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Prey puts you in the role of Tommy, a Cherokee who finds himself fighting for his freedom after being abducted by aliens along with his grandfather and girlfriend, Jen. Aboard the massive ship, called The Sphere, you’ll find yourself in an environment that’s a mix of organic and technological. Within the first several minutes you’re set free by an unknown ally, and with your trusty wrench in hand the battle for freedom begins.

Graphics: Prey uses the Doom 3 engine, which does an excellent job with curvy, organic environments. The texturing is well-done, and appropriately gross in the living parts of the ship. Weapon effects are likewise well-done, from muzzle-flashes to explosions and beam effects. You can expect to find all the standard bump mapping, normal mapping, and whatnot. The engine really shines with the new portal effects; the other side of the portal is rendered completely in real-time with no drop in framerate.

Sound: Weapon effects are well done, both bullet and energy effects are pleasing to the ear. Environmental effects are par for the course, pleasing but nothing overtly special. Jeremy Soule and Julian Soule headed up the soundtrack which kicks in during certain moments of the game and is par for the course for a Jeremy Soule offering (read: excellent).

Gameplay: Prey’s core gameplay is standard shooter fair: get a weapon and shoot masses of enemies in various shapes and sizes. However, the game offers a few added twists that spice things up nicely. First, is the portal technology which enemies will often use to get the drop on you. Moving through portals is a seamless experience and is used to great effect in several instances, such as a transition to a miniature planet in a glass case, or a portal-based maze that where you can see yourself through other portals as you navigate it.

The second trick Prey pulls off is gravity manipulation. As disorienting as it can be, the ability to alter gravity is undeniably cool. Switches can be used to shift the flow of gravity, effectively turning a room upside down, and specialized walkways allow you to traverse an area from floor to wall to ceiling with ease. Objects can even be given their own gravitational properties, so you might find yourself jumping from one place and reorienting yourself to a completely different direction as you land on an object with stronger gravitational pull.

Spirit walking is an interesting ability that allows you to leave your body to deal with otherwise impassable obstacles such as force fields and gaps too wide to jump across. Many puzzles require the use of spirit walking and while some of them feel like filler, most are intuitive. For example, one instance requires two switches to be thrown almost simultaneously in order to unlock access to the next section. By hitting one switch with your spirit, and then the other yourself, you’re able to proceed.

In keeping with spiritual abilities, you can’t actually die. Instead, you fight fallen souls in a spiritual world to replenish your physical health and spirit power. Once resurrected, you pick up right where you left off. It’s an interesting idea, but it sort of removes some of the tension since you’re guaranteed to eventually work your way through even the toughest spots. That being said, I give credit to the developers for removing one of the oldest gameplay hooks ever (the ability to lose due to character death) for the sake of a story-oriented option (strength of spirit and ressurection).

The weaponry is a well designed mix of technological and organic, filling out the usual shooter roles of machine gun, heavy machine gun, rocket launcher, etc. The one weapon that stands out is the leech gun, which takes one of four energy types from wall-mounted ports, and it’s quite a fun weapon to use.

Overall: While Prey’s core gameplay is nothing more than your standard shooter fair, it offers up enough twists and gimmicks to be a worthy addition to your gaming library. The game goes by rather quickly, but I attribute this to being spared from the dreary cycle of dying and reloading a save game.

Technically, this isn’t a review since I haven’t finished the game yet, but I’ve logged enough hours to make some observations. Once I get around to completing the main storyline, I’ll be back with some final thoughts.

First, the gripes, in no particular order:

• Enemy encounters are scaled based on your level. In other words, at level 2 you’ll be facing clumsy bandits with barely a shirt for armor. At level 20, you’ll be facing bandits decked out in Elven chainmail, or Ebony armor wielding enchanted weapons. When I reach a higher level, I’d like to feel like I’m actually stronger, not like I still have to earn that bandit loot. Leveled encounters are a great idea, but the current implementation feels like a cheap method of difficulty balance.
• The physics implementation, while a fun addition, is just a little sloppy. I can bump into a table and send things flying, but a banner hanging in the middle of a castle entrance hall stops me short. It’s minor, but I know Havok is capable of more.
• Armor has been simplified a bit. In Morrowind you could give your character a shirt and pants and slide armor over those. You could then cover that with a robe if you felt like it. It’s an inconsequential gripe, but this is a roleplaying game, folks. Sometimes I just like to get into character. Yeah, I’m a geek, I know.
• Bethesda plans on releasing extra plugins to add things like horse armor and extra quests for a small fee. Is it really worth it? I understand these things take development time and resources, but with the kind of mod community the Elder Scrolls series has, charging for mods (whether they’re “professionally made” or not) seems a little ridiculous. Admittedly, that’s not going to stop me from using them, but it seems a little counterproductive when those resources could be put elsewhere, like toward an expansion.

