[AX3]
CV-11. Because of your continued profitability, the administrator has moved you
into the general population. [CIVVIE]
Hell yeah, you dumb assholes,
I'm just gonna walk out the front door and… Oh!… Okay… *soothing new wave music* In 1995, 3D Realms, before reaching heights
of dizzying success by saying, "What if Doom but interactive
and has a character and secks?" They were planning another show-stopper
of a game, this time with portals?… Even the earliest versions of Prey
had this incorporated into the game, whereas Duke3D had a way to trick you
into thinking things existed in real 3D space and could play around
with non-euclidean geometry, this was a little more sophisticated
so it got canned somewhere around 1997 because
they couldn't make it work right. This was the game that was worked on
post-Rise of the Triad by the Developers of Incredible Power,
including one Tom Hall, until he departed from Apogee
in 1996 to co-found Ion Storm. Head engineer William Scarboro
would comment that, [AX3 reading] [CIVVIE]
1998 brought another attempt
to get it off the ground, which also failed. *music* [AD NARRATOR]
From the creators
of Duke Nukem comes Prey! A first adventure
in the saga of Talon Brave. Everything you have ever known
about the laws of physics and gameplay is history. You're going to the other side! Enter the portal and you'll find:
folded space, impossible geometries, insane interactivity,
unbelievable speed. [CIVVIE]
In 2001, the project was restarted
because they licensed id tech 4, a few years before it would debut in Doom 3,
and five years before Prey would actually release. That's right, we're talking about
development hell, 11 years of it, still not as long as Duke Nukem Forever,
so the game that came out of it must be a disaster. *heavy metal music* Actually, no,
Prey is really good! Under-appreciated and unfairly
maligned in some places, though it was handed off
to Human Head Studios, a company founded by former
members of Raven Software. I don't know
what the deal is with Raven, did they get some kind of black magic ritual that allows
all Raven staffers, past, present and future, to release games from development hell that are,
at worst FINE and perfectly enjoyable? Give a Raven employee an engine from programming overlord and nigh-invulnerable
Nexus-VII prototype John Carmack and they can turn it into gold, silver if they're using Unreal tech. This game wasn't even a bomb either,
it was financially successful. Just like the short list of games
that 3D Realms was publishing at the time little titles like Max Payne 1 and 2, which, Prey wasn't as big as those, but Prey also doesn't have
a shitty escort mission yeah, who's fucking idea was this? Prey though, the IP got lost in the shuffle,
now belonging to Bethesda, and Prey 2 was in development,
until it wasn't… and it got scrapped for another game
which was then scrapped, and Arkane studios made something
completely different and called it Prey because it's an awesome name. I haven't played that one. Let's get into this. If you're looking to buy
this game on Steam, you can't! Unless you get a resold key for it. Why? Well, Bethesda owns the IP
but 2K games has the publishing rights. That's like a third
of this show's rogue's gallery. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
I can see why you'd think like that
if your game was in development for 11 years. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
C'mon! Stop pissing around
and get this guy back into action! Remember when
there was mirrors in video games? Well anyway,
here's another id tech 4 bathroom. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
You're lucky there isn't an imp hiding
in that stall and that the lights work. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
I have to address this at some point,
might as well get it out of the way now I'm not exactly the best person to talk
about the cultural issues of Native Americans, which is good because this game
doesn't discuss them either, like if you squint,
you can see some kind of allegory but the designers and writers were consulting
the voice actor for Tommy, Michael Greyeyes, they actually got a Native American
to do the voice acting for him, and his girlfriend Jen,
played by Krystal Lightning, they didn't do the thing where
they just got John William Galt to Mickey Rooney up a Chinese
ninja speak-e-engrish thing… The grandfather is played
by John William Galt… Would Lo Wang jokes be more or less
tasteful than normal in this situation? [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
So Tommy is kind of an asshole. But look here's some video casino games
I can play, and lose money in, and mute the sound on the jukebox in the back
cause it's playing licensed music. Hold on, lemme fix this… [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] *music* [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
I'd like to introduce our first victims
of the night: these dumb crackers! [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Yeah, that's uh… your ears
have become fused to your hair, grandpa's got the same thing
going on and I can't not see it and looks like there's some kind of
seam on your human suit right there. *honk honk*
and looks like there's some kind of
seam on your human suit right there. You guys are lucky that this opening scene and
the stuff that's about to go down is so goddamn good… [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
I just wasn't sure
that these two were assholes. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
I just wasn't sure
that Tommy was an asshole. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
You're being pretty loud,
I bet she can hear you. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Okay, but what about crushing your enemies,
seeing them driven before you and hearing the lamentations
of their women, huh? That's pretty sweet too! [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
As much as I respect what you're trying
to do here, I booted up this game to kill things and- [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
It's 2:00 AM guys, pack it in. I'm sure you've been thrown out
of nicer places than this. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Okay. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Girl, did you see how they rag-dolled?
