 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Human Head / 3D Realms |
| Publisher: | 2K Games | |
| Genre: | FPS | |
| ESRB: | Mature | |
| # Of Players: | 1 (2-8 online / system link) | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | System Link, In-game Dolby Digital, Xbox Live (multiplayer, content download, leaderboards) |
Games that are stuck in development purgatory for years after their initial release date are generally either canned as time and technology passes them by, or eventually released with results that don’t quite live up to the developers’ initial vision for the product. Surprisingly Prey falls into neither category and emerges as an excellent FPS, although its core innovations are no longer as revolutionary as they once seemed when development began way back in 1995.
Prey stars Tommy, a Native American of Cherokee descent, who dreams of one day stepping beyond the simple life he’s lived as an auto mechanic on the reservation. This puts him at odds with Jen, his girlfriend who enjoys the simple life as owner of the local tavern, and his grandfather, who wishes to see Tommy embrace his Cherokee heritage. Tommy soon gets his wish in a most unexpected way, as one night while hanging out at Jen’s bar they’re all suddenly beamed up into a living, breathing alien mothership. Tommy is separated from both Jen and his grandfather, and thus begins a gruesome trek through the bowels of the mothership to reunite and save them from the horrors all around.
One of the most impressive aspects of Prey is the stomach-churning presentation of the mothership itself. As Tommy you’re fighting off bizarre aliens and mutated humans inside of a living, breathing mothership, complete with intestine-lined walls, anal-like orifices, and spewing waste including chunks of human remains. Human beings are treated on the same level as livestock, so you can also expect plenty of flying body parts, spewing blood, and gruesome deaths. I can’t say too much more about it without giving away some of the game’s plot, but suffice it to say that this is most likely to be the most disgusting game you’ve ever played.
However, by far the game’s biggest selling point is how it deals with gravity. Although the mothership does have simulated gravity whilst floating in space, it’s rarely treated normally. Walkways line the walls, allowing Tommy to stick to them and literally walk up the side of a wall, thus flipping the room and turning the “ceiling” into the “floor” below you and vice versa. Since the alien residents have the ability to teleport to anywhere on the ship, this creates many unique situations where aliens will suddenly teleport to the ceiling above you…which just so happened to be the floor only a few seconds ago! And if you’re walking on a ceiling-turned-floor, and kill an alien also walking on it, the alien will “fall” upward into a chasm or solid surface above you. Trippy.
That’s not the only way that Prey plays with your mind however. Scattered throughout the ship are static portals (usually housed inside boxes) and doorways that allow passage to new areas. These lead to some pretty creative puzzles as well. For example, on occasion you’ll see a doorway freestanding in the middle of a room. If viewed from one side, you can see through it to another area. If standing on the other side however, you simply see the other side of the room through it. Flip a nearby switch and a conveyor belt may move the door to another area, which in turn changes the area available by going through the doorway. While these puzzles aren’t nearly as difficult as you’d find in the average adventure game, they’re still fun and add variety to the gameplay (not to mention simply looking cool). Besides, we wouldn’t want to work the ol’ brain too much while blasting aliens, now would we?
As if all of that wasn’t enough, then there’s the Spirit Walk to deal with. Tommy will come across obstacles in the environment that his physical form cannot pass, and thus he must Spirit Walk to reach the necessary switch or other means needed to gain access. This can be anything from a simple force field that needs to be turned off, to a chasm that has a hidden walkway only accessible in the spirit realm. There are also hidden areas with additional ammo and health to discover, and Tommy even has a spirit-powered bow he can use to kill enemies while spirit walking. Although enemies will not notice him in spirit form until he attacks them (of course they’ll still shoot up his now-motionless physical body if it’s discovered), it’s still advantageous to kill enemies while in spirit form in certain situations.
Posted: 2006-08-30 17:13:18 PST