History VideoGame / Prey

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->''Earth's savior doesn't want the job.''

In 1995, 3D Realms announced a FirstPersonShooter called ''Prey'', to be released in 1998, about a troubled young Native American who is abducted by aliens, gets loose in their giant organic spaceship, and must tap into his spiritual powers to [[DamselInDistress rescue his girlfriend]]. The big selling point of the game was portals; the ability to create [[TeleportersAndTransporters rifts in space]] between any two points of a level (if this [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} sounds familiar]], you are not alone).

The 1997 build impressed all and sundry, but there were technical problems with the game which ultimately forced the project back to the drawing board. Like 3D Realms' other highly-touted project, ''Duke Nukem Forever'', it languished in DevelopmentHell for ages. Eleven years after its initial announcement, ''Prey'' finally made its way onto shelves.

The game came out in 2006, with the story largely unchanged. It boasted top-of-the-line visual effects using a modified ''Doom 3'' engine, and no fewer than four breakthroughs in gameplay. The first was the portal system, which was less interactive than the original concept promised, but nonetheless impressive. The other three were Wall Walking, whereby gravity walkways and gravity switches allowed the player to walk on walls and ceilings; Spirit Walking, in which the lead character's spirit can leave his body and sneak up on enemies, walk through force fields, etc.; and perhaps most original, Death Walking, where dying didn't set the player back, but rather sent him to a sort of mini-game afterlife where you shoot spiritual eagles to determine how much health and [[ManaMeter spirit]] you have when you rematerialise right back where you died.

The game was generally regarded as an enjoyable and groundbreaking game, although there were naysayers -- some complained that the game was too short, others that it was too repetitive, others that its innovations were only window-dressing for an otherwise cookie-cutter [[FirstPersonShooter FPS]]. Either way, it was neither the commercial success nor the industry-changing revolution that had been hoped for.

There was also [[http://penny-arcade.com/presents/page/prey-cover a comic]] from the minds at ''Webcomic/PennyArcade''.

As a technical note, the portalling technology used to such great effect is actually a fairly old bit of behind-the-scenes level-building machinery. It normally goes completely unnoticed by the player, stitching separate areas of a game map (say, the inside and outside of a building) into a convincing whole. That it was only used as an explicit bit of mind-bending in a fistful of multiplayer maps until Prey came along is a mystery for the ages.

A sequel had been announced for release in 2012, was pushed back to 2013, [[DevelopmentHell then not brought up again until late 2014.]] The game's protagonist was to be Killian Samuels, an air marshal who was on a plane that happened to be abducted by the same exact light that takes Tommy. He was to wake up on an alien world named Exodus several years later, knowing that he somehow managed to become a bounty hunter during that period but has no other memories of that time. He would convinced himself he's was the only human on Exodus... until he was to run into Tommy, who apparently knows him. The game was to feature an open world environment, and the ability to take on bounty hunting missions for cash. Unfortunately, in October 2014, Bethesda [[http://www.cnet.com/news/bethesda-confirms-prey-2-cancelled/ officially announced the project was cancelled.]]

