For those of us at the last LAN party we got to see a taste of Prey on Briney's computer.  I thought it would be a fun game to try out and thus I have completed it and can give you a review of the game via my own meanderings.

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!!!!

First of all, this game took about 24 hrs to beat.  There is not much re-play ability and it's one of those games that force you to beat it on Normal difficulty before you can choose Hard.

The story is both typical and unique.  You play a young Native America who wants to leave the reservation with his girlfriend who doesn't want to leave.  Of course this N. America dispises his heritage and thinks it's all bunk.  Well after beating 2 rednecks with a wrench the bar you are in and everyone else is abducted by aliens.  Of course these aren't good aliens, kinda sad, and of course they are using us for food and servents.  You try and save your girlfriend throughout the game.

Now for the uniqueness.  Since you are a native American, when you die, later on in the game, you are transported to the "land of your fathers" and learn that all the bunk isn't junk.  You learn how to leave your body and use your spirit to manipulate things in the "world of metal".  This is extremely helpfull and you and your unique gift is sought by the aliens, the resistance, and you.  When you die you go to this place and shoot the spirits of discrased ancestors to give you spirit life and real life.

You fight with weapons that remind us all of Half Life.  They are alive weapons that shoot bullets and gernades.

Another interesting thing is that you can change gravity in some places or walk up walls in other places.

The game play gets very repetitive and kinda reminds you of Doom 3.  However you are allowed to light things up and shoot at the same time!!!  There are 3 main bosses throughout the game but they are the least annoying of the enemies you have to fight.

There is a great inside joke in the game that I just loved.  Art Bell, the host of the Number 1 AM radio show in the country makes a guest appearence as you're in the ship.  He is on his radio show and talks to callers about the lights that are abducting people.  However he doesn't know that entirely and his main guest believes that aliens are feeding on humans.  You hear these messages every so often and adds a bit of humor to the game.  I love Art Bell and listen to his show most nights so I got a real kick out of it.

Any ways I don't want to write about everything that happens in the game although I will say that you shoot your girlfriend but of course she lives on in the spirit world, for some odd reason the aliens want to go there as well but the spirit of your ancestors help to hold them off, and in the end you kill the aliens by taking over their ship and sending it to the sun.  After the credits, it's 6 months later and the leader of the resistance tells you that there are others who have taken interest in you and want to meet you.  She opens the portal and you walk through, a title saying "Prey will continue".  Kinda a stereotypical end to the game.  There are minipuzzles but they are not really that hard and half the time you don't understand how you would know to do them in real life and they are definately not as difficult as the ones in Prince or Persia.

I would give this game probably a B- tops and as low as a C+.  The game was short, taking less than 24 hrs to complete.  The puzzles were too easy.  The storyline was stereotypical except for the whole "spirit walk" aspect to the game.  The enemies were blahish and aggrivating.  The weapons were too ordinary for a alien fighting game.  Your girlfriend was hot however.  Also  your character is a bit slow.  I would listen to the old timer who was trying to help me out.  Your character didn't.  You would know who was talking to your spirit.  Your character didn't.  Why don't people learn this from watching TV shows and playing these games?  If I was taken into an alien ship and I heard the "voice of my grandfather" telling me to enter the spirit world and learn the powers.  I would say "Ok" not "I don't have time for this crap that I don't believe in."  Jeez get over it.

So if you have any other questions feel free to ask them but that's my reivew.  I wouldn't go out and buy the game if I were you but it's not so horrible I'm sorry I played it.

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Definately...the game is much larger than Vice City and has more sub missions, hidden jokes, and missions.  If you just beat the mission you're only like 30-40% done with the entire game.  Also you get to fight for territory (do as little as possible the first time cause you loose it all and then you come back much later and do it again for real) that was a great aspect.  The re-playability is worth it just alone.  Have fun with it!

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