Prey (Xbox 360)

Physics

Prey doesn’t tout the next greatest physics engine and to some it might seem it’s taken a step backwards, there’s ragdoll effects and a sense of gravity, objects move when hit and round objects roll. We’ve seen all of these physics systems in a myriad of games and it brings nothing new to the table in that respect.

Models

As one might expect from the Doom 3 engine the models are consistent and of good quality. There’s no excellent modelling in the game and nothing truly stands out above anything else. The alien creatures are great looking and the bigger boss monsters reminded us of Doom in a certain way, especially a demon-like creature with curved horns.

I never had that ‘wow’ ‘oh my god’ moment that I got from Doom 3 or Quake 4 however, perhaps because the monsters seemed all too familiar in that way. Even a creature that I’d been expecting failed to elicit any kind of ‘wow’ response; it was just another monster to be blasted into oblivion.

Animations

Good solid animations are the order of the day in Prey, just like the models the engine provides a decent quality to the movements and doesn’t go above and beyond the call of duty on character animations. The game does however go one step extra with the environmental animations and set pieces, these really do leave you with a feeling of awe at times and they mix well with the lighting and shadow effects the game engine is good at.

AI

It’s functional. It takes cover and it uses grenades, it tries to give some support and backup to its colleagues and doesn’t get stuck with stupid pathing errors. The bigger boss monsters take advantage of brute-style AI and are definitely not as clever as their smaller, lithe counterparts.

Sound

Prey has a solid sound engine and it delivers well on this front, the gruesome audio for the various living-ship parts works well and the various disturbing alien sounds add to the atmosphere.

Music

Prey has a nice orchestral score and it’s not intrusive at all. It has a definite Native American feel to the music at times (not surprising) and transitions well throughout the game.

Voice

Good solid performances from all the cast bring Prey alive and immerse you in the world. It doesn’t pull punches when it comes to profanity however so if you have an aversion to that kind of thing, expect a wild ride unless you turn it off. Tommy transforms from a angry young Native American to hero as he takes his journey in Prey and this is reflected in the very subtle changes of his voice’s mood – although he never truly loses that angry streak.

Multiplayer

Prey’s MP is standard fare, deathmatch, every man for himself and the team deathmatch modes are the meal on offer. These are a wasted potential for a game like this and there could have been a lot more modes on offer, especially since the various modes allow for spirit walking and so on, there could have been a nice variant of Assault for instance with infiltration and objectives.

The wall walking and spirit walking, gravity effects, add a little to the MP but the game itself is really a SP experience with MP tacked on.

In MP Prey is a fairly nice blast online, but forget any kind of LanPrey with your 360 or local play, that’s not an option for this shooter.

The final bite

I only have one problem with Prey: It might take you about 10 hours to complete if you’re addicted to the story and SP game. It also suffers from a definite sequel-it-is that most games are heading towards these days but that’s not a bad thing if the second game is as gripping as the first story wise and provides solid gameplay and shooter action like this one does.

Prey is definitely a nice solid FPS and deserves play just to experience the mind-altering space ship, the story and the engine pulling off some very excellent set pieces using portals, light and shadow.