A demo version of Prey was released earlier this year for consoles, but not the PC. Arkane's Raphael Colantonio said that sticking with consoles was simply "a resource assignment thing," and also pointed out that the graciousness of Steam refunds added up to effectively the same thing anyway: You can buy the game, play it for a couple hours, and then refund it if you don't like it.
I didn't (and don't) agree with that take, but it doesn't matter anymore because a free trial version is now available on Steam, too. The announcement doesn't offer much in the way of detail, but the trailer describes it as the "first hour" of the game. To get it, just head to the Prey page on Steam and scroll down until you see the "Download Demo" button on the right, just below where it shows how many of your Steam friends want and have the game. Take it from there.
(The PS4 and Xbox One demos are also being transitioned to trials, the difference being that as a trial, any progress you make and Achievements or Trophies you earn will carry over to the full game if you opt to buy it. That apparently doesn't happen with demos.)
Prey was also recently updated to version 1.05, which smooths out the experience with more than 30 bug fixes. A full rundown of the changes is below.
- Player can no longer become blocked from rebooting Power Plant for the "Reboot" mission after killing the Technopath in Life Support.
- Fixed crash when mimicking bass guitar in the Yellow Tulip.
- Extra items gained through passive neuromods, such as organs and tumors from Necropsy or spare parts through Dismantle, will now properly stack in the player's inventory automatically.
- Loading a save from a previous version of the game will no longer remove all quests and inventory, or break the HUD.
- Fix for some AI-related crashes.
- Various combat tweaks/fixes for mimics.
- Opening the TranScribe will no longer disrupt FoV settings.
- The light on top of a turret will no longer become detached when the player jumps and glides while holding it.
- Approaching areas with Coral should no longer cause the client to stutter and eventually freeze.
- Operator corpses from saves made on previous builds will no longer cause performance issues.
- Repair II and III increase efficiency with suit patch kits. Reduced suit damage from enemies on easy and normal difficulty.
- Increased wrench range and strength of melee aim assist. Wrench now always staggers mimics (interrupts attacks). Mimics stand further back to prevent players having to look down too much.
- Stun Gun now tells the player when a target is out of its effective range. Weapons will display a "Weapon Offline" when disabled by EMP.
- Hepatocytic Amp S-m186 chipset now properly only removes the negative effects of the "Drunk" debuff
- Player will now spawn in the correct location when traveling from Shuttle Bay to other locations.
- Fixed rare crash when level transitioning to Life Support.
- Reployers no longer lose collision when recycling them, and then loading a save where they were present.
- Player can no longer bypass ceiling collision by mantling GLOO.
- Danielle now voices the correct response to the player's actions with the Cook during the endgame sequence.
- The fabricated coral detector chipset and the quest-given chipset now both function correctly to scan the coral when installed
- Fix for rare freeze/crash when in combat with Phantoms.
- The Luther Glass quest will no longer incorrectly complete and fail after the player has already completed the quest in Trauma Center.
- Lights are no longer sometimes incorrectly 'on' when the player enters the Cargo Bay for the first time
- Igwe will no longer be found in Cargo Bay when the 'meet January' call is triggered.
- Mimic's wall jump attack animation is cancelled if they are stunned.
- Treasure Hunt now lists an objective and marker to return to Abigail's workstation once all the maps are investigated.
- The nightmare in the Arboretum is now able to get into the greenhouse and use ranged attacks on the player from the doorway.
- Turrets can now be hacked properly if they've been previously controlled by the Technopath.
- If the player manages to fully GLOO the greater mimic while it is in mid-lunge toward the player's face, the facegrab animation will no longer play and trap the player.
- Hitting a stunned Phantom with the wrench no longer breaks their animations
- Raised phantoms and operators will no longer become hostile to the player
- Various crash fixes
- Various text fixes.