Has a reboot ''VideoGame/Prey2017''.
----
!!This game provides examples of:
* AlienGeometries:
** See that door you came through? Probably goes somewhere else - if it's there at all.
** Portal wormholes are strictly 2-dimensional (look at them from the side and they disappear) and one-sided (look at them from ''behind'' and they disappear)
** At one point, you get warned about a Spatial hazard - hallways that lead into hallways that lead into where you came from, and often show you from the side or behind as you traverse the hallways. You have to find out which leads where.
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Until the spirit hawk translates, the aliens language and writing is unintelligible.
* ApologeticAttacker: [[spoiler: Jen, chillingly, gut-wrenchingly so]].
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Tommy, not believing in mythical powers, even after coming back from the dead repeatedly, going to the Cherokee afterlife, fighting ghosts caused by aliens, and getting abducted by aliens.
* BadassUnintentional: Tommy more-or-less got forced into saving the world, and just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
* BorrowedBiometricBypass: Tommy carries around an alien hand to open some doors. It decomposes over the course of the game, with Tommy commenting on how bad it smells.
* BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins: Averted. The protagonist's grandfather is the only Native American in the entire game who dresses stereotypically, out of three major characters who are of that ethnicity. The protagonist has long hair, but he dresses normally and derides his grandfather for looking like a walking stereotype.
* CannotSpitItOut: Tommy can't bring himself to tell Jenny he loves her. [[spoiler:At least, until just after he's forced to kill her.]]
* CoolPet: Talon, Tommy's spirit hawk.
* CouldntFindAPen: In the level "All Fall Down," there are the phrases "I want to go home," "No one hears us," and "Francine" written in blood.
* CreepyChild: [[spoiler:The ghost children]].
* CreepyChildrenSinging: [[spoiler: the aforementioned ghost children]].
* {{Death is a Slap on the Wrist}}: When you are killed, you are transported to the "Spirit World", as it isn't your time to die yet. You can compete in a little minigame of shooting down the aliens that possess the freaky ghost children to regain more health, but it's optional.
* DegradedBoss: Pretty much every boss but the last one re-appears as a mook in some fashion, but the [[spoiler: Keepers]] deserve special mention because they have got to have set some kind of ''record'' for this, as for the first part of the second to last level you face off against one of them, with a boss life bar and all (having been built up for most of the game as the TheDragon). And once you kill him, in ''the very next room'' the ''very next enemies'' you face off are a couple of them that are just as strong as the "boss" and have most of his attacks. With no boss bar or anything. Granted, they can't [[spoiler: teleport mooks in like he can]] but that's about all they can't do.
* EmergencyWeapon: The first real weapon you get is the aliens' standard-issue energy rifle, which still feeds from an ammunition pool, but gradually regenerates up to a third of the total pool when completely expended. You also have [[WrenchWhack a wrench]].
* EternalEngine: The entire Sphere, which traverses the universe for some unknowable reason.
* ExpositoryGameplayLimitation: At several points in the game featuring heavy exposition, Tommy's weapons are disabled, preventing him from attacking.
* EyeScream: When you get the basic energy rifle, you'll sometimes see a three-pronged tentacle of sorts snake around as an IdleAnimation. Press the secondary attack button, and it ''jumps towards your eye with prongs open as if to gouge Tommy's eyeball out''. Subverted in that it's a perfectly harmless scope.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: [[spoiler: Predictably, Tommy's attempts to escape and/or save Jen]] don't work out that well.
* AGodAmI: [[spoiler:It turns out the Sphere's "pilot"/leader, a woman who fought her way to the previous leader, was taken in by the power the sphere possessed, becoming the new ruler - and all-around asshole. In the end, Tommy gets dangerously close to this; only his grandfather stops him and reminds him of his loved ones]].
* GravityScrew: Big time. It's not uncommon to have firefights with enemies standing on walls or the ceiling, and one puzzle requires shifting the gravity around a lot.
* HarbingerOfImpendingDoom
* HealingFactor[=/=]RegeneratingHealth: When Tommy's physical health goes critical (i.e. red streaks appear at the edges of your screen), he will automatically recover just enough health to get out of the critical zone after about five seconds, and if he isn't being hit.
* HeroicMime: Averted completely. Tommy is pretty talkative.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** Halfway through the game, [[spoiler:a heavily, irreversibly mutated Jen]] pleads with you to just kill [[spoiler:her]] to continue down your quest.
