Prey Demo

In the era of unlimited sequels and remasters, it’s hardly any wonder that old games are being reimagined all over the place. Some are just HD versions of older titles, but some are actually new games that try to improve on the ideas of the originals, which is actually not a bad idea. Prey is a good example of this, because it just uses the name for marketing reasons, but the gameplay and everything else is entirely new, sort of.

To begin with, Prey is still a first-person shooter that pits you against alien monsters, but the approach is very different than in the original. In fact, this is more of a spiritual successor to the System Shock series, even if we already have a few other successors at this point, such as Bioshock. Hence, the focus is on atmosphere, picking your own path through the levels and using items to craft yourself useful objects.

The game allows you to choose between a male or a female character, and the story starts with an experiment gone wrong that has you escape from a weird simulation. Everything takes place on a space station called Talos I, which is under attack by weird aliens. The goal is fairly obvious, but the plot is actually infused in the environment, so you can go through the game without learning too much if you decide not to read the logs and the books that are scattered all over the place.

Although you can shoot your way out of most levels, you can also pick a more stealthy approach and sneak around the enemies sometimes. Each stage also features multiple exit points and paths you can take, so the experience is far from linear. You can pick up a variety of objects and store them in your inventory in order to craft items later on, as well as make use of mind-bending abilities instead of guns. Simply put, there’s a lot of freedom in the gameplay department, which is obviously a good thing.

Prey does a wonderful job when it comes to the atmosphere as well, because you truly feel trapped and scared sometimes. The enemies can be difficult to put down as well, but it’s all about making the most out of your abilities and trying to avoid combat whenever possible. The graphics are powered by CryEngine 3, and the soundtrack is incredible as well.

Prey is part remaster and part new, even if it seems like it tries to combine too many concepts and ideas into one. Somehow, Arkane Studios have managed to get everything right this time, especially in terms of gameplay and atmosphere. Thus, you can get many hours of fun out of Prey, regardless of whether you were a fan of System Shock or not.