Prey Gameplay Video Showcases First 36 Minutes

Our brief experience of Prey has left us itching to be able to immerse ourselves more comprehensively in the game.

What was surprising is how Arkane wove some subtle survival elements into the game…

When I took early points of hacking, I was excited to finagle my way into spaces that would otherwise be cut off, but I felt that sweet twinge of loss when I saw broken doors and access points that I couldn’t bypass because I didn’t take the fix skill. Prey is inspired by System Shock 2 as it features a grid inventory, skill trees, crafting, and a metroidvania-esque structure.

When the game begins, Morgan is preparing to undergo some unusual psychological and behavioral tests at the behest of her brother, Alex. Suddenly, the cup transforms into this black spider-like creature; it pounces onto the scientists face. The test chamber is filled with gas and Morgan passes out. This made us jump the first time, the second time and, we assume, continue to make us jump for the duration of the game. Armed with a wrench and being guided via radio by a nameless figure calling himself a friend, I admired the futuristic Art Deco motif of Talos 1. You can swing a mean wrench, but each swing uses up stamina from a limited, constantly recharging meter.

What follows is a tense survey of the station. Instead, there are ink-black aliens roaming the halls and disguising themselves as nearly anything – cups, tools, clipboards – to strike. Audio logs, a conventional storytelling method inherent to this brand of FPS, give you an optional way to dig deeper into these virtual lives without demanding that you listen to all – or any – of them to make progress.

It was an incredibly unusual feeling to get my hands on Prey for the first time. As Morgan starts to search the station to find out what happened, and what’s been happening to her. You quickly receive an incoming call from Alex Yu, who advises that a helicopter is on the way to pick you up.

These tests are the game’s basic tutorial, but it doesn’t outstay its welcome and Arkane Studios toys with the formula just enough, adding a constant feeling that something isn’t right which ramps up the tension.

In the first couple minutes of the game, you’ll grow to realize that the world as Morgan sees it is an illusion.

The role-playing side of things comes into play with what Prey calls “neuromods”.

Does the fact that you can choose your gender in the beginning play out in any way in the game, or is it the same regardless?

The story trailer for Prey was revealed at E3, 2016 and lured players in with its sinister soundtrack and, what appears to be, a disturbing timeloop. It’s a little clichéd, but still very nicely done and cinematic as it paints you, the player, and Morgan Yu into the same position, of not really having a foggy clue what’s actually going on. You can inject yourself (apparently in the eye, which is cutely depicted) with liquids that enhance your abilities.

While there are a few moments early in the game where it feels like you are stuck adhering to a certain completion method due to the initial lack of ammunition and the need to encounter certain environmentally-triggered plot points, it’s clear that Arkane is trying to craft an experience that treats choices in gameplay as more than a matter of “Option A” or “Option B”. You can crouch and sneak around the TranStar space station, or go in guns-a-blazing.

Combat-wise, the gameplay felt a bit like a combination of Half-Life and Resident Evil, thanks to a goo gun, wrench, ammo scarcity, and powerful enemies. The games ask players questions about how they use their power, and what expression they’re willing to have that power make on the world and other people.

Of course, depending on how the mysteries of Prey play out, that issue may not be as problematic as it seems at first. One type of alien, called a Mimic, has the ability to disguise itself as just about any item in a given room, so you are never sure if you are alone or not. This Prey takes place on a space station orbiting Earth and concerns an alien threat, but beyond those base elements it’s a very different game: one darker, and with a psychological edge. “There are consequences throughout and at the end, especially for what you do with the survivors that you meet”. I could have taken powers that boosted my sneaking skills, a hacking skill, and even a “Leverage” skill which would have allowed me to lift some of the heavy objects I found blocking doors in the space station’s fancy but thoroughly wrecked-by-aliens lobby. Rapture’s Splicers are like deranged, deformed drug addicts who will kill you on sight for sport, but even they live in fear of the hulking Big Daddies.

“We don’t have an explicit abstract morality system, like ‘High Chaos, ‘Low Chaos, ‘” he explained. There’s a lot of ambition in this title, and I’m pleased that it’s more focused on doing its own thing, instead of retreading ground that so many other reboots have to do. “Sometimes it has an immediate, short-term outcome, and sometimes it has long-term consequences related to the endgame”.

Oh wow, this game is pretty. However, after only a few minutes into this title, it’s clear that all isn’t as it appears as players are treated as if they are a patient undergoing a unsafe examination. After only an hour on the station, we find ourselves drawn back – and anxious about what we’ll find.