Tickle your brain cells with Prey

Prey just launched over the weekend and to my pleasant surprise didn’t suffer the same disastrous launch as Dishonored 2, at least in terms of performance. However, most folks have been quick to judge the game probably because they had no idea what they were getting into.

Prey isn’t about shooting things, at least not primarily. If you’re looking to satiate your appetite for killing aliens, then I suggest you look elsewhere because while Prey does put you up against aliens who want nothing more than to kill you, its more about thinking and playing than shooting all over the place.

The game is based on the Talos 1 space station after failed experiments involving mixing alien biology with humans to “improve” us. With only a few survivours and numerous aliens littered across the station, it is your job to find a way out of this mess (sorry, no spoilers). The first thing I want to jump into is the art and audio design; it is out of this world. While it is literally in space, the game looks great and the sound design is mind-blowingly good as it keeps you immersed, tense, constantly on your toes and even those short-lived moments of success are captured beautifully thanks to the brilliant music.

Now, back to how the game works, your task is to get the station back up and running so to speak; a mission that takes you all over a massive space station. You’ll come across different compartments of the station all riddled with puzzles and enemies. You can choose to tackle them head on or find ways around them; you have the freedom to choose your approach and the brilliant design of the world allows you to find many new shortcuts across the map and at times create your own using the tools at your disposal. Upgrade the abilities you like using your puzzle solving skills to a whole new level by lifting even heavier items, hacking electronics and more. This horror survival game is quite slow paced, barring a few segments where you will end up running for your life, but that gives you the time you need to come up with clever solutions to taking out enemies like baiting them into exposed electric coils or explosions. There’s a lot of fun to be had if you’re into coming up with clever solutions to “regular” video game situations.

Overall Prey is quite an enjoyable game in the time I’ve put into it. I recommend the game to those looking for a game that not only looks and sounds amazing but might just tickle your brain cells a little as well.