A&E
Thrills ensue when humans become “Prey”
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It’s 2032. March 15, 2032 to be exact. Morgan Yu finds himself on the spaceship Talos I, with his life in danger. Yu has found himself as the prey of an escaped alien.
“Prey” is a first person shooter game that was released in May 2017. In my opinion the most likely reason for the name “Prey” is because the main character, a human, has lost his place at the top of the food chain. Alien creatures and rogue robots are on the ship around you. This game literally puts you in the form of the weakest prey.
You are just a simple human, not a warrior, at the beginning of the game. At first, your best weapon is a simple wrench that you plugged off a dead mechanic. You must use it to kill mimics—creatures who kill by disguising themselves as everyday objects and attacking when your guard is down. As Morgan tries to escape from the aliens and off the spaceship, he finds more powerful tools and weapons to help on your adventure.
Critics of this game hated the fact that they were underpowered for basically the entire game. However, I avoided asking myself, When am I going to be amazingly strong? and changed my mind to think like that of a small but intelligent creature, like a mouse. For most first person shooter games it’s easier to take down your enemies with each weapon you gain. In “Prey,” it still takes a significant amount of time to eliminate your enemies, even with new weapons, but maybe it’s supposed to simulate what you would actually do if you were in this situation.
Some critics also disliked that the fact that the aliens were only shadowy squiggly things without many color differences, but I liked the graphics of the game. I agree that they didn’t really differentiate in color, but with the atmosphere of the game, I couldn’t see many ways that the enemies could be colored while still being scary.
I really like the way “Prey” uses music, because it adds suspense. Right when you wake up, there is eerie music. Throughout the rest of the game, there’s either no music, which builds tension because you know there’s probably something around—you just don’t know where. When a mimic pops out, there’s a sound that startles you. The music makes you feel that you’re feeling that character’s suspense.
Prey also has multiple endings. Some only differ from each other slightly. The main possible endings include you leaving early, leaving with everyone, leaving alone, or saving the research.
At the end of the day I would give Prey the rating of 7 out of 10. I give it this rating for the music, graphics and my personal enjoyment playing the game.