Prey (PC)

I played Prey originally on the PC demo, and I must admit I was hooked from the beginning. It has quite an easy learning curve, especially for a FPS. I don't usually go for this kind of game, but I was bored and wanted to try something new. And I ended up going to the shops the next day and buying the actual game.

It is supposed to be based on the Doom 3 engine, and having played that too, Prey is definitely the best of the two.

The graphics are awesome, and the story actually makes you want to carry on playing just to see what happens next.

You end up walking on magnetic walkways, and sometimes don't know which way is up, and you wonder where that gunfire is coming from, until you realise that there is a floor up above you, and monsters are trying to shoot you. I did however find, that this kind of made me feel a bit dizzy and sick at times, but that just shows you how in-depth this game is, and how it sucks you right in.

One good thing I like about this game, is that when you die in most games, you end up starting again from the beginning of the level, which can sometimes get a little repetitive when you have to do it over and over again, but in Prey, when you advance further into the game, you get what's known as Spirit Walk, so when you die, you enter your spirit mode and enter a kind of mini game shooting these creatures to gain an extra life. When the time runs out, you are re-spawned back or nearby where you died. This then gives you the chance to carry on with the game without having to retrace your steps every 5 minutes.

I would recommend this game, but I would imagine that you would need to have a relatively high spec machine to see the graphics in all their glory.

When I played Doom 3 I was disappointed. I was promised stunning visuals and while the Doom 3 engine was capable of delivering them, they couldn't be seen because of the constant darkness. Prey really shows off what the Doom 3 engine can do, with stunning effects, environments and characters.

The story of prey is original; the human race are being farmed by an alien species that reside in a huge spherical spacecraft. You play Tommy, a native american who wants to leave an indian reservation with his girlfriend when the alien hordes strike. The game takes you through an epic adventure on the alien spacecraft where you can manipulate gravity and travel vast distances by stepping through a portal. Unfortunately the game's length is not of epic proportions and can easily be run through in a day or two. The low difficulty is partly to blame for this; there is no way to die on prey, you simpley travel to a "spirit plain" where you can replenish you health. To me this is a little boring, and removes the element of panic when you are creeping around with little health left or the sense of achievement when you finally beat an area that you have been trying for hours. There is no way to increase the difficulty without completing the game first (or hacking the config files) which was really annoying for me as i like to complete games on full difficulty the first time through.

As I have mentioned, prey allows the player to change the direction of gravity, travel through portals and experience spacial anomalies. You can walk down a corridor, turn a corner and see yourself at the end of the next corridor. The portal system is amazing, it confuses and delights, you may walk through a corridor and end up on the ceiling or the size of a hamster. I've actually felt sick a few times as I struggle to understand which way is which and just where I am.

Gravity can be manipulated in many areas and special pathways allow the player to walk on the wall in most. Few things are more confusing than shooting an enemy, forgetting you are upside down and staring in confusion as he falls upwards.

The weapons in prey stun will please you, with all of them incorporating organic parts. Rifles sprout eyeballs and look around when you aren't doing much and crab like creatures (the ammunition for one gun) try to escape before they are fired.

Prey is the game Doom 3 wishes it was, it meets and exceeds all expectations. If only the developers had made the game a little longer it would be perfect. Having said that I would rather have a short masterpiece like this than an epic damp squibb like Doom 3.

Prey works perfectly (over 30fps at all times) on full quality at 1280 x 1024 resolution with an athlon 64 3500+ 2GB of RAM and an ATI x850xtPE graphics card.

If you love FPS and you have a good system then you could do a lot worse than to buy prey.