Game Review: Prey

Ineffective weapons might dampen your experience of fighting the aliens in the new action-shooter 'Prey'

Playing Prey feels new and old at the same time. The developers seem influenced by FPS games like System Shock, Deus Ex and Bioshock, offering an amalgamation of choice elements from these classics. The result is something that seems familiar, but is unique in its own way.

The game starts with you choosing between a male or female version of Morgan Yu, a research scientist. You go through a series of tests that are meant to be completed with mental powers.

Unfortunately, no one sent you that memo so you do them normally, only to overhear the scientists mocking you from behind the screen.

The game transforms from that scene into a grim scenario where you are trapped on a rather large spaceship with most of the human population decimated by an alien species known as Typhon. The mimics, the lowest level amongst the aliens, reproduce by consuming what seems like the life force of people they kill and they hide in plain sight by mimicking every day objects.

The thought that anything you interact with can be a mimic is fairly terrifying and it will genuinely churn your stomach as you debate if that awesome weapon just lying around is a mimic or actually a weapon that you can use to kill them.

The music also plays a huge role in building the environment of fear. Though the location is supposed to be one ship, the game will certainly drive any gamer mad as they go back and forth through sections of the spaceship unlocking things.

Mimics are fairly annoying and difficult to kill. The weapons are also ineffective at killing these creatures. In most situations you will find it easier to use your mental powers to defeat enemies.

The story of the game is not told to you in a preface or in a tutorial, but instead Prey lets you discover the story as you go along. It is a refreshing change. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the end. To put it lightly, it is a total let down. Fortunately, the game is more about the journey rather than the end. If you ignore the stupid end, the game is actually pretty good and the continuous backtracking can up the gaming time to over 30 hours.

Prey
Rating: 4/5
Developer: Arkane Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Price: PC: Rs 2,999; consoles: Rs 3,999

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