In many ways "Prey" is a weird case as far as development goes. The normal development cycle for a game these days is 1 to 2 years. Maybe even a couple more for the more higher profile games. However, was originally thought up in 1996. But the development team at 3D Relms had shoved the game aside to go work on "Duke Nuckeum Forever". It was about 2 years ago that "Prey" re-surfaced, and with a new developer in the form of "Human-Head Studios". And now, after 10 years in the making "Prey" is finally out. While all of the original content is mainly still in the game, the game has been revamped and remade with the "Doom 3" engine to run the game.<br /><br />"Prey" tells a rather different and original story as far as shooters go. You play as Tommy, a native American who lives on an Indian reservation with his girl friend Jen and his grandfather Enisi. Tommy has always rejected the beliefs of his people. Enisi has always tried to teach him of the old ways. However, Tommy just wants to leave the reservation and go out to see the world. The only thing stopping him, is that his girlfriend Jen wont go with him. As she wants to stay. All this is presented to the player rather quickly. With not a whole lot of development, beyond the main subject. Because before long the three are sucked up by an alien space ship. And it pretty much comes down to Tommy trying to rescue his girlfriend. However, in the process ( as you may expect ) you save the world.<br /><br />The game play in "Prey" eventually does boil down to your basic shooter. As you go threw each level blasting your way through enemies. However, the game has some unique twists that try to set the game aside from the normal shooter formula. These take the form of "Wall Walk" and "Spirit Walk". In the case of "Wall Walk", Tommy can walk on walls in certain intervals threw-out the space ship. There are certain walkways that will lead on the wall, and sometimes the ceiling, and you can walk threw those areas. There is also times when you can actually change the entire formation of the level. In which you can change the gravity pull of the level to the new ground. And the entire level will shift to make that the new ground. During the times, it can be discontenting, especially when you walk from one ground to the other. However, it is a neat effect overall. And helps give the game a different feel in some ways.<br /><br />The other case of "Spirit Walk", in which Tommy can walk out of his body. These are used mainly for puzzle solving. You will find an area that you cant go to, and you can use "Spirit Walk" to reach those areas. It works well in many cases. However, the one big flaw is when you die. Instead of having to restart a level, you will leave your body and go to the spirit world. Where you will be on a pillar, and you must shoot a certain amount of wraiths that are flying around you to continue on. This effect works in one way, in that it never takes you out of the action. However, where it fails is that it takes all of the challenge out of the game. Because death really has no tole on you in "Prey". And while you will have the will to take more chances ( which is good ) you know that there really is no problem with dying. Since the worst that could happen is you will have to sit out for a few seconds.<br /><br />These new takes on the genre are interesting in many ways. And "Prey" tries to make them work well. However, they really don't add much to what is otherwise a very linear and strait forward game. In which boils down to a constant corridor crawl threw the space ship.<br /><br />The action in "Prey" is roughly 90%, with the other being some light and easy puzzle solving. The shooting in "Prey" is good, it feels right and you have a decent amount of weapons. However, the enemies you fight in "Prey" are rather easy. They don't do a whole lot to protect themselves and are very easy to eradicate. It also doesn't help that the game only has a very small amount of enemies. You start out only fighting a couple at a time and having an easy time doing so. The game tries to make things more interesting near the end of the game by throwing more enemies at you at once. However, it doesn't really change the game up much. The weapons have a neat and interesting organic look to them, however, the weapons at times feel under powered.