Prey Member Review for the Xbox360

Damn, this is one weird game.  Walls that vomit at you?  What the hell?  I don't get it.  This game is alright, but how the hell did this take ten years to make?

This game plays okay, but even this aspect is a little below par when compared to other high-profile shooters like Halo or Call of Duty.  The movement in this is a little jerky and feels unnatural compared to these two, or even Perfect Dark Zero (which, admittedly is a much worse game).

I gotta hand it to the developers, though--this is creative.  I just don't think we're asking too much for Halo-level controls when this has been in development for ten years.

One of the most interesting aspects of this title is presentation of the story (not the story itself).  While the story itself is somewhat uninteresting, the presentation of it is fantastic--the opening bar scene is just crazy.  I love how "Don't Fear the Reaper" is playing while the whole bar gets lifted off the ground.  I'm not going to give away anything else, but I will say that the story is presented in a top-notch way.  These guys are great story-tellers, not great story-writers.

The graphics aren't that advanced and look kind of boring, but the art style is great, and this alone makes the game more fun to play.  The ship is unique and detailed, and not one environment looks the same.  The sheer originality of the levels is what makes you keep playing this game, if nothing else.

The gravity changing is alright, but it doesn't affect the gameplay much.  People have said that this feature really enhances the game's play, but I don't think so.  It really just amounts to shooting a blue thing and getting sucked to another wall.  And the stiff controls don't make it fun, either.

The "puzzles" aren't that great, and they're really easy, as well.  I never once had to spend more than ten minutes solving a puzzle.  They're really a breeze.

Also, the respawn system, where you go into the "spirit world" when you die and shoot red flying things for health and blue flying things for spirit power is really, really lame.  It feels forced and makes the game way too easy.  Bioshock's system is great because it fits with the tone of the game, and makes it almost seem believable.  I don't know, maybe it's just me, but this aspect of Prey really turned me off.

Prey isn't terrible, and now with the cheap price tag, it may be worth a look.  But be forewarned--you will get tired of it.  The shooting gets stale fast, and the only thing that will keep you playing are the levels.  They're very original and cool.  Everything else about the game needs another ten years of work.