Prey for me
Let me tell you a story.
I was playing Prey. Seven hours into the game I faced some difficult gunfights against various alien foes, but things went south and I felt kinda frustrated.
“Why didn’t they implement a viewfinder in the HUD?” I asked loudly, to no one.
Then, I noticed that there was no HUD in the first place: no health bar, no ammo counter, nothing.
At first it looked like a normal design choice, but suddenly doubts started popping up in my head like notifications on a busy smartphone. It was odd that a game like that had important information hidden from the player. Too many gameplay elements relied on instant feedback, and as a (noob) game designer, I would have implemented a HUD for sure. So why Arkane Studios, full of professionals, wouldn’t?
Moved by suspicion I checked the settings, just to be sure.
Guess what I did find out?
Yes, I discovered that I am an imbecile.
When the game started I disabled the subtitles, because they irritate me when I play: I don’t want to read what I’m listening, they kinda ruin my suspension of disbelief. However, while changing that setting I might have turned off the whole HUD. Completely. Absolutely. Gone. Kaputt. Adios. Ciao.
I played a third of the game without visual help.
(no further comment required)
On the bright side, I must say that the developers made an excellent job in creating a game that is fully traversable without a HUD.
Ok, aiming is a bit difficult if the viewfinder is disabled, but things work out pretty decently nevertheless. Actually, some visual elements in the interface were almost unnecessary. The objective indicator, for example, makes things too easy to find, removing all the fun in searching for the right place. Talos I is a great environment for exploration, so I toggled that off again alongside some other things: after playing for so long without a HUD, to me the screen felt too overwhelmed with information.
I prefer discovering stuff on my own, now.
zero/3 