Prey

"Prey is awesome, but far too easy"

Overall, Prey is a very good game with some very unique and innovative concepts. Some were very good, but others did not work out so well.

Graphics- 8/10

Overall, the graphics for Prey are good. The environments are realistic enough, and so are the enemies. However, the level design gets repetitive. Most of the levels look almost exactly the same, just with different set ups. The levels pretty much look like they are set on a space ship controls by aliens (from the movie alien). There is gunk all over the walls and stuff. It also reminds me of Quake 4 a lot because of the aliens harvesting humans for food.

Audio- 8/10

Overall, the audio is pretty good. The enemies and weapons sound realistic enough. The only problem is except for the title screen and a couple other areas, there is almost no music in this game.

Controls- 10/10

Overall, the controls are pretty good. There are no major problems or flaws with them at all.

Game play- 16/20

Overall, the game play is very good and pretty innovative for the most part. One of the first unique features in this game is the gravity. This game can probably be disorientating for some, but to me, it is cool. By walking on special surfaces, you can walk on walls and even ceilings. It is kind of cool to shoot at an alien soldier from the ceiling. Speaking of enemies, the enemies are pretty good overall, and are a bit unique. However, others aren't very innovative. For example, an enemy called the centurion looks almost like a balrog from Lord of the Rings, except not on fire. The weapons are also sort of unimaginative. The designs are unique, because they are alien designs, but they pretty much do the same thing any other weapon in any other game would. The alien assault rifle is really just a regular assault rifle with a scope. The autocannon is really just a machine gun with a grenade launcher. The rocket launcher isn't anything special either. Don't expect an innovative new power weapon like the cerebral bore from Turok 2 or the BFG 9000 from Doom. One innovation that did not work out in my opinion is the life-death system. When you die, you experience this spirit world where you shoot these death wraiths to regain health. After 15 seconds or so, you respawn at the exact place you left off. Death has no consequence. This is an innovative feature, but it made the game far too easy. Another good innovation is the spirit walk. By pressing the Y button, it is now possible to have a sort of out of body experience. Your "spirit" can scout ahead, go through force fields, manipulate controls, collect secret power ups, and even kill enemies with a bow and arrow.

Fun factor- 19/20

Overall, Prey is a very fun game. Most of the innovations worked out for the better. The wallwalking and spirit walk are cool feature that make this game unique and awesome. The actual combat is cool too.

Replay value/Game length- 16/20

Overall, the game is a little short, with 22 missions with around 3 or 4 of them being missions in the spirit world (which means they really aren't missions). However, it's not brutally short. This game takes around 8 hours to complete (much more the first time because of all sorts of puzzles to solve, the 2nd time around you already know how to solve them). The replay value is decent too. You will probably want to play the game again after you have beaten it.

Difficulty- 3/10

On one hand, the enemies are pretty tough. They hit hard and they are sometimes hard to kill, especially towards the end of the game. However, the life-death system ruins the difficulty. It is too easy. Checkpoints would have been a good system for this game. However, by respawning in the exact same spot you died with the enemies exactly the way they were before you died, there is no point in staying alive. If you die, oh well.

Overall- 80/100 = 8/10

Overall, Prey is a good game and is definitely worth picking up, especially now since you can get it for around $25-$30.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/10/07