To say that Prey has had an interesting development cycle would be on par with saying that gas prices are kind of high right now. Originally conceived as a showcase for new portal technology the game was originally supposed to be on shelves nearly a decade ago. After a few years in development the game was shelved and nearly forgotten. Last year at E3, 3D Realms and Human Head shocked the industry by announcing that they were pulling the game off the shelf and finishing for release in 2006. The FPS genre has changed a lot since the game’s initial conception especially when you consider that Valve has released two Half Life games and some expansion packs in the time it has taken 3D Realms to release this first installment in the Prey franchise.
The plot of the game is your standard one guy saves the planet from invading alien hordes with a few tweaks based on Cherokee mythos. You play Tommy a Cherokee mechanic who longs to get move away and start a new life away from the reservation. He’s held on the reservation by his girlfriend Jen and his grandfather. Both Jen and his grandfather are proud of their Indian heritage and don’t want to leave the reservation. That all changes though when the aliens descend and abduct Tommy, Jen, Grandfather, and Jen’s entire bar. It’s a pretty good sequence and the best use of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” since ABC used it in the opening sequence of “The Stand” mini-series a few years back.
The plot of the game while semi generic does have a few decent twists along the way. Prey does defy some of the standard clichés along the way but there are a few loose plotlines along the way. There is a decent horror subplot developed early on in the game and then abandoned which is a shame as it was something that probably had a little mileage on it. The game is also hurt by the fact that Tommy isn’t an ideal protagonist. To put it bluntly Tommy is something of a whiney bitch. Constantly complaining about the situation and ignoring the sage advice of his grandfather Tommy is really kind of a prick. Tommy also likes to curse a lot and whine during the game and while you may be in agreement with him a few times, Tommy is a bit of a hard character to like (not unlike Harry Potter in Order of the Phoenix).
With that aside Prey does features some of the most innovative level design ever to grace a FPS. Since you are one a space ship the concept of gravity has a little more flexibility than it does when you are on Earth. This freedom allowed the folks at Human Head to have a little fun at your expense. This is done in two unique ways. The first is that there are certain rooms where gravity can be changed by hitting a switch on a wall. This allows for some inventive puzzles where you have to switch gravity in order to traverse a room or use the gravity to move objects from one area to the next. This gives the level designers the ability to come up with some cool level designs that will have you looking in every direction for ways to solve a particular puzzle.
The nex...