Xbox 360 Review - Prey
Written By: Joseph A. Gillespie
Introduction
Prey is the latest FPS (First Person Shooter) for the Xbox 360 - and it makes a valiant attempt to break the FPS mold and bring in something new. But in a genre that's been around since before the dawn of console gaming, what could you possibly do that's new? Why, rewrite the laws of physics of course. That's where Prey excels, it takes all of the favorite FPS elements, and then throughs in a whole new concept. But it does it play well, or are you left in a weird spinning mess? Read on...
Story - 7/10
I'm sorry to say the story is probably the most lacking part of Prey. It's not bad, just poorly played out. A lot of great concepts have been touched on slightly, but few of them are really followed through on, which makes the game feel like a lot of good ideas all mashed together, and not one fluid concept. Basically, you play as "Tommy" (also known as "Domasi") - a Cherokee Indian who is in the wrong place at the wrong time during a sudden alien invasion. You, your girlfriend, and your grandfather are all abducted by said aliens. You manage to escape and roam free on the alien ship, and your main goal is to rescue your girlfriend. Along the way you'll encounter a human resistance called "The Hidden" who will provide some assistance to you. Seems like a simple plot, so how could it go wrong? Well, I think the biggest issue is the way the story is played. Tommy is quite the bullheaded idiot, and no one wants to "be" an idiot.
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Of all of the options givien to Tommy, he usually picked the exact opposite of what I would have. Which was of course annoying. Additionally, the story has many pieces that never seem to go anywhere. One example would be towards the beginning of the game, the alien ship becomes infested with "ghosts" - but a few levels later, and for the remainder of the game, the ghosts are never spoken of or encountered. And ther is no logical story related reason for them to vanish. Now, the story does have a pretty good ending, but I don't want to ruin it so I won't speak anymore of it.
Gameplay - 10/10
Ok, so here's another FPS for the Xbox 360. Whoo, big deal, whatever. Right? WRONG! This is Prey man, it's not some rehashed concept with a slightly new story, it's a whole new type of FPS. Now, let's not kid ourselves, it is a FPS, and it stays true to those roots.
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But what makes Prey unique is it fresh new concept of the very basic laws of... nature. First and foremost, let's not forget that you are an alien world/spaceship/thing. Everything around you (the walls, the doors, the computers) is alive, and most of it doesn't like you. Then, we've got the teleportation system. Walking down a dark hallway, and all of sudden "whoosh" a portal opens up right in front of you and enemies start pouring out of it. You of course get to use this system to your advantage as well, opening your own portals into the enemies face. Finally, we've got the biggest new aspect of Prey, the complete disregard of the word "Gravity". Every wall or ceiling can become the floor. There is no up, or down. Many, many puzzles await you. And not simple move boxes, or find the right jump type of puzzles. I mean like you come to a dead end and have nowhere to go, what do you now puzzles. The answer, find a gravity switch and flip your whole world on it's head. Voila, a whole new level was waiting for you right there on the ceiling.
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As well as these concepts, Prey also has all of the standard FPS elements done perfectly. Enemy AI is well done, lots of guns, plenty of action, and even a vehicle to play with. There are two key things we need to discuss though. First is "Spirit Walk". This is basically an ability Tommy has that allows him to have an out of body experience, and walk around in a ghost like state. Advantages to this are, his spirit is not blocked by force fields, etc. and there are certain special walkways only accessible by his spirit. If you've ever played "Legacy of Kain" - just imagine switching between Material & Spirit Realms, same general concept. Ok, and the next is "Death Walk" - now, that sounds a lot cooler than it really is. Death Walk is what happens when Tommy dies. When you die, you enter a spirit realm floating island place, with wraiths flying around you. Shoot a blue wraith, and you get more spirit energy, shoot a red wraith and you get more health. You only need to shoot one wraith to be revived, but the more you shoot the more energies you collect. Death Walk allows Tommy to never really die. No matter what is happening, when you die, you will always start at the exact place you where when you died. This may sound great at first, but it takes away a lot of the challenge in the game. You don't care about dying, because you'll just start right here anyway.
Ok, let's wrap up this section, the gameplay is perfect. Excellent use of standard FPS elements, as well as some great new additions.
Graphics - 9/10
Simply put, the graphics in Prey are amazing. Based on the Doom3 Engine, Prey stands up to the greatness of Chronicles of Ridich and Doom3. The textures are astounding, and throughout my entire run through the game, I never noticed any clipping, texture stretching, or any visual bugs at all. That's not to say that the visuals are perfect however, as some of the outdoor (or rather, outer space) levels had looked a little strange in the distance. But these parts where far and few between, so it's not worth dwelling on. Some of the best graphics are found in the guns you use during the game. Everything on the ship is part organic, part mechanical. Your guns are no exception. The gun I used most throughout the game (a sort of machine gun sniper rifle combo) was particularly interesting. It seemed mostly organic, and had various slithering, oozing, gooey parts to it. My favorite part of this gun is the sniper scope. When activated, a slithering snake like think extends from the gun and latches onto your eye. Very weird. What? Oh, this part is about the graphics, not the guns? Oh ok, um... sorry. Anyway, the character models are superb in Prey as well. I only wish that you could get closer to the aliens to be able to see how smoothly they animate. I would say the poorest aspect in the graphics department is the pickups (Ammo, etc). Everything that you can pickup has a sort of glow about it, and a bit of light strobes down it every few seconds. This is very original Doom/Quake and makes the attempts at "hiding" ammo quite pathetic (There is literally one area where some ammo is shoved way back in a dark crevice, but when it strobes you can see it easily, defeating the purpose entirely). Overall, the graphics are excellent.
Sound - 9/10
There isn't a lot of sound in Prey, but what is there is well done. Voice acting is superb, for all characters. Enemies, Tommy, supporting characters, they all sound great. The eviroment has plenty of ambient sounds, lots of squishing and oozing noises from the organic parts, and clanking and grinding noises from the mechincal parts. Guns sound great, and the pain groans from the targets equally so. One of my favorite sound related areas is the laser sight for enemy snipers. Much like in a movie, when a laser sight crosses your screen, a creepy "neeooo" type of sound is made. Very nice touch I think. There is almost no music in Prey, except for in menus and loading screens. However all of the ambient and actions sounds more than make up for that.
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Overall - 8.8/10
In closing, I have to say that Prey is excellent game for the Xbox 360, and possibly the best FPS available for it today. At least until Halo 3 hits the shelves. Until then, grab a copy of Prey, you won't regret it.
Last Modified: August 9th, 2006
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