Developer : Bethesda Softworks
Release date : May 5, 2017
Synopsis :
Prey is a first-person shooter video game developed by Arkane Austin and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released worldwide on 5 May 2017, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
The game takes place in an alternate timeline in which an accelerated Space Race resulted in humankind taking to orbital stations far earlier. The player controls Morgan Yu while exploring the space station Talos I, in orbit around Earth–Moon L2, where they were part of a scientific team researching the Typhon, a hostile alien force composed of many forms with both physical and psychic powers, such as shapeshifting into a clone of any inanimate object. As the Typhon escape confinement, the player uses a variety of weapons and abilities, some of which are derived from the Typhon themselves, to avoid being killed while looking to escape the station. The player gains access to areas of the station by acquiring key items and abilities, eventually allowing the player to explore the station in an open world setting. The game combines elements of role-playing video games, stealth games, immersive sims and Metroidvanias in its design.
Arkane’s Prey is largely unrelated to the 2006 game Prey developed by Human Head Studios, and is considered a reimagining of the intellectual property set in a new narrative. While Prey 2, a sequel to the 2006 game, had been planned by Human Head, it fell into development hell following transfer of the intellectual property from 3D Realms to Bethesda Softworks, and was eventually cancelled in 2014. Arkane’s game does not use any of the planned sequel’s assets, and only incorporates the previous game’s name and the broad theme of the protagonist being hunted by aliens. Arkane built Prey as a spiritual sequel to System Shock, providing the player with several potential means of progressing within the game, while considering the Talos I station a thematic reinterpretation of their underground dungeon of their first game, Arx Fatalis.
Prey was positively reviewed by critics at release and considered one of the best games of 2017 by several gaming magazines and websites. Two expansions were released: Mooncrash, a procedurally-generated mode inspired by various roguelike games, and a multiplayer Typhon Hunter that incorporates the Typhon shapeshifting abilities in a hide-and-seek style game.
In March 2032, Morgan Yu is recruited by their brother Alex to join TranStar’s research team on Talos I. Prior to leaving for the station and while taking a series of tests including the Trolley problem and the Rorschach test, one of the supervising doctors is attacked by a Typhon and Morgan is knocked out. Morgan wakes up in their apartment, but finds out that it is a simulated environment. It is 2035 and Morgan has been living on Talos I for three years. Morgan is contacted by January, an Operator artificial intelligence that claims to have been built by Morgan. January warns Morgan that the Typhon have broken containment and taken over the station, killing the majority of the crew. It reveals to Morgan that they had been testing neuromods for the past three years, with Morgan continually adding and removing them. While these neuromods allow for instantaneous learning of complex skills and abilities, a side effect of removing a neuromod is that the user loses all memories gained after installation of that neuromod, explaining Morgan’s memory loss. This also explains Morgan’s red-eye at the beginning of the game. January claims that Morgan built it to help destroy Talos I, taking the Typhon and all of its research with it. Alex contacts Morgan and suggests instead building a special Nullwave device that will destroy the Typhon but leave the station intact, citing how their research is too valuable to lose.
Morgan travels through the station and encounters other survivors, with a choice of whether to help them or not. Alex tasks Morgan with scanning the Typhon “Coral” growing around the station, and discovers that the Typhon are building some sort of neural network. Their attempts to study the neural network are interrupted when the TranStar Board of Directors learns of the containment breach and sends a cleanup crew to eliminate both the Typhon and any surviving station crew. After the cleanup crew is dealt with, Alex further analyzes the data and concludes that the Typhon are sending a signal into deep space to summon something. A gargantuan Typhon called Apex appears and begins to devour Talos I. Morgan is given the choice of activating the station’s self-destruct sequence or building the Nullwave device to defeat the Typhon.
If Morgan chooses to activate the Nullwave device, all of the Typhon on Talos I are destroyed and the station is left intact to allow further neuromod research. If Morgan chooses to activate the self-destruct, the entire station explodes, destroying all of the Typhon with it. Morgan either finds a way to escape the station or is stranded and dies in the explosion, based on earlier choices in the game.
In a post-credits scene, Morgan wakes up in a lab and learns that it is not the real Morgan, but instead a captured Typhon implanted with Morgan’s memories in an effort to teach it human emotions and empathy. The Typhon have invaded Earth; Alex and his Operator assistants judge “Morgan” based on the choices it made throughout the game. If “Morgan” failed to show human empathy, Alex destroys it and starts the experiment over. If “Morgan” did show human empathy, Alex lets it go, whereupon it can choose to accept his offer to bring peace between the Typhon and humanity, or kill him.
Source : Wikipedia
