REVIEW: Prey (PS4) — The Predator of my Predator is my Prey

I was an instant fan of Arkane Studios after playing 2012’s Dishonored. When I heard they were working on Prey, I was certain that it will have that same play-how-you-want formula the studio had become known for. In case you didn’t know, Prey was originally a first-person shooter developed by Human Head Studios where you fight aliens onboard a spaceship. After the cancellation of the game’s sequel following Bethesda Softworks’ rights acquisition, it ultimately found its way into Arkane’s hands. Though Dishonored was open-ended, it was primarily still a stealth game, whereas Prey seeks to really glorify the studios iconic formula with a fresh new setting and a bold new frontier.

S T O R Y

In Prey’s alternate reality, JFK’s survives his assassination, allowing him to further expand the US space program in cooperation with Russia leading to the development of Talos 1, humanity’s first space station orbiting the moon. The player takes on the role of Morgan Yu (who could either be male or female depending on your choice), a lead scientist at TranStar Corporation aboard the Talos 1. Yu is involved with developing Neuromods — neural implants injected through the eyeball that allows people to instantly learn new skills. New languages, vocational skills, fighting disciplines, you name it. Just pop one of those bad boys in your cranium and you could instantly play the piano like flipping Mozart.

Neuromods do, however, possess one major side effect which I won’t go into detail with as it’s pivotal to the game’s prologue setting the pace for the primary plot. In the spirit of science, Morgan Yu volunteers himself to the final stages of Neuromod testing. Given the nature of the test, Yu secretly sets up contingencies for himself in case one of many possible scenarios occur (think Ben Affleck’s Paycheck). Incidentally, more than one of these scenarios transpire simultaneously, and Morgan Yu finds himself unraveling the mysteries of Talos 1 all while dealing with a hostile alien outbreak that is at the core of TranStar’s research.

I’ve been already sold on the idea of a space-themed Dishonored, but Prey actually delivers a fascinating storyline around it.  The story’s got a gratifying amount of twists up its sleeve, and the pseudoscience surrounding the fiction is fairly believable, thought-provoking even. But what really makes its narrative so entertaining is in its open-ended interactivity. The choices you make impact the outcomes of the story. Of course, this sort of thing has been done before, but what is commonly done in a straightforward manner, Prey does indirectly. Where you decide to go, what skills you decide to learn, whose lives you choose to spare, can potentially impact future events.

There are no right or wrong endings. You take the information you are given, and you decide what to do with it. Will you sympathize with an NPCs cause or will you take matters into your own hands? Will you forgive or will you take revenge? The fate of Talos 1 and the people aboard it is ultimately in your hands. Your decisions often pay off spectacularly in the most organic way possible.

G A M E P L A Y

The game starts you off with nothing but a wrench for a bludgeon until you can find something better to protect yourself with. After the game’s introduction, I got a sense of what might be waiting for me out there. As I make my way through the game’s silent halls, an ominous tune begins to play, foreboding me of an immediate danger. As I brandish my wrench, ready to wack at anything that moves, I hear a piercing scuffle behind me. As I turn my back, I see nothing, except for a subtle wobble from a signpost 20 ft away from me.  With out taking any chances, I charged straight at it. The more I got closer, the more the signpost rattles uncontrollably until eventually morphing into an unearthly creature just before coming into contact with the blunt end of my wrench. Since then, I found myself creeping slowly towards my objective and frantically whacking away at every object in my vicinity. These mimics kept me at the edge of my seat. But it wasn’t exactly scary. It was more like a fun game of hiding and seek in where getting tagged could prove fatal.

Eventually, you’ll come across new weapons and Neuromods, with the latter allowing you to learn all sorts of nifty abilities, be it hacking through doors and computer terminals or the ability to knock things away with your mind. A lot of these abilities are essential but can be quite expensive to unlock. I was torn between getting the hacking ability or expanding my inventory; having hacking early on would allow me to bypass certain areas that might contain awesome loot, but without extra inventory space, I wouldn’t be able to carry much of what I’ll find. Ultimately, I decided to go for the hacking perk, only to discover a room shortly after that’s barricaded with heavy objects which I would’ve been able to lift had I considered taking the Leverage perk instead. You can recycle any item in your inventory using a space-age recycler stationed all over Talos 1. This recycler breaks down your items into its purest form which you can then use to transmute into entirely new objects using fabricators. You can make weapons and ammunition in a fabricator, eventually, you can also acquire fabrication plans to create valuable Neuromods.

Most of your skills and weapons can be used for both utility or combat. The GLOO gun, for instance, can not only immobilize your enemies but can also be used to create makeshift platforms for reaching areas you thought inaccessible. Getting creative with the tools at my disposal was the most entertaining aspect of Prey’s combat and exploration. The entire space station is your playground and all the areas are interconnected one way or another. Some areas are even in zero gravity, which makes for some fascinating albeit dizzying expeditions. Just about every aspect of the game’s combat and exploration is open-ended. There’s no right way to get into a room and there’s no one way to kill an enemy. Everything is left to your own imagination, and coming up with your own way of accomplishing a task feels instinctive and incredibly rewarding.

V I S U A L S  &  P E R F O R M A N C E

Prey’s doesn’t try to look flashy, though at times it really does. Instead, it focuses on delivering a believable atmosphere for a game that takes place in and around Talos 1. The space station itself tells a story, both in a visual and auditory context. Fans of Dishonored’s art style will find that it shares similar aesthetics. Though lacking in much variety, it makes up for some fascinating designs of the creatures you’ll encounter all throughout the game. The strongest contributor to Prey’s unique atmosphere comes from the soundtrack. They dramatically convey a convincing sense of dread of being aboard a disaster stricken space station. The music dynamically changes depending on the context of your current situation, maintaining an atmosphere that keeps you in the cosmic horror-esque premise. There is, however, one visual feature that I was really fascinated by. I don’t wish to say much about it as it could be considered as a spoiler, but the Looking Glass technology had me dumbstruck the first time I experienced it.

V E R D I C T

Prey is an exceptional first person sci-fi adventure. Arkane perfectly executes their open-ended gameplay formula whilst providing a fascinating world left for you to interact with however way you want.  Gamers that love a good twist will find plenty in Prey. How you choose to explore the mysteries of Talos 1 is entirely up to you, but each discovery is always more rewarding than the last.

[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]