Prey

"Prey for a miracle!"

“Prey review”

STORY 8/10

With the seemingly unending drought of new games for the Xbox 360, Prey comes along to quench your thirst midway through summer. In Prey, you are a Cherokee Indian named Tommy, who does not care about his ancestors' heritage and only wants to leave the reservation with his girlfriend, Jen. Tommy's grandfather, Enisi, warns that he will need his ancestors' knowledge to survive. They didn't know how soon they would…..all three of them, and many others, are abducted by an alien race harvesting humans. Tommy is split up from the others and is left to fend for himself and try to save mankind on the alien sphere.

GRAPHICS 8/10

Prey is made using the Doom 3 engine. Therefore the graphics are really detailed yet really dark. The game could use a little more light. The enemies are very detailed but the environment is so dark that it hardly matters. The living sphere looks very cool with its organic doors and walls. The game is also very gory and gruesome, as you will see soon after you are abducted into the ship. The aliens have a rather “unique” way of dealing with the abducted humans. Also throughout the game there are holes that spew body parts and disfigured humans that have been tortured, all looking brutally lifelike.

SOUND 7/10

Nothing that stands out here but not bad either. There is excellent voice acting, especially for Tommy with his candid comments on what goes on in the ship. The gun sounds are the usual fare. The music from the game is not very memorable but it does the job.

GAMEPLAY 9/10

This is where the game really shines. Instead of just being another run of the mill FPS like it easily could have been, a few new ideas were thrown in to make Prey a truly unique title. One dizzying addition is being able to walk on anti gravity walkways. These walkways twist and turn going up walls and across ceilings, all the while keeping Tommy's feet planted so he is upside down on the ceiling. There are also switches that turn whole rooms upside down, which can be very disorienting. One major addition that goes against everything in every other FPS, is that Tommy can never really die. When he is killed, his body is held in suspension while he shoots blue and red wraiths with his bow that replenish his spirit and health. Then he is thrown right back into the game at the point he died. In case you were wondering what the spirit meter is for, its used for a neat little trick. Tommy can leave his body and go in spirit form, to go through force fields and reach otherwise inaccessible areas. He can also use his bow in this form to take out enemies stealth style. Truly a one of a kind FPS in the gameplay department.

REPLAY 7/10

You can play through the single player game again on the Cherokee difficulty mode, which is basically the same as Normal except you get no health packs and the only way to replenish your health is to play the shooting mini-game. The multiplayer is nothing spectacular, average deathmatch and team deathmatch with spirit walk thrown in. The multiplayer is also very laggy as of right now, making it not so easy to play. If you only want to experience the single player story once, this is worth a rent.

OVERALL 8/10

Prey makes very good use of the Doom 3 engine, and the gameplay additions that set it apart from other FPSs are spectacular. The voicework is very well done and the story is decent. If you get tired of the regular game, Runeman can keep you entertained for awhile!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/06