Prey is a refreshing first person shooter
that implements a lot of different aspects into a single weird-but-fun
game. “I have seen everything, there are really no weird games” you
might say; well, if you have ever heard about a game which combines a
native Cherokee protagonist in the middle of a massive alien invasion
who has the ability to walk out of his body, move around by walking on
living walls and ceilings, and is capable of shooting at his own head
(which by the way is being followed by a ghostly hawk) through a
dimensional portal, then you are right, I must apologize, you will not
find this game to be weird at all.
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| Look how cool I look |
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Enemies will come out of portals and will be shooting you from impossible locations |
Even with that bizarre combination you will find
Prey to be quite an entertaining game, and (to enhance the weirdness of
my thoughts) it even makes perfect sense! In Prey you take the role of
Tommy, a native Cherokee who wants nothing to do with his heritage,
disregarding the wise words of his grandfather who warns the young
Cherokee of an upcoming catastrophe, Tommy’s only motivation is to
leave the reservation in company of his girlfriend, Jen. But when Tommy
finally makes up his mind about talking Jen out of the reservation, a
massive alien invasion takes place seemingly out of nowhere, and Jen,
Grandpa and Tommy are literary sucked into a gigantic alien ship.
The
whole concept of the alien ship is thematically outstanding, you will
soon find out that there is much more than you can see, and the
so-called “alien ship” concept that you would expect is more likely
defined as the “living planet-sphere-star community with a mind of its
own” kind of place, which gives the story a whole new perspective and
gives Prey enough elements to deliver a refreshing and fun gameplay,
where dimensional portals and gravitational puzzles are the main
ingredient.
If you are wondering what those elements mean in
actual gameplay, let me explain it in simple words, it basically means
that enemies are capable of popping out from nowhere and in every
possible location you can imagine. Forget about those days when you
only had to check behind walls and turn around every once in a while in
order to find your enemies, in Prey you will have to check the
ceilings, the walls, every hole and in every direction to discover the
source of those deadly shots that may put an end to your life (which in
Prey only means that you will be shooting some wraiths in order to
recover your health and pop back to existence, but then again, who
likes dying?)
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| Say cheese! |
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Taste the power of the mighty spirit bow |
Now that we are talking about dying in Prey, it is
time for us to discuss an aspect of the game that many will love but
many others will hate. Tommy is capable of detaching his spirit from
his body, which helps you to walk through fire and force fields, but
more importantly your spirit abilities help you when your health is
depleted. Basically when you die you are taken to a specific spot in
the Land of the Ancients (which, according to the game, is the place
where dead Cherokees linger once they leave their mortal lives) where
you will have to shoot some wraiths with your trusty spirit bow in
order to regain health and spirit power. Once the time for the
“mini-game” is over you will return to the same spot where you died
(unless you fell into a very deep pit, in which case it would be
useless to return there) and you will be capable of continuing with
your alien butt kicking quest exactly where you left it.
While
some people will find the death mini-game sequence to vanish every
sense of difficulty in the game, some others (like me) will think that
it is a great way to get rid of those frustrating moments when you had
to load previous games in order to get pass through a difficult area,
this way you can keep on with the storyline without feeling constantly
interrupted by a minor nuisance such as “dying”.
Sound and
visual effects on Prey are very coherent, everything that takes place
in the game feels just as it should, voice acting is great for every
character but Tommy, who doesn’t seem to be very frightened or confused
during his mind bending quest, and he also believes that cursing all
the time will provide him with some sort of supernatural powers to
defeat the deadly aliens (oh wait… it did), but overall everything
sounds great. The environments are designed in such a way to make the
player feel disturbed, the alien ship itself seems to be alive and you
will find enemies in weird spots along with other bizarre beings which
inhabit the place. The voices of Jen and Tommy’s grandfather sound
great, full of life and well-acted.
If you are looking for a
challenging game then Prey might not be for you, not only do you have
unlimited lives, but the enemies’ AI is definitely not brilliant, the
really brute enemies will just rush heads-on to you on open areas
giving you plenty of time to aim your alien gun to their heads and blow
their brains out, while the geniuses will occasionally look for some
cover and toss some grenades around your location while they can’t see
you, giving you a little less time to aim your alien gun to their heads
and blow their brains out as well. However the real difficulty lies in
the environment rather than on the enemies themselves, it is quite a
difficult feat to accomplish trying to shoot aliens standing on a
ceiling while looking for cover and, since the alien ship is a living
thing, you will soon find yourself running into a slimy tentacle or a
nasty mouth-looking thing in the floor (or wall or ceiling.. hard to
tell). You can beat the game in 8 to 12 hours, depending on the time
you spend exploring, and since Xbox Live features only deathmatch
options, I do not believe this game will make your Xbox Live Top 10
anytime soon.
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| Get down here so I can shoot you! |
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Tommy and Talon make a great team |
It is also important to say that there is
only one human weapon in the whole game, a wrench, which I only used
for the first minutes of the game, every other weapon in Prey is alien
in nature, so you will find some interesting effects and refreshing
weapons for tearing those aliens to pieces. In this game you will have
with a wide arsenal at your disposal and, unfortunately for the aliens,
most of the weapons can really make the toughest alien think twice
about messing with an angry, thirsty of revenge Cherokee. Blow the
heads off your enemies, snipe them, freeze them, shoot lightning at
them, or bash their skulls with your handy ol’ wrench, the choice is up
to you, and the best part is that your favorite weapons are available
at a press of a D-Pad button, so there is no need to worry about
wasting time looking for the best choice.
Top Game Moment: The gravity and portal dynamics, they make the game much more enjoyable, they keep you guessing, you never know what to expect.
