Prey (2006 video game)

Did You Know?

• The game shipped in a Limited Collector's Edition with an embossed tin, two pewter figurines, and an art booklet.
• A Linux client for the full retail version was released on December 7, 2008.
• Prey was the only major title to use the Triton distribution system, which went out of business months after launch.

Plot

Domasi 'Tommy' Tawodi is a Cherokee mechanic and former U.S. Army soldier living on a reservation in Oklahoma. The game begins in a bar owned by his girlfriend Jen, where Tommy tries to convince her to leave the reservation. After an argument, a fight erupts with two patrons, and the building is lifted by a force into a green light. Tommy, Jen, his grandfather Enisi, and others are transported to the alien starship Sphere.

Tommy is freed by an explosion set off by a mysterious cybernetic being working against the Sphere. He witnesses Enisi's death in an alien device. While searching for Jen, Tommy has a near-death experience and travels to the Land of The Ancients, where his grandfather bestows spiritual powers: the ability to separate from his body, come back to life after death, and receive aid from his spirit guide, the ghost of his childhood pet hawk Talon. Despite being entrusted by ancestors to protect Earth, Tommy focuses on rescuing Jen.

He finds Jen surgically attached to a reptile-like creature; unable to control it, Tommy kills the creature and mercy-kills Jen. Tommy learns the Sphere is an organic ship that sustains itself by preying on alien races, housing them as mindless drones. The Keepers of the Sphere plant life on planets and periodically harvest it. A group of human rebels called the Hidden, led by Elhuit, seek to destroy the Sphere and return to Earth.

Development

Prey's development began in 1995. 3D Realms envisioned it as the first of several games running on cutting-edge in-house engine technology, similar to Unreal for Epic Games. The project went through many forms. Tom Hall outlined a rapid succession of designs before leaving after about a year to form Ion Storm with John Romero. 3D Realms then brought on Paul Schuytema to create a new design. The alien abduction theme was retained, but the game was set on a ring-shaped artificial world called Trocara inhabited by four alien races including the Keepers.

The player would take the role of a Native American hero named Talon Brave. The game was the first in its genre to use moveable portal technology, allowing rips in space to be created, moved, and reshaped in real time, along with heavily destructible environments. This engine was also intended for Duke Nukem 5, which was never released. Demonstrations of these features drew widespread acclaim at the 1997 and 1998 E3 exhibitions, with exclusive footage captured by the television program Infinite MHz.

Public perception was very positive, and 3D Realms' reputation from Duke Nukem 3D added to the game's perceived quality.

Legacy

Not long after the original game hit shelves, 3D Realms' Scott Miller confirmed that a follow-up, Prey 2, was being made. By March 2008, his Radar Group had taken over management of that sequel, which was planned for PC and Xbox 360 in partnership with Human Head Studios. A separate mobile title, Prey Invasion, came out for iOS from developer MachineWorks and publisher Hands-On Mobile, with 3D Realms involved. The franchise's rights shifted to ZeniMax Media, parent of Bethesda Softworks and id Software, in 2009.

Bethesda's Pete Hines announced at PAX Australia in October 2014 that Prey 2 had been scrapped, explaining it never met their quality standards and lacked a clear path to success. At E3 2016, Bethesda unveiled a new Prey from Arkane Studios, released in 2017, which bears no connection to the earlier games. An early, playable 1995 prototype of the original Prey surfaced online in December 2022.