A fun, innovative and unique FPS. Among the best sci-fi action game ever.
+ Impressive visuals
+ Weapons are very well done
+ Incredible atmosphere
+ The Sphere is a disgusting place, in a good way
+ Portals!
+ Leech gun is a very interesting weapon
+ Great voice acting
+ Tommy is a great character
+ The story, though not much that has not been seen before, is good
+ Great soundtrack
Cons:
- Cheesy dialogue at times
- A bit to much romance
- Death walk is a nice idea but could be better done
- Could have been atleast one more weapon
- Spirit walk sequences repeats itself from time to time
For the record, this review is based only on the single-player experience.
Since the multi-player is pretty dead.
Story:
Prey is about a native american Cherokee garage mechanic named Tommy (or Domasi Tawodi as real name), who does not care much about his heritage, stuck on a reservation which his girlfriend jen does not want to leave. You start in her bar, and are quickly introduced to Tommy's grandfather and Jen, and gets just enough time to understand their place in the whole thing. Quite quickly though, as faith would have it, the entire bar is abducted along with a few hundreds or thousands of people by a giant spaceship known only as the Sphere, a bio-organic living entity. Sounds pretty dumb, uh? Atleast Tommy finally left the reservation. Anyway, it is very well done and feels constantly exiting, and the ship is truly detailed and makes the environment around you convincing. After a mechanical accident occurs, Tommy finds himself free from his restraints, and must now find a way to rescue Jen and his grandfather, and in the process, save the world. Though it might sound quite generic, it is far better than that. The story has quite a bit of twists and changes directions often. This story had the potential to be really cheesy and stupid, thankfully the developers decided to actually make the script very well written. The ending is also well done and will give you quite a surprise if you've gotten immersed into the story.
Graphics:
Considering that the game has such low system requirement, the graphics are stunning at times.
The sphere truly is amazing just to look at, and both lightning, shadowing and textures are full of detail.
Characters look very good and most weapons has good textures, even the things you barely will notice are at great quality.
Simply put, Prey will not disappoint when it comes to graphics. Everything looks very clear and particle effects are outstanding for its time.
Prey really shows an amazing place with great design most of the time. The animations are smooth, and some of the things you see later on are done flawlessly,
and help add to the atmosphere of the first half of the game.
Gameplay:
After Tommy finds himself free, he will soon have to learn how to use his native spirit powers to overcome otherwise impossible tasks, such as opening up forcefields so he can proceed. However, it is not without issues. First, once you gain your spirit powers, you can really never die, you just enter something called "Death Walk" which is essentially a mini-game. You have to shoot "Stingray" looking "death wraiths" to replenish your health. So it is a valid argument to say that you can not die in this game. While this is true, it does not take anything away from the intense battles you have during the game, in fact, it adds to it. There never was a time when I charged head on into the gunfight because I knew I would not die. Not to mention, this is the only way to get your health back when playing in Cherokee mode, which is essentially hard mode.
The Death Walk subject leads me to something else, Spirit Walking. This is actually a cool feature in this game, not to mention essential. You can leave your body and continue as a spirit. While you are a spirit, the enemies do not see you, unless you attack them. You also pass through security shields and laser trips undetected and unhindered. Most of the games puzzles involve you not being able to progress until you find a switch that you can not access unless you are a spirit. The puzzles later in the game become quite interesting and complex, they will require you to fully understand and make use of the physics that affect your real body and your spirit body.
Another huge game play element is gravity. This game adds a whole new concept of gravity to the FPS genre. First, you can walk on these special paths that allow you to walk up a wall or along a ceiling. Enemies can do this too, so you need to be paying attention to all possible angles, above and below. There are also gravity switches that you shoot that rotate the gravity of the room. For example, if you see a gravity switch on the left wall and you shoot it, the left wall becomes the floor. Navigating these rooms becomes a puzzle in itself.
One of the biggest things about this game is the portal technology. Basically the game is filled with these gateway's that you can see straight through and even shoot straight through. When you walk through one of these, you're all of the sudden in a whole other area. You could be going down a dark hallway when a portal appears in front of you, leading you to a small moon or other interesting parts of the spaceship. This game just throws you these random, jarring scenarios, and this always keeps the game fresh.
There are seven different weapons, each with their own unique uses - they range from an assault rifle with a sniper scope to a gun that can "leech" different types of ammo from panels on the wall. Since the game takes place almost entirely on the alien ship, all of the weapons, save one, are alien in nature and are quite fun to use. Something that Prey does extremely good is the way the weapons work, in most games there is always something that could have made the weapons better but in prey they feel satisfying just the way they are. The seven weapons in prey all have a secondary fire mode, from small green spider creatures crawling around the ship that can be used as both grenades and proximity mines to a chaingun with a grenade launcher. Later in the game you even get a weapon the combines a rocket launcher with a personal portable shield. Of course, since the wrench will become less useful quickly and it is easy to adjust to how the weapons work, it will eventually feel like there could have been atleast one more weapon. On the other hand however, the "Leech Gun" which can drain (or leech) ammo from different panels on the walls, adds to the variety, since there are several useful ammo types. You can fire red plasma bolts, freeze enemies with a sort of airborne nitrogen and use both electrical and laser based ammo with it.
Finally, you get to drive a vehicle in the game. Yes, a small fighter sentry bot that has both guns and a tractor beam. The controls are a little awkward, but not to hard to master. Plus, the enemies you encounter are not too bad, it's more the puzzle solving during these times that will try your patience.
Sound:
The voice acting is some of the best seen in games for a very long time, or actually just for 2 years, since Half-Life 2. The best part is Tommy's commentarys. Most FPS with story such as Half-life or F.E.A.R have mute lead characters, which is not the case with Tommy. He will constantly chat with an omnipresent force as he proceeds through the game. In Prey, you really feel like you are a real guy. Tommy acts and reacts like a real human being. He swears when scared or excited, screams, gets angry, and you can even sense when his adrenaline is running when he yells. Also, in instances of shock, Tommy sometimes speaks in a very humorous fashion. In game music is forgettable though and just short of inspiring, it doesn't ruin anything though. The sound effects, which of course includes the weapons, are all spectacular. It also has a great soundtrack in the main menu.
Replay value:
The game is actually short, but it feels longer. It is first the second time through you realize how short it is. And once you beaten the game you will unlock a harder difficulty, but since you can not die anyway, it does not make much difference. The summary is that there is no reason to replay the game other than that it is fun. Although Prey is a game that very well could be played more than once and still keep some of its atmosphere. I myself have played Prey several times and enjoys it every time. If you intend to play Prey once only then the length might feel disapointing, still even if you are only going to play through only once, it is well worth getting Prey anyway.
If you want a game that gives a good challenge and test your skills, then Prey probably is a bad choice. But if you want an exiting and atmospheric experience filled with interesting FPS combat and gravitational puzzles through a beautifully detailed mysterious world. Then Prey certainly is one of the best choices their is.