Customer Reviews

Prey

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a FPS (First-Person Shooter) junkie and I love the Halo, Star Wars Battlefront and Rainbow Six series games. As of this writing, I have completed Prey on "Normal Skill" and am now working my way through the "Cherokee Skill" difficulty setting. (NOTE: These are the only two difficulty settings available in Prey.)

To state it upfront, Prey blows the FPS genre wide open. The game uses the Doom 3 engine for graphics, and players will be amazed with the level of detail the designers have put into each level. Moreover, many of the items in the environment are interactive (you can flush toilets, change the channels on a TV, etc.), which is reminiscent of the Duke Nukem 3D game that this developer is famous for. In addition, the main character makes snide remarks through the game (just infrequently enough to be funny, and not overdone) just like Duke used to do.

Even if you're not entertained by all the cute gimmicks, you're sure to appreciate the incredible details that have been woven into this title. As you progress, you'll encounter anti-gravity levels, low gravity environments and "wormholes" that warp you from one location to the next. And, like the game design, the plot is equally intricate. Although this game seems like a "guy saves girl" story, there are some very exciting plot twists and the storyline is based on actual Cherokee mythology and uses "The Hero's Journey," a writer's tool for story structure and plot. Speaking of the plot, there's a super-natural horror element that adds a considerable amount of suspense to the game. This, along with the over-the-top violence and adult language, means you probably shouldn't buy this game for impressionable children. However, all of this is not gratuitous and really adds to the impact of the title.

On the Normal difficulty, health power-ups are frequent and -when you die- you're sent to an "Indian underworld" where you must shoot wraiths with your spirit bow, in order to replenish your health and magic energy... Certainly a refreshing twist from every game that sends you back to the beginning of the level. On the Cherokee difficulty, there are no in-game health packs, so you'll have to rely on your abilities with the spirit bow. Speaking of spirits, you're also provided with a hawk who's your "Spirit Guide." The hawk will help attack enemies and, interestingly enough, translate the alien language so that you can read their computer panels and other information.

One thing that other reviewers haven't mentioned so far is that there are "puzzles" scattered throughout the game. Without providing any spoilers, the game sometimes makes you think in order to progress any further. For the most part, these puzzles are entertaining and challenging, but aren't designed so that you must buy a "game guide" to solve them. Often, solving the puzzles requires use of the "old ways" of your Indian ancestry, items that exist in the alien environment, or just good old fashion brainpower. Another nice feature is that the game levels are not so big that you'll find yourself lost, but you may have to explore a little to figure out exactly where to go. These features add to Prey's uniqueness in that it is more of a "thinking man's shooter" than your standard FPS.

If you're in it for the Xbox 360 achievements, this game will deliver. Each time you complete a level, you earn Gamerscore (from 25-60 points per level, which increase as you progress). It's also important to note that 250 of Prey's 1000 points are earned by playing online. There's even 3 "secret" achievements (you don't find out what they are until you earn them) that are quite fun to unlock. All of the achievements are obtainable by the average gamer.

When it comes right down to it, Prey is a game that any FPS-fan will absolutely love for the engaging story and the unique features. In addition, novice gamers that find most FPS games too difficult should consider this the perfect entry-level title. Finally, any sci-fi fan who loved the movie "Aliens," and thinks they could take on an alien invasion like Sigourney Weaver did, should pick up this title and put their money where their mouth is.

"PREY - XBOX 360"
I realize I'm going to hammered for saying this. After all I, too, was looking so forward to Prey for a long time. The anti-gravity is a very neat touch and I really loved it. It also has an out-of-the-body experience that helps you to open doors and turn off motion detectors. All that is good, but here's the problem...it is very repetitive(sp?). It just seemed like I was going from one small room to the another...OVER and OVER and OVER again. I played this game for 5 days and never got any different than going from one room to the next. The action was very slow to none. There were only a few different aliens and they got old too. The story is very cool and Art Bell is great in it. I found myself listening to the radio, in the game, and listening to the callers describe the horrible things they've seen. That is a very cool touch, I must admit.
I hate to rag this game because it looks and plays so good. But I've played these games before. It's dark like DOOM, the graphics look like Quake 360 and the Aliens look like Halo. The whole game looks and feels so rehashed I'm suprised more reviewers aren't mentioning that.
You WILL notice these things I've mentioned, but will you be honest enough to admit it? It was hard for me to write this review because I do like the game, I just feel like I've been there and done that, OVER and OVER and OVER again. I may not have played it long enough but after 5 days of walking through a spaceships halls and rooms I just felt like shooting the game itself. My apologies to the fans of Prey. I truly mean no disrespect. Just being honest.

