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Release Dates

NEW RELEASES GRiD 2
Release date: 05/28/13

Fuse
Release date: 05/28/13

Remember Me
Release date: 06/04/13

The Last of Us
Release date: 06/14/13

DAILY MANIFESTO

BFG 2011 - Prey 2 First Look

Posted on Monday, April 18 @ 07:54:13 Eastern by Nicholas Tan

By far my biggest surprise at this year's BFG is Prey 2... if I should even call it that. Sure, Prey 2 follows the abduction story of Prey, but Domasi "Tommy" Tawodi, the Native American main character from the original game, has been replaced by the ~~white~~ very American U.S. Marshal Killian Samuels. And then there's the almost complete redesign from the first-person shooter on an alien spacecraft with portals and gravity, to an open-world action/first-person shooter on the alien planet Exodus with bounty hunting and epic chase sequences. Mirror's Edge in Blade Runner? That's not far from the truth.

But since we're talking about the joys and thrills of bounty hunting, the better comparison would be Red Dead Redemption. By walking casually around the city, Killian will come across various targets, assigned or unassigned, that will earn him money if caught dead or alive. Aided by an augmented reality visor and a mysterious handler named Ec'lara, he has plenty for the pickings. On occasion, he'll spot a brawl or an alien getting kicked by a gang; Killian can always ignore the situation entirely but saving the victim can not only earn an extra bit of cash, but also lead to additional side quests. On the other side, being a goodie-two-shoes samaritan can lead to more trouble than its worth.

As pretty much the only human strolling about the alien city, Killian sticks out like a sore fleshy thumb and the fact that he's shooting up aliens for the highest bidder doesn't put him in the aliens' friendliest of categories. Anyone with a bounty on his head is on the lookout for hunters like Killian and usually has plenty of precautions. The bounty we were shown was in a public bar and casino with a troop of bodyguards and a teleporting device. Luckily, that just meant taking one of his lieutenants outside of the bar, using him as a meat shield when entering the bar, filling the bodyguards with holes, chasing the bounty around the city, capturing the bounty in a spherical prison, zapping him with a few unsavory interrogation techniques, and then sending him away like a UPS parcel for credits. Thank you, please come again.

It's certainly more complicated than that, especially with the verticality of the city and the futuristic weapons you have at your disposal. The closeness of Killian's hands in first-person makes the action appear as fluid and intimate as the parkour in Mirror's Edge. The dark, damp, reflective neon signs, ladders, and scaffolding strewn through the city aren't just wonderfully detailed art pieces, but footholds and handgrips for some urban Assassin's Creed cat-and-mouse chases. As long as you have a good sense of direction, Killian can run down any foe with speed and a hovercraft that allows him glide to a lower ledge like Batman. And if any runts think they can hole up from behind cover, Killian can use a temporary anti-gravity grenade to expose them for some easy shots to wherever he feels like; that is, if good ol' fashioned dual-wielding pistols don't work.

All of this running around and wanton badassery is about uncovering Killian's past and how he arrived on the planet and, if possible, finding a way back home. His only clue is that moments after crash-landing on the planet, he caught a glimpse of his alien abductors. Eventually, the developers say that Killian will come across Tommy, who was seen going to who-knows-where after the finale in the first title. However it works out, though, it's a simple case of amnesia (and a guy being really, really mad about it).

Human Head Studios' Prey 2 will be seeking us all next year for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Related Games: Prey 2

Tags: Bethesda, Prey 2, Human Head Studios, PC

Comments

Lethean
Joined: Jan 2001

Posted: Apr 18th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
Wonder if the main character in this one will be less of a douche *******.

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Nick_Tan
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Apr 18th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
@Lethean: In the demo, I don't remember hearing Killian say much of anything and kinda walks and talks like Sam Fisher.

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sterking
Joined: Aug 2007

Posted: Apr 19th, 2011 at 3:34 am
I PLAYED 1 IT WAS GOOD!!

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