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You'll "prey" for more!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 27 / 33
Date: July 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am a FPS (First-Person Shooter) junkie and I love the Halo, Star Wars Battlefront and Rainbow Six series games. As of this writing, I have completed Prey on "Normal Skill" and am now working my way through the "Cherokee Skill" difficulty setting. (NOTE: These are the only two difficulty settings available in Prey.)

To state it upfront, Prey blows the FPS genre wide open. The game uses the Doom 3 engine for graphics, and players will be amazed with the level of detail the designers have put into each level. Moreover, many of the items in the environment are interactive (you can flush toilets, change the channels on a TV, etc.), which is reminiscent of the Duke Nukem 3D game that this developer is famous for. In addition, the main character makes snide remarks through the game (just infrequently enough to be funny, and not overdone) just like Duke used to do.

Even if you're not entertained by all the cute gimmicks, you're sure to appreciate the incredible details that have been woven into this title. As you progress, you'll encounter anti-gravity levels, low gravity environments and "wormholes" that warp you from one location to the next. And, like the game design, the plot is equally intricate. Although this game seems like a "guy saves girl" story, there are some very exciting plot twists and the storyline is based on actual Cherokee mythology and uses "The Hero's Journey," a writer's tool for story structure and plot. Speaking of the plot, there's a super-natural horror element that adds a considerable amount of suspense to the game. This, along with the over-the-top violence and adult language, means you probably shouldn't buy this game for impressionable children. However, all of this is not gratuitous and really adds to the impact of the title.

On the Normal difficulty, health power-ups are frequent and -when you die- you're sent to an "Indian underworld" where you must shoot wraiths with your spirit bow, in order to replenish your health and magic energy... Certainly a refreshing twist from every game that sends you back to the beginning of the level. On the Cherokee difficulty, there are no in-game health packs, so you'll have to rely on your abilities with the spirit bow. Speaking of spirits, you're also provided with a hawk who's your "Spirit Guide." The hawk will help attack enemies and, interestingly enough, translate the alien language so that you can read their computer panels and other information.

One thing that other reviewers haven't mentioned so far is that there are "puzzles" scattered throughout the game. Without providing any spoilers, the game sometimes makes you think in order to progress any further. For the most part, these puzzles are entertaining and challenging, but aren't designed so that you must buy a "game guide" to solve them. Often, solving the puzzles requires use of the "old ways" of your Indian ancestry, items that exist in the alien environment, or just good old fashion brainpower. Another nice feature is that the game levels are not so big that you'll find yourself lost, but you may have to explore a little to figure out exactly where to go. These features add to Prey's uniqueness in that it is more of a "thinking man's shooter" than your standard FPS.

If you're in it for the Xbox 360 achievements, this game will deliver. Each time you complete a level, you earn Gamerscore (from 25-60 points per level, which increase as you progress). It's also important to note that 250 of Prey's 1000 points are earned by playing online. There's even 3 "secret" achievements (you don't find out what they are until you earn them) that are quite fun to unlock. All of the achievements are obtainable by the average gamer.

When it comes right down to it, Prey is a game that any FPS-fan will absolutely love for the engaging story and the unique features. In addition, novice gamers that find most FPS games too difficult should consider this the perfect entry-level title. Finally, any sci-fi fan who loved the movie "Aliens," and thinks they could take on an alien invasion like Sigourney Weaver did, should pick up this title and put their money where their mouth is.

An Interesting Addition to the Horror Genre

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 15
Date: October 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Prey is a horror-survival game with a twist - you're a native american who begins by wanting to get off his reservation with his Cherokee girlfriend. Space aliens help you respect your roots.

The game is incredibly dark, gruesome and mature. The lead character swears constantly, and you see numerous images of children, old people and other random humans being slain in nasty ways. This makes it not a game for kiddies.

Still, for adults, there are a lot of interesting aspects to the game. For starters, the alien spaceship that you end up in is "alive". There are metal parts, but there are also many organic parts to it. The weapons you pick up are usually alive. The "gun" has little moving tentacles on it. Another weapon is a multi-legged creature where you rip off acid-filled bits and fling at enemies.

There's also many physics-challenging areas. There are metallic floors a la Ratchet and Clank so you end up upside down and sideways. There are spheres with gravity so you walk all the way around them. There are teleportation portals to zap you from area to area.

I did like the intriguing mix of graphics - it gave its own "flavor" to this genre. The weapons, especially, really intrigued me. The sound in general is full of screams, squishes and cries for help, to help you feel that you were racing against time to rescue people. There wasn't an unnatural "throbbing soundtrack" most of the time, although it did come in in certain scenes to help add some mood.

In keeping with the Cherokee theme, they do include elements from Cherokee mythology including spirit guides, special abilities and puzzles to solve. You could consider this a gimmick that could have easily been explained in many other ways, but still, I like the fact that they tried. After all, there are probably 80-quadrillion games out there involving Japanese or Chinese myths, but I could probably count those involving Native Americans on one hand.

