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Prey (2017 video game)

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This article is about the 2017 video game. For the 2006 video game, see Prey (2006 video game).

Prey
Developer(s)Arkane Studios
Publisher(s)Bethesda Softworks
Director(s)Raphaël Colantonio
Designer(s)Ricardo Bare
Writer(s)Ricardo Bare
Chris Avellone
Composer(s)Mick Gordon
Raphaël Colantonio
Matt Piersall
EngineCryEngine
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release
  • WW: 5 May 2017
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Prey is a first-person action-adventure video game developed by the Austin, Texas branch of Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game was released in May 2017 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

In Prey, the player controls Morgan Yu while exploring the space station Talos I, in orbit around Earth–Moon L2[1], where research into a hostile alien collective called the Typhon is performed. As the Typhon escape confinement, the player uses a variety of weapons and abilities derived from the Typhon to avoid being killed by the aliens while looking to escape the station. The station is presented as an open world to the player, with progression through the world after obtaining key items or abilities similar in nature to a Metroidvania game.

Arkane's Prey is a re-imagining of the original 2006 Prey developed by Human Head Studios. While Prey 2, a sequel to the 2006 game, had been planned, it fell into development hell following transfer of the intellectual property from 3D Realms to Bethesda Softworks, and eventually canceled in 2014. Arkane's version does not use any of the planned sequel's assets, and only incorporates the name and the broad theme of the protagonist being hunted by aliens of the previous games. Arkane built Prey as a spiritual sequel to System Shock, providing the player with several potential means of progressing within the game.

Gameplay

Prey is an action-adventure game with role-playing elements and strong narrative played from a first-person perspective. The player takes the role of Morgan Yu, a human aboard a space station with numerous species of hostile aliens known collectively as the Typhon. The player will be able to select certain attributes of Morgan, including gender, and decisions made by the player that will affect elements of the game's story. To survive, the player must collect and use weapons and resources aboard the station to fend off and defeat the aliens.[2] According to creative director Raphael Colantonio, the station will be completely continuous rather than having separate levels or missions, at times requiring the player to return to areas they previously explored. The player will also be able to move around the outside of the station in zero gravity and find shortcuts connecting parts of the station.[3] Colantonio also stated that the aliens have an array of different powers that the player-character can gain over time; one such alien has the ability to mimic everyday items such as a chair.[3]

The game has multiple endings, according to lead designer Ricardo Bare; the endings fall into three major narrative structures depending on how the player broadly interacted with the station and surviving humans, but Bare said there are "tons of little permutations" based on specific events.[4]

Plot

Setting

Prey takes place in an alternate timeline where United States President John F. Kennedy survives his attempted assassination in 1963. The failed assassination catalyzes Kennedy to direct more funding into the space program, allowing it to flourish and accelerating the Space Race.[5] Drawn by humans' activity in space, an alien force made up of many different species, collectively called the Typhon, attacks Earth.[6] The United States and the U.S.S.R. band together to fight off and capture the Typhon, unbeknownst to the general population. Together, they build the space station Kletka (Russian for "cage") to be used as a prison for the Typhon situated in orbit around Earth's moon. The United States eventually takes full ownership after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1964 and reuses Kletka as part of "Project Axiom", research labs atop the prison spaces to study the Typhon and bring advances learned from that to Earth. After the "Pobeg Incident" in 1980 where some scientists aboard the station lost their lives to the Typhon, along with geopolitical instability at the time, the United States shuttered Project Axiom, leaving the captive Typhon alive.[7][8]

By 2025, the newly-founded TranStar Corporation acquires Kletka and by 2030, has refitted it as Talos I, a fully-operational research laboratory to study the Typhon and develop advances in neuroscience; this leads to the creation of Neuromods that harness the Typhon's physiology to restructure the human brain to grant the user new abilities (including superhuman ones).[8] TranStar grows financially successful from sales of Neuromods on Earth. At the time of the game's setting, about 2035, TranStar has further expanded the station to make for suitable living quarters for its staff that spend up to two years on the station between regular shuttles to Earth.[9]

