Arkane isn't afraid to scrap previous work in order to make the best game possible. Heck, the upcoming Prey - which parent company Zenimax bought the rights to more than five years ago - has nothing in common with the 2006 game and its planned sequel other than the name. But some ideas just won't die, as Prey lead systems designer Seth Shain recently explained to me.
"There was this idea of a heavy weapon the player could get that was kind of a high-tech weapon. The process it was made by, it's kind of a smart weapon, it's a homing weapon. It shoots these explosive discs, and it would home in on enemies. So you'd lock an enemy, it would home in," Shain said. "It had some pre-programmed things [it would say] like 'Reloading,' 'Firing,' 'Target acquired,' stuff like that."
Shain started to laugh. "But over time ... it would start saying other things, and it would start questioning its own existence."
It sounds like a silly feature, possibly even a little out of place in a game about deadly aliens with the potential to wipe out all life on Earth. But then you remember this is a game where you can turn into a coffee mug, toilet paper roll, and banana. Unfortunately, Shain said the studio "just couldn't finish it" with an acceptable level of polish. Don't be too sad though. While there are no definite plans, there's a lot of love for this self-aware gun at Arkane, and there's a possibility we'll see it in the future.
"This was a really fun idea we were playing with and we were all really excited about it," Shain said with a smile. "So we hope we can bring it back. It was a fun experiment."
