I have been anticipating Prey ever since it was first shown in it's new
form a couple E3's ago. The demo was released a couple weeks before the
game came out, and it just solidified my hype. Then the sad truth came
out. The game is not as amazing as we all thought.
First off it's probably nice to talk about the good. Well the
technology that has always been associated with the game works perfect.
Portals, weird gravity etc all show up as promised. Without them the
game would be very mediocre. Another feature in Prey is death. There
basically is none. When you lose all of your health you play a short
minigame where you shoot creatures to get your health back. In about 10
seconds your done and back right where you were. An interesting feature
that makes the game a little too easy. The graphics are among the best
on the PC and Xbox360 at this time, and the sound effects are hard
hitting and fit well. The voice acting is good as well.
One aspect of the game that was reported on often was the main
character Tommy. Who just happens to be Native American. That's just
another innovation in the game. It's pretty rare to see a video game
use Native Americans as main characters (despite the fact that its an
alien invasion game). The story is nothing special. Tommy doesn't want
to live on the reservation, but his girlfriend wants to stay. Out of
nowhere aliens abduct Tommy, his girlfriend, and his grandfather. Tommy
must set out to rescue them. Fairly straightforward, but it does have a
few unique twists (that take their cue from some very good games) that
some may not expect.
Despite the unique twists in the gameplay the feels like it's missing
something. It could be because its very short, and very easy. The
portals never really do anything really amazing beyond the first hour
in the game. It really shows that this game could've used another 4 or
5 hours added on with some more unique puzzles. There isn't a ton of
character interaction (Half-Life 2 any one?), so you don't really care
for the character as much as you could. If what happens in this game
involved the Half-Life 2 character it would've been far more effective
(for example).
Another disappointing aspect is the multiplayer. It only allows for one
player on screen and is extremely laggy with anymore than 5 players in
one room. Precision can be very difficult even with only 2 people
playing. There are few maps and only deathmatch modes. I don't want to
dump on it anymore, but it would have been nice if they put time into
developing a unique multiplayer that took advantage of the portal and
gravity tech that they obviously worked a lot on.
Overall Prey is still a fun and unique game that will obviously spawn
many similar games. For me it just goes to show how much Halo benefits
from having a good multiplayer mode. Yes the game could've used some
more time in the oven, but that shouldn't deter anyone from at least
giving it a look.
PROS
+ Interesting and unique gameplay ideas
+ Solid graphics
+ Story has some unique ideas
CONS
- Portals not used to full potential
- Gameplay becomes stale
- Boring multiplayer
