Prey has been a long time coming. The title goes back as far as 1997, plagued with troubles from the start due to company changes and technical problems. Eventually, the game was put on hold, thought to be locked in a vault deep underground alongside the Ark of the Covenant and Hitler's brain. Fast forward to 2006, almost ten years later, and Prey has finally been released thanks to the renewed efforts of Human Head Studios and 3D Realms. Games in development hell for long periods usually end up being a pretty huge disappointment. Prey is the exception to this rule.

Prey begins with Tommy, a Cherokee mechanic and former army soldier staring into a bathroom mirror in his girlfriend's bar. He hates the fact that he is stuck on his Native American reservation, and from the opening lines you feel this character has some great angst concerning his current situation in life. His grandfather and girlfriend's outspoken desire for him to stay and embrace his heritage only further fuels his need to escape. However, this wanderlust did not include trips aboard an alien spaceship, but when aliens teleport into the bar and abduct those inside, Tommy quickly finds himself on a mission not only to save himself and his girlfriend, but Earth itself.

Prey is made up of more or less every established first-person shooter cliché imaginable, namely lots of enemies, simple A.I., and a linear experience. Fortunately, Prey adds a few new ideas into the mix and, along with its high production values and better then average story and voice acting, is kept from growing stale and tired like so many similar games before it.

One of the most interesting gameplay features of Prey, Tommy will run into portals that warp him to new areas of the game, sometimes even in the same room. All the teleporting can get confusing, but it's impressive to go from one completely different area to the next. Tommy can also leave his body in spirit form in order to pass through boundaries such as force fields that he normally could not, which proves useful for many puzzles throughout the game. Finally, the feature that has been talked about much since the game's inception is its gravity-defying wall-walking, an odd but extremely satisfying experience, albeit one restricted to only certain areas of the game. There are times when you actually forget that you are walking on the ceiling - that is until you kill an alien and watch him fall upwards and crash into the floor.

One aspect of the game that adds to its relative ease is that death holds little consequence for Tommy. When he dies, Tommy awakens in the spirit realm - magical bow in hand - where he can shoot down spirits so that upon reawakening back on the alien ship he will have gained back a bit of health and energy. On the one hand, this mechanic helps to add to the game's story and overall immersive quality. On the other, for a title that is as short as Prey is, this only makes the overall game feel that much shorter.

Along the journey, Tommy faces many alien foes. Thankfully, the game offers up a considerable selection of weapons with which to combat the evil invaders. Save for the wrench (read: token melee weapon) and spirit bow (usable only while in spirit form), each of the weapons are organic, and arguably borderline grotesque in nature. Of particular interest is the acid sprayer, which is similar to a shotgun but instead spews out an acidic substance that can destroy enemies in a single blast at close range. The weapon selection does a good job being at offering variety to the list of weapons usually found in FPS titles.

With everything that Prey combines, it does exceedingly well, yet there are still a few minor blemishes in the otherwise polished title. The version developed for the Xbox 360 has jaggies galore, as compared to the smoothness offered up by its PC counterpart. In addition, both versions sport A.I. that is dumb on its best days, as enemies will exhibit predictable, oftentimes ridiculous behavior. For a title in development hell as long as Prey, it's a shame that it some up so far short of delivering an A.I. even comparable to something such as what Monolith put together a year ago with F.E.A.R.

Multiplayer is where most FPS titles earn their keep. Unfortunately we had several issues, at least with regard to the Xbox 360 version, in getting a stable, lag-free game going for any notable length of time. That said, multiplayer - when it works - is quite fun, and though there are not a lot of options outside of your typical deathmatch offerings, the added gameplay afforded by spirit walking and gravity play goes a long way to add life to what could have just been a rather tired experience.

Aside from these blemishes, Prey has come out strong. The experience is still not worthy of a decade-long hiatus, but the game is solid nonetheless. Prey offers impressive visuals, a decent story, and high-octane action to bring players the equivalent of an outstanding summer action flick.

Score: 85%

Jul 23, 2006 | 0 comments
Just Celani