Prey has got to be the all-time winner for longest development cycle ever, at least if you count the original development efforts based on the Quake II (?) engine back in the 1990s. The only other game I can think of that even comes close in that regard is Duke Nukem Forever, the very name of which is, at present, as much of a joke as saying 'Daikatana'. Useless information and lame attempt at humor aside, however, Prey is yet another first-person shooter (FPS) game wherein the protagonist... wait for it... saves the world from aliens. Big surprise, that. Despite the tired story, though, Prey does bring a few new things to the table.
I really have to get a new dictionary or something. New games keep pushing graphics technology so hard that I need words to praise a game beyond what I've already said of others, but superlatives fail at some point. Prey is definitely one of those cases. Aside from a few letdowns, the visuals in Prey are absolutely bleeding edge. The game is obviously built on the DOOM 3 (D3) engine, but the developers have refined it noticeably.
Frankly, I have never seen another game do some of the things that Prey does. In the very last levels, for example, there are some environments that self-assemble as the player moves toward them. Moving walls is one thing, but environments that fully reconfigure themselves in real time, with a bizarre bending and flexing as if space-time itself were trembling?! I've not seen that before, and it was really cool. Not all of the environments are that amazing, but the vast majority are a visual feast.
And no discussion of the visuals would be complete without some mention of the portal effects. When a portal opens, it looks like a gaping, energy-limned tear in space. But that's only half the trick; as the player walks toward its plane to look at it from the side, it minimizes to a wavy distortion of space until, once behind the entrance, it disappears completely. One can only assume that this is being done with some sort of shaders, and the attention to detail is phenomenal.
Yet there are two negatives I can attribute to the game. First, the human models aren't good. In fact, I would be willing to go so far as to say they're downright bad in certain cases. The most egregious, in my view, is the character of Jen, the love interest for the story's protagonist, Tommy. The modeling of Jen's arms and torso is so poor, the distortions are literally painful to watch when she shrugs. I just don't get that. The non-human models are very good, but Jen and Enisi in particular—in which one would think the developers would invest their best efforts—are literally the worst in the game. I have no idea how that makes any sense.
And second, the land of the ancients is a bit less than spectacular. Perhaps this is due to the inability of the D3 engine to render vast distances, but when Tommy is standing there atop what is clearly taken from the mesas of the western United States, it doesn't cut the mustard. The ground has so little detail, and the surrounding mesas are so indistinct, that it feels like stepping into the wayback machine to play some older game.
Aside from these two complaints, neither of which is really all that telling, the game's visuals are absolutely top notch. I cranked up the game to 1600 x 1200 x 32 bpp with 4x anti-aliasing and 8x anisotropic filtering and was absolutely stunned by how good it looked—particularly once Tommy was abducted.
The audio is also mighty impressive. The sound effects are good, the dialogue is well performed and well recorded, and I'm surprised to say I really like the music. I'm actually looking into acquiring a soundtrack CD; if anybody knows where I can buy one, please let me know. Though I know some will take issue with it, I would just like to say how much I appreciated Tommy's dialogue. I left the vulgarity on, and I think the game is actually less enjoyable without it. Be honest, folks, if you we all got sucked into an alien ship for the purpose of turning us into a gooey stew with the rest of the human race, well, I don't think 'shucks' makes sense. Tommy's reactions and dialogue are spot on, despite the vulgarity.
But if Tommy cracked me up with his occasional comments, the bits of the Art Bell radio show were positively gut-busting. I've never listened to his actual radio program, but it seems perfect for inclusion within the game. Hearing the Keeper call in was particularly amusing. The only pop-culture reference I'm surprised I didn't see was some kind of cameo by Mulder and/or Scully. I guess that probably would have meant paying money to the respective actors, so maybe it's best it wasn't there—or did I miss it? At any rate, the audio is workmanlike in every respect. It is arguably not as bleeding edge as the visuals, but it's harder to make that kind of quantum leap with audio. I have no complaints with it.