Those guys are super dead. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] *TV statics* *TV beep* *Don't Fear The Reaper by Blue Ă–yster Cult* [CIVVIE]
Been holding out on you kids, I didn't mention that this game had one of
the best openings to any game I've ever played, where the jukebox starts playing
Don't Fear The Reaper so I… CAN'T REALLY PLAY THE AUDIO! Take my word for it, or look up the scene
on YouTube for the full effect, this is an amazing way to open a game, grounding the player in
the mundane world for a few minutes before throwing everything out
the window and doing this? It doesn't drag on too long
with the character introductions, gives you a little taste of the combat
and how it works, and THEN sucks you in. Yeah, all that fancy id tech 4 stuff wasn't
as impressive until they left Earth, but now? Oh yeah, baby, look at this!
Beautiful! And you can see it! *some background screaming*
[IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
It ain't gonna be good! Now, what's happening here is that these humans
are getting strogg-ified, more or less, although the aliens don't do the best job because this one
sabotages this machine that's carrying you around, sending you down into the bowels of this massive ship
while Jen and your Grandfather get taken. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
HEY, WAIT A MINUTE,
I RECOGNIZE THAT ASSHOLE! [DUKE NUKEM FOREVER]
Coochie coochie! [CIVVIE]
Yeah, it's like those things in DNF, but without
the massive, jarring tonal shifts and sexual assault! [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Some of the time, Tommy's lines
are a little off when it comes to delivery and it really, really strongly contrasts against the nasty
body horror elements of nearly every part of this ship, the aliens on it, and… everything. Y'know, id tech 4's ability to makes things look way too
shiny actually helps with the atmosphere of this game. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Seems pretty self-explanatory… [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Yeah, about that… The game doesn't let you run. Probably my biggest complaint
about Prey is the movement speed, you're kinda slow
and there's no sprint but it's not really that big
of a problem, I guess… [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Oh!… That's not good… Holy shit! They spike him, and then take the spikes out,
and then spike him again! Jesus Christ, he's like 70,
you don't need to double-tap him! *machine sucking sounds* Oh my god, will you listen to that? *machine shutting down* [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
You're a little late. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
In 2006, let's not say
it's directly because of Half-Life 2, but you needed some killer set-pieces
in your game or else your game wasn't shit. And less than a half-hour into Prey,
you get THIS. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] *hunter groans* [CIVVIE]
It's not just that you're shrunk in a portal, it's not just that there's a giant version
of the most basic alien grunt outside and you get such a good look at them, and then you walk along the surface of
this tiny moon and the gravity keeps you on it, oh it's… it's just cool! And even today,
you can't say, "Oh, this is outdated!" Because who the fuck
does this kind of thing?! So this switch turned off
the machine, right? [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
I can just turn it off
like the other guy did, right? Oh!… Oh no… So these portals… *hunter speaking gibberish* [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Oh, you have no idea! It's weird that the first gun
I get is my favorite one. Most of the weapons in this game
are good, but this one?! It's like a submachine gun,
but the alt-fire is a sniper rifle, where a little appendage pops out
and latches itself onto your eye, and gives you some kind of thermal vision
when you're trying to snipe and it is just perfect! The sniping is extremely satisfying and the primary fire is maybe
a tiny bit weaker than you'd expect but that's only because
the gun sounds so good! *rifle blasting* The animations on the guns, all of which are these
alien bio-mechanical… things… are all wonderful. There's no reloading, like this gun
spins its cylinders occasionally, but the ammo pool
is just this bar over here. No numbers. Except for the grenades, which are these things
that are living, that you pick up, that have their own AI. You might recognize this "ball that