Because of the numerous agencies that operated and expanded Talos I over the decades, the station includes a large mix of architectural designs, ranging from retrofuturism that was popular in 1960s America, to brutalist styles that were common in the Soviet Bloc in the mid-20th century, to opulent Art Deco put in place by the wealthy TranStar executives.[5][7]

Synopsis

In March 2032, Morgan Yu is recruited by their brother Alex to join TranStar's research team on Talos I. However, while taking a series of tests prior to leaving for the station, one of the supervising doctors is attacked by a Typhon and Morgan is knocked out. Morgan wakes up again in their apartment, but quickly finds out that the apartment is merely a simulated environment, and they have actually already been living on Talos I for three years. Morgan is then contacted by January, an Operator artificial intelligence that claims to have been built by Morgan. January warns Morgan that the Typhon have broken containment and taken over the station, killing the majority of the crew. It also reveals to Morgan that they had been testing neuromods for the past three years, with Morgan continually adding and removing them. However, a side effect of removing a neuromod is that the user loses all memories gained after installation of that neuromod, explaining Morgan's memory loss. January then claims that Morgan built it to help Morgan destroy Talos I, taking the Typhon and all of its research with it. Meanwhile, Alex contacts Morgan and pleads with them to instead build a special Nullwave device that will destroy the Typhon but leave the station intact, citing how their research is too valuable to lose.

As Morgan makes their way through the station, they will come across other survivors which they may choose to help or not. Alex then tasks Morgan with scanning the Typhon "Coral" growing around the station, and discovers that the Typhon are building some sort of neural network. However, their attempts to study the neural network are interrupted when the TranStar Board of Directors learns of the containment breach and sends a cleanup crew to eliminate both the Typhon and any surviving station crew. After the cleanup crew is eliminated, Alex further analyzes the data and discovers that the Typhon are sending a signal into deep space to summon something. Suddenly, a gargantuan Typhon appears and proceeds to devour Talos I. Morgan is then given the choice of activating the station's self destruct sequence or build the Nullwave device to defeat the Typhon.

If Morgan chooses to activate the Nullwave device, all of the Typhon on Talos I are destroyed and the station is left intact to allow further neuromod research. If Morgan chooses to activate the self destruct, then the entire station explodes, destroying all of the Typhon with it. Based on Morgan's earlier choices, Morgan can either find a way to escape the station or is stranded and dies in the explosion as well.

In a post-credits scene, Morgan wakes up in a lab and finds out that they are not the real Morgan, but instead a captured Typhon implanted with Morgan's memories who had been dead long before the events of Talos I in an effort to teach it human emotions and empathy, Alex explains that Earth has been invaded by the Typhons, and their only hope was to teach a Typhon about human consciousness and act as an ambassador between the two species. Alex and his Operator assistants will then judge "Morgan" based on the choices it made throughout the game. If "Morgan" failed to show any human empathy, then Alex destroys it and starts the experiment over. If "Morgan" did show human empathy, Alex lets it go, where it then has the choice of killing Alex and joining the rest of its kind in the extermination of humanity or accepting his offer to become a "bridge" between humans and Typhons.

Development

IP transition

See also: Prey 2

The success of the original Prey lead to the announcement of a sequel Prey 2 in August 2006, with continued development by 3D Realms.[10] However, the project faced a number of issues, including the transfer of the IP rights to Bethesda Softworks (under ZeniMax Media) sometime by 2011. In March 2011, Bethesda announced that Prey 2 would instead be developed by Human Head Studios using a modified id Tech 4 engine.[11][12]

On 31 May 2013, Kotaku reported rumors that development had moved to Arkane Studios and that the development had been rebooted, scrapping all of Human Head Studios' work on Prey 2 with a targeted release of 2016.[13] After about a year of further rumors, Bethesda officially canceled Prey 2, though as described below, Arkane had started working on a Prey game that would be considered a reboot rather than a sequel, using none of the Prey concepts and none of Human Head's previous development.[14]

