This game was originally announced in 1995, back when Doom and Duke Nukem were all the rage. Developer 3D Realms (the company also behind Duke Nukem, and the now infamously late Duke Nukem Forever) released a few Prey screenshots, then announced the project was cancelled. Then, last year we were all just a little surprised to hear that it was back on the schedule.
It’s hallmark 3D Realms gaming. Cheesy, gritty and festooned with just about every ‘feature’ that’s ever worked for any FPS released in the last 5 years. You’re an Native American, minding your own business at a grubby bar when Aliens arrive and suck you into their orbiting ship. Your sweetheart gets whisked off to be some alien kid’s science project, while your Grandpa gets juiced by an alien life-force extractor. Moments later, still in the opening act, you die. In Indian heaven, your also-dead Grandpa then tells you that you carry the spiritual superpowers of the ancients, and you’re given the power to exist again in the alien ship so you can save your hot girlfriend.
Prey certainly takes the long way around with its plot. The same unnecessary complication in the plot carries through to the game world, which is overloaded with every device, gadget and cliché you can think of, including straight ripoffs from other games. Prey’s big party trick is its abuse of gravity. You can walk up walls, rooms will suddenly flip so down becomes up, and portals hovering in space will dump you anywhere from the other side of the room to the other side of the world.
It’s a tricky novelty and at times it’s a joy to exist in this Escher-esque world. For the most part though, it becomes samey and tiresome because you’ll often feel like you’re the only one on the ship and you’re trapped in a puzzle nightmare. The game is just one room after another with little variety or sense of progression. Typically the regulation handful of bad guys in each new room will be dispatched straight away, leaving you trapped alone for as long as it takes to figure out how to solve a 3D puzzle, which allows you to exit. There is very little to break up the monotony, and little that’s exciting or just fun.
Perhaps sensing this, the developers packed in a gross overload of game elements, but instead of making Prey a rich deep experience, it becomes an almost comical parody of FPS clichés. There’s a hover car to fly around occasionally, but it’s lacking in the cool department, is slow and handles like a barge. There’s even a scary little ghost girl who suddenly appears, ala F.E.A.R.
Prey is far less than the sum of its parts. It’s a polished and technically sophisticated game, but is, for the most part, just boring and dull.
