[[Prey]]
Prey has had a long and sordid history since it was first announced to the public way back in 1995. Originally the game was to be released along side the world’s most famous vaporware, Duke Nukem Forever, but obviously things didn’t go according to plan. A full history of what happened is beyond the scope of this review but if you’d like to know more, Wikipedia is always a good place to start. So was Prey worth nearly a decade of waiting? Let’s see…
Title: Prey
Genre: First Person Shooter
Platform: Xbox 360
ESRB: R16
Retail Pricing: $89.95 @ gpstore.co.nz
Release Date: 14/07/2006
The story of prey begins with our Native American hero ‘Tommy’ trying to convince his girlfriend ‘Jen’ to leave the Indian reservation they live on for a better life in the big wide world. Unfortunately disaster strikes when aliens attack, abducting Jen, Tommy, as well as Enisi, Tommy’s wise grandfather. Needless to say the plot is not what I would call deep but it does do the job of keeping the game interesting, at least the first time you play it.
Despite the story being a little weak the game itself does introduces a new angle to FPS gameplay with a mind bending gravity shifting that has to be experienced to fully appreciate. Think Marble Blast Ultra gravity shifts and you’ll know what I’m talking about. This twist while very interesting doesn’t really add much to the single player experienced, but put it in a multiplayer deathmatch environment and it starts to make a whole lot more sense. There nothing like watching two of your friends shooting each other’ while running along the ceiling!
The control system is fairly standard to what you’d expect to a first person shooter on the 360, with the addition of a out of body experience via the Y button. Yes by pressing Y your characters sprit leaves its body and travels around independently. This feature allows the player to pass to locations that are unreachable in physical form. While this was certainly an interesting addition to the game I felt that it was unnecessary and was only there in the name of innovation, adding little to the gameplay.
Prey utilizes a modified Doom III engine and it shows; which is to say this game is dark. When it comes to FPS mood lighting is one thing but dimly lit room after dimly lit room is starting to wear thin by the end of the first level before to long. While this game looks nice, it certainly isn’t anything mind blowing, in fact at times it only just makes par. If Doom III graphics are your thing then is game doesn’t disappoint, but if you’re like me you’ve moved on from shooting zombies/aliens in dark rooms Prey is not for you.
Due to the off the wall nature of the environment featured in Prey, sound plays a surprisingly important role in navigate the world. The sound of game characters both, friend and foe, talking or screaming often help to point you in the right direction. As with the graphics the sound is nothing to write home about; functional but not particularly spectacular.
Playing single player Prey started out as quite an interested experience but quickly became repetitive and lack challenge. While it strives to innovate it fails to do so in a way that adds to gameplay or the replayablity of the game. Multiplayer on the other hand comes alive with the aforementioned innovations and will no doubt provided many hours of entertainment. Unfortunately long term Prey doesn’t have the edge that will make it a classic game when compared with upcoming titles such as Gears of War or Halo 3. My advice download the demo from the marketplace before you buy.
Rating: 6/10