Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
call back you ’ve see everything there is to offer in first person shooters ? Guess again . Preyis here , and we yield it a Best of Show award at Macworld Expo this past January for a reason .
Prey puts you in the role of Tommy , a bitter and angry young military personnel of Cherokee pedigree whose life history is going nowhere . A garage mechanic who ’s spent his living on his home reserve ( with the exception of some time spent in the war machine ) , Tommy want nothing more than to leave the reservation . But he ca n’t , as his lady friend Jen — his one true dearest — is happy there , be given streak , even if her clientele are n’t the most savoury graphic symbol in the man . Enisi , Tommy ’s grandpa , tries to keep him base in his people ’s tradition , a ostensibly fruitless task .
One dark and stormy night ( I have intercourse , clichéd , but bear with me ) an exotic space vehicle take up them into its belly and takes off into distance , and that ’s where the real sport starts . Tommy grapple to get free on a conveyor belt and black market off to aid Jen and Enisi , and shortly obtain himself in the bowels ( quite literally ) of a starship that ’s as much constitutive as it is mechanical . This is n’t the knockout , insect - same chitin we ’ve see in the foreign movies — this ship pulsates , throbs and glistens with an organic quality that ’s quite unsettling .
Tommy presently find that he ’s an unwished-for visitant — he’ll be assaulted by hair-raising creature of all anatomy and sizing , from the Fodder ( feral bipeds that roam the ship like idle dog ) to the nastier Hounds , the Hunters , the foot of this invading force , maimed human being , and more .
Tommy does n’t buy into any of Enisi ’s Cherokee mysticism , write it off as superstitious nonsense . But an event early on on in the game forces Tommy to get faith in a hurry . You ’ll gain the ability to Spirit Walk , to leave your forcible consistence as a ghost , basically , shooting enemies with your Spirit Bow and manipulate substantial - existence objects . This comes in incredibly ready to hand , because many of the problem you ’ll face regard stimulate behind forcefields or accessing areas you ca n’t do in your forcible signifier . It need you to keep trail of spirit vim , which you use like health , and can amass from the souls of your fallen enemies . And if your corporeal strain dies , you ’ll find yourself in the spirit realm , where you ’ll have a few moment to overtake your hint , firing your feeling bow down and arrows at the wraiths of discredited spirits that revolve around you before you ’re bring back to animation . I ca n’t judge the relative accuracy of the Cherokee mythology face in Prey , but it add together some playfulness and unique elements to the game I have n’t seen repeated in other first - person hired gun ad nauseam .
Out of dead body experienceSometimes you could get a new perspective on things in Prey by proceed for a spirit walk — in this casing , across a bridge of energy you ca n’t get at in your veridical body .
That ’s correct — there ’s no “ secret plan over ” here — you’ll just keep move back and onward between the spirit realm and the physical one , and that ’s perhaps Prey ’s large failing . With no way to die , the single - thespian fashion has absolutely no action replay note value that I can find , although once you get through the game you ’ll unlock a tough difficulty level .
Another unequaled component in Prey — at least from the Mac gamer ’s perspective — is the freehanded usance of portals and the switch of gravity . We ’re on a spaceship , after all , and rather than limit us just to walk on the floors of each deck , we can wall - walk on various surfaces . In some case we might have to activate a catwalk for do it , but the final result is that you’re able to detect yourself on floors , wall , and ceiling . It ’s a dizzying and all disorienting effect , and it ’s not for those that suffer vertigo well . Portals , meanwhile , transport you instantly to somewhere else — often into another part of the same elbow room you ’re in . Again , it ’s disorienting — especially when you see yourself in the portal , looking in another guidance . There are gravity switches , as well , that will switch the gravity of an entire elbow room to the wall or ceiling . Barf base not include .
Tommy starts out equipped with a heavy pull and a lighter for see in dark spots . There ’s the standard menagerie of alien artillery that you ’d require — a rifle , grenades ( that , well , crawl around on their own ) , a “ Leech ” throttle that drain different kinds of get-up-and-go from lymph node throughout the ship , each imbuing the gunman with unlike kinds of onslaught , such as heating plant or crank . Tommy can also replenish his wellness using wellness “ spore ” that run rampant throughout the ship , as well as health “ lavatory . ” The regretful guys can too , though , so take in out .
Something to chew onIn Prey , even the doors have teeth .
There ’s a backstory in Prey involving the ship and the intelligence that command it — known as Mother . It turns out that the craft itself is a sphere which converts protein into vim , hence its constitutive qualities , and its unsatiable appetency for people . There ’s also a not - fully - explored subplot involve the displaced feeling of some of the people the celestial sphere has assimilated as well ; while that ’s never sufficiently expounded on , it does lend a creepy-crawly Twilight Zonish aspect to the story .
There ’s also a multiplayer fashion . It ’s pretty standard action — deathmatch and squad deathmatch . Level designs in multiplayer obviously accentuate Prey ’s strengths — to wit , lots of wall - walking , portals and gravity switches along the way . Frankly , I incur the multiplayer mode to be a flake of a tidal bore .
Built on the same locomotive that powers Doom 3 , Prey wait gorgeous . Prey feature a lot of the same stylus of degree excogitation — dramatically - lit corridors and walkways , seldom any wide - open space .
The game will default on at options it think are right based on the horsepower of your machine , and you could tweak things accordingly . The game also has a great soundtrack , very atmospheric and well - suited to the surround , and licenses some Graeco-Roman rock songs as well . ( Heart ’s “ Barracuda ” and Judas Priest ’s “ You ’ve Got Another Thing Comin ’ ” make a couple of appearance . )
The story behind Prey ’s growth is almost as interesting as Prey ’s story itself . This game was first shown to the public in the tardy ’ 90 , and quickly win a reputation for being another “ Duke Nukem Forever”—a game that was heavy promoted by its developer but never released . The biz went through several growing wheel and in the end come after in being released after Human Head Studios became involved . longsighted - clip gamers may retrieve them as the developer of Rune , another interesting shooter ( this time using a Viking theme ) that come out back in the definitive Mac OS days .
The bottom line
Although it suffers a few shortcomings , Prey is an awesome first - individual shooter that ’s certain to please jaded fans of the genre .
