Prey is a new first person shooter that was built using the Doom 3 engine. So at first glance, this game looks and plays very much like recent Doom and Quake games. The environment looks very industrial; there is metal everywhere, with pipes going every which way, and lots of lighting and alarms. There are aliens all over the place, and at the player’s disposal are various futuristic and organic weapons to defeat them with.
Prey has a lot in common with Doom and Quake, but it has a few features that really separate it from both of those series. Prey makes use of gravity in a very realistic and unique way. Through various devices such as walk walls and gravity switches, the gravity in a whole room or just on a single person can be completely changed. When a gravity switch is activated (by shooting it) gravity will pull the player (and anything else loose in the room) to a different surface and many times even flip the player completely upside down. This allows the player to explore a completely different surface of a room and reach things that weren’t accessible in the previous gravity state.
Right side up, or upside down?
The walk walls, or more like paths, work in a similar way and are really fun to use. They aren’t easy to miss because of their glowing bright blue light, and head straight up the sides of walls and onto the ceiling. Once a player walks onto the walk wall, they will always remain attached to wherever the walk wall goes, despite the gravity in the room. As a result walking with your feet attached to the ceiling of the room is a common occurrence in Prey. Combat while on the walk walls are also common, even with enemies that aren’t on the walk wall who appear to be on what appears to be the ceiling to you. Also, at anytime you can jump off the walk wall and you will be flipped to whichever way gravity is taking you, which is always fun to do.
Another very cool application of gravity in the game is some of the miniature planets. There are actually small planets in some rooms that have very realistic gravity, as a planet in outer space would. Players on these masses can walk completely around them in any direction without falling off, due to the gravity of the planet keeping them pulled to the surface. If you happen to be flying by one of these planets in a vehicle, you can easily be pulled in by its gravity. This kind of realism is rarely found in games, and it certainly adds to Prey’s greatness.
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