Always nice to see a familiar face |
The themes that the team have tried to carry on through to this game are those of abduction and one man vs. the universe (or "overwhelming force" as they put it). You play as Killian Samuels, a U.S. Air Marshal who's on board the airplane you see abducted during the first game. Despite trying to fight his way out, he's knocked unconscious and then wakes up on an alien planet with no memory of how he got there, and possibly who he even is. Samuels has become a Bounty Hunter on this alien world, and he has some friends (which include Tommy), and a ton of enemies. The final theme of self-discovery is worked into Samuel's quest to recover his lost memory.
You'll have a number of different weapons and gadgets to take down enemies |
This is being billed as an 'open-world' game, with what looks like an almost vendor-based "quest" system, possibly with hubs as well although since we've only seen one area (an alien planet called Exodus) it's hard to tell. Player choice is now the new buzz-word however, and there's supposed to be a lot of choice in this game. This has been demonstrated through conversation choices, but also through movement and combat options. You have several weapons and gadgets which relate directly to your bounty hunting - you can capture people and take them in alive or simply kill them. There is a lot of potential here, especially if they can craft a game with Deus Ex - levels of complexity, but again it's a matter of waiting and seeing.
The developers have also tried to make the game world feel 'alive' to some degree. There will be random events that you can choose whether to intervene in or not, citizens will shy away if you approach them with your gun open. There'll be the usual staples of world design like random chatter, and NPC's interacting with the environment in their own pre-programmed way. Exodus looks like it has a lot to offer, and we're interested in seeing if this game takes you anywhere else as well.
Bright lights, big city... |
With Mirror's Edge currently MIA, it's good that someone else is trying to take that very fluid, mobile kind of action and try to make something worthwhile out of it. Throw in what seems a bit like Deus Ex-levels of world flexibility and complexity, and finally attach the Prey name and there's plenty to be interested in here. The future of the Prey franchise may not be what die-hard fans were hoping for, but as a game in its own right were refer to the old idiom of: so far, so good. Prey 2 is slated for a release on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC in March 2012.
Most Anticipated Feature: Again, a bit early to pick out one specific thing right now.