you have to shoot to open certain things" from Duke Nukem Forever. I did! I did not recognize Art Bell. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Art Bell was a real person, a radio broadcaster
who hosted the paranormal themed Coast to Coast AM, and bits of this radio broadcast
are scattered throughout the game and are also great. A cool and interesting way to get snippets
of what's happening on Earth while this is going on. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Ah, George from Garland, huh? [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Art Bell's paranormal radio show
got a call from Scott's Mystical Head. You'll stop dead and listen
to these, they're cool. I think a lot of it has to do with Art Bell,
who sounds totally genuine the entire time. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
You're walking along, headshotting
an alien hunter while upside down, getting barfed on by the ship,
defying gravity on these platforms, barfing on the ship. *Tommy vomits* Gravity changes, man. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Jesus! This game can be a bit bleak, especially
since the player character dies in the first hour. *Tommy screams*
*hawk screeching* I heard this game
was short but goddamn!… [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Oh yeah, Talon, we love Talon. Talon will be accompanying you
on your adventure from now on and generally being
an annoying little shit to the aliens while guiding you towards your objectives. Mostly he distracts them
and keeps them from shooting at you. He's like a super-useful passive ability. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Motherfucker, you were abducted by aliens,
watched your grandfather die, and now his Force ghost is standing right
in front of you, along with your childhood pet, who is a fucking hawk,
which is cool as shit, by the way, you listen to Art Bell,
and you're calling this superstitious bullshit? [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Hey, that's the summary
on the back of the DVD, you're cheating! You get taught how to spirit walk, which is used
mostly for solving environmental puzzles, though you can still murder
aliens with the spirit bow. AND TAKE THEIR SOULS!… [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Except doors. You get sent back onto the ship… [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
You're hearing this voice only now,
after your spirit quest, but I suspect you could have heard it
before because of this screen effect. All right, back to the spirit walking stuff. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Yeah, but I have grenades. We're only half an hour into this game,
and all of this has happened. If you were tired of having an awesome gun,
tough shit, here's another awesome gun. This is the Leech Gun. At first, you'll think,
"Oh, this is a nice plasma weapon". You get ammo for it by "leeching" off
certain objects in the world. So it's not just plasma,
it's also a freeze gun, a devastating laser gun late game,
and my favorite, a lightning gun, it zaps and it sets
things on fire, it's great! I'm having a blast,
I don't think anything will bring me down. *banging on glass* *ghost screeching* *children scared* [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
HOLY SHIT,
this game has some balls. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] *child gets impaled* *ghost child laughing* *ghost child screaming like a banshee* [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Oh, okay, so it's my fault? Maybe you should childproof
your giant spiky death coffins! I'm really not used to having
my weapons laid out like this, the 3 key selects my grenades,
which I do by accident, leading to my first
non-story-enforced death. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
You have to try, REALLY HARD,
to actually die in this game. See, when you die, the game
sends you to this spirit world. You restore your spirit by shooting
red and blue flying ghost… things… the red ones restore more of your health
and the blue ones restore spirit. When the game decides you have enough health,
it sucks you right back into the action. Now, I'm playing this on Normal mode
and not Cherokee mode, which removes
health pickups from the game, but I suspect not being able to die also drastically
decreases the game's difficulty on any mode. *Barracuda by Heart* [HUNTER]
Shut it off!
