Prey, a game that took 10 years to make, and five hours to beat.
User Rating: 7.3 | Prey (2006) PC
Gameplay: The gameplay is weak. The portal system in the game is only used as a means to get to a new area. Had they given you the ability to create your own portals, and se them against enemies... it would have been great. Imagine having a firefight with some enemies, then marking a destination point for a portal (behind the enemies), then opening up the portal and shooting the baddies through it. That would have been badass because the enemies could then see the portal and use it against you! But alas, they are not used this way. Most of the time you'll see a portal, and it will just be a way to get you from one location, to another. And overblown door. And the gravpads are not used to their potential either. 90% of the time they're just used to get to another section of an area, you could have just put a bridge there or something. Having these cool things is only good if you use them correctly. I mentioned the way they should have used the portals, but to do that... the AI would need to be challenging, but it;s not. This is just another game using the Doom 3 engine, with very Doom 3 like enemies, with really bad AI. Quake 4 was the previous to have this claim, and Prey carries on the torch. The only time the enemies pose any kind of a challenge is when they are sniping. THEN they are deadly. But here is the problem, when you do in fact die, you go into a very short death walk challenge. All you do is shoot red and blue flying demons things. You shoot them to refill your health and spirit walk gauge. Then get dumped right where you died. I have to admit, it's a cool effect.. but it takes away from the game. When you're in a firefight, you know in the back of your mind that when you die... you're coming right back with more health. Theres not consequence for dying anymore. THATs where the thrill in having a firefight is, that you might die. You fight harder so you don't die. But when you know you're just going to come back after you do die, you just go in guns ablazing. I felt like I was playing with a cheat code on. No satisfaction. Finally there's the spirit walk thing. You'll use this for about 3 different things: Getting passed force fields to shut them off. Getting passed force fields so you can read a passcode, or getting passed force fields so you can turn something on. Thats it. And you never get any new weapons for spirit walk! Just that mediocre bow and arrow. There;s other things like standard weapons dressed up to look different. (A Shotgun that works like a shotgun, but shoots acid instead... but still works just like a regular shotgun.) But they're small and can be ignored.
Graphics: The best feature of the game. But I have to say... while they are good, they don't impress me. I never sat back to marvel at the graphics. I do like how we get to see the Doom 3 engine for more than small corridors, but you still will see a lot of that. I do like the art design too... but something about the graphics gives me a "been there, seen that" feeling. The environments look good, the enemies look good, the weapons look good. Just a good looking game overall.
Sound: Rather disappointing. The voiceactiong is very overdone and cheesy. Tommy's voice is like nails on a chalkboard. And the sounds for the guns is un impressing. But the good point is the ambient sound. It sounds like an alien ship would sound. Also, the Art Bell broadcasts are great, they should have made more, but sadly all of a sudden they disappear from the game.
Value: Thanks to the very easy difficulty, this game can be beat in about 4.5 hours. My playtime was 5, but I've seen people do much less. This isn't a game you're going to playing for days and days. A single sitting for me. Playing for a few hours, talking a break for a few minutes... then going back. Honestly, they spent 10 years developing this game, and we get 5 hours of gameplay? This gives me little hope for Duke Nukem :(
There's multiplayer (multiprey) But I never played it. I don't really have any interest in it, plus I can assume it's just a simple Doom 3, or Quake 4 like multiplayer. You might get a few hours out of it, but don't expect to be playing for months to come.
For a game that's been around this long, you have to feel let down at the outcome. It's really standard FPS stuff here. For $50 I can't condone getting this. Go get $20 and buy HL2:Episode 1. You'll get 6 hours of game out of that, and it's much more fun. 
