With speedrunners now completing Prey in less than eight minutes, you may be looking for a way to make Arkane’s sci-fi horror a bit more challenging. Creatively named ‘Prey for Death’, this gameplay mod drastically increases Prey’s difficulty level.
Check out what we thought of Prey with our review.
Created by modder jvames, Prey for Death reintroduces several missing mechanics that were supposed to be in Prey. Morgan Yu will now suffer specific injuries like burns, concussions, bone fractures, and even partial blindness. You now have to use specific cures to heal your ailments, with Medical Operators getting rid of any injuries you may have. The mod also activates a skill cut from the released version of the game called Field Surgeon, where regular med-kits will heal all of your injuries. The downside of this is that scoffing a bunch of food no longer heals as much health, while downing a bottle of water does nothing to heal you.
New items have been added to clutter up your inventory and inventory management is now very much a thing in Prey. There are now specific limits on stacking items and dead Typhons no longer drop ammo or weapons. Jvames advocates that players start to lug briefcases and storage units around Talos I, rather than relying on their almost bottomless inventory.
Speaking of Typhons, all mid- to high-level Typhons have received a 20% health buff and players no longer receive the Mimic detection chip during their playthrough. Mimics are a more present threat when playing the Prey for Death mod, so be extra careful when you’re looting that coffee cup.
Jvames has also bundled in the Prey Immersion Mod with Prey for Death, stripping back many of the game’s more intrusive HUD elements. Items no longer glow to draw a player’s attention, the enemy alert and indication markers have been removed and you can even turn off all HUD elements if you want a real challenge.
An oxygen meter and weapon degradation were also planned to be added back in with this mod, but jvames was unable to get these features working. While the Prey for Death mod goes someway into making Prey the horror experience it was meant to be, jvames hopes Bethesda releases a full Survival Mode update in the near future to re-add all the removed hardcore mechanics.
Should you wish to make Talos I an even more hostile environment, you can download the mod right here. Let’s see how long Prey takes to speedrun with this mod active.
Thanks, PC Gamer.