ARKANE Lore - Prey and the Power of Empathy

[Music] [Applause] [Music] yes i never had the privilege of playing prey blind at the time of prey's release i had recently finished a hellish college semester i was working at a big name hardware store and saving what money i could to pay for the next year's tuition i had built up a backlog of 2017 games including new automata and mass effect andromeda cray somehow slipped through the cracks by the time i played it in 2019 i had completely spoiled the game for myself i make it no secret that i take heavy inspiration from critics like joseph anderson and noah chauvet during that aforementioned college semester the all-nighters were frequent and exhausting i needed something to keep me awake suffice to say my appetite for content was so great that i ignored my usual crippling fear of spoilers in my hunger i watched both creators videos about prey multiple times when i finally played prey every mechanic level and narrative twist or turn was completely known to me so you can take it as a glowing endorsement that prey still managed to surprise me its narrative is so intricate and layered that even with spoilers you can still be taken off guard so sure i have no idea what it's like to play prey without spoilers perhaps a parallel universe as eric crosby does but this also means that i can say with certainty that this game is worth playing even if you know the twist in the meantime though what does this mean for you the viewer well for one i absolutely encourage you to play this game before watching i can only wonder at how magical this game would be to play with a mind unburdened by spoilers however it also means that i know you can play the game after watching and still have a wonderful time so unlike my other videos the spoilers will begin immediately in this video i will re-tell the story of prey in chronological order along the way i will discuss its mechanics narrative level design and presentation this means that you the viewer can decide exactly how much of the game you want to have spoiled of course my critique is not complete without its conclusions so i encourage you to return and finish watching when you're ready with that said a conclusion is only as good as its thesis statement so what is mine well i could say that prey represents the culmination of decades of immersive sim design or i might say that prey is arcane studio's crowning achievement it is to me the sort of platonic ideal form of what their games can and should be these would both be true and i intend to prove them as well but my main point is this prey is about empathy through its gameplay and narrative this game encourages the player toward empathic behavior it engages us in a dialogue about violence oppression and morality strap in kids this is gonna be a long one are you the one person who showed me any real kindness and you can believe i won't forget it [Music] [Applause] if you've heard of prey chances are that you've already heard of it's an incredible introductory sequence noclip has produced an exceptional video detailing the production of this opening level through developer interviews if you haven't had a chance to watch that video yet please feel free to do so now alright now if you haven't seen that video just yet allow me to provide a quick summary of prey's opening after choosing our character's appearance we awaken in a beautiful futuristic apartment our character morgan yu has accepted a job at transtar which their brother alex is the ceo morgan is set to depart by rocket to the company's space station talos one but first they must complete a series of tests unfortunately they do not quite go smoothly our attending physician's coffee cup transforms into an alien monster and murders him we are sedated and wake up back in the apartment initially this seems to be a repeat of the introduction but there are some less than subtle hints that something has gone very wrong someone called january contacts us and tells us it's time to get out of here we pick up a wrench and smash the window shattering the illusion in fantastic form this literal act of breaking the fourth wall is visually astounding i knew it was coming and it still took my damn breath away there's an inherent satisfaction to breaking video game windows but to do so and find a different world on the other side that is a unique pleasure indeed the technique behind this is deceptively simple but the execution here is brilliant the breaking of the fourth wall serves a many layered purpose as well there's the obvious revealing that we are not in fact where we thought we were beneath that though is the warning that we should never trust what we see deeper truths and deeper evils can hide beneath the obvious this is a recurring narrative theme in prey and mechanically true as well as we soon find out mimics are one of the game's primary enemies little creatures can disguise themselves as any environmental prop they hide in plain sight waiting for the ideal moment to strike deeper than that though this opening also plants a seed in the player's mind we can not ever trust what we are being told whether it be by the disembodied voice of january or by morgan's very own flesh and blood there's a metatextual level to this scene as well through morgan's act of literally breaking the fourth wall arcane sends a message this game has something real to say about the world it wants to engage in a dialogue beyond the text several times throughout the game characters seem to address the player through morgan it is not as obvious as something like pathologic or doki doki literature club rather these meta textual engagements are more subtle that is until the ending through this one gesture arcane asks the player to consider their role in the story they invite us to engage with morgan yu not simply as a player avatar but as an extension of the self they ask us to peer through the looking glass and see more than just the world on the other side we must also pay attention to that subtler thing our own reflection staring back perhaps you think i'm giving the game too much credit after all the protagonist's name is literally morgan yu and of course the meta textual elements can seem painfully obvious on repeat playthroughs however your first time through they are just as often striking and powerful take for instance the trolley problem in this opening scene in this scene we're asked to answer a series of ethical questions called trolley problems you could treat these with the eye rolling apathy familiar to philosophy students everywhere after all it's a personality quiz inside a video game but you'll get a lot more out of the experience if you engage with it in good faith after all the game to come will many times present us with similarly murky ethical questions at least in this instance nobody's life is on the line well except for dr bellamy the trolley problem's most basic function is to test one's sense of moral responsibility would you sacrifice the one to save the many or would you rather keep your hands clean sacrificing the many to save the one prey presents more than just this most basic form as well it even goes so far as to ask if we would sacrifice ourselves to save the many it is as the good doctor says heavy stuff as early as this the game is already asking the player to consider ethical questions of right and wrong this is effective whether you answer as yourself or as you think morgan would either way you still have to engage with the question even if you provide a fictional answer on some level you know how you would answer the truth is though that the trolley problem only really examines how we wish we would act after all i would hope that i would jump on the train tracks to save a bunch of school children but if it came right down to it i don't know if i'd actually be able to make the leap games often present us with questions like these but rarely is the question so directly pointed at the player if you do answer these questions truthfully that is as your real self you've already passed over the threshold we're not just playing as morgan you but inhabiting morgan you our actions are their actions our thoughts are their thoughts it follows then that we share the burden of their responsibility i'm getting a bit ahead of myself here though so let's get back to the problem at hand we've broken free of the simulation and find ourselves lost in a facility full of corpses and monsters january guides us to the exit and along the way we acquire our first neuromod these devices allow people to record their memories and implant them in others this extends to learned skills as well engineering science combat etc what this translates to in gameplay is an upgrade system quite like the runes found and dishonored the neuramods are far more plentiful than runes ever were though players