*Barracuda by Heart* *Barracuda by Heart* *You've Got Another Thing Comin'
by Judas Priest* [CIVVIE]
Oh shit! Yeah, you'll find pieces
of Earth locations on this ship, and for some reason, I've become supernaturally
lucky with these video poker machines. *jackpot* Oh yeah, I'm winning big,
I hope nothing ruins- *ghost child laughing* [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
When you thought Doom 3 was creepy?
Prey is here to one-up it! And not just by having monster closets,
there are no monster closets. there are monster portals…
into closets… You know what, the AI
ain't half bad in this game either, the way the enemies move,
especially the hunters, who know when you're aiming
at them and move out of the way. These hounds too, the way they move
and the animations, this is all really well done, and it's super obnoxious to say,
"Hey, you remember Prey?" and have people say, "That game from 2017
with all the inanimate objects that can kill you?" I think I saw one of these aliens
PICK UP HEALTH at one point! They can basically
do everything that you can. This first boss is kind of novel,
in that you start fighting it and you think, "There's no way I can take down this giant
cyber-abomination with these weapons." *shield activated* *centurion screaming* That. Is cool as hell. AND YOU PICK UP HIS GUN, which is like a heavy machine gun
with a grenade launcher, and you take him down with it! It's gross looking
but the animations on it are GREAT. Wholly under-appreciated game.
And you don't just spend all your time shooting. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] *shuttle materializing* [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Well, it's not as good as the on-foot combat
but it's fine, and does add some variety. Not only that, but the aliens can do
the same thing and chase you. You've got a cannon and a tractor beam, but the tractor beam is mostly used to drag
objects around that are blocking you. You have a separate health bar for the vehicle
but once that's gone, you're dead. Or… not really. This whole section does
an incredible job of showing you just how big this spaceship is
when you get glimpses of the outside. And the game starts getting more difficult,
introducing laser traps, and turrets, although the turrets can be
dealt with quickly with explosives. Can't say the same for these things, which I cannot find a name for anywhere,
not in the manual, not in the wiki, They fly and have some
incredibly fast missiles. And then there's these things that you have to kill
with the spirit bow… but they drain your spirit… they don't show up very often but when they do,
I find that they disappear just as quickly. You're following some fires to lead you to the resistance
that has formed against the aliens on The Sphere. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
That's a shadow, YouTube, I promise. She sends you off
to destroy The Keeper, even opens a portal for you, that's nice,
even better, she sends you right to the game's shotgun. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
It's not a GREAT shotgun, and you have to be
really, really close for it to have full effect, but at least, it stuns enemies,
with all of this acid, and has a secondary fire like a grenade. And again, the model work
and animation is fantastic. *jackpots* You thought I was lucky before,
but my ancestors are smiling on me now! That's some luck right there,
I'll tell you what. Fuck! [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
I gotta give 'em this, they made
some weirder monsters than Doom 3 did, slimier, more off-putting, and you gotta save Jen
before they turn her into one of these… things… [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Hell yeah,
damsel-un-distressed, babes saved, let's… [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Man, I would not be letting Jen go first,
you went through a lot to break her out, her ass is just gonna
get kidnapped again. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Oh god,
these videos are starting to run together. Since you just found Jen and she doesn't have
any army training like Tommy or whatever, you might not want
to leave her alone again- *shhh*
you might not want
to leave her alone again- Okay, but she's just
gonna get kidnapped- *shhh*
Okay, but she's just
gonna get kidnapped- All I'm saying is- *shhh*
All I'm saying is - They're gonna- *shhh*
They're gonna- She's gonna di- *long and distorted shhh*
She's gonna di- *Super Mario Bros. 3
Sky Land Theme* *banshee scream*
[IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [JEN] Oh my god!
[IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Whoever designed these enemies that toss
rockets at you and have a shield thing to deflect your explosives, and they pop
in and out of these wall vaginas, I give you an A for effort and creativity,
but damn, they get annoying! These rocket spamming bastards are probably
responsible for half of my deaths. You also get that weapon they have,
which is nice, I guess. It's a standard rocket-launcher
/ rocket-proof, you know, calling the weapons in this game
"standard" does them a disservice, they all have familiar kinds of functions
but they're all really stylish and fun to use. One cool set-piece after another.
The cube room? Great. A neat puzzle thing that you only
see once in the entire game. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
He does, though. If you think the game's going to re-hash
old ideas with the shuttle, well, you're right, except it's also going to re-hash the thing it did
with the tiny moon earlier, with big moons, and when putting these two things together, it actually
doesn't feel like it's re-hashing anything! It's awesome! I didn't want to spill the beans on this so early but…
this game is only about 5 hours long. However, those 5 hours
are basically all-killer-no-filler, like they had this game that was in development
for 11 years and they took all the good ideas, filled up a campaign with them,
and shipped it. Prey does not waste your time, except maybe this box and gravity puzzle,
but that's once. And then there's just cool
set-piece after cool set-piece, seemingly getting everything
they can out of the game's mechanics. Like this: [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Okay, but I feel like I've been doing
the heavy lifting on that front, you know? [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] *sardonic laugh* [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Oh, god, whenever they call them "females",
you just know they're dicks. So the, "Mother", not the Keeper,
we'll get to the Keeper stuff soon. The Mother makes a deal with you. She'll teleport you a hundred miles up
and let you get close to Jen if you do a puzzle. It's not too hard,
but I've done it a few times, I remember the first time having some trouble. It's spirit walking and platforms,
no killing required. Oh, about that laser upgrade
for the Leech Gun. I can see why
they made you wait for it. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Oooh… this is awkward. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Oh no, man,
don't be making that promise… [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Nope! NOPE NOPE
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE! They put her torso on a… thing… some kind of self-healing
explosive-tossing alien monster. I'm not sure if I'm more mad that they turned
my girlfriend into a horrible monster or that the horrible monster gets me
stuck in a corner and wails on me. Not cool! As you might be able to tell,
this is fucking harrowing. Jen is screaming the whole time, and Human Head Studios and 3D Realms
had some balls to throw a twist like this in. You do not save her. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE] UHHHHHMMMMM…
[IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] *upbeat Hawaiian-like music* [CIVVIE]
Wow, that was some heavy stuff, kids, some real gut-wrenching… not wrench…
don't say wrench… uhm… let's check in with our upbeat, family-friendly
children's entertainment specialist… [CANCER MOUSE]
Hey, Civvie. [CIVVIE]
You know what, this is probably going to be less
scarring than what just happened, so go with it, take me on a journey,
Cancer Mouse! [CANCER MOUSE]
Today, I'd like to talk about the great wisdom
and traditions of the Native Americans. [CIVVIE]
Oh boy, is it getting hot in here?
I'm sweating like a… [CANCER MOUSE]
History tells us of knowledge
passed down from the great Anasazi tribe, legends of a race of aliens
that visited Earth to harvest humans and use them to create
all sorts of mutated- [CIVVIE]
I'm gonna stop you right there because
you're just going right back into this game. [CANCER MOUSE]
Huh? [CIVVIE]
That's one of the Art Bell calls
that says this. [CANCER MOUSE]
But, the aliens abduct people
from all over the southwest, and- [CIVVIE]
No, that's THIS GAME! [CANCER MOUSE]
Have you ever wondered
about the aliens among us? What is flying over us
in the sky, strange lights? CIVVIE
The government confirmed
the existence of UFOs. Obama told James Corden that,
can you imagine? James Corden is the show where
a former president talked about UFOs, this fucking world,
I can't deal, man! [CANCER MOUSE]
The aliens are actually
of ****** descent- [CIVVIE]
You know what, get out of here,
Cancer Mouse, you're a disappointment. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
So, like, immortal, what does that mean? Like I don't have to shoot a couple
of spirit arrows around every time I get hurt, it seems like I'm already immortal,
with like one extra step. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] *Super Mario Bros. 3
Sky Land Theme* *upgrade acquired music* [CIVVIE]
I don't know, that was pretty easy. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Really, no more training? No carrying you on my back
and doing flips and shit? [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
That's what I been saying! [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] *sound is off* [CIVVIE]
A'ight. *metal music* [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Really? Eh, still a better human origin story
than Prometheus. Still: [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Well, that doesn't really matter, see… This Keeper boss-rushes me, they must know by now
that I am practically immortal, like at some point you guys
need to pack it in and go home. And then! [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Yeah, exactly.
