) or as currency to buy items (scrap).

+ Stealth.  One of the things I really enjoyed about the combat in MYZ was the fact that your squad can sneak around and, with good positioning and planning, can pick off certain enemies before engaging the entire contingent of enemies (in XCOM, once you engage the enemies you're in combat and can't strategize as much).

+ Swappable talents.  As you gain experience from encounters, you can use those points to invest in specific talents for your squad of stalkers.  You can choose from health and movement upgrades or from mutations which can give each character special abilities--for example, you can take a talent that lets certain characters grow moth wings and move to higher ground in one move.  You can swap out these talents to help fit the specific scenario you are facing--there are a couple characters that have talents that are geared toward fighting robots, but aren't useful when fighting ghouls--you can pick when to equip those talents.

+ Lots of items to find.  The best thing to find are the golden glowy chests--they contain weapons and armors.  There are short-range shotguns, long-range rifles, mid-range semi-automatic rifles, and an array of silent weapons that can be used for stealth kills.  Each character can also equip one (or more depending on talents) throwable item--grenades, glow sticks, molotov cocktails, or EMP grenades.  There are also numerous weapon mods that can be swapped out at your base.

+Goofy items to find which offer up special perks.  These items are remnants of human society and the stalkers will often make guesses as to their purpose.  These items are accompanied by a purple glow and can be turned in at the bar on your base and offer special perks (for example, one will increase the number of throwable items each character can equip).

+ Different enemy types and classes.  Strategizing means taking into account the type of enemy you are facing.  Shamans are obnoxious and should always be killed first because they will summon additional enemies when they are alerted to your presence.  Robots have the ability to jump vast distances and cover lots of ground.  They can also use a stun ability that will lock a character down for three turns.

Cons:
- Gameplay is challenging, but is a bit easier than XCOM.  There are multiple difficulty settings and there is an "iron man" mode if people want a more difficult experience.  If you're wanting a more "hardcore" experience, you might want to start on a higher difficulty level.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed MYZ.  It's not as strategic as XCOM but it does have a much more enjoyable story and characters.  It's perfect for someone who is looking for a game that requires some strategy but still wants to feel invested in what is happening.