Now, for the high points, also in no particular order:

• The character creation is streamlined and integrated directly into the story as an introduction. Morrowind’s character creation was also part of the game, but it still felt like a series of questions to be answered before you could actually start playing. In Oblivion, you’re in the story right from the start, with character-related questions cropping up as you go. Moreover, the options you get for customizing your character’s look now are incredibly in depth. You literally have full control over your character’s entire facial structure, so you can create the perfect hero.
• Combat has been updated to make use of the physics system. Now, as long as you can actually make contact, you’re guaranteed a hit. Your stats just define what sort of damage you can do and will allow you to perform more useful moves like disarming your opponent. I’ve heard people say it’s still like Morrowind, where you could run up and just wail on an enemy, but I think they’re not taking full advantage of the system.
• Gone are the senseless fetching quests (so far, at least) that feel more like busy work to add gameplay hours. Each quest has an actual purpose, so you’re actually questing instead of just running errands.
• While the animations might sometimes seem a little stiff, there’s much more detail to them. The movement of the cat-like Khajiit’s ears as they talk to you, the way your character will slowly draw a blade from its sheath if you’re sneaking, and the flexing of your legs after a jump are just a few examples of small details that help to better immerse you.
• Magic actually feels like an asset now. Magicka (mana) regenerates, so your Wisdom and Intelligence focused mage doesn’t need to be burdened by restoration items just to be effective. Moreover, there’s no need to switch between combat and casting modes, so you never feel like you’re off guard.
• The game world itself is beautiful, whether you’re wandering in a forest or in a snow storm further north. Morrowind’s graphical trick was pixel-shaded water. Oblivion’s trick is forests, and they’re very well done using SpeedTree technology. Add Bethesda’s Radiant AI to the aesthetics and you have a living world that actually starts to matter instead of just being a backdrop for some monster-bashing.
• The game is stable. I don’t know about everyone else, but I have it running on two computers with completely different hardware configurations and driver sets and it runs just great. Bethesda has something of an instability track record, with Morrowind having some issues, and Daggerfall before that being very buggy. I’m impressed at how well Oblivion performs.

Those are the most prominent points I can think of at the moment. Overall, it’s been an excellent game experience so far, and I’d highly recommend picking up a copy.

I saw a preview for Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse in an issue of PC Gamer about a year and a half ago, and being something of a zombie enthusiast it tickled my fancy. After a year and a half of waiting, I finally got ahold of my copy and dug in. Here are a few thoughts.

As the game opens, you’re introduced to the city of Punchbowl, a 1950’s city of the future promising all the sweet luxuries you could ever want. That’s where you come in, as Stubbs bursts from the ground, interrupting the picnic of a young couple. The mayhem begins right there, as you eat their brains and start building your undead army. Stubbs makes his way through the city, through the police station (which ends with a hilarious showdown with the Chief), to a mall, then farmland, and finally ends up at City Hall to close out the adventure. The origins of our decayed protagonist are finally revealed at the end, but until then there isn’t a whole lot of story to talk about. Stubbs’ success lies in its gamepley and charming twist, as you get to be the zombie this time.

Naturally, as a zombie, there’s not much you can do, so the developers had to get a bit creative. Along with the expected undead punching and brain-eating, Stubbs is able to throw organs like grenades, bowl his own head, detach his hand and use it to scout out territory and control enemy characters, and stun a crowd of enemies surrounding him with a fart from beyond the grave. Each ability can only be used once, aside from grenades which you get three of. Once used, they need to be recharged by eating brains. It’s a simple mechanic that keeps the combat interesting.

With such limitations placed on your offensive abilities, you need to actually plan your method of attack instead of just rushing into a battle. Do you sent your hand forward to possess a soldier to make use of his rifle, or lure a few away to convert them to zombies? Often some preplanning will be the difference between a strong zombie army or being permanently penned in the deadbook. In one instance, combat up front kept getting me killed. Then I noticed the sniper, so I let a few zombies go forward while I sent my hand (which can walk on walls and ceilings) after the sniper to possess him. With his rifle at my disposal, it was a breeze to provide some cover fire as my zombie minions cleared out the rest of the humans.

Graphically, Stubbs isn’t necessarily impressive but the Halo engine pulls its weight just fine. The art style and animation are quirky and do the game’s light-hearted horror setting perfect justice. The sound production is solid, with a great soundtrack of 50’s era hits like “My Boyfriend’s Back” and “Earth Angel” covered by several alternative bands. Imagine raising an army of the dead one victim at a time to “Lollipop.” Voice work is minimal, but effective, as characters rattle off one-liners such as, “I got him! I saved the world!” and “Not the face!”

Overall, Stubbs the Zombie is a quirky game that may not be a blockbuster, but it offers a different experience that definitely warrants some play time.