Where's the use key?! I know, I know, I don't really need one with the D3 way of doing things, but I just can't get used to that. At quite a few points in the game Tommy must interact with various devices, all of which is accomplished by a subtle mode shift that occurs once he's close enough to operate them. That is, he lowers his weapon and raises his hand in preparation, providing an indicator to the player that the device in question can be used by clicking the fire button. The problem, as I see it, is that the fire button fires! I don't know why this didn't bother me with D3, but I was constantly wasting ammo while accidentally shooting instead of triggering devices in Prey. Maybe I'm just clumsy.
Aside from that one complaint, the interface is otherwise great. I love the menu system, which allows me to change game video and audio settings without restarting, the key bindings are simple enough that they're immediately comfortable, and the slightly different control set when flying vehicles is easily grasped. The interface is exactly as it should be: a largely transparent mechanism for making stuff happen in the game world.
I never thought I would miss it so much, but I didn't find any way to vary Tommy's speed. It seemed like he was always running, albeit slowly. I guess I've played so many games that maintain a walking/running distinction that I missed it in Prey. Aside from that omission, all the usual stuff is present: running, weapon selection, fighting, crouching, interacting with the environment, and so forth.
There are a couple of real stand outs in the game mechanics department. First, there are the portals. As many reviewers have noted already, I don't think the developers did as much as they could have with them. The portals weren't really all that much different from doors, the major exception to that rule being that Tommy can spirit walk through portals but not solid doors (which react only to his corporeal body). You walk in, you come out somewhere else; that's all there is to portals.
Second is the utterly mind-blowing use of gravity and, on rare occasion, scale. I have never found it so hard to keep track of which direction is up in any other game. Powered walkways allow players to walk at any angle in any direction, as long as he sticks to the path. Other wall-mounted devices, when shot, allow the player to turn gravity on its ear completely. And then occasionally it's possible to move from one gravity zone to another at certain points in the game, which can be wildly disorienting at times—especially when you suddenly find yourself reduced to an inch in height as well!
Others have complained that the use of gravity is essentially a novelty, interesting at first but not really significant in the long run. I disagree. The gravitic shifts provide puzzles that, while not all that difficult most of the time, are really quite refreshing. It may be just a novelty, but it's a thoroughly welcome one. I can agree that the developers could have done more with it, but I found it an entertaining mental shift as it was.
Third is the spiritual aspect to the game, which manifests itself (pun intended) through the spirit walking and death walking mechanics. The spirit walking, much like the gravity, adds cool-factor to the game. At any time, Tommy can simply leave his body and venture about in spirit form. While in said form, he can sneak by most enemies, attack them with his spirit bow, and trigger a surprising number of devices, though apparently the sensors that trigger doors aren't attuned to the mystic. The great thing about spirit walking is that it helps Tommy get past certain sorts of situations more easily (e.g., sneaking past/disabling devices that would react to his physical form) and is necessary sometimes to progress.
The death walking, in contrast, is a means to replace the more familiar die and reload sequence. Every other FPS game I've played has forced me to relive the same, seemingly-impossible fight over and over and over and over and over and over and... You get the idea. The toughest situations are made all the more punishing by the constant "You Failed, Dumbass!" messages, coupled with the pain of reloading, sitting through the same intro cinematic, and so forth. Prey does away with this entirely by instead transporting Tommy to some freaky realm where dishonored spirits may be hunted (redeemed?).
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I can agree with others that the developers could have done more with the spirit walking. As it is, it's mainly a cure for the common force field, when it could obviously be so much more. And I can also agree that death walking does "cheapen" death, insofar as it takes so much of the sting out of it. But honestly, if you want me to choose between death walking and reloading, I'll always pick the former.
Think about it. There are but two things that you're going to do when you die in a game: (1) fight your way past the current area and keep playing, or (2) quit. The point of a game is to have fun, so anything that tends to push the player toward (2) is A Bad Thing™, but that's exactly what most games do. Prey arguably makes (1) a bit too easy instead, but I much prefer it. Perhaps it could be improved by allowing death walking only so many times, or something like that? At any rate, the spiritual aspect of the game is, like its other innovations, very refreshing.