Prey is a horror-survival game with a twist - you're a native american who begins by wanting to get off his reservation with his Cherokee girlfriend. Space aliens help you respect your roots.

The game is incredibly dark, gruesome and mature. The lead character swears constantly, and you see numerous images of children, old people and other random humans being slain in nasty ways. This makes it not a game for kiddies.

Still, for adults, there are a lot of interesting aspects to the game. For starters, the alien spaceship that you end up in is "alive". There are metal parts, but there are also many organic parts to it. The weapons you pick up are usually alive. The "gun" has little moving tentacles on it. Another weapon is a multi-legged creature where you rip off acid-filled bits and fling at enemies.

There's also many physics-challenging areas. There are metallic floors a la Ratchet and Clank so you end up upside down and sideways. There are spheres with gravity so you walk all the way around them. There are teleportation portals to zap you from area to area.

I did like the intriguing mix of graphics - it gave its own "flavor" to this genre. The weapons, especially, really intrigued me. The sound in general is full of screams, squishes and cries for help, to help you feel that you were racing against time to rescue people. There wasn't an unnatural "throbbing soundtrack" most of the time, although it did come in in certain scenes to help add some mood.

In keeping with the Cherokee theme, they do include elements from Cherokee mythology including spirit guides, special abilities and puzzles to solve. You could consider this a gimmick that could have easily been explained in many other ways, but still, I like the fact that they tried. After all, there are probably 80-quadrillion games out there involving Japanese or Chinese myths, but I could probably count those involving Native Americans on one hand.

This game doesn't shatter any new boundaries, but it was fun to play.

i was never that big into FPS. they seem played out at this point. most of them feel the same. the only ones ill get into are either doing all the old things perfectly (Resistance, Call of Duty 2/3) or they're just doing something different (Fear, Bioshock) and Prey deffinitely falls into the latter category.

Aliens will appear out of nowhere from their portals linked together on different parts of the ship. you can use these as well. they're often your only way to progress to the next part of a level.

You can adjust the gravity in different rooms. of you shoot a certain switch on the walls or ceiling you can turn the gravitational pull to that plane, thus making it essentially the floor. there are different magnetic ramps that you often use to get places. they usually end up at leased going straight up a wall, if not turning completely upside down.

this does still carry the somewhat standard FPS formula though. you go through a level from point A to point B while killing baddies. complete each level to make progress through the story. the story is really good though. you're a native american living on a reserve with your grandfather and girlfriend. you're unhappy with your life and want to leave the reserve to persue other things. there's a good bit of native american mythology, which is VERY unique in the games scene. you're all abducted by aliens shortly after the opening scene. the rest of the game involves your attempt at escaping this intergallactic nightmare. there's some shocking twists toward the end though.

the game looks fantastic. there was a lot of attention payed to nearly every little detail. the ship is actually an android, technology mixed with living tissue. your guns are all the same way. everything in the game has a very unique look to it you're not going to see anywhere else. the sound is very good too. good soundtrack with very high quality sound effects. great production values all around.

if you're new to shooters, this is probably one of the best to start with because you cant actually die. once your health runs out you're simply transported to this spirit world where shooting the spirits with your bow will replentish your health, eventually resulting in you respawning not far from whereever you died. on the other hand, ive been stuck for a couple days at a time trying to figure out a few of the puzzles. quite mind bending.

the action never feels really intense because you cant actually die. they should've made the option of dying there. i know many of the fps hardcore wrote this off because of that one thing alone. its still a decent challenge at times, and great fun all the time. everybody with a 360 should at leased give this one a chance. FPS fan or not.