can even craft neuromods if they find the recipe and the resources to do so prey then strikes a great balance between rewarding exploration and limiting progression i found that by the end of all my playthroughs i had more than enough neuromods for all the powers i really wanted there's not a single wasted slot either every power and upgrade is useful in some way or another to start we only have access to the three human talent trees scientist engineer and security personally i focused on hacking and repair upgrades on my first playthrough on nightmare difficulty resources are scarce and enemies can take a lot of hits so i took skills that increased my resource efficiency and let me break into safes and supply rooms more than even dishonored there's a great variety in the kinds of build you can pursue do you prefer to play as a gun-toting juggernaut invest in combat focus and toughness to blast enemies away in slow motion want to sneak around in the shadows grab stealth and sneak attack to deal immense damage want to shift gravity and throw fireballs like a psychic wizard from the future well we'll get to that a bit later the player also finds their first ranged weapon in the neuromod division the glue gun so far we've been using a wrench to fend off mimic so the sight of a hefty firearm is welcome indeed except this isn't a firearm at all instead like most of prey's arsenal the glue gun is more of a repair tool turned improvised weapon i love that each weapon has an obvious and universe function in this case the glue gun was a tool used to repair hull damage and patch leaks don't underestimate it though in gameplay it is useful indeed the glue gun slows enemies and freezes them in place allowing us to shatter them for critical damage later on you can even use it to weigh down flying enemies causing them to drop and take enormous fall damage of course we can use it for its intended purpose too the glue gun can temporarily repair electrical surges or put out fires chunks of dried glue also make for quick improvised platforms allowing us to climb to new areas with such diversity it's hard to ever grow tired of shooting your glue all over the place if we look around a little we can also come across the disruptor's stun gun while this is not as broadly useful as the glue gun it's still plenty of fun in its own right it deals impressive damage to mechanical enemies and can also incapacitate human targets it's notable to me that there is not a single lethal firearm in our starting arsenal this is i think a kind of mission statement by arcane each of your weapons is a tool and you should treat them as such choose the right one for each encounter and avoid careless and wasteful mistakes now that we've found our first weapons it's time to head to morgan's office we step out into the lobby and look through its great windows into the cold black of space the moon hangs silhouetted against a backdrop of stars with earth just beyond her it's a striking visual moment and reveals that we've been in space the entire time of course the lobby itself is beautiful too arcane has once again knocked it out of the park with this game's art direction the entire station is an art deco retro futurist corporate dreamscape far from the gritty and worn out look of fallout or bioshock prey is instead clean and saturated so crisp are the models and textures that there is no need to hide them under a layer of dirt and grime more than that everything feels unified everything on the station looks like it belongs in the same corporate style guide right down to your coffee mug and the space banana you eat for breakfast there's so much thought put into every asset from their everyday use to their storage and disposal this attention to detail extends to the level art as well talos one feels like a place that real people could live and work in the spaces are beautiful yes but functional too they connect in ways that seem to make geometric and logical sense even the exterior of the station matches up with the scale and layout of the interior it speaks volumes of arcane's passion for cohesive world building in the lobby we can find two more weapons the shotgun and the silence pistol the pistol is our arranged stealth weapon like the crossbow from dishonored we can use it to deal critical stealth attacks without alerting other enemies although it is useful i feel the pistol lacks a certain the damage is pitiful outside of stealth and the sound effect is dainty it makes me wish the player could remove the silencer for a bit of extra damage or accuracy as it stands using this weapon in the heat of combat often feels like shooting a pellet gun rather than a firearm the shotgun meanwhile has no such problems this weapon packs a satisfying punch dealing heavy damage and knocking enemies prone of course you shouldn't play prey like it's doom or wolfenstein but this shotgun might make you want to it is also here that we can begin to piece together the real story of what happened aboard talos one we reach morgan's office and find a video message from ourselves this version of morgan explains that removing a neuromod also wipes one's memories the mind is effectively reset to the moment of its installation morgan yu has been doing this every day for a period of months or possibly years all this just so alex can test new neuromods thankfully they also insist that we can trust january it is a copy of the past morgan's personality and will help us to carry out our past solves intentions unfortunately this video cuts off midway so it's off to the hardware labs to repair the looking glass server at this point our brother alex contacts us and pleads with us to meet him in person just as an aside i'd like to praise benedict wong's excellent portrayal of this character his voice work helps lend alex far more depth than one might expect still red i know the test might seem a little unconventional but that's a new family tradition breaking convention is in our blood unfortunately we're not likely to trust alex at this point given that he was lying to morgan for several years instead we can begin to explore the lobby prey's story is largely told through text and audio logs scattered about the station these illustrate the daily lives of the crew and many of their inevitable tragic ends exploration is thus doubly rewarded in this game we seek out valuable resources and find juicy story details along the way this also means the player gets to choose exactly how much of the story they want to engage with if you're just in it for the mechanics and atmosphere then you don't have to read this stuff at all this exploration driven storytelling is i think one of prey's greatest strengths on our way to the hardware labs we can stop by the trauma center and find the first living human that we've yet seen if we look at his health bar it says mind controlled odd for now the player has to choose what to do with him if we let him out he'll charge and attack us but is it right to leave him locked up for all we know he might die if we don't help him personally i opened the door and knocked him unconscious with the disruptor pistol my thought process was that i could not leave him alone to starve to death but that he was too dangerous to let roam free i dragged him out of the cell and left him to sleep it off on the floor this sequence is a light introduction to the kinds of moral choices we'll have to make in the rest of prey like this one these choices are often mechanical in nature so the player might not even realize they're being asked to make a choice at [Music] all [Music] in the next area the hardware labs we begin to comprehend the real genius of praise and counter design i haven't spoken much about the enemies just yet so i'll take the chance to now the typhon as they're called are a kind of alien hive intelligence that transtar has been studying aboard talos 1. mimics the smaller ones are their most common form but only slightly less common are the humanoid phantoms their attacks have massive range and deal a lot of damage this early in the game the player will likely die in just a few hits from these enemies just as well we likely don't have enough ammunition to take them on guns blazing instead praise encounters encourage a careful approach and a measured use of our resources the hardware labs are a perfect example we can head straight through the main path fighting robots and phantoms along the way it's not impossible but it is difficult or we can make clever use of our glue gun to climb above enemies saving the ammunition for later encounters of course things don't always go according to plan but it's usually better to fight just some enemies rather than all of them that brings me to another aspect of prey's encounters that i've seen some complaints about in the past that is that enemies respawn in areas that we've