My Thoughts on Prey (Xbox 360)
Piece produced from excerpt 5/31/20–6/1/20
Acting as one of many solid launch titles for the Xbox 360, Prey stands above them all despite my somewhat frustrating time with it. It’s narrative weaves social subtext into it’s characters with relative nuance and it’s gameplay introduces concepts no other video game would broach until 2011’s Inversion. Even still, the gameplay mechanics aren’t one to one with these games, and both do enough to differentiate themselves in many ways. Prey is wildly inventive with its use of 3D space, but there are naturally going to be a few cons that come with it being so ahead of its time. Let’s get into things!
Despite sporting a first person perspective with decent variation in weapons available to the player, this game’s biggest and most apparent sin right off the bat is that it’s weapons don’t feel punchy. There’s an art to associating in-game kills with pure satisfaction, and it’s not observed well here. Pea shooters come to mind and then stay there till the end.
It’s primary gimmick of shifting gravity gets kind of old 8 hours in, but that comes from the mind of someone used to more modern experiences; this is all standard fare 14 years later for the games industry. But this tech was really impressive when the 360 released, and that shouldn’t be ignored. I found myself thinking about how only months prior to this game’s original release, we had substantially less power to work with in the original Xbox, certainly this tech could not have been doable there.
Speaking of standard fare, Simply put, it’s an alien abduction romp with all the accoutrements of the then-next gen tech. This is often very common among launch titles, often the tech takes the forefront to the narrative production. That being said, the story has an interesting twist to say the least. Along with being a gruff and jaded individual, your protagonist is among the first to be abducted from their indigenous tribe and reservation. He’s got his own qualms with his family having been there for so long, and has only recently returned to his home.
Since I’m white as can be, I don’t want to dissect this too much as I’m not nearly the person to do so with any authority. I will say, however that I’ve not often had the opportunity to play a game with such a unique perspective in such an absurd scenario. In that way it’s truly unique to this day. I can’t think of another game that has an edge even close to this game in terms of unique protagonists. Aside from his ethnicity however, he’s pretty standard. He yells at aliens wen he shoots them, gets angry when his family is hurt, and has the emotional range of a speedily written character to fit a deadline.
For the achievement hunters out there: You’ll be disappointed to know about half of the achievement are locked to multiplayer, a feature that hasn’t been live in a very long time. There’s no hope of 100 percent completion here. What achievements are free for the taking are all acquired through simply beating each level. It’s not all that original, and I found next to no joy when those achievements popped.
Admittedly, there’s not much else to say, I think it’s pretty obvious I’m struggling to keep this review coherent in how it flows. I think that’s mainly on account of the fact that the game is pretty standard. That being said, if it’s been on your backlog and you’ve always been curious about it, I think it’s worth a quick go. As a history lesson if nothing else, Prey is a great look into where tech in games was going circa 2005, and what kinds of ideas where being thought up then.
Still, I am lukewarm on this game, and I don’t really know if I can actually recommend the title. I’m glad I checked it off my backlog for sure, however all things considered, it’s not something I ever plan to replay.
Note: Prey had a sequel announcement years later, but was cancelled due to reasons not fully known. Publisher Bethesda merely cited the game wasn’t able to meet the standards the publisher had hoped for. Cut to more than 10 years later and the IP would go on to be revived in 2017. Using the same name, and acting as its own title free from the continuity of the past game, Prey 2017 is a very different game. I’d be happy to get around to that game at some point!
