Prey

Prey – a game that will turn your world upside down…literally.

An accurate summation of the game really, as you’ll often find yourself having to think in more dimensions than usual to complete this game, otherwise you’ll feel like someone has smashed you in the back of the head with a crowbar and you are playing while severely concussed.

Essentially, Prey casts you in the role Tommy, a Native American who has lost all faith in the ways of his ancestors but who is forced to fight for his life and his love in a hideous floating space ball replete with grotesque aliens and evil spirits. The ball in question is, in essence, a Dyson Sphere, a “hypothetical megastructure that was originally described as a system of orbiting solar power satellites meant to completely (engulf) a star and capture its entire energy output”. Thanks to Wikipedia for that summation as I had originally thought it was something to do with vacuum cleaners.

Those who have come into contact with the ‘Doom 3’ engine before will be in familiar territory. Lots of darkness, interspersed with ‘outdoor’ areas, is the order of the day in ‘Prey’ but, credit where credit is due, the engine has moved on considerably since the days of ‘Doom 3’. Some of the more remarkable and memorable parts of Prey occur when you emerge from the bowels (I’m being literal here) of the sphere and are greeted by awesome vistas and stunning scenery – the time when you see Earth beneath you is particularly awe-inspiring.

“Yeah, yeah, pretty graphics…what is it like?” I hear you grumble. Again, familiar territory – if you’ve played Quake 4 or Doom 3, you’ll know what to expect in terms of game mechanics. The developers have tried hard to differentiate their game from those other titles, but essentially they are very similar. The guns are ingeniously disguised but they all perform similar tasks to the more generic weapons of the likes of Quake.

As has been discussed earlier, the role of gravity is what really sets this game apart from its predecessors. Never before have the walls and ceiling of a game been more important than they are in ‘Prey’, with numerous puzzles requiring you to think “outside the box”, to use vile execu-speak. Although a lot of the puzzles involve using your ‘spirit walk’ ability to go through otherwise-impenetrable force fields, the gravity-based riddles pose a genuine challenge, though never to the point of being frustratingly obtuse, you’ll be glad to know. However, you will sometimes feel that your intelligence is being so viciously insulted that it will develop a severe paranoid psychosis, so easy are the majority of the ‘brainteasers’.

Prey is certainly worth playing. You can tell the developers have tried very hard to dazzle the player with their new ideas and exotic gaming concepts. Despite this, it is pretty easy to see through the sheen and realise the core gameplay could have been lifted straight out of Quake 4. Having said this, I have played it to completion and that is saying something about how inherently fun these games are. If you enjoyed Quake 4 and / or Doom 3, you should definitely get hold of the demo at the very least, as it is one of the most extensive I’ve ever played and is a fantastic example of how to really give the consumer a fulfilling taster of the full game.

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