The Disappointment That Was Prey
Last night I slogged through the remainder of Prey and finished the game. I hadn't played much in the past two months, after completing about three-quarters of it in the few weeks after it was released in July. Overall I have to say I was disappointed by Prey; the long saga of its conception and development built up expectations that were probably too lofty for its actual potential.
Prey was conceived by well-known game industry guys like Tom Hall and George Broussard at Apogee/3D Realms in 1995. In what would become a 10-year struggle, the game kept switching developers, getting delayed, cancelled, and resurrected until 2005 when Human Head Studios confirmed that they'd picked the game back up and really did intend to finish it.
The majority of the hype surrounding the game in the months before it was released centered around the new gameplay features they were introducing, namely 'portals' and 'local gravity' toggling (and yes, the 'spirit mode' effect too, although this was less innovative). The former involved placing portals into levels which provided passage into an entirely different level, a very cool graphical trick that to my knowledge had only been done before in a user-made Unreal Tournament deathmatch map called Escher a few years back; the latter worked by placing local gravity pathways along walls and the ceiling that, when activated, allowed the player (and bad guys) to walk anywhere. Some rooms also had local gravity 'targets' that when shot would switch the room's gravity to lie along the same direction, causing the room to flip around or over. These two tricks seemed revolutionary when revealed, initially disorienting and then unbearably cool when actually played, and old hat by the end of the game.
While the new technology added innovative new gameplay mechanics, and the environments were absolutely stunningly gorgeous, for me it was the story itself that fell far short of the high standard set by the rest of the game. For a large portion of the game, there is almost zero advancement of the story. You're simply a mouse in a maze, following a thoroughly linear slog through amazing room after amazing room. It just starts to feel pointless. The reason it took me so long to finish the game was because I'd frankly lost interest. Not until the last few levels does any of the story come together, and even then it's a corny letdown.
You definitely get the feeling that, as is so common these days with games that rely far too heavily on new technology alone (Doom 3, anyone?), this game had so much potential, if only the story had been better. Which of course leaves the door open for an improved sequel, or some great mod work, but none of that can change the fact that the original game was a disappointment.
Aw well, I'm still holding on for Bioshock to blow me away, which it gives every indication of doing when it's released next year.
[I've got a bunch of screenshots from Prey here if anyone's interested.]
Prey was conceived by well-known game industry guys like Tom Hall and George Broussard at Apogee/3D Realms in 1995. In what would become a 10-year struggle, the game kept switching developers, getting delayed, cancelled, and resurrected until 2005 when Human Head Studios confirmed that they'd picked the game back up and really did intend to finish it.
The majority of the hype surrounding the game in the months before it was released centered around the new gameplay features they were introducing, namely 'portals' and 'local gravity' toggling (and yes, the 'spirit mode' effect too, although this was less innovative). The former involved placing portals into levels which provided passage into an entirely different level, a very cool graphical trick that to my knowledge had only been done before in a user-made Unreal Tournament deathmatch map called Escher a few years back; the latter worked by placing local gravity pathways along walls and the ceiling that, when activated, allowed the player (and bad guys) to walk anywhere. Some rooms also had local gravity 'targets' that when shot would switch the room's gravity to lie along the same direction, causing the room to flip around or over. These two tricks seemed revolutionary when revealed, initially disorienting and then unbearably cool when actually played, and old hat by the end of the game.
While the new technology added innovative new gameplay mechanics, and the environments were absolutely stunningly gorgeous, for me it was the story itself that fell far short of the high standard set by the rest of the game. For a large portion of the game, there is almost zero advancement of the story. You're simply a mouse in a maze, following a thoroughly linear slog through amazing room after amazing room. It just starts to feel pointless. The reason it took me so long to finish the game was because I'd frankly lost interest. Not until the last few levels does any of the story come together, and even then it's a corny letdown.
You definitely get the feeling that, as is so common these days with games that rely far too heavily on new technology alone (Doom 3, anyone?), this game had so much potential, if only the story had been better. Which of course leaves the door open for an improved sequel, or some great mod work, but none of that can change the fact that the original game was a disappointment.
Aw well, I'm still holding on for Bioshock to blow me away, which it gives every indication of doing when it's released next year.
[I've got a bunch of screenshots from Prey here if anyone's interested.]
posted by GregP at 4:04 PM
2 Comments:
Um, no Jack Thompson, they aren't just exercises in mindless violence. Non-gamers like yourself tend to think of first-person shooters as games like Doom and that's about it. First-person simply has to do [literally] with the first-person view perspective, but it doesn't bound the genre. There are first-person RPGs, adventure games, horror games, etc.
One thing I didn't talk about was the hype for the story: you play a Cherokee character named Tommy who lives on a reservation. Supposedly they were doing this innovative new Native American angle to the story, but it fell flat on its face. It wasn't interesting or compelling. That was the disappointment.
There are HUNDREDS of FPS's out there, and many do have incredible stories. The two greatest computer games ever created - System Shock 2 and Deus Ex - had amazingly well developed stories and were both first-person shooters.
The days of all FPS's being mindless killing, a la the original Doom, are long over. Sure there are plenty that still stick to that tired formula, but as a genre there's been a real attempt at moving beyond that.
Want something that will whet both your appetite for good stories and game programming? Read this puppy:
http://twistedmatrix.com/users/radix/div-vision.html
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