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Prey


When this game first hit the shelves I was eager to buy it, it seemed to have all the poise of a great FPS, the right sort of enemies and more importantly a substantial plot. So when I saw the game for £30 I would have easily parted with my money to own it, however, due to the high PC specs there was no way in hell my PC would play it, for the first time my PC had taken a bullet for me without me realising. A year later I got myself a 360. For some reason I took a rare, level headed approach and downloaded the demo. I was amazed, it looked awesome, the graphics were slick and nearly everything was interactive from the light switch to the toilet seat. For the first time my Xbox had lied to me without me realising it. Another half a year on and I buy the game… and so our story begins… For anyone who's played the demo the beginning of the game will be familiar and moreover prove to be just as fun on a second play through. The game begins in a bar, in which you are introduced to Tommy, the protagonist, Jen, the love interest and Grandfather (I forgot his real name), the… grandfather. Everything in the game seems to be flowing quite well, there are arcade machines in the corner which you can actually use, a TV which you can watch and a Jukebox you can listen to. It's all rather nice. The story then abruptly starts by abducting Tommy and Co. to an alien spaceship, which to be fair is poorly expressed and furthermore kind of anticipated. You play for a few levels with nothing much to complain about except maybe a sequence baring close resemblance to one in Half Life 2 and a seemingly basic looking alien enemy. However after about three levels you gain what is known in the trade as "Spirit power". This spirit power not only gives Tommy the supernatural abilities spirit walk and spirit bow, given only for the purpose of making puzzle that extra bit longer (not harder) but also destroys the game. I assume there is a rational reason for this I.E the creators were held at gun point to do so, for amongst the super natural abilities is the power to… not die… At first this sounds great but let's consider for a second, not dying means: 1. Guns need not get more powerful 2. Enemies need not get more powerful 3. The game need not continue 4. The game becomes not a challenge of skill but a challenge of patients 5. The game becomes one of the easiest games ever 6. The achievements are without achievement 7. Someone made the decision to do such a thing (and should regret it!) Of course you do not walk around bullet proof, your body does die but in dying you are transported to some astral plane in which you have to wait twenty seconds or so to be revived. Whilst in this plane you are only revived to half health but they let shoot down blue spirits for a top up of spirit power and red spirits for health. After the twenty seconds are up your back in, all the enemies you killed are dead and all the enemies you injured are injured. I continued the game from here onwards for two reasons, achievement points (too generous to pass) and so I could find out the next atrocity and tell my friend about it down Xbox Live. It was not long until I found my next point of annoyance. In getting the spirit powers you are given an ally of a spirit bird and if this had been done properly I.E you can command it or what have you, it would have been a nice addition, instead it ruins the game further. It effects the puzzles, the only thing left in the game untainted by the health issue, this bird sits on the switch you need to push or points out the area you are meant to get to by flying to it. What's left of the puzzle's difficulty is easily figured out as all it really involves is turning the room upside down by shooting a panel on the given wall you want to make the floor and once you've done it once or twice it becomes common practice. Turning the room upside down the first time is quite impressive, gravity changes and you are disorientated. The monsters are walking on the ceiling… or is that the floor? But on the fourth fifth and dare I say it hundredth time it just seems like the gimmick which it is. As for the plot, it never really sets off. Tommy is an arrogant character who denies everything and in doing so severs any developments the plot tries to make. Admittedly there are certain instances which start and are quite good, for example these ghost children start running about and the game becomes creepy and for the first time thrilling but on the change of a level these creatures are forgotten and therefore disappear, why? As I mentioned before the guns and monsters need not be mentioned as they are no irrelevant and multiplayer is not played by anyone and therefore you miss out on 200 gamer points (if you care about that sort of thing) Overall, this game had all the potential of a great game but is beaten in difficulty by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Author: Fishstick

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