The original Prey received a very lukewarm reception so Human Head Studios must be happy they have been given a second chance with Prey 2. Despite being a follow up to Prey, the sequel couldn’t be any more different if it tried. New man, new setting, new mechanics. If it wasn’t for the fact Tommy the protagonist from Prey is set to make an appearance it makes you wonder why they didn’t make it a new IP.
Prey 2 is an open world FPS where you play as Killian Samuels a US Marshal who was on a passenger flight that crashed on The Sphere, as the actions of the first game took place. The presentation started from the aftermath of the crash where Killian is being chased by the aliens armed only with a pistol. But is quickly knocked out. The demonstration skipped to a few years later and you are on Exodus where the game will take place. Killian is now a Bounty Hunter. The aim is to catch wanted criminals dead or alive as well as finding out about the gaps in his memory since the crash. Enemies to catch will vary from normal thugs to guys who can teleport across the terrain. Some may requried to be taken dead or alive. All added different ways to tackle each mission.
We got to see some of the new mechanics and gadgets. One such mechanic is the Mirrors Edge style free running. If you can see and reach it, you can climb it. While hanging off walls you can look around, use as cover and shoot. You can just as easily get down as you get up thanks to the hoverboots which looks like a nice addition, as falling down in most games often equals death. Moving vertically with ease is what makes Killian a force to reckon with. There are also a variety of weapons and gadgets to help you doing combat and chase sequences. There are deployable shields, anti-gravity grenades that pull enemies up from cover and capture devices to get those targets wanted alive. They claim there will be over 30 different gadgets to use.
There is a big emphasis on player choice this time around both on and off missions. Out of missions you even push random innocents over the edge of a pathway. But be warned if you do too many evil actions the local law enforcement will be forced to take actions against you. You can also encounter random crimes when exploring the city. You can catch these before anything happens or if found too late you could find the aftermath of a mugging or murder. NPC’s will react differently depending on the situation. You can holster and un-holster your gun at will so NPC’s will feel uneasy when a weapon is holsters and may flee, beg or attack or invoke any other reaction if pointed at them. During missions if you don’t know where a target is you can ask an informant. Here you are given the choice to pay the information or kill his guard to threaten it out of him. However, he will ask you for a favour later on as repayment. Once the target has been caught, he attempts to bribe you. There is even the choice to interrogate him for information but you raise the risk of killing him during the process, therefore forfeiting the reward money. In the mission shown there is even a consequence to taking the target in as an accomplice to him appears with a giant robot. In a typical cliffhanger nature, the demo ends there.
Prey 2 is definitely one of my favourite games to look out for. It’s using a lot of neat ideas and the open nature of the game looks like a great diversion from the original. Expect Prey 2 in 2012.
