Prey

Human Head's first-person shooter is a fun and exciting shooter experience while it lasts.

How would have ever imagined that we'd actually be playing Prey? Anyone paying attention the first-person shooter space during the early Quake days (circa 1995 - 1996) can remember all the hype and promises coming out of 3Drealms. In the early days Prey was being handled by project lead Tom Hall, who eventually jumped ship to form Ion Storm with former id Software pal John Romero (later Paul Schuytema took the reins, but also ended up exiting 3Drealms to form Magic Lantern). After a bit of development time and some press outings, the game was ultimately canned (The grand ideas that 3Drealms wanted to put into this game just weren't possible in that day and 3Drealms ultimately decided to shelf the game in favor of more reasonable endeavors).

Luckily for first-person shooter fans the project was taken off the shelf (rights were quietly purchased from Infogrames), dusted off and given a new lease on life thanks to the advanced technology of modern day graphics cards and the Xbox 360, the power of id Software's DOOM 3 engine and the developmental skills of Human Head Studios and console developer Venom Games. This new development cycle began in 2001, but official word on the game didn't come until April 26, 2005. The rest, as they say, is for the history books.

Troubled past and triumphant finish aside, Prey is an interesting first-person shooter that tries to meld a myriad of conflicting elements to create a unique -- albeit short -- action experience on both the Xbox 360 and PC

Prey opens with Tommy, a troubled man (and garage mechanic, if that matters) who hates the reservation he lives on and just wants to run away with his girl Jen. She has other ideas, and unlike Tommy, believes strongly in her Cherokee heritage and in the community they live in (and she runs the Roadhouse bar, so she gets her drinks for free). Meanwhile, Tommy's grandfather (Enisi), who ultimately serves as his spiritual compass in the early part of the game, is trying to convince Tommy to embrace his ancestor's traditions and beliefs and to warn him that something very bad is about to happen. Of course, Tommy's playing the jerk card through the entire opening of the game, so it's really hard to have any sympathy for him after what happens next: after dispatching two white guys giving Jen a hard time at the bar, they are suddenly alarmed to find themselves being beamed into an alien spacecraft. From there Tommy and company realize the horrifying fate that awaits them in the bowels of this alien hot spot called "The Sphere." Cue the blood curdling screams and Indian prayers..

I'm not sure who came up with the whole Indians vs. aliens theme of the game, but the story in Prey is paper thin, and Tommy is one of the most unlikable anti-hero characters I've seen in a long time. Luckily all of this is irrelevant, as the action is truly the centerpiece of this game and -- while it lasts -- it's pretty damn fun.

Prey's grandest innovations are spirit walking, the death march, the keen use of gravity in single and multiplayer and the portal system. The portal system is a pretty interesting mechanic and it sure looks like it was designed the way it was originally intended when Prey was first conceived. The idea of this system is pretty straightforward: in certain areas of the game are doorways, boxes etc., that connect to wholly unrelated locations elsewhere in the level. The portals in the game allowed the developers to connect areas quickly without any level transition just like entering any other "normal" location. Now the neat thing is how these transitional areas are presented to the player. For example, imagine walking into a room and looking into a box. You can walk completely around this box and see quite clearly that it is in fact a box. But when you look inside the front of the box you see another area altogether and it is presented to look and feel like you are stepping into a whole new area - or perhaps a whole different plane of existence. It's a novel concept and hopefully it can recycled and used in other games. It's kind of what the children of the Narnia series saw the first time they peered deep into the recesses of the Wardrobe and noticed a snow covered wonderland that just didn't mesh with the reality of a stately Brittish manor.

The spirit walk system isn't quite as impressive, but it's an interesting concept. This Cherokee power that Tommy gains pretty early on in the game allows him to literally leave his body where it stands and walk through solid obstacles like force fields to interact with the environment. For example, if your path is blocked by a force filed and on the other side is a control panel to turn it off, you can simply jump out of your skin, walk through the force field and turn that switch off. Then you simply return to your body and walk through to continue onto the next area. Many of the game's puzzles revolve around figuring out how to move Tommy in spirit walk mode and interact with the environment so that his physical body can move forward. I think spirit walking is a novel feature, but it probably could have been utilized in a myriad of ways that the game never explores fully. Still, it's a nice way to serve up some puzzle breaks in between the shooting action.

