Prey

"Human Head Studios narrowly misses their Prey."

Prey is the latest effort from developer Human Head Studios, in which you play the role of a Tommy, a Cherokee Indian who is trapped on an Alien spaceship in orbit above earth. In it, you use the various weapon archetypes (albeit presented as semi-organic) to kill the various enemy archetypes (alien foot soldier, strange dog like monster, etc.). What Prey boasts above other FPS, however, is a bevy of new ideas, including Portals which seamlessly connect sections of the game, changing gravity (which plays mayhem with the player's orientation), and deathwalking and spirit walking.

The new gameplay mechanics feel absolutely splendid for the first part of the game, and at least the first few times, you'll probably "oooh" and "aaah" at the various situations set up with portals. The first few scenarios, while interesting, are pretty much the best that Prey has to offer in the form of these 'portals', and it's not very long before the portals you encounter are just glorified doorways.

The gravity tricks are done much better, and interesting situations abound involving "gravity tracks," which can lead in all directions (including straight upwards, or across the ceiling so that the floor appears above you), and neat puzzles where you swap the gravity in the room also abound.

The spirit walking is a little less interesting than the gravity, a sort of "alternate form" which reveals previously hidden pathways and lets you solve a few lacklustre puzzles.

Deathwalking, a "feature" which was touted as the answer to quicksaving or checkpoints (never have to backtrack again!) allows the player to go to a spirit world upon dying and fight spirits of the damned to recover lost health and spirit energy, before being sent right back into the fray. Deathwalking was possibly the worst innovation that Prey made, but more on that later.

The graphics, rendered with the Doom 3 engine, are impressive. While it's no Oblivion, Prey looks gorgeous. The semi-organic ship environment, while not aesthetically pleasing, per se, looks like you'd imagine it would, in all its gruesome glory. The weapon effects, while not stunning, are more than functional, and you'll enjoy watching Prey.

The sound is well done, though Prey is unlikely to win any Oscars. Human Head Studios licenced several 70s-90s rock tracks, but they're not necessarily everyones cup of tea, and even if they were, they're only available at a very few junctures throughout the game. The voice acting is well done, and it helps move the passable story along without too much chugging, though "baditude" is prevalent in everything Tommy says (ugh).

The weapons feel incredibly weak. F.E.A.R. or Half-Life 2 veterans using Prey's rocket launcher will feel like they're carrying around an explosive pea-shooter, rather than high tech alien weaponry, and for this reason the multiplayer doesn't hold as well as it should. Some weapons are completely meritless: the wrench, which you use for about 2 minutes of gameplay and then never again, could've been omitted entirely, and the organic monsters that double as grenades could've been replaced with. . .well. . . anything.

The multiplayer itself (dubbed "multiprey" in an oh-so-hilarious pun by the devs) is broken up into deathmatch and team deathmatch, which would be great if killing stuff was any fun. It isn't, really.

Prey is also incredibly easy. Easy to the point of sheer boredom. Deathwalk prevents you from dying or losing any progress, your enemies are both braindead and weak, and the puzzles consist of "Press 'e' to enter spirit walk; move forward; hit button." Prey is so easy that you are unlikely to want to go through it a second time, which is unfortunate, because the game clocks in at around five hours. This is the sort of FPS which could conceivably be time attacked in 30 minutes; I embellish nothing when I say that.

All in all, Prey is a worthy effort that just failed to gel in the end. Incredibly low difficulty, lack of punch in your weapons, weak multiplayer, and a very short singleplayer campaign mar it's otherwise solid package.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/06