Prey is a 2017 first-person shooterimmersive sim video game developed by Arkane Austin and published by Bethesda Softworks. It takes place in an alternate timeline in which an accelerated Space Race resulted in mankind taking to orbital stations far earlier. The player controls Morgan Yu while exploring the space station Talos I where they were part of a scientific team researching the Typhon, a hostile alien force composed of many forms with both physical and psychic powers, such as shapeshifting into a clone of any inanimate object. As the Typhon escape confinement, the player uses a variety of weapons and abilities, some of which are derived from the Typhon themselves, to survive while progressing to end the alien outbreak and ultimately escape. The player gradually gains access to areas of Talos I through linear mission progression, acquiring key items and abilities along the way, eventually allowing the player to explore the station freely.
Development of the game started in 2012, after Arkane completed its work on Dishonored. Raphaël Colantonio served as the title's director. Arkane's Prey is largely unrelated to the 2006 game Prey developed by Human Head Studios, or Prey 2, its cancelled sequel. It did not use any of the planned sequel's assets and only incorporated the previous game's name and the broad theme of the protagonist being hunted by aliens. Arkane built Prey as a spiritual successor to System Shock, giving players multiple avenues to approach and tackle missions while considering the Talos I station a thematic reinterpretation of the underground dungeon from their debut game, Arx Fatalis. The game combines elements of first-person shooters, role-playing video games, stealth games, and Metroidvanias in its design. Aliens in the game were designed to be enigmatic, with its design being inspired by paranormal elements rather than stereotypical insect- or lizard-like species.
The game was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on May 5, 2017. It received positive reviews from critics, which praised the game's setting, level design, environmental storytelling, and themes, though its main story and gameplay received a mixed response. Retrospectively, the game has been recognized by several gaming publications as one of the best immersive sims released to date. Two expansions were released: Mooncrash, a procedurally generated mode inspired by various roguelike games, and a multiplayer Typhon Hunter that incorporates the Typhon shapeshifting abilities in a hide-and-seek style game. The game's muted commercial performance resulted in Arkane Austin pivoting to making live service game such as Redfall (2023).
Gameplay
Players can use the gloo cannon to freeze Mimics, stopping them from moving and transforming into daily life objects.
Prey is an immersive sim played from a first-person perspective. In the game, the player assumes control of Morgan Yu, a human aboard a space station overrun by a hostile alien race named Typhon and must find a way to escape. At the beginning of the game, the player is only equipped with a basic wrench as their only weapon, though they will unlock a "Gloo Cannon", which shoots out a foam-like substance that can freeze enemies in place.[1] The game features a number of firearms, such as a silencedpistol, a shotgun, and a boltcaster, which can be used to defeat enemies.[2] Players can also take advantage of environmental hazards, such as oil spill and explosive canisters, as well as station defenses such as turrets, to defeat Typhons.[3] Some movement, such as swinging a melee weapon and sprinting, will consume stamina, which gradually regenerates when they rest.[1] Ammo in the game are sacred, and players can also make use of stealth tactics to bypass them silently, or chart alternate paths to avoid them entirely.[4].
