I'm on my second run (I'm just using human abilities this time) and have just joined Fandom. I realise this question is a couple months old now, but I'll answer it anyway as I'm currently really into the game, and I'll give some of my own starter advice too (I list 12 STARTER TIPS down below), as the advice I found for myself on the net wasn't all that great I thought.

To answer the question first, Prey has many 'direction' decisions to make as the game advances, and the variations of the game's end will play-out accordingly. It's not a bothersome thing though imo, as long as you see 'side quests' as a useful thing to do rather than a hindrance in some way (you'll miss quite a lot if you just ignore them - more than in most games I feel) This is a 'story-rich game' after all - as well as a decent RPG/FPS - and it feels that approximately half of the full game is in such detours. I think the ending (regardless of the choices taken) has a definitive answer re a particular question over the protagonist Morgan. Prey is a bit like a sci-fi mystery/detective novel) and I am hoping for a sequel as I found the writing to be well above par for a computer game. The realisation is very good too, though the interface is just too clunky on the PC imo,

[Advise re the interface - you might want to spend some time 'remapping' various keys as you get into the game a bit. For some reason they twice(!) forced two important in-game 'actions' to share the same key! I remapped one of these from R-mouse to ENTER to avoid so-often accidentally going into the 'combat focus' skill (and needlessly depleting my psi power) whenever I simply wanted to move-away from an in-game console but already have done! ENTER is just less easy to hit without thinking I found.

So the game can feel very finger-twisting at times to begin with unfortunately.

The other example (of 1 key doing 2 things) is that you can suddenly find yourself in the game's main menu because you pressed the (otherwise oft-needed) ESC key at the wrong time! That isn't great for immersion either. Maybe there is a 'mod' on the internet somewhere for this, but I really didn't want to mod this particular game.

(Apparently though there is a mod to make the really difficult in-game 'hacking' game a lot easier (it's often almost-impossible due to you needing some serious finger-speed,) I can see how this whole game could be a bit of finger-twisting nightmare if you happen to struggle in that department.)

My second play is on almost-full video settings too, as I found that everything in Prey could sometimes slow down really-badly for me whatever settings I used (I went low for my first run to try and up the speed). The 'optimization' for my ageing PC is just not good at all sadly, but that's due to the Cryrengine apparently. I'm enjoying my 2nd run more, and the graphical detail is really quite important in this game I think. The graphics are often excellent too.]

Despite any interface misgivings, Prey is a game a lot of people who finished it will play more than once (I didn't think I would because of the above, but I have). Back in 2017, the developers released a game patch to help you replay it in a few different ways.. I'm seeing a few things in my 2nd run that I missed on my first, and am finding more time to read all the emails and notes properly (ie alongside just listening to the audio transcribes) basically because I'm saving some time by 'meandering' a bit less. Ideally it's best to follow it all in one play though obviously. Do this, and you will get enough of the involved story to have a full appreciation of its end regardless of the directions you took. So you shouldn't need to play it again if you don't want to, though you might be tempted out of curiosity to replay things from a 'save' a little before the end.

Re the audio (and often excellent voice acting) in the game, I think that also actually reading the voice dialogue can really help you keep track of all the myriad of characters in Prey. The ensemble cast is so big that re-used a few of the voice actors (I actually checked this out -I'm not sure that AAA games can get away with this in 2025 though), which for me at least led to a little confusion as to who was who sometimes. Also I found that a number of the various 'avatar' face images (and the character models too) are sometimes a bit similar to each other too (ditto 2017 'game polish' vs the 2025 AAA vibe), which didn't really help if I was a bit confused anyway. But sticking SUBTITLES on helps a lot I think (tick all such game options to begin with I would suggest, to try them out). Also, it's great to read properly what Tyhons are saying out loud, as most of them are reanimated employees! Another method to avoid any character-confusion is to just make an effort to try and remember people's names. Having a decent idea of the main 20 or so characters should be enough - there really are a lot of people in Prey to discover as the game goes on. It's a much better game if you don't 'wing 'it looking for things to shoot I think.

Here are 12 useful playing tips for the first run (or for all runs or you only perhaps)...

1) Resist getting the very first skill in the skill trees (collecting the extra typhon parts) as most of the extra giblets will offer 0.0x yield for ages, and it will feel like it's taking you forever to pay for the 4 neuroods you used for the pleasure. Sure you will pay for them eventually, but it's a real waste of time compared to almost all other options imo.

2) Try and hold back from upgrading the pistol too much (maybe just one in power and maybe 1 or 2 in distance, if doing that), as it's the only 'tool' (ie gun etc) where a better one will become available via a side quest that can come quite early if you follow the story in the cleverest way (you can trust this game to sort you out in this respect - you can't really break Prey story-wise). An unmodded vanilla pistol is still a really useful rapid-firing gun for much of the game.

