PREY - PC Master Race #5 - Retro Review
The First Person Shooter have always had a great relevance in the world of video games, as the years have passed have had great changes within this industry, personally I have always enjoyed this genre on the PC, I believe that the accuracy of the Mouse to annihilate the enemies is simply perfect, in this case we will bring to the present a video game that had a very good innovation with respect to its gameplay, with a somewhat common story but this was not a reason for it to become an excellent game , the great PREY.
Before its launch, Prey went through many indecisions on the part of its programmers, this was a long delay since its release in 1997, appearing as a completely complete game on PC and Xbox 360 after 9 years, according to Human Head Studios ( the company responsible for the development of the game) expressed that the technology of that moment did not supply them to meet their graphic expectations, when they finally saw the id Tech 4 engine (the one that uses Doom 3) they were totally convinced that it would be the right one to finish their game.
In this way we could see the final finish of Prey, excellent game of First Person Shooter which enjoy a great way at the time, despite being a bit short I keep surprising certain things that make it a very interesting and addictive game , its argument can be a little loose, we are invaded by an alien species which needs our body to biodegrade it and be able to use it for its technology, the objective is to survive this attack and save our relatives.
As I mentioned earlier, Prey uses the id Tech 4 graphics engine but giving it a modification to see its graphics differently compared to Doom 3, this gave great realism to the whole environment with respect to its levels, shadows and Lights play a very important role at all times, giving a dark and sinister touch that can play a little with the mind and vision of the player.
At first we will not see great details, however, after a very curious introduction we can appreciate 100% the graphic level that contains Prey, in this it stands out in the way in which all its levels were made, taking into account that 70% of game is developed in a large ship called "Sphere" they connect in a very good way the places we will visit inside it.
The special effects in their great majority belong to the genre Gore, blood, visors and more are common things that we will see in much of the game, the level of detail that had at the time gives enough to talk about, one of the scenes that impressed me It is like mutilating the captured humans with a special machine, turning them into almost ground meat.
The design of the main characters is quite worked, at first we can observe Tommy, is the one that we will always drive throughout the game, although this does not look at all impressive at the moment, at the time it had a good impact visual, the same we can say about the appearance of their weapons, which I think is a very original model since at all times we will use the weapons of the aliens, they have a design between advanced technology and bio-organic, at first it is a bit uncomfortable to get used to to them, but after a few minutes we will love all the functions they have within their models.
In Prey there are two things that are quite relevant throughout the game, gravity and portals, once we get to the "Sphere" we will realize that not all the place respects the physical laws that humans normally know, totally vertical walls where we will see enemies walking as if they had some kind of adhesion on their feet, places that are on our head completely inverted, this does not mean at a certain moment of the game that the ship allows us to modify the gravity in specific places of the game, giving a determined space variants that make the game very dynamic.
If you ever thought that the game "Portal" was the first in its style, you're wrong, Prey was one of the first to use the passage through portals, the first impression I got from seeing how a small square had an empty On the one hand and on the other a totally different view to the place where we were was impressive, in passing we would be in a totally different place, this in the battles is something great, since our enemies use this technology very efficiently giving us surprises In totally unexpected places, sometimes we must use the same portals they create to defeat other enemies that are out of reach of our weapons.
If we unite these two elements (portals and gravity) it results in a unique gameplay at the time, there are situations where we must strategically use these two features to solve puzzles, which with a little ingenuity we can solve easily, allowing us to move forward in the game and access new areas.
In a certain part of the game (a little after its beginning) Tommy develops a spiritual power, which allows his soul to get out of his body and to explore areas without risk to the enemy to eliminate him, this gives us to understand that our body must be in a totally safe place since it will be exposed to any attack, if it arrives to be attacked our soul will return to our body, additionally if we are killed in battle our soul will go to its astral place, where we must pass a small test to so revive in the real world and continue our battle, while we are in this "spiritual" mode we can only use a bow which does not do much damage to the material, but it serves as a method of distraction to eliminate some enemy.
Prey at first may be that we deluded a bit with its musical section, it has a very good music on its main screen and additionally in the first steps we will listen to classical rock music like Judas Priest, but as we go we will realize that it is going moving more to an environmental style, however, it gives the necessary touch to give us the right sensations depending on the situation of the game, its sounds have a very definite finish, the weapons are heard of a very good quality and more due to the fact that be totally original, the voices of our characters are very well worked, the environment that forms the machines is quite remarkable, undoubtedly is one of the best properties that contains this video game.
Prey is one of those games that when left in oblivion becomes what we know as hidden gems, despite not having an original story has excellent graphics, a gameplay quite innovative for the time of its release and a very good originality As for its weapons and the environment of the world in which it develops, its game between gravity, portables and puzzles make it quite attractive and interesting, this to be a First Person Shooter give it a totally unique touch, to be a game of 2006 I highly recommend it and more the PC version for having the best performance in terms of graphics, if you noticed that it does not speak in a great way of the events that happen in the plot of the game is so that you as players can explore this aspect, which It is quite interesting and will leave you surprised with the different events that happen in the game.
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Un juego bastante extraño, pero muy bueno para su epoca. lo jugué en pc y lo terminé.
It was a great game and I'm a little disappointed, that Prey from 2017 did not pick up on this game, but instead tried to be a System Shock remake (even though it was a great game and I really like System Shock).
So I have heard in the comments of some people that the Prey (2017) seems to have nothing to do with this game of 2006, System Shock is simply a spectacular game!