There are many subspecies of Typhon in the game, with each having a unique attack pattern: the Cystoids will rush to players and self-explode; the Mimics will shapeshift into common items to disguise themselves; the Poltergeists can turn themselves invisible; and the Telepaths can unleash devastating psychic energy attack. Phantoms are human corpses taken over by the Typhon, and the power they wield are randomly generated by the game.[5] Throughout the game, the player will also encounter a singular enemy named the Nightmare, who serves as a powerful opponent that constantly hunts and stalks the player.[6] Despite this, their psionic attacks can be nullified using throwables, rendering them vulnerable to attack.[7] Alien attack depletes Morgan's health and suit integrity, though he can be healed by consuming food or utilizing a health kit.[1] Post-launch update introduced a "Survival" mode, which introduced weapon degradation, and "traumas" that further hinder the player's combat performance.[8]
The station setting of Talos I is completely continuous rather than having separate levels or missions.[9] The Gloo Cannon can be attached to walls and platforms, creating makeshift stairs which can be used to access distant locations. Lacking a conventional fast travel system, the player can instead venture outside Talos I into space and find shortcuts connecting parts of the station.[9] Areas in the game are interconnected, and there are often multiple ways to access a location or approach an objective.[1] At times, the game requires the player to return to areas they previously explored, though the new skills unlocked may allow them to enter a previously inaccessible area.[10] Through exploration, they will discover optional objectives, as well as items such as maps that aid navigation, key codes used to unlock additional rooms, and blueprints necessary for crafting new weapons and ammo.[9]Prey has multiple endings, falling into three major narrative structures depending on how the player broadly interacted with the station and surviving humans.[11] A variety of items can be collected for use later, though Morgan only had a limited carrying capacity.[12] Useful items can also be looted from corpses of fallen crew members.[3] Recyclers can be found across Talo I, turning useless items into raw materials, which can then be used in fabricator to craft weapons, ammo and consumables.[13]
A device named a psychoscope can be used to scan the environment and detect the location of Typhons.[4] As they explore, they will collect an item called a Neuromod, and eventually gain an ability to make them at a fabricator. These neuromods are used to upgrade the player's ability through a skill tree system.[14] It includes human abilities such as hacking and passive skills such as increased damage and improved health, as well as alien powers that enable Morgan to perform feats such as lifting enemies, creating a psychic explosion, teleporting a short distance, mimic matters, and taking over an enemy's mind.[15] These powers have a short cooldown time, as governed by a Psi meter.[14][16] Injecting themselves with too many alien Neuromods come will result in Nightmare detecting the player's location and the station defense attacking them since it began identifying them as an alien.[6][17] Weapons in the game can also be upgraded to improve their performance,[18] and Chipsets can be equipped on Morgan's suit and psychoscope to further increase his attributes.[19] As an immersive sim, the game supports a variety of playstyle,[20] and gameplay systems interlock with each other. For instance, the bolts of the boltcaster can interact with the touch screen of terminals; Skills can be chained together to create devastating damage; Mimicking a robot will allow players to essentially fly and explore the station.[7][21]
Expansions
The Mooncrash expansion is a roguelike experience in which, while the levels of the expansion remain the same, the placement of enemies, weapons, and other items are randomized on each playthrough.[22][23] Narratively, the player takes the role of a hacker running simulations to investigate what happened to the five survivors of the Pytheas Moonbase. In the expansion, he must lead one character through the station, fighting off the Typhon, collecting equipment, hacking terminals, and other actions. If the player can lead that character to safety, they then must lead the other characters, one at a time, through the same game world to find a different escape point, with all the changes from the previous characters still in place. Players may reset the simulation, randomizing the world elements[23] and effectively starting a new run. However, the player gains points[22] that they can use within the simulation to improve how any of the characters start, such as with better weapons or additional health packs, and they can permanently unlock skills for each character within future simulation runs by collecting certain objects.[24] As players spent longer time in the simulation, the difficulty of gameplay will increase.[25]
The Typhon Hunter expansion contains two game modes. One is designed as a single-player virtual reality experience known as Transtar VR,[26] challenging the player to various escape room scenarios aboard the Talos I station.[27] The second is an asymmetrical multiplayer mode for up to six players.[28] One plays as Morgan while the others are Mimic Typhons, which can disguise themselves as nearly any object within the environment.[26] The player as Morgan is challenged to find and kill all the other players within a limited amount of time, while the Mimic players can rearrange items in rooms, disguise themselves, and when the Morgan player is close, jump out and attack them before seeking another hiding place.[29]
Plot
Setting
Prey takes place in an alternate timeline where in 1958 the Soviet Union encounters a species of eusocial aliens, called the Typhon, aboard their satellite Vorona 1. The Soviet Union works together with the United States to fight off and capture the aliens, unbeknownst to the general population. Together, they build the space station Kletka[b] to be used as a prison for the Typhon situated in orbit around the Moon. After a failed assassination attempt on United States President John F. Kennedy, the United States wrests full control of the Kletka satellite from the Soviet Union. Research of the Typhon continues under the name "Project Axiom". After the "Pobeg Incident" in 1980 where some scientists aboard the station lost their lives to the Typhon, the American government shutters Project Axiom, leaving the captive Typhon alive.
