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.