MaximumPC 2006 10

reviews Tes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized

102 MAXIMUMPC october 2006

P

rey has been a long time coming—it

was originally announced in 1997,

then cancelled, and then recently

revived. Though it brings some innovative

gameplay to the table, by the time you

get to the end (the game’s only four to six

hours long), Prey’s run out of tricks and it

plays just like any other shooter.

We should state right from the start

that this game, like many other shoot-

ers, begins brilliantly. You are a Cherokee

Indian enjoying an evening in your

girlfriend’s bar, when all of a sudden an

alien ship sucks you, your girlfriend, and

your grandfather into its underbelly. This

totally kills your buzz, obviously, and for

the next few hours it’s up to you to lay

down some Native American smack on the

alien interlopers. You don’t have any clue

what’s going on for the first few hours of

the game, which we found frustrating. We

don’t need a story spoon-fed to us, but we

would have appreciated just a little more

exposition. As it is, it’s not until the game’s

finale that everything comes together and

makes sense.

In most respects, Prey is a fairly stan-

dard first-person shooter, but the game

does innovate on several fronts. The first

“new” thing is the game’s use of portals,

which allow you to move from one area

to another unconnected area by stepping

through a wormhole. Though they’re used

in a few simple puzzles, the portals are

essentially nothing more than fancy doors.

It’s a shame they don’t add any interesting

or unique dimensions to the gameplay.

The second way in which the game

innovates—and is truly a pioneer—is in

upside-down gameplay. Through the use

of vertical walkways and switches that

invert the environment, you find yourself

walking on the ceiling and shooting at

bad guys above you, below you, or on

the walls next to you. Some rooms have

switches that you shoot to invert the

entire room, causing you to flip upside

down. It’s utterly sickening at first, and

your character brilliantly says “I’m going

to be sick!” if you flip-flop the gravity too

much. Then he pukes his

guts out, just like you feel

doing. The first time the

world turns, it’s an excep-

tional gaming moment,

and after a few spins

the upside-down action

becomes more tolerable.

We also like the game’s

“spirit walk” feature, where

you leave your body and

walk around like a ghost.

You use the feature to solve

rudimentary puzzles, and we

enjoyed slaughtering ene-

mies and swallowing their

souls in spirit-walk mode.

Where the game

comes up short is in the

FPS bread-and-butter:

combat, weapons, and

puzzles. The weapons are interesting in

that they are all organic (living, breath-

ing creatures, in other words), but for the

most part, they’re just the standard FPS

fare—reskinned. The only truly original

weapon is a creature whose legs double

as grenades. You tear one off and chuck

it at your foes, then watch them go boom.

The sniper rifle/machine gun, rocket

launcher, and shotgun all look very cool

but deliver no new thrills. The combat

is utterly forgettable, with dumb AI, and

nary a memorable incident or foe to be

found. The puzzles are frustrating, unin-

tuitive, and repetitive.

“MultiPreyer” could be entertaining, as

the game’s gravity-switching, wall-walking,

and portal gimmicks play a prominent role.

But the included maps are all too massive—

more suited to a 32-player fragfest than an

intimate eight-man encounter. And they’re

much too large for the one-on-one stalking

that the weapons would be perfect for.

—Josh Norem

Prey

A fun game, when you aren’t hurling

It’s time to wash this guy’s mouth out with slime.

Prey is full of portals, and they look way cool. Unfortunately,

they’re nothing more than fancy-looking doors. $50, http://www.prey.com, ESRB: M

PREY

wall-walkIN g

Looks great, wall-walking

is cool, and portals are fun.

UpchUckIN g^7

Bland combat and enemies,

so-so MultiPreyer, and too short.