Standing on the shoulders of giants doesn’t always afford you a view into the future.
Why Prey didn’t capture the magic of its predecessors.
Early into my first playthrough ofPrey, I found myself dwelling on mundane positives.
Those intro credits sure are slick.
Look at all the stuff it’s possible for you to pick up!
Can you imagine if someone from 1994 could see this game?
Why was I so hung up on these arbitrary qualities?
It occurred to me that 1994 was the year thatSystem Shockwas released.
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Their praise was strengthened by the shouts of the originalSystem Shocks detractors whenSystem Shock 2released in 1999.
Only that didnt quite happen, andPreyis a frustrating reminder of that fact.
Once you get pastPreys narratively brilliant, but interactively restrained opening, the game slowly finds its form.
Youve likely heard everyone who has playedPreycompare the game toSystem Shock 2,Deus Ex, andBioShock.
This isnt theMaddenfranchise, which proudly tweaks its winning formula every year.
Yet, there is a banality toPreythat is decidedly uncharacteristic of games that belong to this lineage.
InPrey, you are haunted by the ghost of the games many influences.
To a degree, its celebration of theShockseries and all subsequent contemporaries is a welcome one.
TheDeus Exfranchise is on hiatus,BioShockis likely permanently finished, andSystem Shock 3isstill at least a year away.
The situation is similar to another celebratory game released recently,Yooka-Laylee.
The plot echoes the musings ofBioShock, but ultimately has little new to say.
Perhaps thats why I feel this seemingly bizarre desire to show this game to someone from 1994.
We know the truth, however.
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Matt Byrd is a staff writer.
