As I mentioned at the tail end of my last post, I’d been stuck in Prey trying to get into Dr Calvino’s Lab. I was determined not to look up a solution to this problem.
Then, in a sign that the universe has a sense of humor, when I fired the game up just to take some screenshots, not really to play it, I found Dr. C’s keycard. I was excited to see what was in the lab but couldn’t REALLY play at that moment because it was during my work day. (Shhhh)
Today I went back, explored his office and honestly, there wasn’t a lot there, other than access to some servers that needed to be rebooted. I did that and was told by the mysterious benefactor who’d been feeding me breadcrumbs that I had to get back to my office to finish watching a video.
OK, easy enough except, nope. During my time in the lab a bunch more scary enemies had spawned. Meanwhile I was at 20% health with no medkits and hardly any ammo, though I had a few EMP Grenades. Those, at least, would work on the berserk robots I had to get past. Hit ’em with an EMP grenade then while they’re stunned bash them apart with my trusty wrench. Except even that didn’t go as planned because once when I was bashing a bad robot, it sparked and caused an explosion that killed me. Fortunately I’ve been obsessively Quick Saving. EVERYTHING in this game can kill me. I’ve died at least half a dozen times from getting too close to a sparking wire!
It took a lot of tries but I snuck past the other enemies by climbing up into the rafters. These creatures haven’t learned to look up yet, I guess. I did have to bust my office window and climb in, but I finally saw the video that was so important for me to watch.
Speaking of videos (this is NOT the video I had to watch):
[spoiler territory incoming]
The video was from… me (by which I mean, the character I am playing as). The Neuromods (what I was calling geegaws last post) give you spiffy new skills but when you remove them, it ‘resets’ your memory back to what it was back when the neuromod was installed. That is what had happened to me and I guess I’d had them in for a long time (turns out I work on the station). What I learned was that these enemies, best I can figure, were created by us, presumably by accident. My ‘old self’ told me via the video that they are ‘a part of me now’ and that I had to destroy the space station (Talos it is called) with me in it, because we can’t risk letting “even a single cell” get to earth.
Great, a suicide mission. Then I met the mysterious voice that has been guiding me, and it was basically a 3rd version of me, this one in the brain of a robot. It is going to help me get the two arming keys to blow up the station. Fun stuff. Can’t wait.
While exploring I found a kind of museum that sketched out the timeline of this alternate world. In this world JFK was not assassinated and the US and Russia were working together in the space race, at least initially. This led to an alternate timeline when technology advanced faster than it did in our world where, y’know, we decided science wasn’t very useful. The details are already fuzzy but it is sometime after 2030 in Prey. The station was decommissioned, then bought by a private company who has been using it for scientific research. Oh and the apartment that you wake up in at the start of the game? All a simulation, as was the spaceship ride to the it. We’ve been up here all along, oblivious.
So that’s the story so far. Lots of stuff that can and does kill me. Not many resources or skills. Still kind of lost and confused.
I did find a blueprint for manufacturing Medkits as well as bullets, so that should help, though I clearly need better weapons to fight these ‘Phantoms’, which is what the bigger bipedal baddies are called. They can 1 shot me and seem able to teleport. I can empty a clip into them and it seems to just make them angrier. I mostly run away from them for now.
I got killed (again…I’ve died dozens of times already) trying to get out of my office safely and it was almost dinner time so I stopped for now. Looking forward to my next session!
