Prey: From a creative piece to a boring replica

Its hard for me to appreciate Arkane Studio and Bethesda/Zenimax's reboot of a highly underappreciated video game. Coupled with the potential sequel the original had before it was canned in favor of said reboot, it left a bad impression when I saw the initial trailer for it. And many of the underlying problems stems from a very severe case of unoriginality and uncreativity the game had. Sure the game mechanics were beautifully sound and the level designs were pretty decent, but said levels all looked exactly the same and there was hardly any substance to the style. Let alone the story itself is ill-motivating and very bland and ill-paced.

From a decent genre of first person shooting sci-fi adventure/horror that was Prey, where the lines of supernatural elements and science fiction blends beautifully within a living starship, is brought down to a very ill-contrived reboot where familiarity and generalization takes the good out of everything that was to enjoy. 

Arkane basically approached this when given the task to make Prey 2017, as 'make it like System Shock' sort of deal because they had no idea what to do with the title. Not surprising considering the publisher Zenimax dumped this on them after shafting Humanhead Studios. While I can certainly blame the publishers for this decision, I have to blame Arkane Studios more on this.

Prey 2017 is basically System Shock 2 minus the cybernetic zombies, mutated genetic experiments and S.H.O.D.A.N. A generic science fiction shooter that had wondrous opportunities to take the setting into a different light given its alternate historical setting. I mean it was disappointing to see where the Prey series took off to, but it at least had an interesting premise that had a good starting point for making a good game story.

Reaching back to 2006 I believe it was, Prey had this beautifully crafted story of a native american named Domasi Tawodi, Tommy, struggling with himself, his past, his heritage and the people around him who matter I.E, his grandfather Enisi and Jen. They are then abducted by this mysterious green light that brings them aboard a grotesque combination of mechanical and biological materials that make up the massive ship that is known as 'The Sphere.' 

And the name of the game is not just a simplistic game title. It has an underlying theme to the game. That theme being the hunter, the hunted, being predator and being prey. At the start of the game, the player is the Prey, like every other living being that had been abducted by the Sphere, including past extra terrestrial beings who make up whatever is left of their population. It wasn't until Tommy's breakout did he slowly develop into becoming the predator, the hunter. His enemies would become his Prey. But then again, everything is free game. 

I'd also like to point out that based on the aesthetic and nature of the enemies, The Sphere itself being prominent as it is a sort of living ship, maintained by the harvesting of living alien species it comes across. And the enemy aliens themselves are brutal, unforgiving, even towards that of the children when they put them through a sort of possession process that just drives home just how much of a threat these beings pose.

The Typhon in Prey 2017 are generally simplistic and hardly one to fear given their unoriginal design schemes. They don't invoke the same fear response as one would when pleying Prey 2006. And their nature is just as unmotivated as my passion to play it. Prey 2 was shelved for this. What could have been for the original franchise if it was allowed to finish? We may never know.