A good rampage is never done! After doing… whatever this is,
you're in the Mother's chamber, this is who you've been
talking to this whole time. Once you get in,
the whole story comes out. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
So am I listening to this shit. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Wait, but if you're human and you made
a deal for it not to kill your people, is it not currently killing your people,
y'know, humans? Or are we just counting whatever tribe
or nation you came from? Like if the sphere gave control
over to a French person, they'd leave France alone but the rest
of the world would be fair game? You know what, I don't like the geopolitical implications
of harvesting most of the human race, you already killed
every person Domasi cared about so… [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] *hawk screeching*
[IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Really, Talon too?
Talon was awesome! I was disappointed when I first played this
because I thought THIS was the final boss. It's not, the actual
final fight is fine, I guess, but it does do that thing where it relies
on the boss hanging around explosives from conveniently placed dispensers
and it's not really very difficult. She got that maniacal laughing down though. *maniacal laugh* *maniacal laugh* [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
No, bullshit, you guys suck and you make all your stuff outta
people meat, and that's fucked up. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
And what must be done, is throwing this big-ass human
harvesting space hulk into the sun. I don't get to see an explosion,
but that's pretty cool nonetheless. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
"But for real, don't go back to Earth
and tell people you did that," "they're not going to believe you,
except maybe Art Bell." [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
"…that I bashed you in the face with a wrench,
there was probably a better way to do that." [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
I dunno, seems like Grandfather here
can pull me in whenever he wants, I can just text him,
"Get my ass to the spirit world!" Enisi! Help a dude out
getting some spirit pussy! It's 2006, so back then we weren't
expecting a post-credits scene, especially in a video game. Tommy's back at the bar, which seems
to being doing pretty well considering. [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Hey girl, did you get a wax? [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] [CIVVIE]
Oh, this is clearly some G-Man
shenanigans, do not go with her. I tried not going into the portal for a while.
It's not a choice. *epic music* Yeah, about that… *ratiocination music* The rights were transferred
to Zenimax Media and Bethesda. And Bethesda announced that
the sequel was being made in 2011, and that you didn't play as Tommy
and it was going to be an open world game, which when you put those two things together
they sound like vultures circling around a corpse. Bethesda officially
canceled the game in 2014. The story sounded interesting, from what I can gather,
Tommy was a part of the story, but the player character was a man
named Killian Samuels, who was a U.S. Marshall aboard a plane
that crashed into the Sphere during the game. So Killian Samuels, after escaping the Sphere,
becomes a bounty hunter on Exodus, and every time he dies, he wakes up
in a new clone body in his apartment, and so over the course of the game,
they find out that the Keepers are still around, and a little unhappy with
how the Sphere got destroyed, and so they built another one
and they're going to destroy Earth with it. And Samuels teams up with Tommy
to take this big Sphere down but during one of these final missions,
he runs into a whole shitload of dead clones of himself and realizes that he's done this many, many times,
and never gotten any farther than here, so he's fought with Tommy
countless times and never gotten any farther, until the end of the game where he destroys
the war Sphere, and he get sucked out into space, but before he dies he attaches this teleportation device
that he has for catching bounties to himself, puts in some random coordinates,
and winds up on Earth where he lives a long,
happy life, and then dies… and then wakes up again
in his apartment on Exodus. That's some heady shit,
that's interesting and fun and actually
a ballsy way to end a game. And the game itself looked pretty cool
with a lot of fast, movement-based combat people weren't really doing a lot of in 2011. Bethesda says they canceled Prey 2
because it wasn't meeting their quality standards. Bethesda, says it wasn't meeting… Bethesda's quality standards! It wasn't meeting
Bethesda's quality standards! As Jason L. Blair, former narrative
designer at Human Head Studios, who had worked
on the script for Prey (2006), said that Prey 2 was a full game already,
not just the demo stuff they'd shown off, [AX3 reading]
"What happened to Prey 2, from where I sat, was political. And petty." [CIVVIE]
Prey 2 was handed off to Dishonored
developer Arkane Studios, who went on to make Prey, which sure is a sentence I had to read. Now why would this happen?
