I am not, nor have I ever been, a first person shooter fan. The last FPS I played extensively was the original Doom on the PC (which, coincidentally, was also the last PC game I played). I dabbled in Goldeneye, but I never played the single player missions. I just had fun with some friends in the multiplayer arena. The FPS genre has just never really been my cup of tea when it comes to gaming. For me, video games are about relaxing and escaping to new worlds. First person shooters definitely have the new world aspect, but I don't consider the heart-pounding adrenaline rush I get from the genre to be very relaxing.

That being said, I've always wanted to be a fan of first person shooters. When the original Xbox launched with Halo as its killer app, I immediately brushed the system off. In fact, I didn't end up buying the console until a little over a year ago. I have yet to dive into the series (even though I own both games), because I didn't want my first FPS experience to be my best one. Since Halo is widely considered to be one of the best shooters, I wanted to ease myself into the genre. So, as a compromise, I started out with Metroid Prime. The mix of first person perspective with adventure-style gameplay was perfect for me, and I loved both Prime and Echoes.

I'd been oddly intrigued by 2K's Prey ever since news began to resurface a few years ago. Something about the Native American heritage juxtaposed with a sci-fi storyline really caught me. The main complaint I've read from critics is the lack of challenge, and I'm fine with that. For my first big FPS, I want an easy, leasurely run.

It took me roughly a half hour to get used to the controls and playing style, but I've really enjoyed the first few levels. The puzzles are interesting, but not frustrating. And I like not having to fight off wave upon wave of enemy soldiers. The environments are intricate and believable, though I don't get the same sense of atmosphere as I did with Metroid. Rather than relying on cutscenes for exposition, Prey uses in-game dialog for story progression. It's a nice touch, and helps captivate the audience. The difficulty seems to be on par for a newcomer like myself, but I see how it could frustrate genre veterans. I haven't ventured into the multiplayer arena yet, because I think I should spend a little more time getting my feet wet in the single player mode before I embarrass myself on Xbox Live.

After having played for a couple of hours at this point, I'm pretty confident that I'll enjoy the game enough to see it through to the end. My only fear is that, after finishing Prey, I'll take a liking to the genre and be forced to add a multitude of titles to an already extensive list of games on my To-Do list.