This game doesn't shatter any new boundaries, but it was fun to play.

Play Prey

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: July 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Prey is a bona-fide 5 star game. Play it soon because everyone is going to be raving about it. The SUMMER BLASTER for 2006 is HERE! Basically it is Turok meets Doom 3 on steroids. If you like first person shooters (fps), then getting Prey is probably the next best move you will make next to owning Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and F.E.A.R. The future of fps in space has not outlived its lifespan. If you liked Doom 3, which was the last good adrenaline pumping monster mash on Mars, then you will love Prey. Prey is back to basics again, whopping up the graphics considerably, brilliant lighting effects and a frightening story to boot that isn't afraid to have lots of gore and shocks around the corner. It has a certain feel of HALO about it too with its alien-type weapons. You play an Indian who has been beamed up off his reserve into a spaceship where the aliens are eating up the humans. Prey has awesome in-game action sequences and is quite shocking for the sum of its fiendish parts. You have an old Indian trick out-of-body-experience (OBE) which helps you to reach areas in the rooms you can't normally get to. The rooms also rotate when you shoot switches which offers various level puzzles to get through. Most of the time you totally loose your orientation which makes the play even more fun, especially when portals start opening after room rotations. Duke Nukem lovers will also enjoy the fun on display. An alien's severed hand to open doors is a nice touch. Art Bell's radio talk-show of the aliens invasion is broadcast at various junctions in the game. You don't die either. Well you do, but you are given unlimited chances to regenerate your blue or red health by shooting at blue or red birds in the land of your ancestors. It is a great idea and works. The Boss fights are massive. You even get to fly some aircraft with fire power. Running along anti-gravity tracks around rooms upside down and across walls while unloading your gun into the screaming aliens that have driven people insane who are crying banging on doors is probably reason enough to own the thing if it wasn't for the photorealistic gfx. Slime on the wall has never looked so real. The end boss battles are amazing. The graphics are simply outstanding. This is a high quality fps that deserves your time and CPU power. Prey it today.

*ADULTS ONLY*: contains VIOLENT GORE and BAD LANGUAGE.

An essential FPS for the 360

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: July 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game info pretty much summarizes the plot: you're a Cherokee man who gets sucked up into a spaceship along with your girlfriend and grandfather. Somehow you escape, and get to roam the organic ship hoping to free your girlfriend before she gets skewered & pureed. SPOILER: Grandfather's not so lucky.

In my mind, there are several things that really stand out about this game:

GRAPHICS: The graphics in this game are beyond impressive. In the first scene, you're in a bar that LOOKS COMPLETELY REAL. Even the drink specials written up on the chalkboard look 100% convincing. Take a minute and go play video poker, or mess with the jukebox. Other humans look real, too, especially when you mercilessly bludgeon them with a wrench and they start shaking uncontrollably.

MUSIC: Some great old songs play throughout the game. My personal favorite was Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" which plays as you and your posse get sucked up into outer space (appropriate, yes?). It could've used more cow bell, though.

STICKY WALLS: there are special walls throughout the game that you can walk on; you might hang from the wall side or follow it up to the ceiling. If you jump, you go straight down to the floor. Keep in mind that you might be getting shot by foes on the floor below you.

GRAVITY EFFECTS: Because you're in a space ship with artificial gravity, you'll find some rooms that have an adjustable gravitational surface. You'll think you've reached a dead end... until you switch gravity & turn the wall into the floor. Expect your character to vomit the first time you encounter this (a detail that I thought was a nice touch).

SPIRIT WALK: Throughout the game, you can leave your body to spirit walk. Your spirit can walk through force fields (etc.) to turn switches that you ordinarily couldn't reach. Or if you're pinned down by hunters/snipers, you can send your spirit to invisibly approach and take them out.

DEATH WALK: Whenever you die, you are given a chance to replenish your health & spirit meters by shooting wraiths (the dishonored souls of the dead). This is one of the coolest features of the game.

TALON: Fans of the movie "The Crow" will appreciate the spirit guide your character has. The pet hawk from your character's childhood returns to act as your spirit guide. He helps you find your way through puzzles & apparent dead-ends.

Anyway, I've only played a few levels but that's what I've found so far. I can only come up with a few cons:

ENEMIES: So far, it seems like you only have 3 basic enemies. The ship occasionally craps out these little lizard scavengers that will attack you (they're more annoying than dangerous). You also have the alien hunters who seem to come in small numbers (or with a few hounds) and are easily beaten. The ship itself appears to be the most dangerous of your enemies because it's constantly spewing acidic vomit, or crapping out explosive pods, or grabbing you with tentacles. None of this is really a con; I just want there to be a few Halo-like scenes where you've got a score of enemies to kill.

TALKING SCENES: A few scenes towards the beginning can be a little slow. Grandfather was trying to talk to me, so I thought I'd play video poker while he blabbed on. But he stopped talking and waited for me to return to the bar to talk to him. Very realistic, but I really just wanted to skip ahead to the alien killing.

