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Prey – First 15

by Nick Haywood on 18 July 2006, 16:29

Tags: Prey (PC), Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO), FPS

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Beam me up, Scotty...



Prey is the new shooter from 2K games , developed by Human Head for the PC and Venom Games for the Xbox 360 version, both of which are enjoying a simultaneous release.

Now I could go off on one about just how long Prey has been in development since it was announced but, given what we’ve been playing here, that would just be sour grapes as Prey is looking very cool indeed!

The first 15 of Prey starts off with you being introduced to your character, Tommy. He’s a Cherokee Indian who has never been happy living on the Reservation and went off to join the Marines. He’s back now and working as a dissatisfied mechanic, spending his time fixing cars and trying to persuade Jenny, his girlfriend, that they have to leave the Reservation to enjoy life together.

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Just as he and Jenny are having a row in her bar, strange lights appear in the sky. Everything shakes about a bit and Tommy’s Grandfather warns of it being a bad night ahead. Seems he’s right as the entire bar gets ‘beamed up’ in true alien abduction stylee, taking first grandfather, then Jenny and finally Tommy with it.

You pass out and come around strapped to a bench on a strange conveyor belt which is taking all three of you further into a huge organic machine where, with the help of a saboteur, you manage to break free… just in time to watch Grandfather processed by the machine and turned into prime Cherokee mince. Before he meets his grizzly (or perhaps gristlely end) Grandfather tells Tommy he’ll wait for him in the Afterworld, hinting at one of Prey’s more unusual gameplay tricks.

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So then the game really gets going, with Tommy exploring his way through what appears to be a half-machine, half-organic spaceship. As you work further into the game you discover that you’re on a planetoid sphere, which is actually a living thing and the aliens that you face are her offspring.

To help you battle the variety of gruesome and imaginative enemies you have your trusty monkey wrench which is good for close up blatting of the smaller guys, then you move onto an alien machine gun complete with zoomy sniper scope before progressing onto even bigger and more devastating weapons.