By 2025, the newly-founded TranStar Corporation acquires Kletka and by 2030, has refitted it as Talos I, a fully operational research laboratory to study the Typhon and develop advances in neuroscience; this leads to the creation of neuromods that harness the Typhon's physiology to restructure the human brain to grant the user new abilities, including superhuman ones.[30] TranStar grows financially successful from sales of neuromods on Earth. At the time of the setting, about 2035, TranStar has further expanded the station to make for suitable living quarters for its staff that spend up to two years on the station between regular shuttles to Earth.[31]
In March 2032, Morgan Yu (male voiced by Tim Kang, female voiced by Sumalee Montano) is recruited by their brother Alex (Benedict Wong) to join TranStar's research team on Talos I. Before leaving for the station, Morgan takes a series of tests including the Trolley problem and the Rorschach test. One of the supervising doctors is attacked by a Typhon during the testing process, and Morgan is knocked out. Morgan wakes up in their apartment and finds that it is a simulated environment. It is 2035 and Morgan has been living in Talos I for three years. Morgan is contacted by January (voiced by Kang or Montano, depending on the player's chosen gender), an Operator artificial intelligence that claims to have been built by Morgan. January warns Morgan that the Typhon have broken containment and taken over the station, killing much of the crew. It reveals to Morgan that they had been testing neuromods for the past three years, with Morgan continually adding and removing them. While these neuromods allow for instantaneous learning of complex skills and abilities, a side effect of removing a neuromod is that the user loses all memories gained after installation of that neuromod, explaining Morgan's memory loss. January claims that Morgan built it to help destroy Talos I, taking the Typhon and all its research with it. Alex contacts Morgan and suggests instead building a special Nullwave device that will destroy the Typhon but leave the station intact, citing how their research is too valuable to lose.
Morgan travels through the station and encounters other survivors, with a choice of whether to help them or not. Alex tasks Morgan with scanning the Typhon "Coral" growing around the station and discovers that the Typhon are building some sort of neural network. Their attempts to study the neural network are interrupted when the TranStar Board of Directors learns of the containment breach and sends a cleanup crew to eliminate both the Typhon and any surviving station crew. After the cleanup crew is dealt with, Alex further analyzes the data and concludes that the Typhon are sending a signal into deep space to summon something. A gargantuan Typhon called the Apex appears and begins to devour Talos I. Morgan is given the choice to activate the station's self-destruct sequence or build the Nullwave device to defeat the Typhon.
If Morgan chooses to activate the Nullwave device, all the Typhon on Talos I are destroyed and the station is left intact. If Morgan chooses to activate the self-destruct, the entire station explodes, destroying all the Typhon with it. Morgan either finds a way to escape the station or is stranded and dies in the explosion, based on earlier choices in the game. In a post-credits scene, Morgan wakes up in a lab and learns that it is not the real Morgan, but instead, a captured Typhon implanted with Morgan's memories in an effort to teach it human emotions and empathy. The Typhon have invaded Earth; Alex and his Operator assistants judge "Morgan" based on the choices it made throughout the game. If "Morgan" fails to show human empathy, Alex destroys it and starts the experiment over. If "Morgan" did show human empathy, Alex lets it go, whereupon it can choose to accept his offer to bring peace between the Typhon and humanity or kill him.
Mooncrash
In 2036, Peter is stationed in a remote satellite orbiting the Moon and is forced under contract by the Kasma Corporation, a rival to TranStar, to undergo numerous simulations reliving a Typhon outbreak on Transtar's Pytheas Moon Base via an Operator taken from Pytheas (later revealed to be a copy of Morgan's cousin and simulation character Riley Yu). As he completes his assigned tasks, his handler Basilisk warns him that Kasma will betray him once his mission is complete and helps him prepare to escape. When Peter fulfills his contract, Kasma congratulates him but claims that due to tight budgets, they cannot retrieve him from the satellite and shut off its life support. With help from Basilisk, Peter overrides the satellite's controls and crashes it near the real Pytheas facility, where he commandeers a shuttle and returns to Earth. In a post-credits scene, it is revealed that a Mimic has stowed away on Peter's shuttle.
