Prey

Prey is a video game that consists of 2 releases

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Aliens turned Tommy's world upside down. It's about time he returned the favor.

Overview

Main character Tommy

Prey is a Sci-Fi FPS made by Human Head Studios. The game features the traditional shooter banter, as well as some unique puzzles. To solve these puzzles, you needed to walk on the ceiling, walls, and go through portals to complete. Also the game had online and a soundtrack composed by Jeremy Soule, the man behind Oblivion and Guild Wars's soundtrack.

Plot

The game begins oddly enough, in a dank, dirty bathroom. The main character Tommy is gazing at himself through the grime covered mirror, and as you venture out into what appears to be a bar, you meet the supporting roles in the adventure. These two support characters are Jen, Tommy's girlfriend, and Tommy's grandfather Enisi. Tommy speaks to Jen about leaving their Native American reservation and pursuing other things. After a quick scuffle between Tommy and a few of the bar's patrons, the bar's walls and begin to shake, and the roof is ripped off. Green tractor beams of light shoot through, and Tommy, Jen and Enisi are pulled up into the air.

Tommy wakes up and is strapped into a moving coffin-like contraption. He has his grandfather and girlfriend in sight, and his grandfather tries to calm him and Jen down. Along the ride, Tommy sees strange alien lifeforms, and it appears that these aliens are performing tests on humans. Just as the characters are about to be split up, a strange man seems to detonate a bomb, and de-rail Tommy's cart from the rail system. This is when the player assumes control of Tommy, and begins to traverse the horrible alien spaceship. Tommy makes his way throughout the ship, and encounters strange things like anti-gravity walking strips, and portals. After some exploration, Tommy witnesses the brutal killing of his grandfather Enisi. After this, Tommy becomes extremely emotional and vows to rescue Jen.

Navigating through the ship, Tommy comes to a narrow and shoddy bridge.It collapses when he tries to cross it, and Tommy "dies". Instead of being dead for good though, Tommy is transported to a spirit world. In this spirit world, Tommy meets his grandfather Enisi. Enisi explains how his, and the spirits of his ancestors live on in this spirit world, and also tells Tommy that his old pet bird Talon is his guardian. After some quick tutorials on how to spirit project, Tommy is sent back to the world of the living.

The Spirit World

Tommy continues through the ship, and meets the leader of the resistance against the aliens, Elhuit. She explains to Tommy that the Mother needs to be destroyed in order to destroy the ship and it's operations, and Tommy accepts the task. The Mother frequently contacts Tommy telepathically and explains her vast knowledge. When Tommy finally confronts the Mother, she reveals that she had defeated the previous Mother and assumed the role.

Tommy kills the Mother, and she asks Tommy to take over the role of ruler. She begins to overload Tommy's mind with the vast knowledge that she once possessed, but Enisi contacts Tommy and advises him to not accept it. Tommy does not accept it, and destroys the ship. He returns to the spirit world, and sees Enisi and Jen. He knows he needs to live out his life on Earth, so he returns to live his life until the day that he will see his grandfather and Jen again.

Weapons

Wrench

Wrench

-Standard monkey wrench
-Primary Fire: Swing wrench
-Secondary Fire: Hold to charge up swing for extra damage

Rifle

Alien Rifle

-Combination fully automatic rifle and bolt-action sniper rifle
-Primary Fire: Standard automatic rifle
-Secondary Fire: Zoomed mode; high power bolt action sniper rifle

Grenade

Spider Grenades

-Living grenades
-Primary Fire: Break leg off of spider and throw the carcass; takes one second to explode; can also be held to "cook" the grenade
-Secondary Fire: Flip spider over; when tossed, acts as a trip mine

Leech Gun

Leech Gun

-Large cannon with the potential of four different ammo types
-Primary Fire: Fires whatever ammo type is in the cannon
-Secondary Fire: Vacuum type function; used for filling the gun with ammo at different leech gun stations
-Ammo Types- Plasma: Standard damaging ammo; Freezing: Freezes the enemy and damages; Electricity: Extremely powerful single shot burst; Energy: Powerful beam shot

Minigun

Handheld Minigun

-A handheld minigun with rocket firing capabilities
-Primary Fire: Highly damaging machine gun shots
-Secondary Fire: Single rockets

Shotgun

Shotgun

-Shotgun that spews yellow acid with grenade launcher capabilites
-Primary Fire: Shoots standard shotgun acid blast
Secondary Fire: Fires an entire canister of acid, much like a grenade launcher

Rocket Launcher

Rocket Launcher

-Standard Rocket launcher with a defense mechanism
-Primary Fire: Shoots rockets
Secondary Fire: Fires a gas cloud that acts as a shield

Spirit Bow

Spirit Bow

-A spiritual bow and arrow
Primary Fire: Fires an arrow
Secondary Fire: None

Minigames

Before the aliens begin to beam everything up, you can walk over to the game machines and play them. There is a blackjack machine, a poker machine, and a game called Rune Man. Rune Man is very similar to Pac-Man except is features a viking helmet, and the pickup items are runes. Even if you miss the opportunity to play these, you can find them at later points throughout the game, strewn about the alien ship.

Poker

Jukebox

Before the aliens begin to beam everything up, you can also walk over to the jukebox and select a song to listen to, and change the volume as well. There are many songs from real artists like Judas Priest, MXPX, Halifax, etc. You also re-visit the torn-up bar at a later point in the game and the jukebox is still functional, but stuck on the song "Dont Fear the Reaper", at full volume.

Multiplayer
Prey's multiplayer consists of two modes: Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. The multiplayer is standard FPS fare and utilizes all of the features of the single player mode such as the "Spirit Walk" in which Tommy exits his body as a Ghost-like entity to find hidden paths and weapons. However, while in spirit walk mode, the player's body is left vulnerable to attack and can only be used for a limited amount of time. Though there were many free downloads in the form of maps and character skins for multiplayer, the community quickly dispersed as the game waned in popularity. It was regarded by many critics as "tacked on" and "unpolished".

Critical Reception

Prey was technically in development since 1995, but had been continuously delayed, and generally bounced around until it was finally released on the Xbox 360 and PC. With all of this build up, it's fair to say that critics and gamers alike were waiting to see what the game had turned out to be. The critical reception of this game was varied, but overall, the game received average reviews. Some say that this could possibly be attributed to all of the buildup of the game's development.

General Information Edit

Game Name	Prey
Platform(s)	Mac Xbox 360 PC
Publisher(s)	Sold Out Sales & Marketing Ltd. 2K Games 3D Realms Entertainment
Developer(s)	Human Head Studios, Inc. Venom Games
Genres	Add a new genre Action Shooter First-Person Shooter
Themes	Add a new theme Sci-Fi
Original US Release	need a fuzzy date?
Original US Release	know the real date?
Aliases
BBFC	BBFC: 18
ESRB	ESRB: M