Prey (2017): A Deadly Game of Hide and Seek in Space

Combat focus is nearly essential to survival in my opinion. Blammo indeed!

Continuing with my backlog, the last game I was able to complete during my Thanksgiving break was Prey (2017), a game that I had tried playing a few years before this but couldn't really get into. A survival-(sorta)-horror, Prey is generally not within my wheelhouse, but the lure of space and feeling that I didn't give it a chance proved to be too tempting. It's a game that I haven't really seen before, one in which player choice is everything and you're always on the clock, there's a few hiccups here and there, but on the whole it "just works". It was a game that I very much enjoyed playing despite its challenge, so let's get into it, just like old times.

Never thought I'd encounter body horror that would make my skin crawl, but here we are. Those needles go into your eye by the way...

Prey's story is all about the simulacrum, or copies of reality, and no, this isn't The Matrix. It really only came together when I really thought about it but I'd rather not veer into spoilers. You've essentially what amounts to a single task: escape the space station Talos I by whatever means, and/or deal with an incursion of shape-shifting and dimension-hopping shadow aliens named the Typhon. Yeah, it's wack, and on top of this the setting is an exercise in historical revisionism to add to the intrigue. In this timeline, JFK survived his assassination, and the space race continued, with both the Soviet Union and United States (among others) launching humanity forward in technology and scientific achievement. However, now the race is over, but mankind's dreams of the stars are not, so corporate interests enter the picture, and one can expect what sort of things that starts. It's a fairly scientific-seeming game, with a lot of underlying themes related the the STEM field and theories about ethics (brought on by your choices, of which you are never deprived). There's never really any question of good and evil in Prey, only whether you're willing to act ethically, or unethically. It's quite intriguing despite the seeming lack of depth and some unnecessary padding. A summary of your playthrough with your choices made being listed once you complete the game offers an excellent thought experiment and launching pad for more playthroughs. On top of that there's the usual memos and audio logs that you can expect from this sort of game, but there is a lot of personality and side stories to be discovered by hunting for these, ranging from the amusing, to the heartwarming, to the disquieting. I'd say that they're worth checking out, not only for the codes to areas and items given by them, but also for their characterization to boot.

Probably the most fun combat sequence in Prey, you get to see (and help) the largest group of survivors take on an onslaught of Typhon. Goes a little too short though.

In terms of gameplay, Prey is all about exploration, expression, creativity, and quick reflexes. In all honesty it's quite exhausting to play, mostly due to the lightning-fast movement and hit-and-run tactics of the Typhon.  There's several varieties, ranging from sneaky bastards to deadly bastards, though they all hit pretty hard. You're frequently thrown into combat when you do not expect it (and aren't ready for it), and this proved to be immensely taxing for my poor poor reflexes and brain. Don't be like me, take breaks. Combat itself I found to be rather basic (though this is coming from a guy who did not gain any Typhon powers), with a definite focus on mobility and using abilities to turn the tide. It's fast and lethal, with each combat encounter taking maybe thirty to forty-five seconds each Fortunately, outside of combat Prey is rather soothing to play, acting frequently as a massive escape room. There's several different ways to play (and complete the game), and thanks to achievements and a statistics screen at the end of your playthrough, Prey is very encouraging of both specialized and general playstyles. Helping in this feeling, there's also generally at least three ways to go about solving any obstacle you encounter, be it a door, objective, or hazardous area. You could hack a door open, but you could also use your GLOO cannon to build a staircase over the wall, or you could sneak in through one of the vents, the list goes on. Speaking of choice, there's a lot of ways to allocate skills and weapon upgrades, you could completely forgo these strange and weird science weapons, or you become pumped full of alien genetic material and be some sort of psychic wizard, and as earlier the list goes on. Hell, you don't even have to "level up", play the game how you want to play it. For those that choose to level up, there's a nice power creep to the gameplay, with you going from sneaking, hiding, and being surprised by the Typhon to being the aggressor in engagements. I found it to be very satisfying by the end of my playthrough to charge at a phantom, activate my combat focus, and see its surprise as I blasted my shotgun into it. Great stuff. There's no money in this game, but there is a lot of material aboard Talos I. Pretty much everything you use will come from being crafted by a combination of four materials at a replicator (this is the future y'know?). Packrats rejoice as well because practically everything (barring a few things) you encounter can be recycled and turned into material, including enemies. But that's enough of the good stuff, what didn't I like? Well on top of just how draining it is to play this rather exciting game, I disliked the 'nightmare' sequences and the progressive difficulty. As I mentioned earlier, combat is fairly random. Enemies respawn in areas that you already cleared, but these enemies will be much tougher and more dangerous varieties than the ones you faced at first, making backtracking (essentially how the endgame works) almost more hazardous than clearing the area the first time. One of the characters did mention that the Typhon's presence would grow with time, but to be honest I'm not sure whether there's a timetable or if it's based on where you are in the story. There are precautions you can set to 'secure' zones, such as setting up some sentries, but outside of an ambush or two I found these precautions to be entirely pointless. No matter what I did I would always return to the area just in time to see some phantoms knock them over like the insolent whelps that they are. Nightmares however, are my biggest gripe. The concept is that the Typhon are not appreciating your efforts to foil them so a big boy shows up to stop you. It's a good idea, and since I only encountered three during my playthrough they felt like appropriately-placed bosses. The problem with that is that they are randomly spawned, and not introduced. I had my first one pop up out of nowhere right in front of me with no fanfare in the crew quarters. Due to their immense damage output and speed this lead to me experiencing death after death as I tried to run from, then fight this enormous foe without any real direction, and that was probably the low point of my experience.