3) Don't be afraid to parkour around to achieve goals (ie try to climb etc - see above), or to recycle things you are not using much, like psi hypos (which can help loads with crafting new neuromods). Lots of things become available during the game, so don't waste time storing too much stuff - it's better in general is to make use of things imo. You can 'craft' almost everything you need by the end of the game too. Use a proper Recycler for 100% yield (to 120% modified) providing you can fit the stuff into it of course (ie they fit into your inventory), or get around 75% on the 'fly' using a Recycle charge over a floor radius. Then just make stuff whenever you can when you see a Fabricator, especially neuromods (when you find he fabrication plan) to get more skills! You can pick up/make over 200 neuromods in Prey and still need more if you decide to 'max' every skill available to you (you'll want to finish the game before this though imo)

4) Keep hold of the office-toy crossbow if you have the inventory room as it can get you into quite a few places where you can see something useful to shoot, and save you some game time. Having said this, look for alternative routes too (a maintenance tunnel perhaps), as you never know what can be collected in them. Sometimes you really do need the crossbow though.

5) I think it's always worth slowly building up the 'skill' of increased inventory space, as they give you added space for 'skill chips' as well as save you time faffing around arranging it. You can always decide on the getting biggest size later in the game

6) Malfunctioning 'XXXX' storage safes never have codes to find - you have to hack them to enter them, and imo it's always worth upgrading the hacking skill as time goes on (ie to level 3 maybe even 4) as you can eventually hack anything that is robotic too.

7) Only a couple of places in Prey are just accessible if you have the right typhon powers, so don't feel that you HAVE to get typhon skills just to 'pull' inaccessible things towards you, or 'mimic' an apple and roll into somewhere (though those skills can be useful for fighting typhons too of course). Properly 'setting' a recycling charge (ie not throwing it) will pull-in bits and pieces that are near enough (but perhaps inaccessible) and 'reform' them into a nicely-accessible and very-tidy 'pile' of your various mineral, synthetic, exotic or organic yield shapes! No synthetic balls bouncing off to unreachable places too!

Of course recycling charges are also great at removing the large moveable obstacles that could be blocking the way (it might not be an unmovable grate) - so you don' need level-3 Lifting skill just to access difficult places either (again that particular skill level is good for other things too though, like crazy pile-creation and - imo a bit more more usefully - increased throwing power when your ammo is running low.)

8) Also the big left-over chunks of the Nightmare typhon that keeps returning to hunt you down (ie his particularly-big giblets that you can't actually pick up at all) can be manhandled around from a crouching/sneaking position, to help you with your perfectly-spread piles. In fact almost all of the general typhon giblets (big or small) that you see around but you can't pick up can still be recycled via a recycler charge for some exotic yield (which makes them kind of unique, as of course normally anything you cannot move in Prey cannot be recycled either).

If you do get really into using recycling charges though (and chances are you will), you could find yourself thinking for ages where to best place your group of objects (and for what yield?), so I think it's best is to consider this first - do I really need to do this right now? It's a fun thing to do, but running out of charges after a particular battle where some highly-recyclable stuff is lying all around you can be a real pain.

9) Some suit chips are mainly good for when you nip out into space, but don't forget to swap them back when you re-enter Talos-1 if you are short on chip space. You can only get more chip space by adding inventory space.

10) I'm not into online 'meta searching' much, but somewhere out there is a list/guide of recycling 'yield' results for literally everything that is movable (ie can be recycled) in the game. I think it's worth making notes of maybe 10-20 of them (eg tarpaulin gives 30 synthetic). IMO only maybe 20 or so of the around-200 things are really worth recycling for yield, but it's great if you can form a decent group and get them all with just one charge! You can even use a Typhon Lure (or use certain typhon skills) to try and get Typhons together in an easier to recycle group.

On the other hand some people seem to mainly use the proper Recyclers to just recycle their inventory stuff, and use their extra recycling charges as hand-grenades instead - or even recycle them at Recyclers to help craft into something else. They only use recycle charges as intended if they really need some stuff.

11) Be careful not to accidentally recycle people (or even to recycle people at all maybe?) ! You might need their bodies for the game, and tbh one of the last things you'll need in Prey is organic material as it's so abundant (even in flower heads) - as are the medikits and stuff you need to craft with organics. (note I've not played Nightmare mode yet- medkits may be a lot more useful in that).

12) If you are running out of storage space, drop the stuff you don't really need (ie flowers) and consider dismantling extra guns etc for spare parts too, which you can do anywhere from inside your inventory (some tools give more spare parts, others give more yield when recycled - so consider maybe recycling things like shotguns if you think you might need their menu-described yield).

I appreciate the answer but the game is not fun.

Prey is a primarily a moody horror thing, but I think there is loads of genuine fun to be found if you persevere. Looking at the GOG achievement stats though, you are not alone in not persevering with it!

Maybe you could go straight to Mooncrash? I've not played it yet but it's a different type of game apparently (ie not a typical story DLC but more of an alternative game, which seemed to have divided the fans). It's supposed to be hard though (and a rogue-like I think), so it depends on your cup of tea I guess.