** The ending [[spoiler:is a subversion. Tommy takes control of the Sphere and flies it into the sun, destroying it forever. He awakens in the Land of the Ancients and meets Enisi and Jen - but they explain that his time has not come yet, and he returns home.]]
* HideYourChildren: Averted quite sickeningly. Children are mutilated, torn apart, and slain - one of the first atrocities you'll see is a child being possessed and tearing apart and impaling their sibling, and you're forced to fight a few, albeit that they're ghosts. In fact, those were added at a late stage in development; previews as little as six months before the game's release showed [[spoiler: full-fledged, flesh and blood possessed children instead of ghosts coming at the player to rip him apart.]]
* HumanAliens: Both the Hidden and [[spoiler: Mother]] are revealed to be this.
* HumanResources: We're being used as a food source. Translated alien alerts say "rogue protein detected" and encourage Tommy to turn himself in for a painless "processing". If a conversation between Art Bell and an alien researcher is to be believed, [[spoiler:we're one of the many planets aliens have seeded to use as a food source between long slower-than-light trips between galaxies.]]
* HyperspaceArsenal: Okay, it's easy to accept him carrying a lighter and a wrench, but where is he hiding the other four guns?
* ICannotSelfTerminate: [[spoiler: The Mother is actually "training" Tommy to take over as the Sphere's controller from her, since she's centuries old and tired of life]]. This involves [[spoiler: making Tommy kill his horribly-mutated girlfriend]].
* ImAHumanitarian: The Sphere is visiting Earth mainly to abduct people for conversion into protein food (via the [[NightmareFuel nightmarish]] "juicer machines") or into horrible cyborg slaves. It's implied that other species from other planets serve different purposes (Hunters are soldiers, Harvesters are... harvesters). It's also managed to pick up a few parasites along the way: strange floating gasbag creatures that spit acid (likely coming from the same place as the insect-grenades; they look similar).
* InNameOnly: ''Prey 2'' was initially announced to be this, much to the disappointment of many fans. In response, the plot was retooled some to feature Tommy (who was slated to have only cameo roles) more.
* IndustrializedEvil: The Sphere.
* InterfaceScrew: The aforementioned red streaks that appear when Tommy's health goes critical, as well as whenever [[spoiler:The Mother]] communicates telepathically with Tommy.
* InterfaceSpoiler: Neatly averted. The interface shows you up-front how many different weapons you'll have, but once you get the last one, you're still to get the game's BFG...
* IronicNurseryTune: The first time you fight the ghost children, it's announced by a creepy bedtime tune.
* LenoDevice: Art Bell on CoastToCoastAM.
* LivingGasbag: Strange floating gas-bag creatures that spit acid live inside of The Sphere. There are also the fat spectral... things that cause the ghost children.
* MagicalNativeAmerican: But of course. Tommy is able to Astrally Project himself to solve puzzles and sneak-attack enemies, and killing evil ghosts in the land of the dead dictates how much health and magic he respawns with.
* ManaMeter: Actually spiritual-arrow-meter-refilled-with-the-souls-of-your-slain-enemies, but...
* MissionControlIsOffItsMeds: [[spoiler: The Mother.]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Upon being released from the alien's Juicer machine, you come across a switch beneath an observation window for the machine you just escaped from. [[SchmuckBait Pressing the button]] means the machine resumes its grisly work with no way of stopping it. Congratulations, you're killing a human every few seconds! For the rest of the game!
** Somewhat averted in that [[spoiler: you end up driving the Sphere into the Sun and presumably killing everything aboard it that doesn't get off, which means that it in all probability makes no difference as those you saved by not pressing the button die anyway from a closeup with the Solar System's massive resident fusion reactor.]]
*** The way that machine kills them looks really painful. [[spoiler: Driving the thing into the sun might actually be better for everyone. Emphasis on "might".]]
** A CreateYourOwnVillain variant of this occurs in the ghost children. [[spoiler: Whenever you encounter them, they are usually accompanied by translucent white versions of the wraiths you shoot down during the minigame you play whenever you die. During your first encounter with them, Mother remarks that they weren't present on the ship until after you return from your first visit to the spirit world and gain the ability to Spirit Walk, implying that the player's tampering in the spirit world is causing people on the ship to be turned into violent ghosts]].
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot -- You're playing a MagicalNativeAmerican fighting biotechnological aliens, ghosts and cyborgs.
* NuclearCandle: Tommy's Zippo. It's not as strong as some other examples, but it still gives off much more light than a real lighter.
* OrganicTechnology: The aliens use guns, vehicles, computers and even ''doors'' that are actually cybernetically-enhanced organisms or vat-grown critters, and not only do they look the part but they act like it. Exhibit number one: the main rifle Tommy uses, the one with all the membranes and claws sticking out of it, has an alt-fire that works like a sniper rifle. The scope is a little tentacle that lances out of the gun and latches on to his eyeball.