The success of the original Prey led to the announcement of a sequel Prey 2 in August 2006, with continued development by 3D Realms.[33] However, the project faced numerous issues, including the transfer of the intellectual property (IP) rights to Bethesda Softworks (under ZeniMax Media) and a change of developer to Human Head Studios in 2011.[34] Meanwhile, Arkane Studios split their team to work on two projects after completing work on Dishonored. One project was Dishonored 2 and the other was a new intellectual property based on similar gameplay ideas which would be "in first-person, with depth and simulation and narration", with the game being science fiction-themed.[35] Development was led by Arkane Studios CEO and director Raphaël Colantonio and his team in Austin, Texas.[36]
After Human Head's game was cancelled in 2014,[37] Arkane was mandated by publisher and parent company Bethesda Softworks to use the title Prey as the name of the game. At the time, the team described it as a "re-imagining of the IP", with no relation to either the original game or Prey 2 outside of the player facing aliens.[38][39] Colantonio said in later interviews that calling their game Prey was a decision that no one on the Arkane team was pleased with.[40] They reportedly wanted their game to stand on its own as a unique IP but were overruled by corporate decisions at Bethesda, and Colantonio added that the naming decision as "gross" and "disrespectful" to both his team and the creators of the original game.[41]
Gameplay design
Prey's world design follows in the footsteps of games such as System Shock and Arkane's own Arx Fatalis, which featured interconnected worlds where to make progress, obstacles had to be overcome through abilities the player could acquire.[42]Metroidvania games were also key influence to gameplay design.[43] Colantonio described Prey as an "open structure" game in which the entire game is one long, self-contained mission where players can return to the same area repeatedly despite a change in context.[44] The team followed the "mega-dungeon" concept of Arx Fatalis, but set it as a space station filled with hostile aliens, and would require the player to consider the "full ecology" of the game world to overcome obstacles that gate their progress,[35][45] ranging from overpowered enemy encounters to the station's collapsing infrastructure. Bare described the space station as a "skyscraper floating in space".[44] They did not want the player to solve singular-solution puzzles, such as simply finding a key for a locked door, but instead wanted players to use the game's full suite of tools to overcome an otherwise challenging environment, describing Talos I as a "living, dynamic world", one that provides many viable solutions to the same problem.[45] As a corporate experimental facility, the space station was also designed to be functional and believable, with all the rooms and utilities a fully staffed location require.[46] In-game ladders that players can climb are one of the transversal mechanics that the team actively avoided in Prey.[47] Bare added that this designing freeform gameplay was "tricky" for the team as players may appear in any part of the station regardless of their actual progress in the story. He further considered bug fixing to be the team's biggest technical challenges because the game, not limiting players' action, created many potential game-breaking issues.[48]
Prey incorporates numerous gameplay concepts from Dishonored where players are encouraged to find creative solutions to overcome obstacles.[49] Borrowed elements from Dishonored include giving the player enough agency to determine how they want to proceed, developing a game world based on pre-established lore that can be learned by examining notes and computer terminals throughout the station, and a simple user interface.[49] However, Colantonio said that Prey would be less focused on stealth as Dishonored was, and would provide a more role-playing video game-style improvement system through in-game chipsets that allows the player to customize their abilities.[49] The developers also took inspiration from FTL: Faster Than Light, considering the complexities of the various gameplay systems and how fast that a situation can go wrong if the player did not sufficiently plan. Bare said they wanted to include that "chaos of systems", in which failing station systems and decaying infrastructure of Talos I created environmental hazards that can be both an aid to the players in defeating the Typhon or a cause of unforeseen consequences if the player is not careful.[50] Arkane had considered including procedural generation within the main campaign, so that different areas may have different hazards when the player encountered them, but they recognized that this would become a point of frustration for a single-player game that may cause players to leave the game uncompleted. They dropped this approach and instead worked the procedural generation aspects into Mooncrash instead.[51]
Emergent gameplay was a goal of Arkane: while they had given the players abilities to take on Prey in a full action mode or full stealth mode, they wanted players to find a way to complete the game in their own manner,[48] improvising using the game's various systems.[47] They recognized players may take one specific set of skills and weapons and avoided including any enemies or obstacles that would be impossible to surpass because they did not specialize in the right skills, providing a means to bypass such areas.[48] One of the Typhon aliens, the Mimic, was inspired by the creature of the same name from Dungeons & Dragons, and was programmed to take the form of any object smaller than itself in the room, avoiding the use of scripted events and allowing the alien's artificial intelligence to decide what to replicate.[48] The psychoscope, which allows players to scan an alien and learn and then use its powers, also created a depth of new but unexpected gameplay options, such as taking the form of a small object to sneak into small places or taking the form of a non-flammable object to roll through fire-laden areas.[48] Inspired by Dishonored, Prey had in-game consequences of both emotional and mechanical nature for certain actions taken by the player. How the player interacts with its cast of non-playable characters may alter its ending,[52] and using too many Typhon upgrades may result in gameplay alterations.[17]
