Prey

"Indian Outlaw"

After hearing about this game, I groaned. I was getting tired of first-person shooters. They were all the same game in the long run and ever since Halo it seemed that the only product developers were pushing were those of the first-person shooting genre. Well, I reluctantly picked up Prey and I have to say that my worries of another bore-fest were proven wrong.

Ever since games like Half-Life and Duke Nukem, video games (especially that of the FPS genre) started adding simple little interactions throughout the game. Prey does not lack this feature. Especially at the beginning in the bar you can turn on the sinks (and BOTH knobs!), turn off lights and just little things like that. This may seem irrelevant but I enjoy this interactive feature in games because it can add a little humor to the gameplay.

Most gamers are used to the usual weapon arsenal: a handgun, a machine gun, a shotgun, grenades and a rocket launcher. Prey warps the familiar weapon system in more ways than one. One way in which Prey changes the usual weapon arsenal is the fact that most of your weapons are actually living things. Yes, in the Sphere (the spaceship that you are abducted into) almost everything is living; the walls, doors—everything. Unlike other games, I found almost every weapon to be useful in some way, shape or form. However, there was one weapon that I had a quarrel with: the “grenades.” These grenades are actually four-legged alien bugs that are explosive. Sounds cool? No, not really because I doubt you'll ever feel the need to use this weapon. The distance Tommy throws (even when the sight is in the same exact position) is inconsistent. I was very annoyed when I realized that these really cool and weird grenade-bugs were practically useless.

At the beginning of the game, you can play some arcade cabinets--something not foreign to the genre. You can play blackjack or a Pac-Man parody-style game. These somewhat hidden mini-games are extremely dull and I honestly doubt you'll feel the compulsion to waste your time with them.

What is the major part of the gameplay that originates Prey from a traditional FPS? Trust me, there is a big difference in gameplay that does this and that feature is portals. Rings appear in Prey that will transport you to another part of the Sphere. This feature is just plain awesome. You can crawl through a small box, thinking you can get some cover from enemy fire, and all of a sudden be on a totally different part of the Sphere. These portals are used greatly in Prey's many puzzles, but the portals can sometimes get annoying. As a player it feels like you're just shooting monsters and letting the game do its own thing which can make the gameplay feel watered-down.

Another major factor in the gameplay is the gravity. Green hexagons throughout Prey's environments can be utilized to change the gravity. This is cool at first, but the way the camera rolls around when you zoom to the ceiling can make you feel nauseous after staring at it for hours. This also couples with the portals to add-on to the feeling that you have very little power over what happens to the gameplay.

Vehicle-control is implemented in Prey like most FPS games. I was very displeased that the vehicles control much like the vehicles in the Halo games (very badly), but you will get used to it eventually. There is basically one type of vehicle in the game, but towards the end you get to control something somewhat different.

The ability to have your spirit leave your body was excitedly yapped about in most of the gaming magazines and I'm happy to say that there are no flaws with this system. You can leave your body in spirit form to usually aid in a puzzle, but to sometimes turn off force-fields or, if you want, to easily pick-off some enemies you don't want to deal with in human form. Your spirit form has a bow-and-arrow that literally shoots the spirit out of your enemies. This is okay, but using your bow and arrow drains your spirit energy. To regain your spirit energy, you simply kill enemies and obtain their spirit.

When you die in Prey, you go to the Spirit World where you shoot at wraiths using your bow and arrow. The wraiths are either red or blue. Shooting the red wraiths will recharge your health while shooting the blue wraiths will recharge your spirit energy. This little mini-game of sorts reminds me of the mini-games in Banjo-Tooie. This is a very love-or-hate feature. Some gamers will think that this makes the game too easy while others will embrace the feature for its originality. In my own opinion, I think that this feature is actually entertaining and I think the game's puzzles make up for the difficulty level.

I enjoyed almost all of Prey's puzzles. However, the puzzles that involved the small spacecraft you can fly in drove me nuts. It was so annoying getting in and out of the damn thing and flying around looking for what to do. These puzzles were especially annoying while on the meteoroids because these meteoroids are NOT small. Tommy moves relatively slow and traveling across these meteoroids to solve puzzles are just plain irritating. If there was a faster way to get across the meteoroids, then these puzzles would be a little bit more breathable, but unfortunately, this was the worst part of the game.

You take the role of Tommy, a Cherokee Indian who resents his heritage for stranding him on an Indian Reservation. His grandfather is a mystical old man who seems calm in almost any situation and believes in the old ways of the Cherokee. Tommy wants to leave the reservation, but his girlfriend, Jen, refuses to leave her home. After Tommy becomes enraged by two drunks hitting on Jen, bright lights enter the bar and suck the three of them into the Sphere, a giant, living space station.

Sounds exciting? Well, that's because it is. Prey has a story that's better than most of the games I've played recently. It's gripping to find out whether Tommy will accept his heritage and save his girlfriend or if he'll break under the pressure. The story isn't usually told through cut-scenes (there are a couple), but rather the player just walking up to a character and letting the conversation transpire. This is great for me because you can walk around while still listening to the character talking. Also, there are some radio stations you can listen to while on the ship that shed some light on the situation as it is seen on Earth and provides some creepy information for a sort-of a sub-plot.

I am still amazed by the graphical power the 360 offers. Prey utilizes the power, but not as much as it could. Some of the textures aren't as pretty as everything else, but overall, it's a decent showing. The environment looks amazingly creepy as do all the creatures you encounter. Simply put: Prey is amazing.

A jukebox can be found in the Sphere and in the bar at the start of the game. These jukeboxes do have one or two decent songs (including Sharp Dressed Man), but most of their songs are junk. The sound effects were never off and the squishy sounds of the Sphere's living walls always made me gag. It was perfect.

I would rent Prey because it really isn't that long of a game. There is almost zero replayability unless you want to redo the game on a harder difficulty (I don't know why, unless you want some boring concept art and one extra achievement). I do want to point-out that Prey is the perfect game to get achievements (you get one after EVERY level!). I strongly believe that every gamer should at least try this spectacle of gaming especially since most first-person shooters are rather boring lately.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/07