I played the downloadable demo and thought the game was good enough to warrant spending $30 for the full game.

The draws for me were the interesting twists on the classic first-person shooter... things like the gravity-defying walkways that allow you to walk up walls and along ceilings, giving you a different perspective on your situation; the very organic appearance of everything, include the various guns you use (one appears to be partly a living organism, and the other is the cybernetic hand of a massive beast complete with implanted cannons); the clever puzzles where you have to enter "Spirit Walk" mode in order to find ways around obstacles; and the interesting mechanism for dealing with dying in the game (you enter the Spirit World where you must shoot your bow and arrow at bird-like creatures to refill your health gage before your spirit gets sucked back down to the mortal plane). Beyond that, I thought it was going to be a pretty lame story of alien abduction. I don't want to ruin the story for anyone, but the story and especially the endgame is simply spectacularly written and leads you very cleverly into an announcement for Prey 2... a sequel that will hopefully live up to expectations.

The game includes multiplayer capability and achievements, but I'm not a big multiplayer person so I can't really comment on how this game stands up as a multiplayer game, but the few times I've gone online it was fun, but nothing really special or unique in terms of multiplayer modes. You can choose your character appearance and a variety of options regarding the match settings, but I don't recall any multiplayer features that seemed like they were extraordinary in any way.

Graphics: Excellent.
Sound: Great.
AI: Excellent. Good variety. Some enemies duck-and-cover, etc. Some are fearless and charge on sight. Some are mindless and pay no attention to you.
Physics: Excellent.
Maps: Excellent. Rich, creative unique environments. Derivative of but improvement over Doom3 engine. Walk on walls, ceilings, spirit-walk through walls and over nothingness. Portals appear anywhere. Just walking through the game maps becomes a very original, sometimes disorienting experience instead of the regular doldrum "just get me to the end of this boring level". Nice merging of the earth bar with the ship. Excellent nod to Art Bell (real-life talk radio host that used to talk about aliens a lot) by having his show broadcast throughout the ship/game. Very very well done.
Gameplay: Excellent. No frame-rate drops. Excellent load time. I was never lost or trapped to the point where I had to consult the internet to figure out where to go and no scripted events failed to activate. Game length was long. Save-anywhere ability. Good variety of enemies and challenges.
Items/Weapons/Vehicles: Excellent. Unique biomechanical alien weapons which are alive, spiritual weapons charged by souls - very creative. Lighter instead of flashlight (original).
Story: Excellent. Compelling, engrossing story, a sense of urgency to complete things, you care about the characters and want to see where the story is going. Acting/voice acting was good.
Multiplayer: Average. no offline. Offline people deserve more - don't soak us for more cash.
Overall: 5/5. Game is a unique standout with it's native American Indian theme meshed with Alien tech and 3-D gameplay. One of the best 360 games for 2006 - must have. Clearly deserves better than the reviews it's getting.

The video gameing shelves have literally been drowning in First Person Shooters (FPS since, well, since as long as I can remember.

Doom and Wolfenstein and the like were games the helped usher in this amazing genre and created what would be the "mold" for FPS to come Almost every FPS to come after Doom and Wolfenstein would follow their exact formula, with minor additions or reductions.
And not much really changed over the years in terms of formula and content. Most FPS were basically corridor crawler frag fests designed in a pretty linear fashion. Story line was basically nil, and the intellectual depth was more shallow than the shallow end at your local community swimming pool.
But who needed storyline and depth, right? You usually played some sort of military or warrior who was bent on revenge and death, what else do you need?
Well, there have been many great FPS over the years. Games that have re-defined and re-designed the FPS genre, added humor and some decent story line as well. But nothing had really come out that altered or re-configured the age old formulaic FPS.
Enter Prey.