On 12 June 2016, Bethesda officially announced the Prey reboot at its E3 press conference. The game's development is currently led by Arkane Studios CEO and director Raphaël Colantonio and his team in Austin, Texas.[15] Chris Avellone has also confirmed to be working on the project.[16] The new Prey is not a true sequel but instead a "a reimagining of the IP", according to Colantonio.[17] The teaser trailer shown during E3 2016 showed the game's protagonist in something like "a space horror version of Groundhog Day", according to CNet's Seamus Byrne.[18] Bethesda's vice president of marketing Pete Hines explained that the new game has no elements from the canceled Prey 2 outside of the player facing against aliens.[19]

Gameplay design

This version of Prey came out of Arkane Studio's own ideas; as explained by Colantonio, after they finished Dishonored, roughly around 2014, they split their team to work on two projects, one being Dishonored 2 and the other a new IP based on similar gameplay ideas which would be "in first-person, with depth and simulation and narration".[14] According to lead designer Ricardo Bare, Colantonio had suggested they look back towards what they had done with Arx Fatalis, a fantasy title produced by Arkane in 2002 which featured "this big, inter-connected dungeon that the player could roam so long as they could unlock everything".[20] They took this "mega-dungeon" concept, but now set it as a space station filled with hostile aliens, and would require the player to consider the "full ecology" of the game's world to overcome obstacles.[14][5] They did not want the player to solve singular-solution puzzles, such as simply finding a key for a locked door, but instead "think of this as a living, dynamic world, where there are tons of solutions possible", according to Bare.[5]

As Arkane started developing this concept, they recognized the similarities to the original Prey. Realizing that coming up with a name for a new property can be difficult, and that through Bethesda that they would have the ability to use that name, they opted to go with calling the game Prey.[14] Hines explained that Arkane evaluated the Prey property to its core and built up a new game around it, calling it more a psychological game rather than a horror one.[19]

Prey incorporates numerous gameplay concepts from Dishonored, which was itself inspired by the Looking Glass Studios's games Thief: The Dark Project and System Shock, where players are encouraged to find creative solutions to overcoming obstacles.[21] Borrowed elements from Dishonored include giving the player enough agency to determine how they want to proceed at the game, having in-game consequences for certain actions taken by the player, developing a game world based on a pre-established lore that can be learned by examining notes and computer terminals throughout the station, and a simple user-interface.[21] However, Colantonio said that Prey will be less focused on stealth as Dishonored was, and will provide a more role-playing game-style improvement system through in-game chipsets that allows the player to customize their abilities for more tactical fast-paced action sequences in contrast to Dishonored's bone shard system.[21] Arkane also considers Prey to have more in common with Metroidvania-style of games, where they consider the game to be one singular mission across the interconnected game world, rather than having separate game levels for each distinct mission as they had for Dishonored.[22] Bare considered the Talos I setting to be an open world that is fully explorable as the player gained abilities and equipment.[23]

Emergent gameplay was a goal of Arkane: while they had given the players abilities to take on the game in a full action mode or full stealth mode, they wanted players to find a way to complete the game in their own manner.[20] They recognized players may take one specific set of skills and weapons, and avoided including any enemies or obstacles that would be impossible to surpass because they did not specialize in the right skills, providing a means to bypass such areas.[20][20] Arkane also restricted how many horror elements they could include, since they could not predict where the player's attention would be throughout the game, providing another reason why they opted not to consider Prey a horror game.[20] Some elements supporting emergent gameplay arose during testing of the game's various systems. One of the Typhon aliens, the Mimic, was inspired by the creature of the same name from Dungeons & Dragons, and was programmed by Arkane to take the form of any object smaller than itself in the room, avoiding the use of scripted events and allowing the alien's artificial intelligence in the game's software decide what to replicate.[20] Separately, one of the tools developed by Arkane was the psychoscope, which allows players to scan an alien and learn and then use its powers; when the programmers learned of this, they quickly found that having players be able to copy the Mimic's power created a depth of new gameplay options, such as taking the form of a small object to sneak into small places, or taking the form of an non-flammable object to roll through fire-laden areas.[20]

