Here's an oxymoron to contemplate; the thinking man's shooter. No disrespect to Gordan Freeman, but honest-to-goodness goatee strokers like Gore Vidal and Stephen Hawking probably wouldn't resort to gun play quite so eagerly. Maybe an essay or a general relativity talk first, then out comes the rocket launcher. But the label is one that is regularly applied to first-person shooters like Half-Life 2 and pretty much any other game with a semblance of story, more than a few lines of dialog or a puzzle or two. And by that shabby definition, the latest alien invasion simulator, Prey could fall into this category.
“You're Tearing Me Apart!”
Prey's lead is Tommy, an ex-military man (of course) stuck on an Indian reservation. And really, Tommy's more emo than contemplative. The guy exudes a serious James Dean vibe when trying to convince his bartender girlfriend Jenn to skip town with him. He's also extremely disrespectful to his elders – the guy mouths off when his grandfather corners him and tells him the importance of his heritage. Not cool. But Murphy's Law quickly kicks into gear when the dysfunctional trio are abducted onto a massive space vessel that appears to be harvesting humans like cattle. A good part of the game's set-up finds Tommy and company strapped into an automated body-mover. The scene is a top notch example of first-person story-telling. You get glimpses of extraterrestrial horrors, you learn of a resistance, you experience a tragic loss; then you're freed and armed.
Dancing on the Ceiling
The meat of Prey is experienced in the flesh and metal corridors of the alien spaceship – a sort of flying abattoir inspired by H.R. Giger and Carlos Castaneda. You've got your metal walkways, your horribly grotesque and extremely ticked off baddies; you've got your poison-spewing sphincters and your vaginally shaped, um, we're not sure what they are. The surreality factor gets cranked to eleven when you factor in the fact that gravity can be switched from one wall to another with the flick of a switch. The effect can be disorienting, but it's also an ingenious wrinkle on level design and one that Prey will long be remembered for.
Game Over for Game Over
Prey contains many more pleasant design surprises. Another of the game's key innovations is a clever mini-game that does away with “game over.” When Tommy takes one bullet too many, he pays a visit to the spirit world where he fends off ghostly manta rays, regaining health for each one he skewers. Just like that he's back in the firefight with a new lease on life. The more hardcore among us may cry foul at this device. It does make the game easier. There's little punishment for running headlong into battle. But it was about time that someone came up with an alternative to immersion-killing quick saves and restarts. Tommy also has the ability to leave his body and move around as a spirit. This feature is probably the most underutilized and least creative of the game's gimmicks. Most spirit form puzzles amount to walking through a locked door, unlocking it and moving on.
Halo 2 This Isn't
Multiplayer is the one area where Prey trips over its moccasins. In concept it's a blast. Perforating friends online while walking on walls, having out-of-body experiences and zapping through portals is a blast. But at the time of this review, both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game were extremely laggy, sometimes unplayably so, when more than a couple players joined a match. This foul-up puts a serious dent in Prey's replay value. With online multiplayer mostly broken, there's only the harder “Cherokee” setting and a few poker, slots and blackjack games-within-the-game to pad out Prey's staying power.
Why We Fight
Prey is worth playing for its single-player story alone. While the story of one man fighting off an alien invasion isn't the most original, the Native American theme is a welcome respite from World War II and space marine status quo. It's the breakneck pace afforded by Tommy's spirit world resurrections and the dizzying effects of promiscuous gravitational pull that makes Prey such a fresh gaming experience. Well placed snippets of pop culture like the song “Don't Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult and an ongoing narrative by conspiracy-addled radio host Art Bell are the icing on the Soylent Green. The game's triumph is that the designers threw quite a few new and risky things at the wall and pretty much all of them seem to stick. You gotta love alien technology.
Article by: Gus Mastrapa
Video produced by: Jonathan Solin
