Friday 14 July 2006
Prey is the touching story of how one man comes to accept his spiritual heritage, to the delight of his girlfriend, after being kidnapped by aliens. His girlfriend is considerably less delighted about the aliens, as she's been kidnapped too, but you can't have everything.
It's potentially a bummer that his granddad gets squashed to death and Tommy falls off a bridge and dies after just a few minutes. You might think that was a bit of a spoiler, but it's not - these are the methods by which Tommy's granddad becomes an Obi-Wan-ish mentor, more powerful than you could ever imagine, and how he bestows on the non-believer Tommy the already famous Spirit Walk ability.
Prey's world is a mad one. Captured by a giant 'Dyson sphere' in Earth orbit but accidentally freed from the one-way conveyor-belt to death, Tommy navigates a world where up and down are subjective, two-dimensional portals lead to three-dimensional spaces and rooms can change shape around him.
To survive you must use these aspects to your own advantage - inverting the gravity to circumvent barriers, spirit-walking through force fields and over ghostly platforms to deactivate protected switches.
The technology is never less than impressive, but the problem is it doesn't really change what you're doing. On the other hand, you are doing it with uncommon style.
