Wow... took a while for Prey to appear on ePinions! Oh well, it's been a while since I played the game, but my thoughts about it haven't changed.
Prey's story isn't that spectacular, actually. You play as Tommy, who is a Cherokee in decent and works as a mechanic. He lives in a reservation with his grandfather and girlfriend who are also Cherokee. Tommy wants to see the world, it seems, and wishes to leave the reservation, while his girlfriend, Jen, wishes to stay. All of this is is revealed in the beginning of the game via a script that activates. Jen owns a tavern in which you will eventually have to deal with 2 drunk customers that are hitting on Jen. After which, you, Jen, and your grandfather, along with the entire bar gets sucked up by something above while "Don't Fear the Reaper" plays on the jukebox.
You then find yourself strapped onto a contraption along with Jen and your grandfather, as well as many others who were abducted. You were able to escape, however, and roam around the ship. You find your grandfather and see get killed in the same contraption you were just on, and now your whole goal is to save your girlfriend.
3D Realms pretty much wanted a reluctant hero who is thrust into a situation he didn't want. It all sounds like a basic formula for story telling, and if you certainly think so, you would not be the only one. Tommy doesn't even care about saving everyone else - just his girlfriend, and to get back home.
Part way into the game, you have a scripted death and you meet your grandfather in the spirit world. He teaches you how to come back to life by shooting the evil spirits with a ghostly bow and arrow. He also introduces you to Talon, your dead pet eagle from when you were a child.
Game Play
The selling point for the game is the ability to fight upside down or sideways on the wall, the ability to change the direction of gravity, and to a lesser extent, portals.
While originally the portals were a major selling point in the old concept of the game, it seems to be downplayed a lot now that Valve's game Portal is released. You cannot control portal placement in Prey - they just appear out of nowhere without your control, or you bump into one that is disguised as something else (such as a box or a door).
The "hidden" portals, the ability to walk sideways and upside down, as well as the ability to flip gravity create some interesting and fun puzzles to solve to continue moving forward. Once solved, however, replay value is almost nill.
The weapons seem interesting at first, but prove to be graphically and audibly changed to suit the setting and environment (alien technology...oooh!), but they seem to function and feel like any gun you'd use in any FPS. Even the crab-like creature that you rip its legs off to use as an explosive feel just like an ordinary grenade after a while. Even if alternatively, you can use it as a sentry grenade (explodes only when someone is near it).
There are a few heart-breaking moments if you attach yourself to the story, such as (SPOILER ALERT!) when you have to fight a alien-monster version of your girlfriend, to which you must kill. Many people who seem to be really into the story report that they try to find ways to avoid shooting her, but unfortunately, there is no other way to advance in the game. Call me heartless, but I watched her in pain for a while before I shot her. :) I just felt no connection to the character. Perhaps it was the voice acting - or the way the characters were animated. It didn't seem real enough for me to care.
There are many moments of shock, awe, and surprise in the game. Since you are in an alien ship, 3D Realms wanted to create new rules in the world that just doesn't exist on earth. This makes you feel like you are in an alien surrounding that still have their own laws of physics. That gravity can change in the ship and portals to different parts of the ship can exist.
As you know, I can get sick playing certain FPS games, but Prey's character, Tommy, runs slow enough to make the experience bearable, even though flipping gravity and walking up walls and ceilings would make others hurl.
This game is definitely short, and I was able to complete it in 8 hours, despite the fact that I took my time to explore. The ability to never really die alleviate the frustration of having to start over like in most games. However, some find it too easy. I think the game should have been longer with more content if they were going to allow for practically no deaths and unlimited do-overs.
Graphics
Prey uses the Doom 3 engine, and as such, also uses OpenGL to render graphics instead of Microsoft's own Direct3D API. Not that it really matter in game play.
Just like Doom 3, the graphics are very detailed and simply amazing! The textures are eerily realistic. The Doom 3 engine lends well to the environment that 3D Realms wanted to create. The alien ship is very organic, and as such, there are many areas that used Doom 3's engine ability to render organic monsters well. Not only that, but the organic areas simply will gross you out with all that shiny doors that are obviously covered with some kind of mucus coating. The way the doors open are also as fluid and natural as an organism.
