Prey (2017) PC Review

Prey (2017) is the reboot of the 2006 game of the same name but it’s a reboot in name only and the premise that you fight hostile aliens.

Story:

You play as Morgan Yu and you work with your brother, Alex, on a secret project that we pretty much know nothing about. After the brief experiment the scientists are attacked by weird aliens that look like spiders. You are knocked out and you wake up in your apartment and seemingly nothing has happened. (Here is a minor spoiler but once you exit your apartment you realize that your life was a simulation the entire time and you’ve really been on a space station named Talos 1.)

After getting out you meet up with an operator named January who briefly explains the situation. The station has been overrun by Typhon aliens and if they reach Earth that will mean that the entire existence of humanity is put at risk and you have to do whatever it takes to stop them from getting off the station.

Prey has a very intriguing story with plenty of plot twists to surprise you along the way. While the plot takes a while to get going, it does pick up pace and has a pretty impressive twist ending that actually shocked me.

Graphics:

Prey is not the best looking game. While it’s not by any means terrible looking, it does look rather bland for a game that came out in 2017. A lot of characters look like they were ripped out of Dishonored (another Arkane game) and were put into spacesuits to match the tone of the game.

With that said, the space station looks awesome and the initial reveal that you are actually in space is rather jaw-dropping once you reach the lobby of Talos 1. Another strong point are some of the enemy Typhon designs. While most of the time you will fight the same enemies throughout the game, their design is very cool to say the least. My favorite enemy is is called The Nightmare and whenever I saw it I wanted to hide until it went away so they definitely nailed that aspect of the game.

Audio:

Prey has absolutely amazing sound design; everything from the soundtrack to the sound effects are absolutely top notch. So let’s go bit by bit. First of all, the voice acting is great throughout the game. Each character has decent voice acting and everyone does a believable job.

Next up is the overall sound design and that is absolutely amazing. Both the ambiance of the station is great and helps build an amazing atmosphere that causes tension to rise when you are trying to be more careful and not to attract attention from the enemy aliens.

The soundtrack was composed by Mick Gordon (the same guy that did DOOM 2016) and he does a great job – the music in Prey is absolutely amazing. While not as great as his soundtrack for DOOM, the synth type music he composed for this game is really good.

Gameplay:

The gameplay in Prey is hit and miss. When I started playing the game, I was at first not a fan of the shooting and the other mechanics. So let’s take it one thing at a time. First of all, the gameplay is definitely inspired by Bioshock (maybe owing more to System Shock), but Prey has it’s own twist. You can find weapons around the station to help you fight against the Typhon ranging from pistols to shotguns and grenades. But there’s an addition that is really cool and that is the GLOO gun.

The GLOO gun is used to stun enemies where they stand which lets you to get a few hits in before they can fight back. There are other cool uses for the GLOO gun ranging to fixing stuff around the station and using it to build platforms which help you reach places you normally can’t. It’s just plain fun just to mess around with the gun.

Another thing you can use to fight back against the Typhon are both human and aliens powers you get by using Neuromods. But again the game makes you think carefully about where you spend your Neuromods as acquiring more alien abilities causes the security system of Talos 1 to consider you one of the Typhons.

Prey is not an easy game and you will die a lot. In my playthrough I had a hard time in certain sections where I would run out of ammo and had to take a stealthier route to actually get to my objective and it became a sort of pain. Running into two bullets you could use would become a miracle so if you intend to survive you will need to be very resourceful.

The Talos 1 space station is free for you to explore meaning you can go wherever you want; even outside into space if you wish. There’s a bunch of stuff to do around the station so you will definitely find something interesting to accomplish and your choices will determine what kind of ending you will get.

Verdict:

Prey is an amazing game and in my opinion is highly underrated. While the gameplay is a hit and miss, I still enjoyed my time with it. But of course if you expect to be a Rambo type hero and just shoot your way to victory you will have a hard time. However, if you like a challenge and a great Sci-Fi story, Prey is definitely for you.