already cleared see i don't quite buy into this complaint for one prey is a game that encourages a great deal of backtracking there would be no tension in our exploration without enemies to challenge us seeking out new areas in prey is so exciting because we can never know what is around the next corner furthermore there would be little incentive to conserve resources if enemies just stayed dead players could simply kill every enemy in an area then run around collecting all the ammo it doesn't take long to figure out that you'll usually even out either way of course one could make the opposite complaint that is that respawning enemies could lead to a resource drought while i understand this frustration the current system incentivizes thorough exploration given that prey's story is largely told through audio logs i think this works in the game's favor players have good reason to fully explore each area before moving on to the next the hardware labs are also where this quality of storytelling becomes apparent in this area we retrace the final hours of dr calvino's life he and his assistant miyu okave were the minds behind the looking glass technology audio and text logs illustrate their troubled working relationship calvino was experiencing memory loss and growing increasingly paranoid because of it losing your memories is nothing new on talos one but calvino never once installed a neuromod his paranoia turned to frustration and he lashed out at okabe tragically this was how their friendship ended as neither of them survived the typhon attack it's a compelling narrative arc to discover during an otherwise straightforward level and this is quite common in prey the missions themselves are usually simple go here grab the thing it's the stories that we discover along the way that make the exploration so interesting we reach the looking glass lab but we need calvino's key card to get inside unfortunately the lab he was working in explosively decompressed launching his body into space to retrieve the key card we must craft the artx propulsion system and fly out after him i absolutely love this thing not only does it allow us to space walk but we can also glide around inside the station we can use it to cross long gaps and soften deadly falls in space though the propulsion system feels a little clunky don't get me wrong i love the zero g sections in prey there's nothing more chilling than propelling oneself out into the cold dark abyss however the acceleration can be tough to get used to i often found myself breaking by crashing headfirst into the station combatant 0g is disappointing too without much in the way of cover encounters lose much of their sandbox quality it's just shoot the enemy before they shoot you these troubles are not enough to make me actively dislike these segments though there's a child like thrill in zipping through space spinning around in 0g with calvino's keycard recovered we can head down to his lab and bring the looking glass server back online before we go though there's a few things to grab on our way out in one lab we can discover the q beam instead of dealing direct damage this weapon builds a green meter in enemy health bars when the bar fills up the enemy explodes in a brilliant green flash now i love the idea of this weapon but its execution is lacking when i first discovered it i imagined it was a kind of bfg with scarce ammunition but massive damage instead the damage builds slowly and burns through ammunition all the same what's more since it does not deal stagger damage enemies can usually kill the player before the bar fills like anything in prey's arsenal it is more a tool meant to complement other weapons perhaps that's for the best but it didn't live up to my expectations far more satisfying though are the recycler charges found nearby these grenades create miniature black holes that suck in enemies and objects with a brilliant flash they explode into their component parts which we can use for crafting this thing does huge amounts of damage when properly utilized what's more its visual and audio effects are excellent when i discovered these things i spent 10 minutes just recycling piles of objects to see what would happen they're useful outside of combat too they can clear blocked pathways or dispose of radioactive level hazards recycler charges synergize nicely with another gadget the typhon lure like it says on the tin these devices attract nearby typhon to their location in the best case scenario we'd love a recycler charge and blow up the whole dang group finally we can also discover our first suit chipsets in this area these functions similarly to the bone charms from dishonored granting passive bonuses most chipsets assist in combat but some make looting or recycling more efficient unfortunately none have the drastic gameplay modifying behavior that we saw in dishonored 2 or death of the outsider as such there's not really much to say about them besides use them our arsenal is nearly complete and the looking glass is back online so it's time to head back to january to figure out just what the hell we're supposed to do about the typhon back in morgan's office we finished watching the video diary from earlier this time we hear past morgan's master plan to destroy talos one and take the typhon with it unfortunately the typhon are not the only living things on the station there are survivors the people that lived and worked here we'd be sacrificing all of them to stop the typhon for what it's worth at least january seems assured that this is the right course of action after all if the typhon were to reach earth billions would die the trolley problem then will we doom the few to save the many or will we choose not to choose at all to enact this destructive plan we must first acquire two armin keys we can craft the first using morgan's personal schematics kept on a server in deep storage the second more troublesome key belongs to alex for now we'll settle for just the first we can deal with our brother later unfortunately the elevator to deep storage is out so we'll have to take a far longer route our path will first take us through psychotronics this classified research division was responsible for studying the typhon's psychic abilities on our way in we hear from another operator december as it calls itself is a kind of philosophical opposite to january it encourages morgan and by extension the players to escape talos one while they still can we'll talk about that a bit more later on so for now let's press on here we discover the psychoscope this device allows us to scan the typhon and unlock their unique psionic abilities some can conjure flames or electricity while others can mimic objects and control mines with a few neuromods so can the player but of course there is a price to pay for power january warns us that the station's defenses may see morgan as a typhon if we unlock too many of their abilities much like dishonored then there are two very unique playstyles in prey the first is the largely human playthrough in which the player focuses on hacking repairs firearms and resource management the alien playthrough instead sees the player expanding their psychic arsenal much like in dishonored then we get to define what kind of scientist and human being morgan yu is are they a cautious skeptical sword who uses their smarts to avoid conflict are they a no-nonsense gordon freeman type shooting their way through problems or are they a mad scientist willing to experiment on their own body in the pursuit of knowledge it is purely through mechanical expression that we come to craft this identity like dishonored we feel all the more attached to our protagonist because of it it helps that many of the powers are great fun to use as well i'll never forget the joy i felt the first time i turned into a goddamn coffee cup rolling and bouncing along or the time i died by launching an electric phantom at myself with kinetic blast is these kinds of emergent scenarios that are so unique to immersive sims my only problem with these powers is that i couldn't use them often enough due to the limited amount of sci hypos players are unlikely to take risks and experiment instead they might rely on one or two powers for the entire game we also find the last two pieces of our arsenal here the emp charge and the null wave the emp temporarily disables electronics in an area of effect the null wave does the same but for psychic abilities these devices are extremely useful in some of the later encounters we can disable some enemies giving us breathing room to deal with the others with these and the psychoscope the player's toolbox is now complete in psychotronics we discover more about the nature of the typhon and of transtars work on talos one the typhin are a kind of massive hive mind unconstrained by conventional physics january