Prey

The PC first-person shooter genre is a tired one indeed. There isn't a week that goes by without some FPS infiltrating the market with as little to offer as the mundane game before it, or the one set to follow. However, as the platform that originally spawned the genre, the PC has also seen benchmarks in the field - games that set the bar for what should be expected from titles in the FPS genre, games like original Doom, original Half-Life, Deus Ex, Quake III and Half-Life 2, to name but a few. This week I've had the privilege of playing a game worthy of a place among the list of PC FPS games worth a damn thanks to Prey from Humanhead Studios, 3D Realms and 2K Games.

The immediate soul of Prey reveals itself as a game with a lot of thought, and not just in the machinations of gameplay. The way the characters and story have been handled and how the narrative plays off these peaks in development is a testament to a developer taking the time to care for the overall experience. Don't get me wrong, there are some cheesy moments throughout Prey, after all, it's about alien abduction, but it offers the cheese as a part of the overall experience, as opposed to just having you deal with bad story telling. In the end, Prey, through forethought and development passion, comes off as an excellent single player experience that melds many different gameplay ideas, visual themes and story elements into an affable product more than worth your time.

The best way to describe Prey would be if you took Doom III, Half-Life 2, Metroid Prime (yes, a GameCube game) and the Turok series, and built a game from elements of all of them. Prey's protagonist is a Native American named Tommy who wants more out of life than just living on a reservation and putting up with the racial stereotypes from the local rednecks. He refuses to embrace his people's heritage despite his grandfather's insistence on its importance to him, and he is also torn between his love for Jen - another Native American who finds her home on the reservation and sees no future outside of that - and his need to find more in the world. All of this is established at the outset of the game, where the three main characters are exchanging their ideas in the bar Jen works in. Before Tommy can bring his point of a better life outside the one they're in home, an alien invasion takes place and they're all transported to an alien ship where they, along with countless others, are being moved around like so much meat along a series of track works.

From this point on, you can look around and size up the alien environments. You'll no doubt notice aliens lording it up over human slaves, as well as weirder animal-type aliens, odd Escher visuals will most likely trip you out (some aliens appear to be on walls, roofs and more, defying gravity), and the game's distinctive style begins to reveal itself. Eventually a human slave breaks you free, and with your trusty monkey wrench, it's time to take back the human race.

Like most FPS games, Prey feeds the difficulty to you at a slow and steady pace. You'll initially batter weird bird-like aliens to death with little effort, until you eventually find your first weapon. Once you're armed you'll exchange fire with alien soldiers while navigating the narrow Doom III-like walkways. The unique aspect of Prey though, isn't its alien appearance it's the alien rules that apply to the game. More often than not you'll only have to kill one or two enemies; the real challenge comes in navigating your way through the game. You'll have to hit switches to alter gravity, or walk up illuminated runways that allow you to scale walls and rooftops without even climbing. There are also odd little portals scattered throughout the game that move you between levels and even transport you to small boxes where you fight aliens, but not before you see them looming over you as giants looking into these boxes. It's difficult to explain, and certainly very weird and cerebral, but hellaciously fun, nonetheless.

This is the crux of what Prey is about; its focus is more on the creepy alien environments and puzzle-solving than on fire-fights with the alien inhabitants. Like Duke Nukem, Tommy talks to himself a lot, and you'll find his reactions almost identical to yours, which goes back to my previous statement about how much care has been taken in establishing these characters in conjunction with the game's narrative and setting. Tommy's reluctance to find his path through his people's ways comes heavily into play the first time you die (if you thought all the other stuff I talked about was weird, wait till you get a load of this). As his grandfather bought it like so many other captured humans, Tommy meets him in the afterlife, however, he reveals to the young man that it is not his time, and also that he can use this plane of existence to his advantage. Thus you learn how to Spirit Walk, which allows you to interact with the physical world while in spirit form. Tommy can use this to breach force fields and enter areas his physical self simply couldn't. Equally, while in spirit form, Tommy can use the spirit bow to take down enemies, however, this is reliant upon his spirit energy, which drains while in spirit walk and even more so while using his bow. To this end the game offers you plenty of recourse to deal with the impediments that block your way, but in a balanced offering that equally adds challenge to the gameplay at hand.

On a visual level, Prey looks very pretty with normal mapping strewn about the place and dynamic lighting for stunning shadows and more. You won't need the highest-end machine to play the game, but it will certainly help. The ambient noise and soundtrack add immeasurably to the alien feel of the game, and you'll actually find yourself cringing at some of the strange noises going on in the background. Humanhead Studios have done a great job making the Prey easy to play also, with minimalist button usages so as to draw you in without overloading the senses with countless (and often redundant) buttons and actions to memorise. In the end, what you get with Prey is an interesting game full of unique puzzle ideas, great characters and weird and wonderful environments to explore. For the shooter die-hards out there, there are plenty of weapons to upgrade to and more than your fair share of alien scum to fire at, but again, this game is a bit more visceral than just shooting, which is why it has become such a staple in the GameArena offices this week. Do yourself a favour, get out there and pick this one up as quickly as possible.