Enemies look menacing, and everything has an organic look to it.
Weapons and ammo are easy to spot, as they glow. Switches and keypads are also easy to spot, especially since you have Talon to help point them out to you.
Sound
The audio in Prey was a mixed bag. The scripted conversations seemed cheesy, from the conversation in the bar at the beginning of the game, to the tauntings from "Mother" in the ship. The speeches and lessons from Tommy's grandfather were the cheesiest, which makes you understand why Tommy seem to ignore his advice. "This guy is speaking gibberish!"
The quality of the audio itself is very good, however. The eerie sounds of every enemy is unique, and the weapons do have a very substantial sound to them. The disgusting squishy noise you hear, and the "vomiting" orifices are really convincing. Every time those organic doors open makes you wish you didn't have to go through them so you wouldn't have to see and hear them open and close.
The musical score for Prey is done very well, and in the collectors edition, a free download to the first part of the soundtrack is available. I didn't really care for the soundtrack when I'm not playing the game, but in game, they seem to set the mood perfectly.
Multiplayer
Single player did not really give it much replay value, so multiplayer must be fun, right? After all, the ability to change gravity directions and fight on walls and ceilings got to be interesting!
Well, it was for the first few times. When Prey was new, the few official servers were packed, but there were many lag issues. When the lag issues weren't a problem, the weapons seem to hold the game back. The weapons are not unique enough as they just seem like reskined weapons from other FPS games.
The maps are few, and the models you can select for yourself are limited.
They have since released a new content pack that is free to download, but unfortunately, it seems like no one care to reinstall Prey to try it out. Currently there are not many servers to play on.
The lack of game type is also a contributing factor to a lack luster multiplayer experience. with just classic deathmatch and team deathmatch, it gets old just killing other people for score. There isn't even a basic capture-the-flag. I'd personally like to see a king-of-the-hill type of game, as it is one of my favorites in the Halo series. In fact, despite being a PC gamer who likes keyboard and mouse for FPS games, I'll gladly play any of the Halo series on the console with a restrictive joystick controls than Prey's multiplayer. And that is saying alot coming from a person who hates Halo's restrictive controls.
I truly believe that a lot of players just got bored of the two death-match only game types. I certainly did - fairly quickly actually. The first time playing, I was about an hour into before I decided to quit. It's not that I was getting "owned"... I was able to get in the top 3 spots in many of the rounds. Its that you can only have so much fun when your only goal is to kill as many people as you can. The portals are basically just scripted doorways and add nothing to the game play. The ceiling and wall walks are pretty frustrating, and even if you get used to it, adds nothing else to the point-and-shoot with no real clear goal except to kill, kill, kill.
FPS games have evolved, but it seems like Prey's multiplayer design team made the game back when Quake II was king of all FPSes.
Conclusion
Prey doesn't seem to have a huge following, and it certainly sounded like it had everything to make it a hit. However, the short game play, uninspired weapons, and lack of interesting game types in multiplayer dragged down the interesting fact that you can fight on walls and ceilings.
If you didn't pick up Prey when it was first released, you are lucky you didn't waste the full $50. However, due to it being an older title, it may be worth paying the $20 to experience the story telling.
A sequel is said to be in the works. I sure hope 3D Realms have something better in store for us. And of course, I can't write about a 3D Realms game without mentioning Duke Nukem Forever. There, I mentioned it...
Wings of Prey is based around the large–scale aerial combat and ground military operations of World War II. Players can participate in some of the wa...More at GamersGate
Players can participate in some of World War II s most famous battles piloting fighters, battle planes and heavy bombers across a range of thrilling m...More at Buy.com
New and factory sealed retail box. Box shows signs of shelf wear and handling. Windows XP Unique gameplay elements, such as gravity flipping, wall-wal...More at eBay
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.