The narrative directed them to the types of weapons that would be available to the player. Arkane recognized that as a research station, their security forces would only likely have common weapons, such as pistols and shotguns, and would not have the equivalent of super-powerful gear like Doom's BFG. What advanced weapons are available were designed to look like prototypes and have flaws associated with them being only in their testing phase.[45] The design of these weapons was inspired by Time Machine, a book written by Stanley Greenberg which featured photographs of stylized experimental prototypes, and drew from a database created by CERN detailing their experiments from the 1960s to 70s.[53] While direct confrontations with enemies is an option, many of the tools in the game are created to allow players to take advantage of enemies, disabling them before striking.[48] The Gloo Cannon was one of the weapons that allowed players to freeze enemies in place, and create makeshift platforms for exploration. As the moon station setting provided a clear boundary, the team felt that players should be allowed to move through this space fluidly however they want. This created a lot of pressure for the art team as they had to ensure that every corner of the game is well-designed. An early mechanic allowed players to directly fly through the space station, though this was scrapped. Due to technical constraints of the game's console versions, gloo must always attached to an object in the game's world.[54] Enabling emergent gameplay in Prey allowed for speedrunners to take advantage of the game's tools to access areas Arkane did not intend to be accessed without other tools.[55]
According to design documents from early in the project's history, the game was developed at Arkane under the name "Project Danielle",[56] a title that paid homage to SHODAN from System Shock.[43] Three different concepts were presented, all based on the nature of System Shock and involving the player-character named Danielle Sho to find that there was a false reality in their apparent world and dealing with an artificial intelligence that has a significant influence on events; these settings included a futuristic lab set on Earth set just prior to the System Shock time frame, a secret lab on a remote island, and a retro-futuristic setting.[56] The opening sequence which serves as a fake tutorial and sees Morgan discovering his life as a simulation, was created by the team to set the tone for the game and establish that players cannot trust everything they see.[57] Colantonio also wanted to use it to "pull the rug out from players".[58]
The narrative concept for Prey came to Colantonio during one of his airline flights while on travel.[59][48] Colantonio said that it took about a year from this initial concept to come up with an alternate timeline that helped support this detailing.[59] They considered how the future would have been different if John F. Kennedy survived the assassination attempt, allowing them to flesh out the narrative and design of the space station.[48] As Talos I is a relatively small space, Arkane was able to detail the station in depth to make the world more cohesive, such as naming and fleshing out background stories for each non-player character (NPC), including those already dead by the story's beginning.[60] As with other immersive sims, the game placed a large emphasis on environmental storytelling, and made extensive use of books, notes, and audio logs to provide additional information regarding the setting and the lore. Bare added that both storytelling efforts were essential for players to understand the location better, though the team accepted that not all players will discover them due to their optional nature. Bare added that by giving the player a choice to examine or completely ignore them, Talos I became a setting that felt more "real". As the game was largely nonlinear, the discovery of this optional content also became individualized, creating a story that felt personal.[61] To keep the game immersive, the game rarely took players out of gameplay. As a result, the game had a minimal amount of non-interactive cutscenes.[62]
Austin Grossman, also of Arkane, helped establish the early plot details with Morgan's awakening at the start.[59] The player, as Morgan, follows in the threat's wake, finding survivors who have no idea what just happened but need their help.[63] Bare had reached out to Chris Avellone circa 2013 to gain his help with the story, though at the time, Avellone was committed to other projects.[59] Avellone worked with Arkane on the story from June to about November 2016.[64][65] Besides other parts of the narrative, Avellone contributed to designing several NPCs and the various missions that would involve these characters. Avellone felt these characters and their missions created dilemmas for the player to determine how to proceed, helping the player to define their version of Morgan as well as expanding on the game universe.[59] Among other works, Prey was influenced by the films Moon, Starship Troopers, and The Matrix. As part of the promotion, Bethesda partnered with the Alamo Drafthouse to show these three films during April 2017.[66] Avellone also cited Aliens as part of his inspiration, describing it as an action-suspense film which has moments of comedy, even amid heavy action sequences, and something he reused in writing for Prey.[59]Sunshine, Total Recall, as well as Lovecraftian fiction, also influenced the game.[67]
Art design
The art direction of the game was inspired by Art Deco.
