Prey

The immersive sim that lets you turn into a mug

- Phil Savage

I was disappointed when Prey 2 was canceled. Even if, as Bethesda claimed, Human Head’s sequel wasn’t up to its quality standards, I still loved the idea of playing a bounty hunter on an alien world. Sadly, that game is gone. In its place, we have Arkane’s Prey. Luckily, it too sounds pretty fascinating.

Why that name? Arkane is pretty clear on this point: the new Prey has nothing to do with the original, or its cancelled sequel. “Arkane specializes in one kind of game,” says Ricardo Bare, lead designer for Prey. “We make first-person immersive sims—games with depth—and we wanted to do something with science fiction. Our brand of game, but in a science fiction setting on a space station with aliens. Bethesda had this name, Prey. And it’s a really great name and it matched the concept we were thinking of.”

Essentially, Arkane wanted to do a sci-fi game and Bethesda had a sci-fi name. “In terms of a high-level concept, it’s like aliens on a space station, survival kind of stuff. It was a good fit,” says Bare. “But there’s no fictional connection, and no universe connection if you want that.”

As strange as the origin is, keep one thing in mind: Arkane is making a sci-fi immersive sim. Whatever the circumstances, that’s a good thing. The QuakeCon trailer suggests a dark, intense tone, as the main character fights off shadowy alien beings across a decrepit, seemingly abandoned space station. That’s not the whole story, though. During the QuakeCon opening keynote, the audience was shown the first footage of Prey. Yes, it’s dark. Yes, it’s intense. Yes, it’s set on a space station where things have gone very wrong. So far, so System Shock. Then the protagonist transforms into a mug and starts rolling around.