Story and art

Narrative-wise, Arkane wanted to build as detailed a world as they had done for Dunwall in Dishonored, and started from considering how the future would have been different if Kennedy survived the assassination attempt, allowing them to flesh out the narrative and design of the space station.[20] This itself directly attributed to the styled used in the various parts of the station, with the team considering what architecture would have influenced those most responsible for operating Talos I at the time. This ranged from considering what Kennedy would have seen frequently were he alive in the 1960s and 1970s, to envision how those funding contemporary commercial space efforts like Elon Musk or Google would style a space station.[5] As Talos I is a relative small space, Arkane was able to detail the station in depth, such as naming each non-playable character, including those already dead by the story's present, and fleshing out background stories for them, as to make the game's world more cohesive.[24]

The narrative also directed them to the types of weapons that would be available to the player. Akrane recognized that as a research station, their security forces would only likely have common weapons, such as pistols and shotguns, and would not have the equivalent of super-powerful gear like Doom's BFG. What advanced weapons are available were designed to look like prototypes and have flaws associated with them being only in their testing phase.[5]

The Typhon are named based on the allusion to a typhoon storm; the player as Morgan follows in the proverbial storm's wake, finding survivors that have no idea what just happened but need their help.[23] Arkane wanted a more unique design to the aliens, and opted to use designs inspired by paranormal elements rather than stereotypical insect- or lizard-like species.[24]

Among other works, Prey was influenced by the films Moon, Starship Troopers, and The Matrix. As part of the game's promotion, Bethesda partnered with the Alamo Drafthouse to show these three films during April 2017.[25]

Most of the music in Prey was composed by Mick Gordon, who had previously composed the soundtrack for Doom. Additional music was composed by Ben Crossbones, Matt Piersall, and Raphael Colantonio. The soundtrack was released for live-streaming music services about a week before the game's release.[26]

Technical development

Prior to Prey, Arkane had just released Dishonored 2 which used the studio's internally-developed Void game engine. At release, many players reported performance issues with the Windows version of the game, which Arkane fixed through patches, but led to some lingering doubts as to Arkane's ability to develop for the Windows platform. Colantonio said that Arkane wanted to remove that stigma for Prey, with the goal to produce a "really flawless" version for Windows on release.[27] The game was developed using the CryEngine 5, an established third-party game engine, eliminating many issues related to performance. Colantonio also said that they "doubled our thoroughness" in the areas of quality assurance testing to eliminate other possible issues.[27][28] On release, PCGamesN reported that the Windows version of Prey lacked those technical issues that has troubled Dishonored 2, and called the game "the best performing triple-A game" they had seen in several months.[29]

Release and marketing

Prey was released on 5 May 2017.[30] Arkane and Bethesda provided a game demo for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles about a week before the game's launch, covering about the first hour of gameplay. The studio did not opt to provide a demo for Windows systems, citing that they had to choose between either the consoles or personal computer for demo released. Colantonio also said that with the game's release through Steam, interested players can try the game for up to two hours under Steam's return policy, effectively treating this the equivalent of a demo.[31]

Trademark dispute

Just prior to release, No Matter Studios, the developers of an upcoming video game Prey for the Gods, announced that due to trademark objections from ZeniMax Media, that they had to change the name of their game to Praey for the Gods. ZeniMax reported that they had to defend the Prey trademark to avoid losing it in taking objection to No Matter's trademark filing.[32][33]

Reception

Prey received "generally positive" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.[34][35]