Th alternate history fiction itself directly attributed to the styles used in the various parts of the station, with the team considering what architecture would have influenced those most responsible for operating Talos I at the time. This ranged from considering the visual motifs during the Kennedy era, to envisioning how those funding contemporary commercial space efforts like Elon Musk or Google would style a space station.[45] Because of the numerous agencies that operated and expanded Talos I over the decades, the station includes a large mix of architectural designs, ranging from retrofuturism that was popular in 1960s America, to brutalist styles that were common in the Soviet Bloc in the mid-20th century, to opulent Art Deco put in place by the wealthy TranStar executives.[45][68] Artist Sébastien Mitton described the game's art style as "Neo Deco", one that merged futuristic elements into aesthetics of mid-20th century. The team was also influenced by the works of architect Hugh Ferriss, painter John Berkey, design of NASA's early spacecrafts, the Viceroy hotel in New York, and unrealized projects such as South Ferry Plaza when designing the station. The entrance Lobby of Talos I was the first location created, and its furnishing and interior design was influenced by the works of Frank Lloyd Wright and Wilhelm Wagenfeld,[53] while the technology in the game were inspired by those created by IBM and consumer electronic designer Jacob Jensen.[69] The team also created a lot of TranStar posters and decorations and placed them all over Talos I as they were inspired by the book "Offices Construction and Design Manual" by Ansgar Oswald, documenting how corporate identity "permeates the workplace".[53]
Arkane's Harvey Smith is credited with establishing the Typhon and the reason for their existence in the story.[59] Arkane wanted a more unique design to the aliens, and opted to use designs inspired by paranormal elements rather than stereotypical insect- or lizard-like species.[60] Colantonio wanted the monsters in the game to be black in color, and the team came up with designs that were "visually undefined, mysterious, blurry" whose complexities were entirely reflected through their silhouettes. They were inspired by time-lapse photography of people in motion, particularly the Metamorphosis series by Frederic Fontenoy. Additional particle effects and blurry animated shaders were added to these monsters to make them look weirder and more enigmatic. The animation team were inspired by the movement of real-life animals, such as praying mantis, octopuses and squids.[70] The Typhons in the game had their own ecology. For instance, Mimics served as scouts for the Typhon, and can combine together to form another enemy variant named Weaver.[67] Arkane also restricted how many horror elements they would include, since they could not predict the path of the player, where the player's attention would be and how they would be playing the game.[48] Colantonio instead described the game as a "psychological thriller".[67]
The original score was composed and produced by Mick Gordon, who had previously composed the soundtrack for Doom. Additional music was composed by Ben Crossbones, Matt Piersall, and Colantonio, with each one providing a single track. The soundtrack was released for live-streaming music services a week before the game's release.[71]
Release and marketing
Bethesda announced Prey during its press conference at E3 2016.[72] The game was released on May 5, 2017.[73] Players who pre-ordered the game received the "Cosmonaut Shotgun Pack", which offer several in-game weapons and consumables for players to use.[74] Just prior to release, No Matter Studios, the developers of an upcoming video game Prey for the Gods, announced that, due to trademark objections from ZeniMax Media, they had to change the name of their game to Praey for the Gods. ZeniMax reported that they had to defend the Prey trademark to avoid losing it in taking objection to No Matter's trademark filing.[75][76] Arkane and Bethesda provided a game demo for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles about a week before the launch, covering about the first hour of gameplay. The studio did not opt to provide a demo for Windows systems, citing that they had to choose between either the consoles or personal computer for demo release. Colantonio said that with the release through Steam, interested players can try the game for up to two hours under Steam's return policy, effectively treating this as the equivalent of a demo.[77] The Steam version eventually received a demo in August 2017, which included roughly the first hour of gameplay.[78]
Expansions
