![]() It's been about a week and a half since Bethesda and Arkane Studios released the highly anticipated Prey into the hands of gamers. I'm one of those lucky few who still has a video rental store in town so I was able to rent it for a while for a mere few bucks and settled in for the ride on release night. It's basically Bioshock meets Deadspace, but in that classic Bethesda feel gamers have come to love over the years (more on that later). The game is gripping, graphically stunning, and has a deep and powerful narrative about the root of human morality. Plus the protagonist is actually a badass you enjoy playing as (one with personality, back-story, and actually feels realistically human). It's a highly in-depth game, more in-depth than I was anticipating, and it really makes the player question their actions for every little step they proceed to take. It's a fun re-invention of the space shooter genre that pays homage to some of the most memorable and loved FPS icons of all time. Prey sees players take control of Morgan Yu, a brilliant, justice driven scientist with an affinity for cooking woks. Our hero is thrust into a chaotic, apocalyptic nightmare aboard the space station Talos I after an experiment goes horribly awry - all thanks to your brother, Alex. Morgan's memory is 'shot full of holes', awakening to find himself in a world he (or she, depending on your opening choice) does not recognize. Accompanied only by a mysterious voice known as January and the pleading of your mad brother Alex, the player must maneuver their way through the remains of an all out war between humanity and a crazed alien species called the Typhon. It's your classic last human standing VS alien hoard story, but it feels fresh and inventive, and coffee mugs will never look the same. ![]() Prey takes hold of players from the get-go, with Morgan waking up to discover they have been the center of an experiment that involves fusing Typhon DNA with their neural tissue, allowing for superhuman abilities to manifest within the host. All seems to be going well, until the Typhon hive begins to overrun the Talos I, mutilating the populace and leaving destruction in its wake. Now, it's headed for earth. You and your brother are entirely to blame, but you can't remember a single moment, the last three years have completely vanished from your memory. The only tie to reality, and sanity, that you have is an operator you designed named January who acts as your guiding voice throughout the space-station. The mission is simple; complete annihilation of the Talos I - it's crew , the Typhon, your brother - even you, and save humanity. Now, if you're like me, you're walking into the game thinking that's it. Basic hit 'n run, shoot 'em up space-based FPS. Boy, was I wrong. This game is about as in-depth as any Bethesda game that came before it, with a sharp narrative and beautiful lore design from Arkane Studios, the rich world of Prey and its inhabitants will captivate any player from the opening moments. You have your main mission, but numerous other objectives make themselves known to players as you progress. Ones that involve finding survivors, avenging the fallen, repairing the station, and so much more. The space station is massive, creating an extensive semi-open world feel that allows for the re-exploration of past rooms and lore-building adventures. My favorite objectives have been going down the list of crew members and watching the check marks appear as I come across new people (mostly dead) in my adventures. Certain objectives involve the real-time internal clock in your system, allowing for precision stealth to access new areas of the station. You can grab a hover-pack and go exploring the outer-rim of the station, break through aquariums to access hidden areas, and steal access cards from corpses to get into rooms you shouldn't be in. Hacking into personal computers allows for expositional story-building that is fun, inventive, and allows for new formulas and pass-codes to be unlocked just for being curious. You can pick up tons of random things (like banana peels and frayed wires) and turn them into high-powered weapons, neuromods, status boosters, and so much more, allowing for a detailed customized play-through that compliments your ideal adventure and play-style. The back-tracking can become incredibly tedious, but it allows for an expansing experience that keeps drawing you back in mission after mission. Over-all, the game allows for hours of play-time for a variety of gamers - both completionists and speed-runners alike have sung their praises over the unique (yet comfortably familiar) universe. ![]() That being said, game-play mechanics wise it leaves a bit to be desired. My biggest problem is the incredibly rage inducing insta-kill over-dose this game has been programmed with. It's infuriating, to the point I had to step away from the game for a day or two multiple times since I got it. You can walk into a room with full health and a completely maxed out suit, chips installed and neuromods decked to the nines, and a radiation infused Typhon phantom can kill you in one hit. Explosive canister? One hit kill. Electrical grid explosion? One hit kill. Nightmare sees you enter the room? One hit kill. Corrupt engineer operator explodes? One hit kill. Mind-controlled crew-member detonates? One hit kill (it looks cool, though). It causes a lot of Bethesda-slow re-loads, back-tracking, pointless item wasting, and raised blood pressure just to try and get a key-card you won't even use for another two hours. Resources are incredibly scarce and don't regenerate, causing a lot of problems when trying to ensure you're stocked on ammo and health packs when you walk into a new area. Multiple times the game crashed mid-way through a battle when too many explosions happened, causing more backtracking and a loss of progress when auto-save hasn't kept up with you. It can be infuriating, even for the most seasoned FPS players. Perhaps my biggest disappointment, however, is just the lack of scares - a few cheap jump-scares are peppered throughout but, as a survival horror junkie, I was kind of bummed it wasn't scarier. But, despite its flaws, the story is gripping and the main mission allows for some really cool moments, accompanied by a really bad-ass sound track that creeps up on you at pivotal moments. The characters are well designed and written, and some of the moral choices that you have to make will instill TellTale Games like dilemmas in an unexpected way. Prey is definitely a game that demands long-nights and binge-sessions, one of the few in recent years that could stand the test of time as an instant classic. It's a fun ride, with some very cool cinematic moments, a beautiful and haunting world, a story that's fresh and expansive. Fans of Bioshock, Deadspace, Fallout, Half-Life, or just space narratives in general, should definitely get their hands on this title. ![]() Written by Alycia D. (MaybeMockingbird ) All pictures are copyright Bethesda and Arkane Studios. Prey is out now for XBOX One, PS4, and PC gaming systems. It is rated M for Mature
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AuthorJust your average geek chic gamer chick into all things ghostly and geeky (and vice versa) Archives
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