The other interesting feature is the death march, which happens when you die. Basically when you die you go to an alternate plane and use your spirit bow to kill red and blue spirits to regain your physical and spiritual energy back. After doing that successfully in this alternate dimension for around 10 – 15 seconds you are whisked back to your point of departure and continue on. The advantage to this is that you will rarely have to worry about saving, because you never actually die. The disadvantage is that you never die, which makes the single-player action a lot less difficult to complete. Depending on your play style this could be a major turn off for you, because it really takes the edge off of what you expect to be those hardcore moments. Add to the fact that you always are returned to where you last died and you can see why the whole death march concept makes the game a lot easier than it should be.

Finally there's the wonderful use of gravity that will have players walking on the ceiling at various points in the game and shooting down at enemies from time to time. These points in the game also make locating a sniping enemy a little different because you don't always know whether it's coming from up above or down below. This can be a bit confusing at times, but it's so different and done so well that you'll appreciate the work that obviously went into facilitating it. You can also manipulate gravity in some areas by shooting or interacting with switches, which mixes things up for everyone.

Graphically Prey squeezes quite a bit of power out of the DOOM 3 technology to create some inspired alien characters and some neat level design elements. The world itself is bizarre, combining an organic look with slimy alien extras and a cold metal motif that is reminiscent of DOOM 3. The world is dark in some spots and just bright enough in others, avoiding the conventions of games that use the same technology like DOOM 3 and Quake 4. This world isn't extraordinary of course, and chances are you'll feel a sense of familiarity as you traverse it, but there's a bit of variety in the way things look.

Much like the gonzo alien environments you'll traverse, Prey's weapons stylings are pretty interesting. All of the weapons are a combination of metal and organic material, that look very funky but work pretty well. Looking at this arsenal of odd guns and living creatures that you'll use as weapons, you'll notice a high level of bizarre movement as you inspect them - things bubbling and oozing, moving and writhing are not typically associated with firearms... Some of these weapons are hard to figure out at first, but as you go through the game it'll all make sense. There's a good mix of weapons to utilize in the game including the usual suspect (shotguns, assault rifles with sniper alt-fire modes, a small nasty creature that serves as a grenade or a sticky bomb, a rocket launcher, etc.). What's nice about these weapons is that they may fill in those "must have weapon slots" expected in FPS shooters these days, but they are presented in a way that is unique to the Prey game world. All of the weapons have some type of alien organic spin to them. For instance, the creepy crawlers that serve as grenades work by pulling off one of its legs (like pulling a pin) and tossing it; or as a sticky bomb by simply hitting the alternate fire button and tossing it on a wall or ceiling. Many of the weapons are like that, though they still feel traditional and familiar despite the weird alien veneer. And when all of the ammo runs out for those freaky alien weapons, Tommy can use the default pipe wrench to melee the crap out of the bad guys or his hand-dandy bow while in spooky spirit mode.

If there's on thing I can complain about it's the actual characters and storyline in this game. Tommy comes off as the kind of anti-hero character that no one wants to like. He's angry, uppity, condescending and disrespectful of his own heritage (which he doesn't even believe in), and yet he can utilize all the gifts of his people despite his apparent disbelief in all things Native American. His girlfriend and his grandfather are also pretty one dimensional, one playing the predictable wise elder and the other playing the damsel in distress gig in typical fashion. Luckily the story isn't really important and Tommy's heritage ultimately doesn't play a role beyond the gifts he attains for it. It would have been better if they used a different kind of story and had a lead character that could be a defiant without coming off as a jerk. You know Tommy's a jerk when his Grandfather saves him from the clutches of death and brings him to the safety of the hereafter and the guy's still calling his grandfather's beliefs bullsh*t. Hello?!? Tommy was just fighting aliens with creepy crawly weapons but he can't bring himself embrace amazing spiritual powers? What will it take to make this punk recognize?