explains that they don't even really see humans nor can they communicate with us they don't attack us out of malice but rather because it is in their nature to do so the typhon lack mirror neurons parts of the brain theoretically responsible for empathy as such these creatures are physically incapable of understanding the suffering of others if that's the case can we even blame them for what they've done i cannot understate the importance of this moment within the narrative this is when the game reaches out through the screen grabs the player by their shoulders and asks do you get it yet do you understand what the game is about yet it might be a bit obvious sure but the important question is the unspoken one the typhon did not have a choice in the matter but we do transtars leaders were fully capable of understanding the suffering of others and yet for some they were no better than the typhon now the game begins to pull back the curtain on transtar and on humanity we find that transtar was experimenting on prisoners from earth and not just the fun kind of experiment where you get paid to do a survey either no transtar tortured and murdered these people they were death rowan made sure but do their crimes excuse their horrific treatment well the game will let the player decide for themselves in one of the labs we find just such a prisoner still locked within the staging area he begs us to let him out assuring us that he'll give us the code to a nearby armory in exchange however if we look at his background we discover that his crime was human trafficking is this someone who deserves to live can we trust him to roam the station unchecked or is it better to let him starve to death in the chamber there are a great many factors to consider myself i decided to handle him the same as the mind controlled patient from earlier i let him out grabbed the door code then knocked him unconscious that way at least he wouldn't be a danger to the other survivors it's notable that the first human we can speak to is also the subject of such intense moral scrutiny soon that scrutiny will turn toward our protagonist and eventually the player let me tell you the choices do not get easier from here [Music] after this initial test each major section of the game presents us with a new moral question each of these will challenge the player's sense of empathy asking us to put the needs of others before our own now you might think such choices are a name after all these characters are nothing more than models textures and code and yet i think many of us can relate to the experience of regretting a choice that hurt a fictional character and so my hope is that most players will at least attempt to engage with these moral questions in good faith to get the most out of this game i think you have to prey is not just an excellent immersive sim after all it has something very real to say to us as players and as people our next test comes in the arboretum where we will meet the first living members of the talos one crew to reach this point we've had to make a zero g trip through the guts this is an enjoyable section but one with very little to discuss hence my skipping ahead we've encountered several new enemies by this point cystoids weavers and possibly technopaths but none are so intimidating as what comes next you see this is likely the point at which the player will have their first encounter with the nightmare this is a unique boss to your enemy that appears at random intervals to hunt the player of course if we're feeling particularly confident we can take the nightmare head on more likely though you'll encounter it when you're already in a desperate situation and i i like that feeling of the desperation oh god he's right there [Music] for now the nightmare will leave on its own but i'll take the opportunity to talk about it now i have mixed feelings on the nightmare being honest on the one hand i love its imposing size and the horrific sounds it makes arcane deserves credit for including an enemy that terrifies even experienced players yet it seems most often players simply hide in one place until the thing decides to leave it's just not very fun to sit in a corner for three minutes listening to the damn thing stomp around outside and now that's partially on the player sure but there are ways to mitigate this behavior a detection meter could run down the longer the players stayed hidden you know like the one that the typhoon already have this could allow players to escape early if they could stay out of sight with that said the nightmare is terrifying every time actually killing it feels like a genuine achievement so i must admit its inclusion does achieve its intended purpose now back to those crew members i mentioned well funny thing is they're only mostly alive just above the arboretum's entrance we find a greenhouse full of mind-controlled survivors to save them all we have to do is knock them unconscious and kill the typhoon controlling them easy right well not so much you see these thralls will sprint at the player and explode like suicide grunts from halo if you can knock them unconscious in time lucky you but charging up a disruptor shot takes just long enough that you can usually only take on one at a time to make matters worse the telepath controlling these people hovers just overhead attentively minding its flock i'd forgive you for thinking that saving these people seemed like a hassle but doing so is plenty worth it not just for the moral gratification no one of the people we saved rani shaudri will reward us with a cache of turrets upon our next visit to the arboretum the arboretum is also where prey begins to flesh out its cast of living characters we can break into alex's office which does not please him but doing so will provoke an intimate conversation alex recalls a time when morgan hacked into his computer as a child he broke morgan's arm as payback he regrets it now of course but he wonders if either of them has actually changed this small conversation suggests much about alex you as a character he has a strong sense of nostalgia so much that it sometimes seems he does most of his living in the past he longs for the times when he and morgan were pushing the boundaries of science together more than that he wants to stop feeling so goddamn lonely all the time as the game will later illustrate alex is not the easiest person to get along with he's cold calculating and apathetic to the woes of others the break a few eggs type fortunately for transtar's executive board but less so for the crew of talos one this makes him a perfect ceo in the next section we will come to know and care for those same people chief archivist danielle show has voice locked the way to deep storage so we head to the crew quarters to find voice samples from her transcribes it is largely through danielle and her partner abigail foy that we come to understand the daily lives of the crew like most of us these people did not spend all their time working they drank together sang together and played video games together held even tried their hand at a dungeons and dragons campaign some of them fell in love while others had to leave love behind the richness of these characters serves to deepen the tragedy of their collective fate by the time we reach the crew quarters most of these people have been mind controlled this turns the entire section into an extended version of the greenhouse encounter we must use our disruptor pistol or mine jack ability to free the crew of their hypnosis if we want to save everyone we'll have to be sharp eyed and quick on the draw we also encounter a devious new enemy type called the poltergeist these creatures are invisible and attack the player through telekinesis sometimes they throw objects at you while other times they throw you at the objects poltergeists are terrifying until the player learns to read their movement and attacks there's a particularly sneaky encounter with one of these in a bathroom here in the crew quarters i won't spoil it here but it's a delightful jump scare we also hear a new voice over the loudspeakers in this area that of head chef william mitchell if we clear the dining room of enemies he'll open up the galley and speak with us he asks us to find his award back in his quarters it's not too far out of our way so we can grab it while searching for danielle's voice clips speaking of danielle her transcribes illustrate her often troubled relationship with abigail though we don't hear much of their time together what we do here is believable and endearing they're just audio logs but they got me to care about these characters in a way i never did for any of dishonored's npcs as affected as i was by this heartwarming story i was also just as affected by its ending you see that chef was no chef at all in truth he was one of the prisoners used in