During the E3 2018, Bethesda announced a free update released on June 9, 2018, that added two new game modes to Prey, including a New Game Plus mode, and a Survival mode that adds modifiers, such as weapon durability, that make it more difficult. The first paid expansion, Mooncrash, was also released on the same day.[79]Roguelike elements were added to the game as the team wanted to evolve the immersive sim formula while preserving the core gameplay of Prey. Realizing that most players will not fully explore the entire space station due to the main game's linear plot structure, Mooncrash was designed to be a shorter game meant to be replayed many times. It adopted a more open-ended narrative, and have each character starts and ends at a different location of the moon station so players will explore the same station using various routes.[25] The expansion was further updated in September 2018 with a free patch that provided in-game customization skins that celebrated the team's favorite roguelike games, which included Spelunky, Rogue Legacy, Risk of Rain, Don't Starve, Darkest Dungeon, and Dead Cells.[80]
The Typhon Hunt mode was inspired by the "Prop Hunt" mode that came about from Garry's Mod; as Arkane started to show initial details of the main game, including the Mimic enemies, players responded that they were reminded of "Prop Hunt". Bare had not been aware of what that was, but after researching it, felt it was ideal for a multiplayer extension of Prey.[29] The Typhon Hunt mode was released on December 11, 2018, along with a virtual reality-based escape the room set of puzzles set before the events of Prey. Both modes were released as free additions to Mooncrash.[81] Both Mooncrash and Typhon Hunt were modes prototyped within an internal game jam following the release of Prey, looking to see how they could easily extend the game.[29]
Dan Stepleton from IGN described the setting a "sophisticated", noting that the game's open structure provided many alternative pathways for players to reach their objective. He remarked that despite needing to revisit locations to complete quests, it did not became boring as new skills are unlocked to aid exploration.[88] Phil Savage from PC Gamer noted that the location felt "natural", remarking its realistic environmental design and room layout that is rooted in utility.[89] Arthur Gies from Polygon praised how much freedom the game gave players to explore, adding that the game always respect the players for their decision.[90] Critics generally enjoyed Arkane's level design, praising their efforts in designing a complex layout for the space station, and ensured that each location has multiple access, some of which can be created by the player through unconventional ways.[88][86][99] Tina Amini from Mashable described the station as a "maze", and liked how players need to take time to master its layout.[100] Javy Gwaltney from Game Informer praised Prey for its "sense of wonder", and Tamoor Hussain from GameSpot described the game as visually striking, though they both felt that the station was not visually diverse enough.[86][85] Critics applauded its environmental storytelling and side quests which follow the crews of Talos I and their struggles for turning the space station into a location that felt real and believable.[87][101][88][90]
GamesRadar' Zoe Delahunty-Light liked the incorporation of alien powers, she felt that the human skill tree was underdeveloped comparatively.[87] Gwaltney praised the game's enemy variety and described them as "unnerving". He praised the game's immersive sim elements, noting that its interlocking system, despite being complicated, can create memorable yet emergent gameplay.[85] John Walker from Rock, Paper, Shotgun praised how the game gave players freedom to use its systems. Observing the game's restraint in explaining its gameplay, he remarked the game let players "improvise, explore, make big decisions without needing to tell you they’re big".[101] Gies wrote that the game rewarded players for experimentation. He remarked that the game can be punitive, though difficult gameplay contributed to its "ominous, foreboding mood".[90] Several reviewers criticized the early part of the game for being sluggish to play, as players have not yet unlocked the tools and upgrades necessary to make combat interesting.[101][85][86][89] Stapleton noted that combat was one of the game's weaknesses, criticizing its uninteresting weapons, barebone stealth mechanics, and remarking that certain alien powers being too overpowered, and enemies have too much health.[88] Several critics expressed their dislike at fighting Mimics because they are too agile, with Hussain noted that the gunplay was not responsive enough to fight such a fast enemy.[86][101] Savage noted that its shortcomings were a result of the game catering to a vast spectrum of playstyle, making none of its mechanics to be as refined as other industry greats like BioShock or Arkane's own Dishonored.[89]