* OurWormholesAreDifferent: They have only one side and are completely 2-dimensional, and have zero internal length. The aliens do some pretty weird things with them: they can appear anywhere, they use them in a sort of "shrinking" experiment early in the game, they put them in boxes or small doorways (i.e you step into the box and emerge in a large room); they also have things called "shifting stations": you go in, close the door, wait for a bit, and when you open it again, you're somewhere else. At one point, you witness them teleporting a ''whole passenger airliner'' out of the air and crashing it onto the Sphere for protein (read: people) harvesting.
** There are also suggestions that the aliens can create {{Pocket Dimension}}s. The [[spoiler: final battle takes place in one]], and there's also a sequence where, as you are heading towards a region of complete darkness, entire rooms are assembled around you.
** Apparently, portal overuse can create "spatial anomalies" where one can spend a whole day chasing after themselves.
* PlanetLooters: The Keepers and their Sphere.
* PlotInducedStupidity: [=SuuuUURREEE=] Tommy, go ahead and [[spoiler: pooh-pooh your Grandfather's demand that you train and prepare to go off running for Jen in spite of the fact that Granddad has apparently ascended to a higher power and can see the situation better than you can.]] Let's see how THAT will work out.
* ResurrectiveImmortality: Tommy fights his way out of the Land of the Dead and respawns where he died.
* SchmuckBait: Some of the portals are set up in such a way that you can end up shooting ''yourself'' if you have an itchy trigger finger.
* SequelHook: [[spoiler: Where do we ''start''? The unresolved plotline regarding evil ghosts invading the mortal realm? Talon's fate? Or that "six months later" [[TheStinger stinger]] where the [[NotQuiteDead priestess Elhuit]] invites you to meet some "powerful beings".]] The game was obviously conceived as part of a series, it's just that due to legal problems, Zenimax bought the game rights. They might still be making a sequel though, since there was some artwork for ''Prey 2'' surfacing around the Interwebs in 2008. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-aV0k02PR8 Here's a video.]]
** Prey 2 has been confirmed. [[http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/03/16/prey-2-teaser-trailer Here's the teaser.]]
*** Prey 2 was axed in 2014. Life's a bitch, right?
* SpiritAdvisor: Your [[spoiler: grandfather, and, to a lesser extent, Talon, your spirit guide hawk.]]
* StandardFPSGuns: With an OrganicTechnology twist. Also stays novel through some very interesting SecondaryFire modes.
* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler: A complaint among some fans as to the fate of Jen.]]
* SwissArmyGun: The Leech Gun is so named because it can leech ammo from charging nodes scattered throughout the ship, with the [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience differently-colored nodes]] bestowing various effects on the weapon.
** Red nodes allow the gun to shoot [[MoreDakka rapid-fire blasts of plasma]].
** Blue nodes allow the gun to [[FreezeRay release a wave of freezing gas]].
** White nodes allow the gun to [[LightningGun fire a bolt of lightning]].
** Orange nodes allow the gun to [[BeamSpam concentrate its ammo into a single destructive beam]].
* TakeThat: When Tommy enters an incredibly dark area, he quips that he feels like he's... ''[[VideoGame/DooM doomed.]]''[[note]]Prey was released two years after Doom 3 was - and Doom 3 was infamous for its incredibly dark areas. 3D Realms and id software have been FPS rivals for quite a while, starting with Doom versus Duke Nukem 3D.[[/note]]
** Although this line becomes ironic when one remembers that ''Prey'' is running off of the same engine that powered ''Doom 3'' (id Tech 4).
* TelepathicSpacemen: the Keepers are capable of making impenetrable shields around themselves, hurling heavy objects or energy balls around, and create portals at will. It helps that their brains are ''[[BizarreAlienBiology more than two meters long]]''.
** [[spoiler: The Mother as well, although she was originally human]].
* TeleportersAndTransporters: Green beams that levitate people before teleporting them. A large chunk of Jen's bar is taken in this way as are the main characters. Later an entire passenger plane is teleported into the ship.
* TragicMonster: [[spoiler:Jen]].
** The [[spoiler: Mother AKA the Sphere's sentience probably counts as well, given that she was originally a human who escaped and fought the Keepers until she reached the core and took over from the original Sphere's sentience, who was weary of life. She's grown weary as well, and plans to have Tommy replace her... of course, she's a misanthropic asshole, so]] What did you expect?
* WhamLine: "Tommy? [[spoiler:I can't feel my legs]]..."
* WhatMightHaveBeen: The developers intended to base the game on a mechanic where the player could create their own {{Portal Network}}, but found the hardware lacking, leaving that for [[Creator/ValveSoftware others]] to succeed at [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} the following year]].
* WouldHurtAChild: Many, MANY children were harmed[[note]]or brutally shredded apart by aliens or spirits[[/note]] in the making of this game.
* WorthyOpponent: Implied. As Tommy advances through the Sphere murdering them left and right, the Hunters go from calling him simply "Human", to "Soldier" and finally "Warrior". [[spoiler:This is the reason why the Sphere wants him as a replacement.]]
----