Internal politics. Because come the fuck on,
Bethesda's quality standards? Do any of you believe that? No, see, Bethesda contracts
Human Head to make Prey 2, a mostly complete game in 2011, right, and says they'll give
them six months to a year to finish it. But then Bethesda
starts rejecting their milestones, trying to get them to change or fix things because they didn't actually
have to give them more time, there was nothing in the contract
that said they had to do that. So Bethesda was trying to bully
Human Head into completing a game that they weren't going
to give better time or funding to, before trying to buy the studio outright and when the contract was up
and Human Head wasn't able to finish the game because Bethesda wouldn't, you know, provide them with the proper resources to do
the things Bethesda was asking them to do, the rights go back to Bethesda
and Human Head gets fucked. And Human Head
still made the right decision, because if they'd let Bethesda buy them out,
who knows where they'd be today. So if you want to know
why Prey 2 is dead, there you go, it was Bethesda being petty,
useless corporate dicks, what a surprise. But then Human Head ended up
making shitty games like The Quiet Man. And then Human Head released Rune 2 in 2019,
and that was apparently a disaster and the publisher for that game
sued Human Head, or actually not Human Head because Human Head
closed its doors the day after releasing Rune II, which was broken, you know… that's a Bethesda thing to do, which is why the entire Human Head studio reformed
under the name Roundhouse Games, a studio… OWNED… BY BETHESDA! [THANOS]
You could not live
with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back t… to m…
me… me… back to me. *How'd I Do?* *radio statics* [IN-GAME CHARACTER(S)] *radio statics* *How'd I Do?*
I really wish Prey from 1998 got released. It was looking so ridiculously advanced they even had the really fancy portals from 2006 working way back then. https://youtu.be/XT_z5ABei9o?t=180. But the rumor as to why it got delayed is the lead programmer had a breakdown and claimed he was developing his code down the wrong path as he immediately quit and left the studio. When they tried to bring in someone else as the lead programmer it was filled with so much incomprehensible spaghetti code they ended up starting over from scratch. There are lots of old videos out there of them showing off what they had built
Absolutely one of the best opening sequences in video games. Not many games can match that. The entire thing was perfect.
Come to think of it, Prey 2016 also had a pretty good opening sequence too.
Lots of games nowadays seem to go for a pretty straight forward "Wow cool title drop" type of moment to wow players. Prey did a lot more than that, just a perfectly crafting opening scene.
10/10 game few people ever remember. I really wish there would be a remake/rerelease.
I don't have much to add to the discussion as I only briefly played the first Prey but I remember reading one time that at one point in the game a little boy and his sister are lost on the alien ship and the little girl gets possessed by the aliens and kills her brother. That sounded really fucked up and crazy and I remembered it all these years later after hearing about it.
The intro to this game left a pretty big mark on me when it first released. There are so many unique things to this game that I feel really stood out, and even today haven't been replicated. Glad to see it getting some love. Very few people I know have even heard of it.
Man I really need to play this game again some time. I've had it on Steam for years, but have never run it on Steam. Glad I bought it way back when, well before it got yanked off of Steam, now if only I had done the same for Wolfenstein 2009...
Where can you buy this? Game preservationists are doing God’s work.