First let me start off by saying that this review will not completely
bash this game in anyway or will I completely undermine the fact that
it had short comings. In all honesty this review at times will sound
like Game spot’s review except I actually liked the game. Now let’s get
to talking about this seven hour trip.
Prey is one of the few games next to Half-Life 2 that I think has a
very well thought out story. Basically you’re Tommy and you don’t
really like the fact that you are Cherokee and you want your
girlfriend, Jen, to leave the reservation with you. This is what you,
Tommy, would like to do. After beating two sexual harassment offenders
in Jen’s bar and one too many you are abducted by aliens. That’s all
you’re getting out of me for the story. Honestly I thought this had a
very intriguing story line with some cool twist and turns and very odd
points in it. At times though you will feel there isn’t a story but if
you pay attention to the voices in your head you can figure out what’s
going on.
Another high point in this game is the overall sound and musical score
features 3 hours of listening. I won’t buy the soundtrack but it
engrossed you into the game a whole lot more than some other games I
have played. While the ambient sound is also good in its own aspects
and the guns all sound like they would completely annihilate something
from existence which they do. Not only do the guns sound cool but they
are also some of the most unique weapons I have seen. Having
three-legged insects legs be used as grenades and then another weapon
that I swear looks like it is shooting some type of alien fetus at you
will make you wonder what exactly was going through the developers
minds. The musical score is what is going to keep you going through
this game. Although ,at times you may or may not want to turn down the
volume it depends if you like having a very creepy female/alien/was
human laughing in your right ear and causing it to bleed.
Game play in a game is always an important factor to have. Well at
first I wasn’t sure if I would like the portals. Now that that I have
beaten the game I can say that not only is this game unique in the use
of portals and gravity it’s also very intense. The one flaw in this
really is while being invincible is cool it doesn’t add much to the
game, after a while it gets kind of repetitive. When I say invincible I
mean you die and go to the spirit world where you battle spirits to
regain spirit health and normal health. It was interesting the first
few times. Now then I’m going to be as bold as to say I had more fun
with this game than Doom 3 or Quake 4 for the very reason it is
intense, quick, fast paced, and fun. Plus the awesome weapons you
really couldn’t do much wrong. Puzzles in the game actually require
some thought at times and sometimes they are fairly easy. Since puzzles
could involve portals, gravity, or blowing something up it really is
unique in that fact also. Basically the developers new what they were
doing when they brought portals like this into gaming. I may also need
to mention you do get use some sort of alien space craft during the
game which it is fun and breaks up the run and gunning of the game.
Now I don’t seem to be focusing on graphics much. While they are
important to me it is the Doom 3 Engine. We should all know it can
render beautiful and disgusting (in a good way) environments. This
engine worked well with PREY to render some of its fantastic worlds.
While some people may say it is more of a Mod. Honestly it isn’t.
People said that about Sin Episodes Emergence but you need to look more
closely at it to see it does have its own art style of sense of its own
in the engine. While there is one enemy that looks very identical to
one from the Doom universe most of the Aliens and creatures seem to be
more inspired from movies such as Alien or the latest installment Alien
vs. Predator.
The only thing I think the developers did wrong was one, it is short it
actually only took me seven hours to beat, and you can’t die which gets
rid of a feeling of anxiousness and worry when your close to death. So
I give them thumbs up for doing something new and making it work very
well. It probably would have been better if it was longer. If you want
something to keep you busy through the summer drag I would definitely
suggest this game. It is also worth replaying through one more time
maybe two more times. This game gets 9.0 out of 10 for me.
