Take your typical action hero. Maybe he’s an elite commando or space marine? He’s headstrong and courageous. Most likely a red-blooded American? He’s eager to take on any villain that stands in his way, most often to ensure the survival of humanity.
Domasi Tawodi, or Tommy as he’s more commonly referred to as, is none of the above. A reluctant hero through and through, Tommy is launched headfirst into a predicament he has little control over. Yet his focus is singular: save the woman he loves. The protagonist’s apprehension quickly becomes the player’s.
Such is the basis for Prey, an ambitious first-person shooter from developer Human Head Studios. The game, which has had a shaky production history for the past ten years, graces the XBOX 360 and PC with hopes to transport gamers from their real sweltering day labors to a terrifying alien environment, where the only goal is survival.
Rather than beginning with an opening cinematic typical to most games in this genre, the player gains immediate control of Tommy, who begins the Prey storyline in the bathroom of a bar owned and operated by his girlfriend, Jen. Both are Cherokee living on a reservation in Oklahoma. Tommy’s grandfather, a wise Indian named Enisi, reveals that he senses a great disturbance in the natural order of things and foreshadows the game’s impending doom.
Yet Tommy isn’t one to embrace his heritage, we find out. While he deeply loves his grandfather, he dismisses his ravings as fanatical and archaic. Indeed, Domasi has shunned his people and heritage, and urges Jen to leave the reservation with him. She refuses, but the point is moot, because the world is quickly turned upside-down for the trio. In a dramatic and chilling early scripted sequence, an alien spacecraft rips through the building’s roof and levitates its inhabitants into its monstrous belly.
The opening of Prey is not only undoubtedly one of the most memorable twenty minutes in modern gaming, but also serves to situate the player in his new setting and introduce the basic story, elements, and mechanics of the game. Tommy’s new home is an enormous flying “Sphere†that travels through galaxies, harvesting planets to sustain itself. With a few straggling survivors, unique array of weapons and powers, and an undying resolve to save Jen, Tommy is forced to accept the role of savior.
The sentient stronghold is truly a wonder to behold, mixing both an interior that would be typical to any traditional alien craft, cold and metallic, with layers of living, slimy, and wet organic material. You can see where Prey resembles Doom 3, whose engine lends itself nicely to Human Head’s own design. But much of the monotony found in Dooms’ levels are gone, replaced instead by visually compelling and fairly diverse environments.
The game mostly eschews cheap frights for a slow, creeping feeling that works its way under your skin. This can be attributed to a slightly more relaxed pace than your typical horror shooter. Think: System Shock 2, not Doom 3.
The weapons in Prey are worth mentioning just because they’re unlike what we’ve typically seen in first-person shooters. You’ll find no Russian-designed assault rifles here. Save for Tommy’s trusty wrench, which is acquired at the very beginning in the bar, all the weapons the player has access to in the game belong to the enemy. And while some weapons are ripped from the enemy’s grips, some weapons are ripped directly from the enemy himself. The rifle is standard issue to the game’s most common enemy, the Hunter, and incorporates a secondary scoped mode. Another small blaster launches yellow acid that sticks to and burns surfaces, including flesh. Hand-grenades wouldn’t do, so instead there are three-legged crab-like creatures that scamper about, can be picked up by the player, and then thrown toward a target. The little creatures will squeal and tremble for a few seconds and finally explode, inflicting damage on any living creature nearby.
But nifty weapons aren’t the only thing Prey has got going for it.
It’s likely the developers asked themselves “Why should human physics govern an alien world?†Fortunately for the player, the designers chose to incorporate the humanly impossible into the game, making for an exciting gameplay experience.
The aliens utilize a system of portals that can quickly transport them from one part of the sphere to another. This makes for a great deal of unpredictability. A seemingly empty room might suddenly sport a gaping halo, out of which emerges a new enemy to face off against. Tommy will quite often need to utilize the portals himself to access a new area or solve a puzzle.
Gravity goes out the window early on, as well. Wall walks are glowing strips of platform that allow the player to climb walls effortlessly and walk across the ceiling. This adds an innovative twist to both the singleplayer and multiplayer deathmatch portions of the game, by making the gamer take into consideration all three dimensions like never before.
Without giving away too much, Tommy has a near-death experience fairly early in the game that provides him with Indian powers. Rather than utilize a save and load system for when the player dies, the game instead places the player in a sort of astral plane, where Tommy, equipped with his spirit bow, must shoot down flying wraiths to regain health and spirit energy, and return to the world of the living.
What’s most fascinating about how all these nifty gimmicks are utilized by the game isn’t necessarily how the player interacts with them, but instead how seamlessly they incorporate themselves into the alien environment. The player firsts sees how the aliens take advantage of their superior technology, like portals and spacecrafts, then feels rewarded by turning these very tools against his foes. As for “The Spirit World,†the colors become desaturated and the environment blurred, providing a sort of mystical feel to the setting.
Ultimately, I enjoyed this title for a number of significant reasons. First, I hate seeing any game get canned, especially one with as many big ideas as Prey. Just seeing it as a finished product is satisfying in itself.
Next, it’s a game that harkens back to the glory days of first-person shooters, while still adding something innovative to the genre. Doom 3 was panned by some for not bringing anything new to the table, but instead opting to take a more classical shooter approach that was reminiscent of, well, Doom. It’s a classic case of not being able to please all the people all the time.
With Prey, yes, you’ll have plenty of long corridors and open rooms in which to blast enemies with a variety of overpowered weaponry. Ergo, the classic. But it also incorporates all those nifty new gameplay features I’ve already touched in. And there’s the new. In this way, it covers all bases, which is admirable.
Finally, Prey is simply a damn entertaining ride. From start to finish, the developers had me hooked. Anyone who says zooming around in small spacecrafts and laying waste to alien leviathans isn’t a good time is lying. Sometimes, I think, we lose sight of the fact that the underlying reason we play games is for the sheer fun.
Related Stories
Comments
Leave a Reply
-
Top News
Latest Articles
Listen to Primocasts
Newest Previews
Recent Reviews
Fresh Media
-
Sponsor
Links