In Prey, you star as Tommy, an Indian who is hell bent on leaving his reservation, and his heritage in the dust. He longs to take his girlfriend Jenny with him, but she is rather content where she is, bartending at the local watering hole. Tommy's grandfather wishes for Tommy to embrace his heritage, to which Tommy merely scoffs at.
Lets just say that abduction changes everyhing.

The first two levels of Prey are so jaw dropping and eye-openingly shocking, they gave me that oh-so-rare "epic" moment that happens only with a handful of games.
I don't want to ruin anything for future players, but you WILL see humans being tortured, screaming for thier lives, and other such monstrosities.
The premise for Prey is so original and so "outside-of-the-box", that this game gets brownie points based on premise alone.
There are actually many original and inventive ideas in this game.

The story line is very well done. Actually, Prey features one of the best storylines in the FPS genre. There is so much depth and intellectual deepness to the story, which is both frightening and intriguing at the same time.

The graphics are really spectacular. The Doom 3 engine is used, and you can really see it shine on the Xbox 360. The architectural and decor theme used in this game is so dark and alien.
This is especially apparant when you reach the "ship", which is a living, breathing organism unto itself. Some of the walls are made out of breathing brain like matter that shines when light touches it. The metal parts of the ship look just as amazing as well.
Character models look really great, movements are believe-able and bodies don't look "awkward".
And since Prey utilizes the Doom 3 engine, you get lots of shadow and light contrast, which looks really awesome.
The ship is a massive, massive construct that is both artificial and living. This ship is so huge, there are rooms that house planet like rocks that have their own gravity.

Weapons in Prey are very original and cool. Instead of the typical weapons found in most shooters, Prey features both organic and non organic weapons. And example of an organic weapon would be the creatures that substitute regular grenedes and the hunter rifle. Non organic weapon would be the Leech gun that shoots energy and Tommy's trusty wrench (melee attack).
Another neat feature that makes Prey even more original, is Tommy's Zippo. Instead of a flashlight, he has his trusty Zippo lighter for illumination into dark areas.
Instead of health packs, there are spores scattered throughout each level that emit a healing gas. This heals a small portion of health. There are also health basins, which are very interesting looking. They heal a large portion of health.

If you die, fear not because you will enter the Death Walk. In the Death Walk you are transported to a dimension filled with bird like spirits. Here you must use your bow and kill these spirits. There are two kinds, red and blue. Red replenishes Tommy's health, while blue replenishes Spirit energy. This Death Walk sequence is timed, as Tommy's body slowly lowers toward a hole in the ground during this process. Once it reaches the hole, Tommy's Spirit is sucked back into his body and you are transported back to where you died. This is a very unique and original concept, but kind of detracts from the overall play because it can encourage rather sloppy playing. It doesn't really feel like there is a consequence to wildy running and gunning.

Another very cool concept are the gratiy switches located throughout the ship. Once hit, they will shift the whole room around so that the ceiling will become the floor and the floor the ceiling. Or the wall will be come the ceiling and the ceiling the wall. It makes for a very unique experience. There are also magnetic pathways that trail the ceilings and walls. Once activated, Tommy can walk on these to access other areas.

Prey also presents a new take on doorways. There are traditional door ways, and then there are the portals. These portals are like tears in the very fabric of reality. You can see them from only one angle, if you walk behind one it will appear that there is no portal. These portals lead to other areas of the ship. They look really cool and add so much to the overall immersion feel.

Tommy also gains the ability to Spirit Walk later on in the game. When Tommy activates Spirit Walk, his spirit leaves his body, and he can use his spirit to pass obstacles or attack enemies with his spirit bow.
The spirit walk is a completely original feature, but is mainly used for puzzle solving and the occasional "find-a-way-to-turn-off-the-motion-sensor-lazers" type puzzle.

There are quite a few puzzles to solve in this game. They range from easy to hard, and you will have a blast figuring them out.

