Prey

Discussion of Prey seems to begin and end with the fact that it has the exact same title as an unrelated 2006 release solely because Bethesda executives are petty assholes. It’s a shame, because it’s causing players (including myself, nearly) to miss out on one of the best games of both its year and genre. Prey is perhaps the worthiest heir to System Shock 2 – the most spiritually-succeeded game in the world – because it adapts, improves, and expands on nearly every aspect of its forebear while also incorporating aesthetic influence from a different successor in BioShock. The only thing that isn’t strictly an upgrade is the writing, but I can count the number of games with better writing than System Shock 2 and BioShock on my fingers, so that’s not a bar I expect any game to clear.

Where Prey is leaps and bounds ahead of other candidates is in its RPG mechanics. BioShock could be seen as merely a shooter with an especially flashy upgrade system, but Prey is a full-on turn-of-the-millennium-style open-ended immersive sim. There are at least a dozen equally-rewarding paths to success here, from the genre-standard tools of firearms, hacking, and elemental attack powers to unorthodox techniques like disguising yourself via shapeshifting and spawning alien allies from human corpses. And that’s just scratching the surface of how inventive the gameplay can be. The space station setting is unique in the realm of mostly-open worlds, especially since it includes the entire zero-G external section. You can use toy dart guns and telekinesis powers to interact with computer terminals from afar. And there’s one armament that functions as enemy movement inhibitor, fire suppressant, and organic platform creation all in one.

Crucially, you’ll need to use as many methods as possible to progress. If you want to focus entirely on straightforward gunplay, you’ll need to sacrifice everything else in order to have enough ammo. Open combat is chaotic and unforgiving, so players are encouraged to scour the area and set up every possible advantage before executing their plans. This works magnificently in tandem with complex level design that’s both graphically varied and richly detailed, hiding useful supplies and nuggets of environmental storytelling in equal measure. Between its memorably disorienting introduction and its abrupt from conceptually incredible ending, the story in question is essentially a massive, sci-fi trolley problem. I wasn’t fully clear on the ramifications of some of the choices presented, but that may have been the point. Along the way, it also features possibly the most effective jump scare I’ve ever encountered, as well as an enemy that disguises itself as everyday objects, which is the frontrunner for most paranoia-inducing game mechanic ever devised.