Prey gamescom Preview

Prey has had an interesting development history, from its very original release 10 years ago, it was an unusual first person shooter where you play an American Indian abducted by Aliens. After escaping you fight your way through the spaceship to save your family. A sequel was in the works, Prey 2, but this is where the development trouble began, we got a reveal trailer showing off a new setting and protagonist. With a focus on bounty hunting it was shaping up to be something original, but when the troubles began it ended with its cancellation.

Now, next year we’re set to see the games’ revival brought to us by Arkane Studio’s, the team behind Dishonored. During a gameplay presentation at gamescom 2016, I had the opportunity to see how things are shaping up.

Prey is back, but only in name. It’s something entirely different, it’s not about Alien abduction or bounty hunting, no, something different threatens and it takes place all onboard a space station called Talos 1. You play Morgan Yu, the guy in the reveal trailer with an eye infection. Little is known about him, but more is revealed as the story progresses. One thing is for sure, something isn’t right about the station. The crew is missing, the place is wrecked and it’s up to you search for answers.

Prey remains a first person shooter but is more story driven, it reminded me of System Shock and Arkane’s own Dishonored. That atmospheric sense of isolation as you explore and learn more about the station. Throughout we were told that players can take multiple paths and searching and exploring the environments can help unfold the mysteries behind Talos 1. The environments themselves are enriched with a full on sci-fi design with vibrant lighting, tubing, monitors and wall displays dotted in a similar fashion to the futuristic world of Deus Ex. It’s not just limited to the station, though, exploration can be taken through the vacuum of space. We were briefly shown traversal across the station with a gorgeous view of the stars and planets, but also a glimpse of damaged across the station showing that threat isn’t just contained within.

As you progress through the station, Morgan is capable carrying a number of weapons to defend himself from the ongoing threat. The threat being twisted shadow like Aliens that can morph themselves into different objects, but these were only just a taste as further on the Aliens grew in size, and require a lot more work take down. Fortunately, the weapons shown have to a many number of uses, you had your standard pistol, but what impressed the most was the showcased GLOO cannon. This had its uses in and out of combat. The GLOO cannon launches globs of hardening cement when fired upon the approaching enemies it would freeze them in place allowing for an easier dispatch. Outside of combat, we saw its use in creating elevated paths or climbable ledges to get to unreachable places.

Weapons can be upgraded and modified using fabrication stations throughout. You can also use Recycle Charges, a grenade-like device that sucks in scrap and components turning them into crafting materials for use with your weapons.

It’s not just the weapons that can be upgraded, Morgan can too. He has a number of abilities that can be used to, not only combat the Alien menace but can also assist with the many puzzles within. The powers that the Aliens use can be transferred to Morgan using a Neuromod. It doesn’t look to be the most pleasant of devices, as you’re required to put a needle into your eye to access. The abilities you get are the same used by the Aliens, one of which shown off is Mimic. Mimic allows you turn into objects in the environments, the developers said it could be anything in the world and can be used to stealthily move through the rooms or to solve puzzles - in the demo Morgan turned into a coffee mug and rolled under a counter of locked room. Other powers were a little simpler like the ability to lift heavy objects and launch them at enemies. There certainly looks like there will much variety in abilities to cater for any player's play style.

After seeing the presentation I was pleasantly surprised by the new design of Prey. I wasn’t expecting to see such an immersive sci-fi experience, Arkane has impressed before with Dishonored. Even though just like the reveal trailer, details of the story are thin, it still intrigues and I look forward to seeing more when it makes its arrival in 2017.