It's a little surreal looking at the recordings of Alex (right) and Morgan (left). Alex frequently sounds like a mastermind in his directives, but in these he's a voice of caution and concern. Strange.

The atmosphere of Prey is strange, and difficult to describe without going into spoiler territory. As pretty much the last living person aboard the space station, it's to be expected that there's a lonely aspect to your experience, but it goes beyond that. There's this weird undercurrent of alienation throughout the game. You not only get hints of your earlier actions being seen as strange and unsettling, this extends to the visuals and audio. Each of the humans you encounter are, dare I say, quite unappealing. It does make sense given that this is an elite space research station (and can you really expect the best minds in several fields to look very appealing?), and I will give points for realism, as I think this is the first time I've seen so many skin imperfections in a game. One guy even has a pigmentation, which is another first-time thing I've seen in a game. Each of these characters also sound as attractive as they look, but in a good way, as in their voice matches their appearance or isn't silky smooth, like real people. It's a strange thing to think about, that a move towards realism with characters I would find so unsettling, but on the other hand it feels deliberate, because how strange is it that you're the only "normal-looking" and sounding person on the ship. Something's up, and I like it. I also love the music of Prey, in the calm moments (with the speakers track being my favorite) the soundtrack has a real Tangerine Dream feel to it. The game itself looks iconic, with all the environments of Talos I's interior (that's designed for habitation and admin work) having a retro futuristic look to them, an aesthetic style that I adore. The ship is also filled with countless hitherto unseen (by me) hidden nooks, crannies, and other features. If you find a screen, there's a good chance that there's something behind it, which is just one of the cool level design things I encountered in my playthrough. Outer space is another highlight, with it being a sort of contradiction. Peaceful enough, yet unsettling. Beautiful, yet frightening. Like you're gliding along a calm black lake, while swimming in an endless abyss. It's really quite something, and Prey's the first game I've played in which outer space really feels like, well, space.

Nothing more relaxing than a nice view of the Milky Way and music from a speaker, the company could be more animated though...

Those are my thoughts on 2017's Prey. I'd definitely recommend it, though for sure take breaks (coming from a guy who's arguably in the prime of his life). It's very different from most first-person-shooters, and it creates an excellent blend of action and creative puzzle-solving (gotta use both sides of that brain!). It's also one of the first games I've seen where you have essentially free choice and will from start to finish. This is on top of the strange yet compelling presentation, combined with arguably one of the more accurate depictions of space I've seen in a game. If you want to play something that will help you get lost in a problem-solving frenzy for a while while still being able to blast your problems away, I'd seriously recommend Prey to help shake things up, and yes, that pun was intentional.

Fantastic, nothing like entering an unknown area and being told to either kill a creature that can one-shot you or to run for two minutes in a zone you've never been in before.