Prey
- Platform: PC, Xbox 360
- Published by: 2K Games
- Developed by: Human Head Studios
- Release Date: When it's done
- Genre: Action
- Multiplayer: Yes
- Online: Yes
Prey Preview Continued..
-- February 6, 2006 by: Chris Remo
What Else?
Human Head is working to make the AI as complete and natural as possible. Obviously, Prey sports quite a few unorthadox elements, and your enemies know how to utilize them to their advantage. They may deactivate a wall walking pathway while you're sauntering along the ceiling, bringing you crashing down. They'll also attempt to make use of the floor-mounted health stations if they need them. Some enemies are less proactive. There are zombie-like mutilated abducted humans who are benign until you aggravate them, after which they will have no qualms with ripping you to bits.
You do have a clear advantage in the form of spirit walking. At any time, you can leave your body and assume spirit form, at which point you become armed with a limited ammo but incredibly powerful bow. When in spirit form, you can still fully interact with the world, though enemies are much less likely to notice you. It can be used for a tactical advantage, for example upon entering a room filled with enemies that might be hard to take on in your less mighty earthly incarnation. It also comes in very handy when solving puzzles. In spirit form, you'll be able to pass through obstacles such as force fields that are impenetrable to a physical being. You might be required to leave your body at barrier, then scout around with your spirit form to find the controls to remove that barrier.
If you do end up biting the dust, however, don't sweat it. You're not really dead, per se. "In most games, when you die, you just die and you have to reload a save," said Rhinehart, "With Prey, we're kind of sick of that, so we wanted to find a way to integrate death in a way that fits with the mythology we're using... We wanted to continue the immersion." To achieve that goal, the team implemented death walking; when you die, you are transported to a spirit realm with your trusty bow. In what seems to be some kind of desert plateau, you must shoot as many flying wraiths as possible in the few seconds before you are returned to the material world. The number of wraiths you hit determines your health points upon resurrection. In a nice touch, enemies will at first not expect you to come back to life (why would they?) so you'll have the element of surprise when you get back up and start wreaking havoc. Over time, though, they'll get used to it, so don't get too sloppy.
For those twitching quick save addicts, quick save and quick load are still present in the game.
And?
The original name for Tommy's character in the early version of Prey was Talon Brave, intended to be a franchise hero like Duke Nukem. That particular moniker was lost, but in a nod to the game's heritage, Tommy is accompanied on his quest by an hawk spirit guide named Talon. Talon has various roles. He'll serve as a brief distraction for enemies, doing little to no damage but sometimes giving Tommy the split second he needs to turn an encounter in his favor. Early on in the game, Talon begins to translate alien text for Tommy, allowing him to read text on computer terminals and elsewhere.
Human Head has also been sure to put some nice little touches throughout the game for extra atmosphere. The arcade cabinets that are seen being beamed up to the ship in the E3 video can actually be found and played in the game, for one thing. There are also radio broadcasts being picked up from Earth, which are one way the story is told contextually. By listening in, the player can get an idea of what's going on back home. In a particularly inspired turn, the team actually hired Coast to Coast radio host and nationally known UFO theorist Art Bell. At various points throughout the game, Bell and his notoriously fanatical call in guests can be heard discussing the invasion.
Prey on Xbox 360
There's not really much to be said about the Xbox 360 version of Prey. It's shipping simultaneously with the PC version, and based on the builds I saw it looks very much the same. There's still some fine tuning to be done with the controls--adding appropriately subtle auto-aim and that sort of thing--but necessary console tweaks aside it seems to be the same game. They're shooting for a consistent 30 frames per second throughout. Prey on 360 is being handled by Venom Games, a Take-Two-owned studio based out of the UK.
MultiPrey
Prey's multiplayer component is going by the original late-90s MultiPrey name. Perhaps it's appropriate that the name is slightly goofy, because this is some extraordinarily weird multiplayer. Remember how I mentioned earlier that there's a necessary sense of restraint being used in the game's level design, to keep all of the reality-bending elements in check? Well, much to the game's benefit, that sense of restraint seems to have been cautiously discarded by the multiplayer--I'm sorry, MultiPrey--level designers. I played three different maps, and each had something of a theme. One had a lot of portals, one is filled with all kinds of crazy wall walking, and one is build around two moons, each with their own gravitational field. Those first two are fairly self explanatory; I'm sure you can roughly imagine what they might be like, with labyrinthine portals leading all over the place and twisting walkways leading up and around every which way.
The third level was the craziest, though. There are plenty of ordinary rooms and corridors (well, ordinary plus walking on walls, you know) but in the middle of everything are two moons, one small and one large. Since each has its own gravity, you can jump onto them from any angle and end up running along the constantly-adjusting "ground." It's quite a trip.
The multiplayer is definitely overwhelming at first. Running around these absurd environments (where it's perfectly normal to see ammo on the ceiling then pull a Fred Astaire to go grab it) while being hunted by other people who are popping out of invisible portals, running upside down over you, and leaping between moons is definitely not something to which I'm accustomed. However, it was a relief that I somehow managed to adjust to it rather well early within the first round, even winning once.
Spirit walking is still available in MultiPrey, but is understandably on a limited time basis given the power it confers. While in spirit form, your actual body is still very much at risk of being casually blasted by opposing players, however, so your greater mobility bow come with a tradeoff.
On the other hand, death walking is thankfully not part of MultiPrey. When you die, you respawn as you would in another multiplayer deathmatch.
It's hard to imagine MultiPrey ever being a hardcore professional FPS of choice due to its pure insanity factor, but it's very easy to imagine people hopping on for a bit of bizarre mayhem. Oh, and I can't even wait to see what the mod community manages to figure out with this thing.
And There You Have It
And that's about all I know. In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that visually Prey does have a great deal of similarity to its engine-buddy Quake 4. Part of it is the lighting model, and part of it is the industrial/organic theme, which is hard not to compare to Quake's Strogg. It's not exactly a totally new aesthetic in games. That said, most of the rest of Prey's elements are new in games, and there's enough of that there to clearly distinguish it from its peers. The Escher-esque architectural design, the arbitrary gravity, and the spirit walking mechanics are very unique and seem well implemented. If the whole game delivers the constantly changing experience that's been promised, Prey should be one hell of a ride.
Prey is developed by Human Head Studios, produced by 3D Realms, and published by 2K Games. Its official release date is "When it's done," but will likely ship in early June.