the typhon experiments when the creatures broke containment he was able to escape and make his way back to the crew quarters when we returned to him he seemed surprised that we came back at all as a reward he locks us in a freezer and inside we find abigail's corpse this moment really struck me on my first playthrough this was a kind caring woman who had so much life left to live and so much love yet to give finding her butchered to death by a serial killer was heartbreaking it's not the last time the game will do that either for now though i'd like to call attention to a few more smaller moments in this section dr calvino's condition is further illustrated through emails and audio logs the looking glass it seems was more to him than symbol technology it was his obsession if combined with neuromod technology he believed he could use it to relive memories of his late wife calvino did see her again in the end but not in the way he expected you see many of the crew were having hallucinations they couldn't explain given what we know of the typhon it's likely that this was some kind of psychic projection on their part it wasn't limited to talos one either we can find a drawing of a phantom sent from earth by one of the crew members children but these hallucinations weren't all bad at least in one such dream calvina was able to see his long-lost wife again in his audio log he recounts the experience as beautiful and heartwarming it seems then that the typhon are not completely evil perhaps unintentionally they gave this man the one thing he had been dreaming of for years it's not just the crew we can learn more about here though we can also find out more about our brother alex if we search his cabin we find emails practically begging him to attend his fitness training his interactions with employees are infrequent and usually negative in fact he even seems so paranoid as to have them spying on each other all this paints a tragic picture of a man he's experiencing crippling loneliness paranoia and depression and yet it's hard to feel bad for him in the end after all he's responsible for the torture and deaths of dozens if not hundreds of people all this just to push the boundaries of science if we explore morgan's cabin we can learn more about their past as well notes left by morgan about other employees illustrate a mind burdened by their work regret seeps in as they describe their failed relationship with michaela ilyushin morgan had loved her truly but had to end things when the neuromod trials began after all morgan might not remember her when they were done better than to spare her the pain of being forgotten however morgan's secrecy led michaela to assume her chronic illness was the cause of the breakup it seems that misunderstanding weighed heavily on morgan at least at some point morgan cared very deeply about the crew of talos one sure our present goal is to blow the station to kingdom come but we can still do our best to ease the suffering of those people that are still alive when we finish gathering daniel's voice clips we can actually meet her face to face she's been hiding in the access tunnels outside the station until help arrives though she doesn't truly like morgan danielle agrees to help us in any way she can she asks only one thing in return kill the man who killed her abigail we fight or sneak our way back to deep storage and there we do a bit of investigating then grab the armin key fabrication plan alex now realizes that morgan is intent on destroying talos one he puts the station into full lockdown sealing every door and airlock danielle comes to the rescue and helps morgan escape by way of an ejectable data vault unfortunately there's not much to hang on to and the trip knocks morgan [Music] unconscious [Music] [Applause] we come to our senses adrift in the cold black of space security chief sarah ellazar contacts us and tells us of a hull breach near the cargo bay we can re-enter the station there bypassing alex's lockdown when we arrive daiyo iguay calls us from inside one of the cargo containers floating in space he's trapped and running out of oxygen fast it's up to the player if they want to save him but they have to be quick about it this is the first timed objective that the game presents us with and it adds a lot of stress combat with the typhon is hard already but adding a timer makes it even more anxiety-inducing now the timer in this section is very generous i don't think it's intended for the player to ever actually fail at this task but it's not the last time we'll be racing against the clock and it only gets more stressful from here we help dr iguay dock with the station and enter by the same port january ever the cynic doesn't even congratulate the player on this rather they're more concerned with whether dr eague will help or hinder our mission to destroy the station once we're back inside we have to battle our way through the cargo bay to the survivors many of the human characters we could have saved by this point show up here they thank the player and reward them with a few useful trinkets this is a wonderful touch providing a satisfying sense of narrative closure it feels like the game has actually been paying attention to our choices which it has if ronnie survived she will reveal that security was mere minutes away from arresting alex the typhon attack was the only thing that stopped them now both morgan and the player already had plenty of cause to doubt alex's intentions if this isn't enough to turn those doubts into suspicions i don't know what is we then meet the rest of the survivors including their leader sarah elazar the survivors have sealed the cargo bay doors in an attempt to keep the typhon at bay sarah could open them for us sure but we need to ensure her people's safety first now if we're feeling a bit murderous we can open the doors ourselves and leave them all to die i wouldn't though there's a nice detail here too if we use a typhon power in front of the survivors they will assume we are a mimic and kill us little touches like these are what make arcane's world building so believable every action has a logical reaction no you can't just use your alien powers in front of the survivors they've just watched those same aliens slaughter their friends and co-workers there are consequences for such careless behavior much the same the game rewards us for showing empathy and helping the survivors like sarah says the only thing that matters is how you treat the people that are still alive we can set up turrets for them and assist in the defense ourselves if we succeed january will compliment us on our selfless behavior after all morgan and the player both know that these people are all going to be dead in a few hours anyways the only reason to protect them is a profound sense of compassion toward our fellow man as january says it means a great deal that morgan goes out of their way to give these people a sense of hope it's this kind of empathetic behavior that prey is all about sometimes treating others with kindness is its own reward the player doesn't need a neuromod or achievement to encourage selflessness the mere act of doing right by others is its own kind of power fantasy in our real and very harsh world we can often feel powerless in our inability to help those that are suffering there's a deep and profound sense of despair that comes from never feeling like you're doing enough sure i can go vegan buy ethical products and donate to charity all that for what still people everywhere continue to suffer under the weight of a world built by and for those with power will anything i do actually change that well in pray at least i can pretend my actions will mean something it's nice to feel like i can actually help somebody even if at the end of the day it's only a simulation but just remember the only thing that matters is how you treat the people that are still alive [Music] [Applause] with talos one still in lockdown january suggests that we head to the reactor and cycle the power on our way there michaela ilyushin contacts us on our transcribe if we've been paying attention which we have been we'll already know quite a bit about her for one she and morgan were once romantic partners two she has a degenerative neurological condition called paraplexus michaela is unable to move without her medication leaving her trapped in the power plant the booster shots are unfortunately all the way back in her office to make matters worse an impact has decompressed that part of the station alex's lockdown only adds insult to injury michaela will die without her medication and soon a timer appears once again only this time we have to complete another objective first i love this the timer ticks down while we head into the reactor every moment we waste brings michaela one step closer to death's door this added pressure