The enemies range from sentry type aliens, hounds, flying creatures, half machine and half organic creatures and mutilated human slaves that are put to work for the aliens called, well, The Mutilated.
There are also bosses through the game, which are usually over the top half machine half organic abominations. Most of the boss battles are epic in scope and are very fun.
There are also hazards that will harm Tommy should he encounter these. Cilia jut out of the ground and the ceiling and emit damaging acid upon contact. Tommy can shoot them and they will retract for a short time, but they will reappear. Vomiters spew forth acid waste, which takes out a good chunk of health. There are also egg spawners which shoot out eggs that can be blown up. If left alone however, these eggs with hatch into hound type creatures that will hunt you down.

The enemey AI however is rather lackluster, sometimes an enemy with not move an inch while you are shooting them to pieces, other times they will bounce around like a rubber ball. And you are never really bogged down with enemies until later on in the game, so most of the first few levels feel like a cake walk. For the most part, the only negative aspect of Prey is the enemy AI.

If you like collecting achievements, you get one for each level you pass in Prey. There are a host of achievements to unlock via multiplayer as well, and some secret ones.

The controls are standard FPS fare, and will be easy to remember and use.

I have not yet tried multiplayer so I cannot comment on that.

As far as the single player version goes, Prey offers a top notch gaming experience that will keep you engaged until the end, however the multitude of levels seem somewhat dragged out and extended beyond what it should be. There are about 23 levels I believe. The AI is decent, but not the best.

This FPS is very unique. A Cherokee Native American is displaced from his plantation when he is sucked into an alien space ship. The graphics and gameplay are akin to f.e.a.r. but the gameplay and level design are much better. There are many gameplay factors that contribute to this game's greatness. The close yet distant voices you hear, the pseudo cutscenes that occur during gameplay, and the warps that defy space and time are mainly why this game is so good.

Although Prey does include very innovative elements to the game, elsewhere discussed in these reviews, I did find the game to be rather short and not terribly challenging. It's an entertaining game, but I would strongly recommend renting this title versus buying it. The first time I reached the last chapter of the game I thought I had about 50% more gameplay to go (at least). Disappointing considering how much fun the game can be.

Prey - Circa 2006


GOOD:
- Original gameplay in terms of level design and gameplay concept. In the game your able at certain points to change the gravity, walk on walls as well as ceilings, and portal jump, note this is all done with the greatest of easy and never gets old or forced
- In this game death is not game over in stead you go to a sort of spirit world where you adsorb lost souls to come back to life. If that wasn't enough you can also leave your body at any time during the main game (as a ghost) to kill enemies and solve puzzles
- Online multiplayer use similar environments as single player also note that wall walking as well as portal jumping adds a lot to the fun to the online versus modes


BAD:
- The voice acting is not very good, its okay at times but over all it not well done
- Some environments are too dark to see in effetely (a problem also found in Doom 3 and Quake 4) even with a lighter lit (the in game flashlight). Yes you can bring up the gamma and internal brightness but then the rest of the game really looks washed out.
- Some might consider the story generic, Man and women are kidnapped by evil aliens and the man is fighting his way out to save her and get back home, of course there is a lot to it then that but more then a few people have told me the story is a bit lame
- If you get motion sickness easy maybe this game is not for you because of the fact of all fast switch gravity walk on walls and ceilings ect...

IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- A Sci-Fi First Person Shooter
- Unique weapons with all have a secondary function and look/behave like living creatures
- Not for kids or immature, this game is gory bloody and violent
- Not for people who are very new with First Person Shooter games this game, because of a few tough puzzles and uniqueness of the game most who are new with the First Person Shooter experience might get lost confused very easily

GAME ITS MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- Quake 4 (Xbox-360)
- Doom 3 (Xbox)
- Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (N64)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- This game has been in development on and off since 1997
- This game runs on a modified Doom 3/Quake 4 engine
- There is also a special edition of this game, which comes with a copy of the in game soundtrack
- The team that did the soundtrack for this game also did the soundtrack for Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (another excellent game for Xbox-360)
- At certain points in the game you can hear the UFO radio show by none other then Art Bell
- There is Downloadable Content for this game in the way of new multiplayer maps and new characters to play as in multiplayer.