The narrative of the game received a mixed reception. Gies enjoyed how the game built up a sense of distrust, and comparing Prey to Solaris, a psychological thriller.[90] Delahunty-Light liked that all characters, even the deceased one, are named, and that their stories are reflected through the audio logs and emails players found in the game.[87] Gwaltney praised the game's exploration of Yu's morality, liked how player's choice affect the narrative, and described their interactions with other non-playable characters as one of the game's highlights.[85] The main quest, however, was criticized for being light in story.[87] Stepleton and Hussain praised the game's tutorial but felt that it foreshadowed a much more interesting narrative than what the actual story ended up being.[88] Tamoor further criticized the quests for being uninspiring, and felt that both the story and its characters were not memorable.[86] Several reviewers also criticized its pacing for being uneven, and noted that the game frequently forced players to backtrack repeatedly through the station to extend its story and runtime.[100][91] The game was praised by several critics and journalists for having an Asian protagonist.[102][103][104]
PCGamesN reported that the Windows version of Prey lacked the technical problems of Dishonored 2, calling it "the best performing triple-A game" they had seen in several months.[105]Eurogamer's Digital Foundry found the computer version of Prey to run exceedingly well across even low-end computers, in contrast to problems it saw for Dishonored 2 at release.[106] However, some reviewers and players found that after several hours of playing on the computer version, their saved games would become corrupted, and the game would crash when transitioning between areas once this started to occur. Restoring from older saves would eventually cause those to be corrupted as well, making the game impossible to complete.[107] A Bethesda representative said that Arkane was "working diligently on a fix" that would be released sometime that week;[107] the patch was deployed the following day.[108]
The game's critical reception improved over the years. Nic Reuben from Rock, Paper, Shotgun described Prey as its "masterpiece", noting that it was a smartly designed game exuberating with confidence and commending the countless gameplay possibilities provided within its systems.[109] Cass Marshall from Polygon called the game "a testament to human imagination, and one of the best immersive sims ever made", praising its countless gameplay options and noting that the presence of dynamic enemies such as the Nightmare created unique playthroughs for each player and provided replayability.[110] Robert Jones from PC Gamer wrote that the game was a "god-tier level" immersive sim, adding that the game "evokes the feeling of playing a spiritual sequel to Half-Life 2".[111] Writing for GamesRadar, Rick Lane felt that Prey had exceeded its inspiration (System Shock), commenting that Talos I was "the single finest example of 3D level design", and remarked that its exploration of memory and identity resulted in the game having the best narrative among Arkane's other works.[112]
Sales
Prey debuted at No. 2 on the weekly sales charts in the United Kingdom, trailing the Nintendo Switch port of Mario Kart 8.[113] These figures were considered disappointing due to a lack of competition from AAA new releases and the fact that the opening week sales were 60% down from Arkane's previous title, Dishonored 2.[114] Additionally, Bethesda's decision to hold review copies until the release date was mentioned by outlets as a factor for the weak launch.[114]Prey captured the top spot in its second week of release, a rise partially attributed to the positive reception from critics, though sales were down 32% from its debut week.[115][116] In doing so, Prey became the first Bethesda game since 2016's Doom to reach number one on the United Kingdom weekly sales charts.[117] It was the 5th best-selling game in the US in May 2017.[118] In Japan, Prey debuted at No. 5 on the weekly sales charts when it was released in late May with 7,105 copies sold for the PlayStation 4. The Xbox One version did not make the charts.[119]
With both Prey and Dishonored 2 underperforming commercially, Bethesda Softworks and Arkane Studios decided to pivot their strategy from making immersive sims to live service games, resulting in the departure of Colantonio from Arkane and the release of Redfall in 2023.[120]
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