makes the following encounters far more stressful and engaging it's a long leap down to the power plant and a nightmare awaits for us at the bottom thankfully it's pretty easy to just ignore this one michaela guides us through the reboot process and voila we've bypassed the lockdown alex gives up on trying to stop morgan at this point instead he begs us to join him in the arboretum so he can finally give us the truth the whole truth this time no take backsies for now we still have to get mikaela her medicine with luck we'll have time enough to eva over to the crew quarters grab the needles and bring them back to her the scene that follows is quite intimate as she allows morgan to perform the injection for her the animators did a wonderful job expressing the characters feelings for one another with only first person animation the animators communicate their past connection and present sense of alienation this act of generosity takes january by surprise morgan has given up precious time just to ease this one person's suffering with her health restored mckayla will head back to morgan's office to ride out the typhon attack there she meets january and dr egwe the three will serve as our competing moral compasses for the rest of the game each has a distinct ideology and ethical priorities eagwe andalusian will each ask a favor for morgan iguay asks us to recover the neuromod connectomes of gustav leitner a master pianist michaela asks us to find out what happened to one of transtar's test subjects her father helping dr egwe is an act of sincere kindness and pure good faith he and his wife heard leitner play in their youth and his music had moved them this connectome is the last relic of that once great artist but to eagwe it is so much more it is the last connection he has to his wife to their shared love for music and art finding this thing for him demonstrates that morgan cares deeply for their crew perhaps fragments of the morgan they once knew still linger this act then is a pure demonstration of our empathy as protagonists and as players michaela's task though is far more complicated when we finally discover what happened to her father we may not think it right to tell her at all you see like most of the prisoners on talos one transtar used michaela's father for research on the mimics the experiment that killed him was violent and painful and our protagonist is to blame morgan was the scientist overseeing the experiment that day morgan gave the green light morgan killed michaela's father is that something we want her to know we could purge the files hiding the truth and sparing her the gory details or we can send the recording to morgan's terminal and listen to it alongside her she's angry of course but she'll eventually come to forgive morgan michaela believes or perhaps hopes that this version of morgan would never have done such a thing if it wasn't clear before it is now transtar is evil morgan and alex were both complicit in and responsible for these crimes we now see just how far they were willing to go in the pursuit of science of course corporations exploiting human beings in the name of progress is no fiction at all transtar represents just such corporations their leadership insists that they know what is best for you the worker and for humanity as a whole after all neuromods could do so much good couldn't they isn't it worth torturing a few prisoners to give humanity the gifts of knowledge and immortality well sure for the rich who can afford such things it's easy to justify for the laborers and prisoners who suffer and die on telos one well not so much see now prey does right what dishonored 2 did so wrong this game makes its ethical and political themes very clear it names its target transtar can stand in for any modern corporate oppressor the critique applies whether they're selling smartphones video games or spaceships that is that those at the bottom of the ladder will never see a lick of the billions their ceos rake in prey demonstrates just how low corporations are willing to go in the name of progress and profit they'll tell you it's all in the name of scientific advancement or that it's all for your own good they might even believe it themselves but at the end of the day the rich will stay rich and the poor will stay unhappy is it worth it the people that come after us will be smarter stronger immortal they can judge us if they want but they'll know they exist because of the things we did i'm ready do it [Music] [Applause] oops sorry did i start talking about politics and video games again shoot how does that keep happening it's almost like art and politics intertwine at their very core rats foiled again okay i promise i won't talk about politics again for the next five minutes at least it's finally time to pay alex another visit the arboretum has changed much since we last saw it tendrils of typhon coral paint the environment in brilliant gold alex still doesn't have the decency to meet us in person though that should hardly be a surprise instead he shows us a video from morgan's past this version of morgan seemed completely uncritical of transtar's research they believed creating neuromods was worth any cost including sacrificing human life everything that alex has done up to this point was according to morgan's instruction this morgan also created a fail-safe in the case of a typhon outbreak the null wave device if it worked this device could disrupt all typhoon neural activity on the station it would kill them but leave transtar's research intact to construct such a device we must scan the coral's focal points outside the station it's no coincidence that the coral resembles human neurons this brilliant golden matter is the typhon's neural framework it will soon transform talos one into a kind of massive alien brain the minds of the typhan's victims are somehow preserved in this coral as well how much of the actual person remains is unclear but we can often hear phantoms repeating their host's last words is that all that remains a person's final painful memories preserved for all time or are they fully conscious trapped in a prison from which they cannot escape i'm not sure which is worse so the player now has a second choice with regards to how to solve the typhoon problem do we destroy talos 1 taking decades of research and dozens of human lives with it or do we risk leaving the station intact is the knowledge here worth preserving given the atrocities committed to obtain it while prey gives us no clear answers it's especially worth noting that neither is a good or evil ending we'll speak on that in more detail at the end of the video but for now simply know that either of these endings can be good or bad depending on our other choices there's actually a third ending accessible at this point too if we followed december's instructions we will have found a key card labeled ep101 this key card will unlock an escape pod above the arboretum and allow us to flee the station going back to the trolley problem this ending falls into the refusing to make a choice category december or the morgan that created it seems completely apathetic to the suffering of others in this ending there's a cryptic cut scene in which alex says we fail this isn't the one well well what could that mean if you do not refuse the call though now is the point at which the game begins to fall apart a bit nothing major mind you the core of the game is still very much intact but by this point we've already explored the majority of talos one and likely run many of our resources dry the player can wind up feeling powerless in the face of the end game challenges so these last few hours can feel a bit underwhelming one such challenge is walter dahl a mercenary sent by transtar to resolve the situation on talos one that means of course killing everyone on board doll begins deploying military operators from the fabricators around the station as far as i can tell they respawn endlessly so destroying them is a temporary measure at best as an added bonus doll also sabotages the station's life support systems again a timer appears without oxygen the survivors will die defeating doll has become our number one priority luckily dahl's arrival also brings with it some good news that being that there is now a fully operational shuttle the survivors can use to escape just one problem though dahl is the only one that can pilot it dr iguay comes up with a creative solution if we could remove dahl's neuromods he would forget his mission on talos one iguay could then convince him to help the survivors escape to accomplish this we must locate doll and knock him unconscious i'm glad that prey has at least one lethal or non-lethal decision it feels almost like an homage to dishonored when we confront doll and decide his fate of course there's a huge advantage to the player if they