Arkane Studios has made its name on creating intense first-person experiences, and has used the same formula that found success with games such as Dishonored and Arx Fatalis with Prey, the company’s latest title. Prey takes these familiar controls and changes them slightly, while also wrapping everything in an intense and engaging sci-fi world.
Prey opens with Morgan Yu waking up in his or her swanky apartment, as it is time to conduct some tests. After a quick trip over to the research laboratory, the tests begin. Things don’t go as smoothly as the scientists would like, until an alien attacks.
Prey opens with Morgan Yu waking up in his or her swanky apartment, as it is time to conduct some tests. After a quick trip… wait a second. This has all been done before, hasn’t it? What is going on? Is any of this real? As it turns out, no.
You instead find yourself on a space station orbiting Earth; a space station that is overrun with dangerous aliens. One type of alien, called a Mimic, has the ability to disguise itself as just about any item in a given room, so you are never sure if you are alone or not. When not disguised as an object, Mimics look like out of focus spiders, crawling around on four long legs. There will be other types of aliens as well, but I only caught a glimpse of one other variant, a human-sized shadowy figure, during my demo.
You start off with only a wrench to defend yourself, but eventually find some more advanced weapons. The guns I encountered in my hour of play time included basics like a handgun and shotgun, but also included cool new things like the GLOO gun. This gun shoots out goop that instantly hardens, which is great to trap any Mimics running around. This goop can also be used to make bridges, put out fires and other helpful tasks.
Like Dishonored and its sequel, players can walk around picking up and collecting just about every object within grasp. A new feature makes all this seemingly useless junk worthwhile holding on to, as players can recycle any item to break it down into its literal building blocks. Players can then use these blocks to fabricate new items, upgrades and ammo.
Players also have the ability to unlock upgrades through a horrifying tool called a Neuromod. This device plugs into your eye and implants new information in your brain. This grants new abilities like increased health and stamina, or even alien powers. Because our demo was short, I didn’t get the opportunity to try out any advanced powers, but the skill tree is fairly extensive. Neuromods shouldn’t be too hard to find either, as I ran into around four or five in the first hour.
One major difference between Dishonored and Prey is the setting. Dishonored features incredibly dense levels, with each having a few side missions and a major mission to complete. Prey features the same attention to detail as Dishonored, but there’s only the Talos I space station to explore and complete missions on. This makes Prey feel like a Metroidvania game, with players having to revisit old areas to find paths that were previously blocked or can now be unlocked with a new item or ability.
If you were to ask me how to best describe Prey, it would probably be that the game feels like a great mix between the Dishonored games and BioShock, with a dash of Deus Ex: Human Revolution thrown in for good measure. Action is quick and fun, the atmosphere is spooky without forcing too many jump scares and inventory and resource management will play a key role in ensuring you don’t get torn apart by aliens.
Prey is coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC on May 5, and if the quality of the rest of the game can compare to the first hour, it’s safe to start getting hyped for this one.
So what do you think? Are you interested in trying out Prey for yourself? Have you played any other Arkane games? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
