3D Realms' much-anticipated title Prey
takes players on a dizzying and dark journey through a living ship filled with
gruesome enemies. The game implements several unique features that give the FPS
genre a unique spin such as portals that transport you from one area to another,
spirit walking which allows you to leave your body and other gravity defying
elements. This makes Prey one of the more original and innovative shooting
titles on the market and a solid purchase for fans of the genre looking for
something different.
Prey begins simply enough as we meet a young
Cherokee Indian named Tommy. He's not having the best time, and rejects much of
his heritage and wants to leave the Reservation. On this night, however, strange
forces interfere with his life and he suddenly finds himself transported to an
alien ship. Suddenly, he's thrust into another dimension, and must call on the
very things, his heritage, that he rejects in order to survive. This makes for a
storyline and gameplay structure that's far more unique and engrossing than
players have come to expect. While all of Prey's elements aren't quite up to its
ambition, it's still one of the more innovative and challenging games on the
market. Once you enter the ship, you'll yourself trapped, not in the usual
faceless corridors but inside a dizzying series of mind-altering, gravity
pushing puzzles that will challenge even the best players. The use of gravity
definitely lends Prey an unpredictability that makes for an immediately
refreshing change of pace. It's a bit disorienting at times, but once you get
used to this approach, you should find that it adds to the game's feel,
enhancing your sense of being in an otherworldly environment. Players can walk
up walls and on ceilings using special walkways, which leads to some interesting
levels. In addition, the game lets players shoot at terminals, which change the
orientation of the room, causing the center to reverse itself. It makes for some
dizzying, unpredictable levels where the biggest challenge isn't shooting, but
keeping aware of your surroundings. As if this wasn't enough, players will also
have to be on the lookout for portals, which can instantaneously transport them
from one area to another, with multiple portals chaining together to create an
even more complex world to explore. This is a really cool feature, however the
enemies can also use these to attack you and literally seem to come out of thin
air. All of this is quite impressive and is implemented effectively enough to
make Prey feel very different from other games on the market, but there are even
more elements to the game that further define its uniqueness.
As you progress through his journey, you'll
learn even more spiritual skills that allow you to perform some unique tasks.
During the course of the game, players will have a faithful companion called the
Spirit Hawk, who flies around and guides the player through the levels. The hawk
can also decipher the alien language and be used to attack enemies. Players
should always pay attention to the Hawk's location, since he can give you
important clues in some of the puzzle levels. In addition, Tommy has several
special abilities that gradually come into play as he learns to use and accept
his Cherokee heritage. The first of these is called Spirit Walking, where you
can leave your physical body and walk through the levels. This has two
functions, you can use this to evade or sneak up on enemies, since they can't
see you when you are in this form. Instead of the usual weapons, here you can
use your spirit bow to shoot arrows at them. This technique is also useful in
solving puzzles throughout the game, where you have to move your spirit body or
pass through an area where you can't physically break through. Since you can
switch between these modes instantly, it allows you to perform tasks that you
couldn't in other FPS titles. Another significant feature of the game comes when
your character takes damage and dies. Instead of respawning as you would in
other games, you are instead transported to another dimension between life and
death, and can reclaim you place in the world by shooting your spirit arrows at
phantom spirits you'll find floating around in the other world. It's a unique
approach that ties in nicely to the Cherokee mythology, but it does have the
drawback of giving the player what amounts to infinite lives. All of the above
features serve to give Prey a distinctive, innovative style of play that gives
it a unique feel that stands out from other games in the genre.
As you can tell from the outline above, the
game's structure and approach are radically different from most FPS titles,
though there are some familiar elements. Most of the levels retain a linear
approach with a defined beginning and end, and players will find a decent array
of weapons scattered throughout the levels. The enemies you encounter are
typically gruesome and dark, with a few mutated human characters, boss creatures
and other slimy denizens thrown in for good measure. The alien ship itself is
crawling with danger, with aliens seeming to ooze from every crevice including
gross unsettling hatches that spit out acidic waste, disjointed tentacles and
strange mutant balls which explode when shot. Many of the levels feature the
usual blasting and shooting, but others feature complex, multi-tiered puzzles.
Some of the puzzles in Prey are relatively easy to understand, while others seem
impossibly vague, stopping the game momentum cold while you search out the
solution to these problems. There's actually a fairly good balance between these
two elements, which gives Prey a more cerebral approach than most other FPS
titles on the market, though there's still plenty of action.
Prey's slightly slower, more contemplative
pace is appropriate to its approach, since the game's storyline is much more
challenging and deeper than you've come to expect. Unlike the faceless heroes in
most game's, players will be able to identify with Tommy in a number of areas as
he struggles to find his place in the world, while trying to save it. This
evolution unfolds somewhat slowly at first, but the story picks up momentum, but
this backstory is worth sitting through since it makes the game more
interesting. This is especially true with some unexpected plot twists
The developers at 3D Realms deserve a lot of
credit for what they have accomplished with Prey's single player game. It's
richly developed plot and storyline is both interesting and moving, with a
believably flawed hero battling his own internal demons along with the ones
outside. The game's mix of traditional FPS shooting and puzzle oriented levels
gives it a distinctive feel that's only enhanced by the numerous innovative play
mechanics. Some of these elements, such as the gravity switches and spirit
walking are fantastic ideas that are smartly implemented. Others, such as the
Hawk and the ability to shoot your way back to life, feel either gimmicky or
seem to become annoying distractions later on. The game's overall look and feel
of Prey is superb. It uses the Xbox 360 hardware effectively to create a
believably eerie space ship. While some of the puzzles are excessively
difficult, making things slow down to a crawl, the innovative gameplay mechanics
and an interesting storyline that makes Prey a solidly entertaining FPS title.
Grade: A-