keep him alive that is it will allow morgan and the crew to escape talos one whether we blow it up or use the null wave device we actually can save everybody that's my preferred solution but i have heard an interesting contradictory opinion you see the survivors are very likely already contaminated by the typhon returning to earth might quite literally doom the human species is it worth it to risk the lives of billions to save these few people the trolley problem once again and of course there is no correct answer the question is left open and the game will provide no closure one way or the other we must follow our heart and do what we as the player think is best again prey encourages us to think as ourselves morgan u is merely a vessel by which we engage with the narrative's ethical questions their solutions are our solutions making these choices through gameplay adds a far greater sense of player agency we are not as in mass effect or cyberpunk choosing one of several options our protagonist might come up with no the choices and their consequences are entirely our own of course the act of deciding is never as dramatic as those pivotal moments in blockbuster rpgs but the relative mundanity of our actions adds far more realism in the real world there's never an explosion or music sting to accompany our most difficult choices no sometimes it's as simple as signing a form flipping a switch or pulling a trigger with doll dead or amnesiac we repair the life support and save the crew once more the survivors will move there for safety soon after now all that remains is to head to the arboretum one last time and get that arming key [Music] [Applause] alex is finally kind enough to see us in person he'll give morgan the arm and key but we have to hear him out one last time you see alex once believed as the player might that transtar's research was far too dangerous to let continue morgan knew as well as he did how destructive a typhon outbreak could be but it was morgan that convinced him the potential gains far outweighed the cost he begs us one last time to reconsider is it really worth it to throw away everything the two of them had worked toward for so long far worse still alex has discovered that the coral is broadcasting a message into deep space to where or what he doesn't know he gives us the fabrication plan for the null wave device and begs us to use it then as though on cue a massive typhon creature appears and latches on to the station the impact disables the station's artificial gravity and knocks alex unconscious if we're feeling generous we can grab him and place him in a safe room to sleep it off we get the arming key and head off in one of two directions if our intention is to use the null wave device we head for psychotronics and place the device at the heart of the coral otherwise we can return to the power plant and begin the self-destruct sequence of course nothing is ever quite so simple as that both options require confirmation from the bridge where alex in january are waiting for us the two have a final debate about the merits of preserving or destroying talos one if we try to use the null wave january will knock alex unconscious and attempt to convince the player to change their mind if we activated the self-destruct mechanisms alex will instead kill january and try to talk us out of it of course this being an arcane game we can intervene in either scenario we can kill alex kill january or kill both of them removing the final obstacles in our quest to stop the typhon this is it then the pivotal moment of player choice we must consider all we have learned about transtar morgan alex the typhon and the neuromods is talos one worth saving in stark contrast the death of the outsider here there is no good or evil option if we save the crew and help them board the shuttle they'll survive either way the question then is which option has the best long-term outcome for humanity personally i chose to use the null wave device my reasoning was as follows destroying the station wouldn't necessarily guarantee the typhon's total annihilation we already know the typhon can travel through space and that a single cell is enough to cause an outbreak therefore i wagered that the null wave was the safer option if their connection to the coral was severed the typhan would not be able to communicate even if some of them like the apex were still waiting in deep space the ones on earth would not be able to reach them destroying the station would also mean destroying all evidence of trans dars crimes the victims of those crimes and the people they left behind deserved some kind of closure transtar i thought should have to pay for what they've done my good friend brandon had a different idea i spectated an entire playthrough of his while working on this video in the end he chose to destroy talos one when he confirmed the self-destruct sequence the game prompted him to escape but instead he chose to wait i asked him why and he said that he felt that morgan should have to bear this responsibility after all they'd done after all the suffering they'd caused it was only right to stay behind and go down with the ship in both outcomes the ending cut scene is extremely brief there are a few variations depending on our choices but they are small indeed in the end we see talos engulfed by either a fiery explosion or the brilliant yellow flash of the null wave then the credits roll don't worry though we're not done just yet [Music] trey still has one last surprise in store for us a looking glass panel pulls away from our point of view and reveals our brother alex and a group of operators that speak with the voices of our companions dr iguay michaela lucian sarah elazar and danielle show if you hadn't already guessed it by now yes the whole game was a simulation everything we did as the player was a reconstruction of the real morgan used memories wait then who have we been this whole time there are two answers to this question and i'll begin with the simple one as alex reveals the typhon broke containment long ago whatever it was that the real morgan attempted blowing up the station or using the null wave device it failed the typhon were able to reach earth and the results were apocalyptic so it was that alex knowing much of the typhon and their communication through the coral devised a new plan you see as we earlier discussed the typhon are not evil as january explained they might not even see humans at all alex's plan then was to create a typhon that could if the neuromods could put parts of the typhoon into us couldn't the opposite be true as well he put morgan's personality and memories into a phantom and in doing so he hoped to create a kind of ambassador between the two species perhaps if one typhon could come to understand humanity the rest could too the entire game then has been a long exercise in examining this creature's sense of empathy everything we've done has been a test of its ability to understand the suffering of others the operators who may or may not be copies of their real selves then take turns judging our moral choices were we kind or cruel did we prioritize the needs of others above our own did we install too many typho neuro mods did we destroy the station or preserve it every choice we've made is called into question and ultimately judged if our choices were cruel then our punishment will be too alex determines that this typhon likely the most recent in a long line of test subjects is not the one if we were kind and empathetic though alex reaches out to us in a welcoming gesture even here at the end we're still granted a choice we can kill alex though i don't imagine anyone wanting to do so after working so hard toward a good outcome instead we can take his hand and ours and look forward to a brighter future so prey does have a chaos system after all in fact the morality in this game is far more nuanced than dishonored rather than a simple high or low chaos ending each of our choices are weighed against one another sure it's still a question of whether we were mostly good or mostly evil yet i find the sheer amount of detail in this ending far more satisfying it feels more personal and gratifying to have each of our choices praised or criticized that leads me to the second answer to the question of who have we been this whole time you see this final reveal has not told the player anything they didn't already know we were in a simulation the whole time sure but you already knew that you've known it the whole time you've been playing and anytime you've played any video game at all prey's master stroke is in calling attention to the fourth wall before fully breaking it all along the game has been speaking to the player through morgan the answer then to who we've been all along is ourselves this is why i earlier said that you'll get a lot more out of