Game Review
Jul. 18th, 2006 01:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caraigSo for this game review, I'm gonna go into a game that came out very recently called Prey.
First off, be aware that the game is rated M and it deserves that rating. It's very gory and disturbing and there is some seriously messed up things going on here. I'll try to avoid too many spoilers.
First off, gameplay: it's an FPS. You run aroud, you shoot things that shoot back at you, and that's that. Now let's go into gimmicks. Gimmicks are things that alter the basic gameplay in ways that are normally only supposedly innovative. In Prey, the gimmicks are good. Really good. I don't know how much coding it takes to alter how the physics of the game world works on the character and nothing else (or everything else in a room) but it makes for a really cool perspective. Wallwalking and such makes for some really cool situations.
Portals are the other big thing. let me amend that: seamless portals are the other huge thing. You walk through a portal, through which you can see another room on the other side and not only are you somewhere else, it was totally seamless. You can look through the portal you just walked through and see the area you left behind. And you can shoot through portals.
Spiritwalking is another neat little thing, though it's not as big a coding innovation as wallwalking paths and portals. You can shift into an astral form and interact with the physical world in limited ways. Beyond this, there's also 'deathwalking,' which is a much more immersive mechanism than just save-game points. When you die, you appear in the spirit world and try to recover HP before falling back into your body.
Okay, we got the gimmicks out of the way and they're very tasty. Now, story isn't what one usually plays an FPS for. That all changed with Half-Life2, and especially Half-Life2: Episode One. (I have to tell you, that's some good writing there. I've never cared much for in-game FPS characters than I did for those in HL2:Ep1.) So this set the bar pretty darn high for other FPS's with storylines. Prey had a remarkably good story but most of it is just a reason to blow up things. Which is fine, one doesn't ask for a lot in an FPS. That being said, the story helps. But it is also seriously mature especially towards the middle to the end of the game. It causes some cognitive dissonance as to the actions of the main character, but then again, it does sort of work out in the end.
One thing as far as the characters went that made me wonder. The main character is Cherokee, which is cool, but my concern is how the game delt with Native American belief systems. Though I guess that it's rather moot; there are plenty of other religious-theme games which go totally against the grain of orthodox theology, so I guess the point is really moot. (Doom, anyone? Heck, Stella Deus, Trapt, even God of War, for that matter.) And apparently the Prey developer team had input from several Native American groups, so they probably did it well enough to get a stamp of approval.
Spoiler space!
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I'm NOT kidding about the mature content. I don't mean the blood and gore and the disgustingly sick biomechanical look and feel of the Sphere. At one point, the main character's girlfriend -- your girlfriend -- has been turned into a biomechanical beast... and she's conscious and aware of what's going on and begging you to stop her from killing you. And of course when you kill that particular boss... she's not dead. Yet. Some serious "woman in the refrigerator' moments here.
Despite that, the story is pretty hard-biting, and the voice acting is very good and appropriate, fitting the words and tone to the moment and flowing well. It ends well, too -- not a 'happily ever after' thing, but, at least, well for the main characters.
The pacing could use some work. It seems like each fight is pretty much 'Fight hordes of more minibosses that you just defeated.' There's also a bit of a dearth in uniqueness in battles; it seems that the default way for making a battle harder is to add more enemies. The portal, spiritwalking, and wallwalking puzzles are, at least, unique and entertaining, and that seems to be the main focus.
The thing with the childrens' ghosts, though... that provided some seriously scary moments in the game, but it was never resolved. After two major incidents, they seem to pretty much disappear and never appear again. This could have at least been tied up rather than left hanging and unexplained.
Anyway, I'm out of steam here, so I'll leave you with the final judgement: Prey is a disturbing game in places, but it's technically very well-done and does things with the Doom3 engine that Doom3 should have done. It is to horror in gaming the way FEAR was to terror. I would recommend it for anyone looking for a good FPS this season and who won't be turned off by rather graphic unpleasantness.
First off, be aware that the game is rated M and it deserves that rating. It's very gory and disturbing and there is some seriously messed up things going on here. I'll try to avoid too many spoilers.
First off, gameplay: it's an FPS. You run aroud, you shoot things that shoot back at you, and that's that. Now let's go into gimmicks. Gimmicks are things that alter the basic gameplay in ways that are normally only supposedly innovative. In Prey, the gimmicks are good. Really good. I don't know how much coding it takes to alter how the physics of the game world works on the character and nothing else (or everything else in a room) but it makes for a really cool perspective. Wallwalking and such makes for some really cool situations.
Portals are the other big thing. let me amend that: seamless portals are the other huge thing. You walk through a portal, through which you can see another room on the other side and not only are you somewhere else, it was totally seamless. You can look through the portal you just walked through and see the area you left behind. And you can shoot through portals.
Spiritwalking is another neat little thing, though it's not as big a coding innovation as wallwalking paths and portals. You can shift into an astral form and interact with the physical world in limited ways. Beyond this, there's also 'deathwalking,' which is a much more immersive mechanism than just save-game points. When you die, you appear in the spirit world and try to recover HP before falling back into your body.
Okay, we got the gimmicks out of the way and they're very tasty. Now, story isn't what one usually plays an FPS for. That all changed with Half-Life2, and especially Half-Life2: Episode One. (I have to tell you, that's some good writing there. I've never cared much for in-game FPS characters than I did for those in HL2:Ep1.) So this set the bar pretty darn high for other FPS's with storylines. Prey had a remarkably good story but most of it is just a reason to blow up things. Which is fine, one doesn't ask for a lot in an FPS. That being said, the story helps. But it is also seriously mature especially towards the middle to the end of the game. It causes some cognitive dissonance as to the actions of the main character, but then again, it does sort of work out in the end.
One thing as far as the characters went that made me wonder. The main character is Cherokee, which is cool, but my concern is how the game delt with Native American belief systems. Though I guess that it's rather moot; there are plenty of other religious-theme games which go totally against the grain of orthodox theology, so I guess the point is really moot. (Doom, anyone? Heck, Stella Deus, Trapt, even God of War, for that matter.) And apparently the Prey developer team had input from several Native American groups, so they probably did it well enough to get a stamp of approval.
Spoiler space!
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
I'm NOT kidding about the mature content. I don't mean the blood and gore and the disgustingly sick biomechanical look and feel of the Sphere. At one point, the main character's girlfriend -- your girlfriend -- has been turned into a biomechanical beast... and she's conscious and aware of what's going on and begging you to stop her from killing you. And of course when you kill that particular boss... she's not dead. Yet. Some serious "woman in the refrigerator' moments here.
Despite that, the story is pretty hard-biting, and the voice acting is very good and appropriate, fitting the words and tone to the moment and flowing well. It ends well, too -- not a 'happily ever after' thing, but, at least, well for the main characters.
The pacing could use some work. It seems like each fight is pretty much 'Fight hordes of more minibosses that you just defeated.' There's also a bit of a dearth in uniqueness in battles; it seems that the default way for making a battle harder is to add more enemies. The portal, spiritwalking, and wallwalking puzzles are, at least, unique and entertaining, and that seems to be the main focus.
The thing with the childrens' ghosts, though... that provided some seriously scary moments in the game, but it was never resolved. After two major incidents, they seem to pretty much disappear and never appear again. This could have at least been tied up rather than left hanging and unexplained.
Anyway, I'm out of steam here, so I'll leave you with the final judgement: Prey is a disturbing game in places, but it's technically very well-done and does things with the Doom3 engine that Doom3 should have done. It is to horror in gaming the way FEAR was to terror. I would recommend it for anyone looking for a good FPS this season and who won't be turned off by rather graphic unpleasantness.
