Prey Review
Good morning, Morgan. Wake up and kill some aliens!
The science-fiction, first-person shooter, action-adventure title known as Prey is Dishonored developer Arkane Studios’ latest piece of work, and the best way to describe it is to say that Arkane has taken Dishonored into space.
Set in the year 2032, Prey casts players in the role of TranStar Industries research director Morgan Yu (whose gender can be selected before starting the game) as they explore the space station Talos I, which has been overrun by malevolent alien creatures known as the Typhon. The game’s fantastic introduction highlights Morgan’s confusion and fear, leaving the player with multiple questions that they must continue playing in order to answer. The stunning environment is enough to get players lost in the dark scenery of space, quickly realising that it’s a pretty frightening place to be — especially with the Talos I crew’s corpses strewn all over the place. With the assistance of an artificial intelligence named January — who speaks to the player via video link — Morgan must navigate the space station to try and find a way home.
The continuous gameplay means that players will often have to return to areas previously explored instead of separate levels, allowing full exploration of the space station. For fans of classics such as System Shock, Arkane Studios has created a game that provides various means of progression, allowing the player to choose to think outside the box and select a less-obvious way to get through a door or navigate a challenge. The trouble is in finding those means; players are beckoned into exploring the whole of the immense space station, and this exploration is duly rewarded.
The game’s already-unsettling atmosphere only grows more tense as the player explores the space station, surrounded by blood stains, dead bodies and signs of their struggles, as well as alien creatures lurking around looking for anyone else they can kill. Creatures include the Mimic, a cheeky alien that can disguise itself as an office chair or a coffee cup, lying in wait to spring out and attack Morgan at a moment’s notice; their existence means that the first few hours of gameplay saw me shooting at anything I could see out of fear that it might be a Mimic lying in wait. As if that wasn’t alarming enough, the little buggers could also render themselves invisible, but still audible, allowing them to reposition and leaving me spinning around on the spot, worried that they might jump out at me while I wasn’t ready for them. Morgan’s only options when faced by a Mimic are to shoot it or run like hell until it gave up on chasing them; that constantly reinforced the need to keep an eye on ammunition and supplies, but bashing the sneaky bastards with a wrench was just as satisfying if I was running low.
Adding an extra level of danger are the Phantoms that lurk within the space station, each producing a distinct, distorted sound to indicate just how close they actually are, heightening the unsettling feeling that these particular Typhon can be anywhere. On top of that, corrupted robots patrol the station, and they’ll attack Morgan in an instant once they’re spotted, because machines really can’t be trusted. Despite the thrilling build-up to each alien encounter, each combat experience was let down by difficult aiming controls, especially when trying to fire at Mimics that moved faster than Morgan’s aim.
What is greatly needed throughout the game are Neuromods, which were created by the Typhon and can manipulate the brain into learning new sets of skills. Collecting these Neuromods can make Morgan stronger, more agile and even grant them alien powers later in the game. Combined with the weapons found around Talos I, these skills leave Morgan pretty well-equipped to fight their way through the Typhon as necessary. Morgan’s weapons include a wrench (great for bashing Mimics), a Gloo cannon, which shoots quick-hardening glue to trap the aliens, and also a silencer and shotgun. Weapons, ammunition and med-kits were rather scarce, though, forcing players to rely on crafting their own equipment using recycled parts found around the station and on the corpses of the deceased.
Best known for his work on the Doom and Wolfenstein: The New Order soundtracks, Australian composer Mick Gordon brings something quite different to Prey, adding to the eerie and unsettling atmosphere within the space station. The soundtrack opens with funky synth beats, adding greater life to the game’s opening, but it darkens after that, when it’s time for Morgan to kill some aliens and try to survive the horrors of Talos I. Moving away from the typical horror tropes of loud drums and fast strings, Prey’s very different musical direction serves only to strengthen its impact. It’s quite surprising to note that Gordon and Arkane Studios opted for a very light-hearted score when the player is defeated (which is quite often, especially when there are no medkits lying around); it’s different and it’s certainly a talking point, but it starts to become annoying pretty quickly when players die in rapid succession
It often felt entirely necessary to return to areas previously explored instead of moving straight to separate levels, allowing full exploration of the space station. While this was the main selling point of the game, Talos I felt enclosed due to the sheer number of locked doors. Keycards to unlock these doors can be quite difficult to come by, and there seemed to be a disproportionately high chance that the doors unlocked contained nothing of any significance to the main story, let alone any supplies to help the player find more keycards. With that being said, the many useless doors I opened made it so much more satisfying when one yielded something of consequence, and it’s important to remember that there are other ways to get into almost every room on Talos I; it’s just a matter of finding it.
Despite these small frustrations, Arkane Studios is successful in delivering a suspenseful and unsettling atmosphere throughout players’ time on Talos I. The game’s continuous and open-world gameplay encourages players to explore the immense setting in vast openness of space, but also shows just how scary it is to be alone in outer space — especially when you’re being hunted by a pack of bloodthirsty aliens.
Our Verdict:
It’s not perfect, but Prey offers an enormous environment and a wealth of exploration options to keep players occupied for many hours; its amazing soundtrack and unique enemies will ensure that those hours are spent on the edge of one’s seat. It will also make you wary of coffee cups and office supplies.