At E3 2016, during Bethesda's conference, a reboot of ''Prey'' (simply titled "Prey") was announced and is being developed by Arkane Studios (the makers of ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}''). The reboot looks to have a completely different protagonist and a difference in how the alien invasion occurs, in addition to the Earth setting being set much, much farther into the future.

''Prey'' was also the name of a short-lived TV series, a Creator/MichaelCrichton novel, a couple of movies...Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prey_(video_game) has more.]]

Not the direct opposite of ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'', despite what one might think. Also not to be confused with the killer lion movie ''Prey''.

* EyeScream: When you get the basic energy rifle, you'll sometimes see a three-pronged tentacle of sorts snake around as an IdleAnimation. Press the secondary attack button, and it ''jumps towards your eye with prongs opon.'' When it attaches to Tommy's eye, it enables the alternate SniperRifle function.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: [[spoiler: Predictably, Tommy's attempts to escape and/or save Jen don't work out that well.]]

->''We are next.''

* EyeScream: When you get the basic energy rifle, you'll sometimes see a three-pronged tentacle of sorts snake around as an IdleAnimation. Press the secondary attack button, and it ''jumps towards your eye with prongs...'' Thankfully, this is how it does the Zoom function.

* OrganicTechnology: The aliens use guns, vehicles, computers and even ''doors'' that are actually cybernetically-enhanced organisms or vat-grown critters.
** Point-in-fact: The main rifle Tommy uses has an alt-fire method that works like a sniper rifle. The scope is a little tentacle that lances out of the gun and latches on to his eyeball.

* RessurectiveImmortality: Tommy fights his way out of the Land of the Dead and respawns where he died.

* EyeScream: When you get the basic energy rifle, you'll sometimes see a three-pronged tentacle of sorts snake around as an IdleAnimation. Press the secondary attack button, and it ''jumps towards your eye with prongs...''

* MagicalNativeAmerican: But of course.

* SequelHook: [[spoiler: Where do we ''start''? The unresolved plotline regarding evil ghosts invading the mortal realm? Talon's fate? Or that "six months later" [[TheStinger stinger]] where the [[NotQuiteDead priestess Elhuit]] invites you to meet some "powerful beings".]] The game was obviously conceived as part of a series, it's just that due to legal problems, Zenimax bought the game rights. They might still be making a sequel though, since there was some artwork for ''Prey 2'' surfacing around the Interwebs in 2008. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-aV0k02PR8 Here's a video]].
** Prey 2 has been confirmed. [[http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/03/16/prey-2-teaser-trailer Here's the teaser]].
* SpiritAdvisor: Your [[spoiler: grandfather, and, to a lesser extent, Talon, your spirit guide hawk]].

Not a direct opposite of ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'', despite what one might think. Also not to be confused with the killer lion movie ''Prey''.

* BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins -- Averted. The protagonist's grandfather is the only Native American in the entire game who dresses stereotypically, out of three major characters who are of that ethnicity. The protagonist has long hair, but he dresses normally and derides his grandfather for looking like a walking stereotype.

A sequel had been announced for release in 2012, was pushed back to 2013, [[DevelopmentHell then not brought up again until late 2014.]] The game's protagonist was to be Killian Samuels, an air marshal who was on a plane that happened to be abducted by the same exact light that takes Tommy. He was to wake up on an alien world named Exodus several years later, knowing that he somehow managed to become a bounty hunter during that period but has no other memories of that time. He would convinced himself he's was the only human on Exodus... until he was to run into Tommy, who apparently knows him. The game was to feature an open world environment, and the ability to take on bounty hunting missions for cash. Unfortunately, in October 2014, Bethesda [[http://www.cnet.com/news/bethesda-confirms-prey-2-cancelled/ officially announced the project was cancelled]].

''Prey'' was also the name of a short-lived TV series, a Creator/MichaelCrichton novel, a couple of movies...Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prey_(video_game) has more]].

* HeroicSacrifice: Halfway through the game, [[spoiler:a heavily, irreversibly mutated Jen]] pleads with you to just kill [[spoiler:her]] to continue down your quest.

* ExpositoryGameplayLimitation:
** When Tommy first meets Elhuit and the other humans, his weapons are disabled, preventing him from attacking.
** The same thing happens when Tommy first rescues Jen.

* ExpositoryGameplayLimitation: When Tommy first meets Elhuit and the other humans, his weapons are disabled, preventing him from attacking.

''Prey'' was also the name of a short-lived TV series, a MichaelCrichton novel, a couple of movies...Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prey_(video_game) has more]].

A sequel had been announced for release in 2012, was pushed back to 2013, [[DevelopmentHell and hasn't been mentioned since.]] The game's protagonist is Killian Samuels, an air marshal who was on a plane that happened to be abducted by the same exact light that takes Tommy. He wakes up on an alien world named Exodus several years later, knowing that he somehow managed to become a bounty hunter during that period but has no other memories of that time. He becomes convinced he's the only human on Exodus... until he runs into Tommy, who apparently knows him. The game will feature an open world environment, and the ability to take on bounty hunting missions for cash.