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A sci-fi thriller where you are seemingly alone on a space station infested with aliens is not an original concept for a video game – the team behind Prey would probably admit as much themselves.
But sitting down with Prey, the reboot of the mid-2000s game of the same name, you actually find something original that instantly intrigues.
This is far from a repackaging of an old concept – the one hour preview we had showed us a game with an eye-catching art style as well as a story full of mystery and a healthy dose of suspense.
This is what we know so far about a game that could be one of 20117′s surprise packages.
Prey sees you take on the role of Morgan Yu – a character you have the choice at the top of the game to play as either male or female – and begins with you agreeing to take part in some mysterious psychological tests to appease your brother Alex.
In the midst of these tests an alien creature attacks one of the doctors observing you and soon after you find yourself on the space station Talos 1, which has been overrun by the aliens – shape-shifting creatures known as the Typhon.
By this point it has become clear that Morgan has been the subject of experiments for far longer than he or she realised, which have left large holes in Morgan’s memory.
So you begin hunting down clues as to what the reasoning was behind these tests and how and why the Typhon have come to infest Talos 1.
As you may have already thought reading that description, there are aspects of horror in Prey. Though it is predominately an action game, the nature of the Typhon and their shape-shifting means there are plenty of jump scares when seemingly innocuous items suddenly turn into a creature that’s keen to kill you.
Within this setting there’s a healthy amount of variation to the game – encounter a locked door and there are multiple ways to advance – you can either hunt for the keycard or passcode to unlock it, or use vents and other alternative routes to get around it.
For the most part, Talos 1 is almost an open world space station for you to explore at will scavenge for supplies.
The game’s soundtrack also deserves a mention, it’s a brilliant mechanism for suspense that constantly builds to false crescendo that keeps you on edge.
One of the core elements of the gameplay though comes in the form of ‘neuromods’. These are enhanced skills humans are able to give themselves through implants administered through your eye.
There are three main skill sets – hacking, engineering and combat – and they bring an element to role-playing to Prey that is a happy surprise, as players can now plan ahead based on the skills they believe they’ll need to survive, whether that be more ability to craft useful items, be faster at opening doors or straight up fighting off foes.
The broader control system and first person view is familiar and easy to get used to – you’ll have played games that mechanically work like this before and it means you can focus on Morgan’s story.
Prey thrives on the mystery it creates from its opening scenes, in our relatively short preview time we encountered several big plot twists – including one of the biggest and best in the game that dramatically shifts the player’s perspective of the universe in which they are immersing.
For storytelling, Prey should be applauded for the way it happily misleads, startles and engages with the player from the very beginning. It turns an overly used premise – that of being alone on a space station – into a fresh and exciting experience.
Crucially, it’s also one that is fun to play and as such, Prey might be the biggest surprise of 2017.