Revolutionary Game...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: July 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

**Warning** I have only experienced the demo of this game, and my review may not be completly helpful, as the information may not pertain to certain aspects of the current title.

I downloaded this demo from xbox 360 marketplace and was instantly impressed from the start. The graphics instantly shoot to please. The story starts off dark and mysterious and ends up evolving to become better and better. There are amazing elements in this game, the way gravity has almost no effect on where you are... You may fight enimies upsidedown while they are on the ground below you.

The weapons are very ceatively mastered. The alien (rifle) that was the first weapon I found was semi-automatic and fired as fast as you could pull the trigger, but by aiming, it brought up a scope that fired 3 rounds at once and could kill most enimies in 1 shot. Creative distinctions such as these are what pull Prey ahead of any other (shooter/alien) game I have seen for the 360 to date. Definitley a worthwhile purchase.

Imaginative, bizarre and truly brilliant

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: July 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is a little like a number of other games I've played before, and yet quite unlike anything else. The addictive mix of intensive FPS elements with puzzles, alien environments, the use of out-of-the-body and even `fight when you're dead for the chance of rebirth' combat is so completely weird as to be utterly engaging. Plus the story isn't bad too (while we're not talking a Pulitzer Prize winning level of depth, it is much better than many recent games), the graphics are incredibly impressive for their scale/ambition, and both the voice acting and scripting actually have real heart and intelligence for a change. Basically, I'm hard pressed to find anything to complain about with Prey, although it's true that the 1 player experience is a little short, but with online multiplayer extension you can easily overlook that.

So, if you own 360 and you've been waiting for that one game and that one moment of "this was really worth the cash!" then your journey will probably start here. Thankfully, Prey marks the turn towards the glut of solid releases which the console has been crying out for, so even better is yet to come as Sam and the others will be here real soon...

Fun game, too bad Amazon wont ship it for a couple weeks

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 11
Date: July 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

the game was released today and I had placed an order for overnight delivery, only to find out I wouldn't get it for 2 weeks. Huh? Usually I get releases from Amazon before stores even get the item in. Every store from Best Buy to EBgames has it in stock today.
Needless to say I cancelled my order and went to purchase it locally.

Wow! Totally Addicting and Immersive

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: July 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is the most visually stunning game I have ever played. Like it much better than DOOM 3 because it is not as dark and you dont have the flashlight issue. Not as much of a firestorm game as the Halo series (which I love). It really is an amalgam of Doom 3, Halo, and Halflife 2 (with the puzzles).

Get it. Best FPS for 360 by far so far!!!

Native American Doom

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Graphics: Excellent.
Sound: Great.
AI: Excellent. Good variety. Some enemies duck-and-cover, etc. Some are fearless and charge on sight. Some are mindless and pay no attention to you.
Physics: Excellent.
Maps: Excellent. Rich, creative unique environments. Derivative of but improvement over Doom3 engine. Walk on walls, ceilings, spirit-walk through walls and over nothingness. Portals appear anywhere. Just walking through the game maps becomes a very original, sometimes disorienting experience instead of the regular doldrum "just get me to the end of this boring level". Nice merging of the earth bar with the ship. Excellent nod to Art Bell (real-life talk radio host that used to talk about aliens a lot) by having his show broadcast throughout the ship/game. Very very well done.
Gameplay: Excellent. No frame-rate drops. Excellent load time. I was never lost or trapped to the point where I had to consult the internet to figure out where to go and no scripted events failed to activate. Game length was long. Save-anywhere ability. Good variety of enemies and challenges.
Items/Weapons/Vehicles: Excellent. Unique biomechanical alien weapons which are alive, spiritual weapons charged by souls - very creative. Lighter instead of flashlight (original).
Story: Excellent. Compelling, engrossing story, a sense of urgency to complete things, you care about the characters and want to see where the story is going. Acting/voice acting was good.
Multiplayer: Average. no offline. Offline people deserve more - don't soak us for more cash.
Overall: 5/5. Game is a unique standout with it's native American Indian theme meshed with Alien tech and 3-D gameplay. One of the best 360 games for 2006 - must have. Clearly deserves better than the reviews it's getting.

FUN! ADDICTING! MUST HAVE GAME!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: July 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is an FPS on steroids. There are puzzles, cool weapons and lots of action. I am playing this game over and over. I haven't done that since the first days of PlayStation with Tomb Raider and Medal of Honor. The graphics are top notch. The portal system is so new and refreshing, as is the gravity switching. FPS games are a lot of fun for me in general, but when you add the new innovations of the portals and gravity switching...then you get a near perfect gaming experience...not too mention there is a decent story line throughout the game. I enjoyed the campaign version better than the online mode. There has been a patch released for this game that eliminates online bugs and gameplay is much improved, and it now kicks some serious butt. I think this game is worth the price just for the campaign mode. I played it in normal mode, and now I am going back through it in Cherokee mode, which is the hardest setting. The ending sets it up for Prey 2.

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