Prey

""Prey" the next one isn't such a chore."

Back before the XBox 360 had a million different FPS titles to choose from, Prey was one that looked to stand out amongst the 100,000 FPS games by the time of its release in July '06. There were promises of revolutionary gameplay, with portals going all over the place and the laws of gravity being completely at your disposal. Too bad they didn't spend any time making the game enjoyable to play.

The graphics are a big selling point of this game, and I have to say that they're pretty good. The character models aren't bad, and there's some pretty cool stuff to look at. I do have a problem with a few parts of the scenery that just look pixelated as hell. If you play through the game, you'll probably see what I mean. It's not a huge detraction, but this is the 360. I shouldn't have to be reminded of Doom's graphics while playing a current-gen console title. Nevertheless,the developers did a decent job with what they presented. The details are pretty cool, such as the life-like animations of your weapons, and the organic quality to your surroundings.

The music is relatively sparse, with just a few tracks, one of which being for the main menu and the loading screens, and while a little memorable, isn't very likable. The voice acting is decent enough, and the bits of a radio broadcast that you hear throughout the game are very well done, and it gives you a look at the perspectives of the clueless people on Earth and the guy abducted by aliens listening from space. It's a nice touch, and it adds to the atmosphere pretty well. The characters themselves are voiced well, and there really isn't any moment where you're cringing at the lines.

It's the gameplay where they really dropped the ball. It's not the controls, mind you; outside of the awkward flying sequences in certain parts of the game, the controls are pretty tight and I never really have to fight with them. The ability to cycle through your weapons with LB and RB makes it a little easier to get to the weapon you want, although having a grenade button as well that auto-switches from your previous weapon and doesn't change back is rather inconvenient. Why should the "grenades" be its own weapon rather than something you can lob while wielding a firearm? Yeah, they look cool when you hold them, but that shouldn't be at the cost of the controls.

So, with the technical aspects of the game being at least decent if not good, then why is it rated low? Well, it's just boring to play. The big problem comes with the fact that you don't really die in this game. When you die, you just enter a spirit world and shoot crap to refill your energy until you come right where you died. Tell me, where's the challenge in that? Death is just an inconvenience in this game, and it becomes a chore when you're basically unstoppable. The enemies in this game can't be judged relatively as easy or hard to kill, but as how long it's going to take for you to kill them (after dying and coming right back, naturally). I mean. what's the point of having enemies if they can't really stop you? Hell, just let me walk through the game not bothered by aliens and take in the scenery. Better yet, you can refill my energy and put me back at a checkpoint. This is a rather unique idea, I admit, but it just doesn't work for this game. The weapons aren't even that great, either. They're cool-looking because they're kind of organic in design, but they don't really give you a whole lot of extra advantage when you're already immortal. All the staples of FPS weaponry are represented, too: sniping, shotgun (in the form of an acid sprayer), and rocket launcher. For all the ingenuity in their design, it's really just derivative. I do have to say that the way they utilized the gravity aspect of the game was pretty cool and made for some decent puzzle-solving, but that alone can't sell the entire game. Neither can the portals, which are rarely used in any creative way.

There really isn't much incentive to play again, unless you didn't play it on Hard (and no, you're still immortal...you just can't recharge your life meter to reduce the number of times that you die) the first time and really want that achievement. I'll admit that I never really tried multiplayer on this, but even last year, I couldn't imagine very many people on it to play.

Overall, the game had ambitions, but it came up short, due in part to its own concept. These days, you can get it used from Gamestop for like $15 used, so it's probably worth that much, but if you end up disagreeing, you can just exchange it for something decent.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/26/07

Game Release: Prey (US, 07/11/06)