Finally, I have to call out a minor point: Tommy's lighter makes sense! It bugged me to no end in D3 (and a host of other games) that the flashlight power would run out in a matter of seconds. In contrast, Tommy's lighter heats up just about as one might expect. Unlike the hard-charging, type-A heroes that populate most video games, I wouldn't expect Tommy to be walking around with a flash light—and especially not one that can't be used for more than a few seconds and yet magically recharges—but a cigarette lighter? Perfect!
As should be obvious by now, I believe the game mechanics of Prey are genuinely new and refreshing. More could be done with them, but as it is they provide a noticeably different experience from any other game I've played. And most important, they help make the game fun.
Let's see if you've heard this one before: aliens try to take over the world, and you are the only thing standing in their way. Fresh and new? Hardly. Still, that's not entirely fair. At least Prey brings another faction into the picture and adds the twist that the aliens in question actually seeded our entire race a gazillion years ago. It certainly makes it harder to feel moral outrage when you find out they have merely come back to harvest their "crop". I thought the dialogue on such points was about as sophisticated as such things get. The writing seems a notch above what one usually finds in FPS games.
And beyond noting how tired the whole premise is by now, I have to say that Prey manages to tell its anti-hero tale in a believable way. I won't reveal what happens with Jen, but it was pretty touching. I genuinely moved by the game's ending. Tommy makes a hard choice, does a noble thing, and draws hope from the jaws of despair. It was nicely done. It also sets the stage pretty clearly—be sure to watch the scene after the credits!—for a sequel.
As FPS games go these days, Prey is pretty typical. It took me a bit less than ten hours to finish the game on its normal difficulty setting. The environments aren't tremendously diverse, but they are beautifully detailed and interesting. Occasional trips in an alien vehicle are included, but most of the game is played on foot. While there are several weapons, most of which have alternate fire modes for sake of variety, they aren't all that different from the typical FPS fare. Enemies range from cannon fodder to a number of different "bosses". The AI is nothing to write home about.
In short, the content is solid if somewhat "generic". It's funny, as I think about it, but the content both makes and breaks Prey as a game. On the one hand, it's visually stunning and emotionally powerful. Yet on the other hand, it seems as if the mechanics unique to Prey were bolted on to an otherwise common FPS game. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, because it is a lot of fun. I'm just saying that I cannot wax rhapsodic about great AI, diverse environments, fabulous weapons, etc. The real strength of Prey is in its audio-visual presentation details and game mechanics, not the number of levels, AI, etc.
I have two things to say about the multi-player aspect of the game, or "multiprey" as it's described within game. First, it's an awful lot of fun! The gravitic tricks and spirit walking make it into the multiprey modes, which really helps freshen an otherwise long-tired mode of play. In one particular match I knew I was being tailed, so I ducked into an alcove, left my body, snuck up behind the guy chasing me, and gave him a bunch of spirit arrows to the back of the head. It was great! My body managed to get killed shortly thereafter, and you don't actually get to stay in spirit walk for very long, but I had a lot of fun with it.
The second thing to say is less encouraging: at most I have found a mere four populated servers available at any one time. I don't get that at all. The multi-player aspect is at least as much fun as the multi-player aspect of any other straight-up FPS game I've tried, so it's more than a bit surprising to me that there aren't more players enjoying it. I guess I'll keep looking for a while, but I'm sad to say this game doesn't seem like it has the legs for a significant multi-player future.
This was a strange review to write. The conclusion was never in doubt, at least not to me, because I had a surprisingly good time playing Prey. But it's not often that I find a game like this, one where so many innovative ideas are brought into the picture without being fully realized. It's almost like the entire game was set up to be a teaser for a great sequel. Whatever the case, though, I can recommend Prey almost without qualification.
There are but two caveats. First, if you're not a fan of FPS games generally, then you certainly shouldn't buy Prey. I would hope that's obvious. And second, if you're the sort who gets too wrapped up in the analysis of a game to enjoy it for what it is, then you probably shouldn't buy Prey either. For the rest of us, though, we gamers who first and foremost expect our games to be fun, Prey isn't likely to disappoint. It's a great ride.
11/09/2006