Just a few years ago, you couldn’t mention the game Prey without also adding “vaporware” to it. However, that was then, and now the game that was initially in development nearly a decade ago for the PC is finally launching with a beautiful graphics engine and some truly revolutionary gameplay elements. 3DRealms’ Native-American/sci-fi epic has finally hit store shelves not only for the PC, but also the Xbox 360. Either way you slice it, PC or 360, Prey is a great game that was well worth the wait.

Prey follows Tommy, a mechanic living on a Cherokee reservation in the southwest United States. He’s grown tired of his surroundings, and wants to take his girlfriend, Jen, off of the reservation to see the world. However, Jen doesn’t want to leave, and enjoys being around her family and her culture. Tommy tries to talk Jen into leaving as she works at her bartending job, and some surly patrons begin to get a little too rough, leaving Tommy to sort ‘em out with his monkey wrench. This is all soon rendered moot once aliens stage an invasion, disassembling the bar and transporting all of its contents (you, your girlfriend and your grandfather included) on board the aliens’ spacecraft. It is then up to you to figure out a way to escape the ship and rescue Jen, and dare I say, save the world from the alien threat.

Even at first glance, Prey is a very detailed FPS. The bar is fully operational, with a working TV, casino games, and even a jukebox that plays licensed songs (Heart’s “Barracuda” and B.O.C.’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” are a couple gems). Light switches will turn on and off, toilets flush, basically everything can be interacted with in some way.

One of the key ways that Prey is just so damn cool is the use of portals throughout the game. Portals are your primary means of getting around the alien’s gigantic spaceship, although they aren’t the conventional doorways that you’d expect from your average FPS. The portals are virtually seamless, meaning that you can look through them and see the entirety of the next room on the other side. Portals can show up in boxes, on the other side of doorways, behind objects and other strange locations. Some of them will even pop up in the same room and you’ll be able to see yourself on the other side. Especially demented-yet-enterprising gamers will discover that you’re even able to shoot your own character through the portals (weirdoes).

The game also does some kooky things with gravity. The alien ship has its own gravitational system, meaning that at certain points you’re able to walk up the walls and ceilings, which is a cool way to get around.

Fairly early on in the game, Tommy is granted the power to leave his body. Spiritwalking allows you to traverse otherwise impassable areas, get through barriers and get the drop on enemies in the next room. However, out-of-body travel does leave your actual body vulnerable to enemy attack, which will instantly jolt your spirit back.

With the power of his ancestors, death isn’t even a concern for Tommy. If you run out of health, you’ll be set to the nether-realm to fight for health and spirit (which gives you ammo for your bow when you’re spiritwalking) against nasty flying creatures. You only have a short while before you’re sent back to your body, so you have to be quick when collecting health.

While teleporting and mystical powers are great, the real test of a FPS’s mettle is in its action and its weaponry. Luckily, Prey delivers on both fronts. The firefights are plentiful and intense, and the game utilizes some great puzzle elements as well. You’ll have to put your thinking cap on for the boss battles too, as they are puzzles in and of themselves. The weaponry is nice and balanced, too. Outside of his wrench, Tommy won’t have access to any Earth weapons whatsoever. However, the arsenal that he gains is great, with weapons like an elemental cannon that refuels with different elements at certain spots in the game, a mini-gun that used to be the arm of a big, nasty alien, and little phosphorescent creatures that can be thrown like hand grenades.

Graphically, Prey is a great-looking game. Boasting a modified version of the Doom 3 engine, Prey benefits from superb lighting, excellent level design and grotesque enemies. More often than not, the game does play out through corridors and doesn’t have open environments on the level of Quake IV (another game that uses the popular Doom 3 engine), but the game maintains a solid framerate (something that couldn’t be said about the Xbox 360 version of Quake IV) and looks very clean and polished.

The sound is also very polished. The script and voice acting is spot on, with Tommy chiming in with appropriately “action movie-esque” one-liners here and there. The music is unfortunately few and far between, and while the score gets the job done more often than not, the licensed music seems a little squandered as it only pops up a couple times in the game.

Prey is a great FPS with some awesome elements that haven’t been done before. It’s finally here, and it’s actually worth the wait; all 10years of it.

Gameplay: 9.0
Prey utilizes some innovative new elements like seamless portals, spiritwalking and other great additions. The weapons are balanced and the action is intense.

Graphics: 9.0
Prey uses a modified version of the Doom 3 engine to great results. The environments are detailed, the lighting is great, and the character models are very well designed.

Sound: 9.0
The sound in Prey is very impressive, as the voice acting is very well done and the score fits the bill. While a nice touch, the licensed music isn’t used enough.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 9.0
Prey uses some great concepts that haven’t been used before, but will and should be seen in the future.

Multiplayer: 9.0
The multiplayer in Prey is very good, taking all of the great things from the single-player game (spiritwalking, portals, etc.) and putting them into some intense online shootouts.

Overall: 9.0
It’s a little late, but it’s definitely worth the delay. Pick it up if you’re an FPS fan with a 360.