this game if you engage with its moral questions in good faith if you do you may find that the game responds in kind it will engage with you the player and illustrate the consequences of your choices all those consequences good or ill are yours to bear what prey seems to say is that yes our simulated actions do have meaning the choices we make in games higher low chaos paragon or renegade right or wrong they matter in a game like dishonored or prey what motivates the player to do right by others is there a mechanical advantage not as such no in both cases choosing pacifism is a limitation rather than an advantage no we choose the good options because deep down we want to be good these games allow us to pretend for a little while that we really can affect meaningful change in the world around us that we can save the lives of those we love that the world will be a better place for our having lived in it that's a powerful feeling and one far more meaningful than any mechanical power fantasy of course what i am not saying is that choosing to do evil in a game somehow makes you a bad person no there are plenty of reasons to do so maybe you want to see the other ending maybe you want to role-play as a villain maybe you just like blasting people with psionic abilities i'm not judging that mindset at all rather i'm simply thankful that this game acknowledges and rewards the desire to do good in all my favorite games which i will someday cover on this channel you will find the ability to choose good this is why i love the non-lethal options and dishonored so much the game allowed me to make choices that felt consistent with my own ethics do i like blasting guys with a crossbow and cutting heads off sure it can be a good time there's always a place for that i'm just glad that those other options exist as well after all the guiding principle of the immersive sim is player freedom developers grant the player tools and powers with which to solve problems and solving those problems is a kind of reward in itself for a game to engage the player in a dialogue about those choices though that is something special what makes prey so brilliant and so unique is that it feels that the game really sees you more than that it respects you every choice down to side quests and even your upgrades they all matter they are all judged so do are we it's players it probably thinks it was dreaming nothing mattered you're assuming he thinks like us it's life depends on it ours too it all comes down to the choices it made what's clear to me is that prey represents arcane studios at the top of their game like dishonored this is one of the greatest games that i have ever played no other game arcane has developed delivers so confidently in all departments mechanical audio visual and narrative all elements of praise design coalesce into what i can only describe as a masterpiece talos one is one of the greatest game worlds ever produced its design is both enjoyable as a gameplay space and believable as a real workplace phrase selection of powers and weapons are fun to use and diegetically coherent all this already cements the game's place in the immersive sim canon prai's heartfelt narrative themes of empathy and meta textual engagement with its players make it stand out even among those exceptional peers that is what prey is about at the end of the day empathy the game teaches us that we don't need a wrench or a shotgun to solve our most difficult problems there is a more powerful tool in our arsenal and it's one we all share the ability to understand the suffering of another and choose to do what is right that is the power of empathy now there's one last thing i haven't talked about that is praise roguelike expansion moon crash moon crash takes place on the pythius moon base which had its own typhon outbreak we must relive the memories of five survivors and try to escape with each of them in one playthrough there's a lot to like in moon crash after all it's more of the same excellent mechanical formula but with a new location and lore there are new weapons gadgets and enemies that expand upon the base game it is by all accounts an excellent piece of dlc so i'm sad to report that i just couldn't bring myself to enjoy moon crash at least not as much as the main game i had fun with it sure but the roguelike mechanics just didn't do it for me it's not even that i don't like roguelikes i just don't think the format worked in this game's favor part of what made prey so special was exploring the station at our own pace we could take the time to discover the history of talos 1 and the lives of its crew moon crash doesn't really allow for this kind of plotting investigative pace instead we're encouraged to escape quickly there's a corruption meter that builds slowly through each of our runs it only resets if every character escapes or dies if the timer runs out we fail and have to start over from the beginning it could just be me but this time limit did not play well with my anxiety i found myself unable to take as much time as i wanted to explore all that is to say that i don't have much at all to say about moon crash i didn't even finish it i have to apologize to anyone who was hoping to hear my thoughts on it instead i'll point you to aaron signals video on the subject he seems to have enjoyed it far more than i did and gives a better analysis than i ever could so with that out of the way what's next well for now at least this is the end of the arcane lore series with death loop delayed until september so too must i delay my planned fifth episode who knows by then i might not even want to make a video about it it depends on whether or not the game impresses me if history is anything to go by it probably will and if it does then hopefully i'll have something insightful to say about it what i am not interested in though is making a video about a game that i do not enjoy so we'll all just have to wait and see how it turns out with that in mind what's next for me for the channel well i have a few projects in mind for one i've been putting together notes for a video on control and its literary influences in particular i expect that will be next after that though well it's up to you i'll be putting up a poll with several potential videos that i'd like to make i intend to make all of them eventually the question is simply which one you would like to see first if you have any suggestions please feel free to leave them in the comments finally i'd like to call attention to a few things the first being the patreon if you have the means to do so i would truly appreciate your support making these videos takes an enormous amount of time and effort every contribution goes towards making these videos better through generous patreon donations i was able to buy a proper boom arm and shock mount for my microphone up next is a proper sound isolation setup to reduce echo that should help increase my audio quality so please if you like what i'm doing here consider making a donation at the link in the description i'm also starting a podcast as i've been told all good youtubers should you can find the link to this podcast in the description it features myself and my good friend jake clark who has played only two video games to completion in his life in each episode he'll bring me the title of a game and i will attempt to explain its mechanics narrative and cultural impact to him in a reasonably timely manner it's been fun to record and i'm excited to see what you all think of it you can find the gamesplaining podcast on youtube or on your favorite podcatcher we'd love to hear your thoughts you can also follow me on twitter at eric underscore our underscore crosby and join the discord at the link in the description if you have too many thoughts for a youtube comment please feel free to join up and discuss my videos there i've also been hosting semi-regular game nights that you too can take part in if you're so inclined with that i'd like to end by saying thank you first to the generous folks who are already donating on patreon your support means so much more than you know second i'd like to say thank you to everyone who has watched my videos and subscribed i never anticipated how many people would actually see these it means the world to me that so many of you care about what i have to say so thank you to all of you you've made this all so worthwhile see you next time [Music] ah

Channel: Eric Crosby

Views: 41,124

Keywords: arkane, lore, arkane lore, video essay, video, essay, prey, dishonored, shock, system shock, bioshock, prey 2017, arkane studios, video game, game, prey video essay, prey essay, prey lore, arcane studios, arcane lore, arcane lore prey, eric crosby, eric, crosby, immersive, immersive sim, sim

Id: 9_bCavLAnoc

Length: 66min 43sec (4003 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 05 2021