References

  1. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofUNhEru690
  2. ^ Biery, Thomas (27 July 2016). "The new Prey will not be like the old Prey". Polygon. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  3. ^ a b Matulef, Jeffrey (4 August 2016). "Prey reboot will be a metroidvania adventure". Eurogamer. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  4. ^ Pereira, Chris (15 February 2017). "Prey Will Have "A Wide Variance" Of Endings". Gamespot. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Graham, Roy (4 May 2017). "Designing Prey's sci-fi space station to be like a 'mega-dungeon'". Gamasutra. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  6. ^ Reeves, Ben (7 December 2016). "Why Prey's Aliens Are Different Than Anything You've Encountered". Game Informer. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
  7. ^ a b Nunneley, Stephany (9 September 2016). "Prey's alternate timeline depicts a future where JFK lived to see the space program flourish". VG247. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  8. ^ a b Sanchez, Miranda (4 May 2017). "These 11 Images Reveal More About Prey's Alternate History". IGN. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  9. ^ Cork, Jeff (9 September 2016). "Building Prey's Interconnected World". Game Informer. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  10. ^ "Next-Gen People: Scott Miller". next-gen.biz. Edge. 9 August 2006. Retrieved 3 June 2009.
  11. ^ D Deesing, Jonathan (18 April 2011). "Prey 2 producer on taking new direction, with 'capable' id Tech 4". Joystiq. Engadget. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  12. ^ Rosenberg, Adam (14 March 2011). "'Prey 2' Bringing An 'Open, Alien World' For A 2012 Release From Bethesda Softworks". Multiplayerblog.mtv. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
  13. ^ Schreier, Jason (31 May 2013). "We Hear The People Behind Dishonored Are Now Working On Prey 2". Kotaku. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  14. ^ a b c d Pereria, Chris (8 August 2016). "Prey Dev Explains Why It's Named After an Unrelated Series". GameSpot. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  15. ^ O'Conner, James (13 June 2016). "Prey coming 2017 from Dishonored dev's Austin studio". VG247. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  16. ^ Chalk, Andy (13 June 2016). "Prey is back, and there's a trailer [Updated]". PC Gamer. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  17. ^ Pereira, Chris (12 June 2016). "Prey Revealed at E3 2016, Not a Sequel or Remake". GameSpot. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  18. ^ Byrne, Seamus (13 June 2016). "Quake Champions, a new Prey and Fallout 4 VR: Everything Bethesda announced at E3 2016". CNet. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  19. ^ a b Paget, Mat (15 June 2016). "New Prey Has Nothing to Do With Cancelled Prey 2, Bethesda Head Says". GameSpot. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h Barrett, Ben (17 March 2017). "Prey's origins in Arx Fatalis and the legend of the Turret Lord with lead designer Ricardo Bare". PCGamesN. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  21. ^ a b c Reeves, Ben (28 December 2016). "Arkane Knowledge: Five Reasons Dishonored Fans Will Love Prey". Game Informer. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
  22. ^ Hanson, Ben (5 December 2016). "Why Prey's Gameplay Refuses To Hold Your Hand". Game Informer. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
  23. ^ a b Weber, Rachel (19 April 2017). "Explore the Spaced Out Setting for Alien Adventure 'Prey'". Glixel. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  24. ^ a b Moser, AJ (4 May 2017). "Unraveling the story of Arkane Studios' mysterious shooter, Prey". Daily Dot. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  25. ^ Grubb, Jeff (24 March 2017). "Bethesda partners with Alamo Drafthouse to show 'The Matrix' and other films that inspired Prey". Venture Beat. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  26. ^ Makuch, Eddie (2 May 2017). "Listen To Prey's Eerie And Atmospheric Soundtrack Right Now". GameSpot. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
  27. ^ a b Chalk, Andy (2 January 2017). "Arkane says Prey will be "flawless" on PC at launch". PC Gamer. Future US. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  28. ^ Makuch, Eddie (1 May 2017). ""We Doubled Our Thoroughness," Prey Dev Says After Dishonored 2's PC Issues". GameSpot. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  29. ^ Perslow, Matt (4 May 2017). "Prey PC graphics, performance and 4K analysis - the PCGamesN tech review". PCGamesN. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  30. ^ Takahashi, Dean (25 January 2017). "Prey will bring you more aliens to slaughter on May 5". Venture Beat. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  31. ^ Joaby (3 May 2017). "Prey's Raph Colantonio Says Steam's 2 Hour Refund Policy Stands in Place of Demo". Ausgamers. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  32. ^ Frank, Allegra (3 May 2017). "Prey for the Gods changes name to avoid fight with Bethesda's Prey". Polygon. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  33. ^ Warren, John (8 May 2017). "ZeniMax has to protect Prey, even if it looks like a bully while doing so". Polygon. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  34. ^ a b "Prey for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  35. ^ a b "Prey for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacriticdate=9 May 2017.
  36. ^ Gwaltney, Javy (6 May 2017). "Somewhere Beyond The Stars - Prey - PlayStation 4". Game Informer. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
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