Aw, what? I just finished Prey and thought it was fantastic. In fact I'm convinced Arkane could pull off Half-Life 3 after playing it.
It kind of sounds like you dropped it really early. If that's the case I beg you to stick with it, the game really does have more to offer than what you're describing. But I would recommend not playing it like one of those traditional FPS action shooters because it's not one of them. There is only 2 actual guns in Prey, and you can make it through the game without even using them. Enemy variety also opens up, there is a lot more than just mimics and phantoms to deal with.
Have you unlocked the typhon skill tree yet? There is a lot of powers to play with beyond just hacking and lifting things. The game really shines when you start getting creative. In combat and exploration both. I don't think you have to hack anything to make it through the game. I snuck into so many places just using the glue gun and turning myself into an apple or something to make into those tight spaces.
I really enjoyed my time with Prey. The atmosphere is stellar. the story is on point, with Avellone onboard, it's got the twists and turns you would expect it to. A ton of freedom to play the way you want, you can really get creative. I was like halfway through the game before I realized I could turn myself into fruit.
I reached the arboretum which is like... I don't know, 50%?
And yeah, I got typhon powers. I knew about the transformation power, that was a big deal during the promotion of the game.
And... for me that's a problem too. Everything that you unlock is either more "you can do what you want! To reach the exact same goal 5 meters away, you can hack, brute force it, transform into a cup, glue gun it".
Cool, you have multiple ways to complete your objective. Less cool, it's factually the same result with a different animation.
Or you get new combat abilities. Which are more powerful than the complete garbage weapons, but not in any way more fun, like the grenades. The ennemies are braindead, and they are absurdly samey. You can't just slap a fire modifier on a phantom and call that different, that's Borderlands level of wank.
The sound design for the combat, the AI, the hitboxes (to be fair, it makes sense that mimic bodies are wriggling around but...)... the gameplay is just terrible. Getting more options (you can grenade or explode from your body! Big difference. Again, like before for exploration, you get a lot of options that ultimately do the same thing) that feel just as slow and clunky with zero variety to apply them on, it does not make for very engaging content.
I do enjoy the story and the atmosphere, but it falters in the gameplay department: you don't approach the game in a different way like using air vents, you just blow up the door, or hack it, or sneak through the convenient cup sized opening at eye level.
It feels super gamey, and utterly artificial.
Add to that bad and repetitive combat (dumping 10+ enemies in some rooms doesn't helps either), and it's just a bore. Especially considering how the "loot" is bland as fuck with a broken ass crafting system. more neuromods to unlock rooms giving more neuromods, or the trash chipsets that are actually RNG? Yeesh.
I just feel like the "immersive sim" has not evolved one bit in 20 years.
Arguably, it has degenerated, the new Deus Ex games were just terrible... and we're way past the time were "but the story" is enough to justify a game.