Portals, gravity shifts dropped for Prey 2

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 1 April, 2011

Shifts away from puzzle elements.

2012 first-person shooter Prey 2 will not include the portals and gravity shifts that were central to the first game's appeal.

Why? Because developer Human Head wanted the sequel to be less of a puzzler than the first.

"We explored a lot of the ways you could use portals and gravity in combat, and I really wanted to shift away from making it too much of a puzzle game," lead designer Chris Reinhart told the latest issue of PSM3 magazine (reported by Beefjack.

"Portals and gravity were the functions of The Sphere [the mothership in the original game]. And The Sphere's gone."

Prey 2 is inspired by DICE's Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect, Riddick and Blade Runner.

The main character, Killian Samuels, is a sheriff and prison guard. He is nimble, and can perform Parkour moves.

Gameplay revolves around using wide-open spaces and shadows to sneak up on enemies. The structure is described as "open".

The game will not feature multiplayer and will not support 3D, Kinect or PlayStation Move.

Prey 2, published by id Software owner Bethesda, does use id Tech but doesn't use id Tech 5.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • sanctusmortis #1 1 year ago

    So... what exactly IS there left to make this a sequel to Prey then?

  • Stomp224 #2 1 year ago

    lol, you guys!

  • asphaltcowboy #3 1 year ago

    April Fools?

  • RodHull #4 1 year ago

    Good design choice chaps! Get rid of the one feature that set your game apart in the first place. To hell with innovation, we all want generic FPS's!

  • abigsmurf #5 1 year ago

    -Doesn't feature the character from the first game.
    -Is set in a completely different envoironment to the first game.
    -has only the barest of plot links to the first game
    -loses the Native American stuff
    -loses the portals and gravity

    So basically, this has absolutely zero to do with the first game and they're cashing in on the name?

    This could be an April Fools joke but... where's the funny? God I hate this day.

  • ubergine #6 1 year ago

    Got to be April Fools, Prey didn't HAVE anything else worth having.

  • Sunyavadin #7 1 year ago

    Yeah. Definitely an April Fool.

  • Buztafen #8 1 year ago

    April fools?

    So what the dev is basically saying is...we cant be arsed to innovate and all the staff who had the good ideas have left so we're just gonna make a generic sci-fi action fps. Bunch of tards!

  • J.C #9 1 year ago

    Weird. They may as well can the game now. I loved the upside down twisty portal madness of the first game. This is a no buy for me :(

  • zuul #10 1 year ago

    So apparently they just happened to find the Prey franchise name in some lower desk drawer?

    "Hey gusy look what I found!"

  • Gambit1977 #11 1 year ago

    Didn't they say last week that they definitely were using them?

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #12 1 year ago

    Generic shooter 356 for the year confirmed.

    Hurray :|

  • altitude2k #13 1 year ago

    I don't think this is an April fool's joke. Personally I can take or leave those features from a new Prey game.

    Static portals are just an excuse for lazy level design, anyway ;)

  • richarddavies #14 1 year ago

    I hope to shit this is an April fools.

  • CaptainQuint #15 1 year ago

    That's a shame, but I can understand their thinking. Valve's Portal games kind of have the monopoly on the puzzle ideas, so I think it's fair enough to want to move away from that.

    I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt instead of jumping on the "WTF?!" bandwagon like a petchulant little shit who thinks they know it all.

  • NewbieZilla #16 1 year ago

    They had me at no multiplayer.

  • Embar #17 1 year ago

    To be fair, the original Prey didn't exactly set the world on fire. Instead of taking a risk and being innovative they're going with a cautious approach. It was probably the only way the studio could get the game signed since they're not really renound and don't have a high caliber track record.

    Sure from a gamers perspective this is more diluting of the FPS pool, but from a publishers perspective, whose goal is to make money, you just need to look at Homefront sales (400k in US on day 1) to see how lucrative the punters are making the bog standard FPS genre.

  • carlitoswagon #18 1 year ago

    Running around, hoping you were going in the right direction = Prey.

    Often confusing but to remove the portals and grav shift doesn't make sense (unless April Fool).

    Edit: actually, it does make sense. These features mostly pissed me off.
    Edited by carlitoswagon at 01/04/11 @ 10:30

  • Benno #19 1 year ago

    this has to be a joke, portals and anti grav were the best thing about prey

    maybe they just want to make cod in space, i'll pass thanks

  • paketep #20 1 year ago

    Stupid April Fools.

  • Raznilof #21 1 year ago

    Portals, gravity, their guns and Jeremy Soule's rousing and dynamic score where the major driving force behind my interest.

    Let's hope it's a joke indeed..although...if it is a joke...it is so "non-creative" that the attempt makes me even more apprehensive of their capabilities to produce an engaging game.

    Still, at least they would retain a benefit of doubt.
    Edited by Raznilof at 01/04/11 @ 10:56

  • HardcoreR #22 1 year ago

    pretty damaging for the game developers if this is a joke....there are a lot of people who wont bother reading the article & the comments below properly.

  • Toothball #23 1 year ago

    I can see why they might skip portals, given that keeping them would have lead to endless comparisons to the imminent Portal 2. I liked the look of the gravity shifts in the first one. Taking out the interesting features leaves it as yet another FPS game that they'll probably work on through a few more games, cancel, sell to another publisher and then get two or three more games that no one really remembers. Basically like Turok games, but without the dinosaurs.

  • Subdominator #24 1 year ago

    So not gonna buy this. I still don't get it, they have had no game since Prey, so about four years now, which suggests they have been working hard on Prey 2. And all they come up with is "Hey, let's get rid of everything that made Prey great, put in elements of Splinter Cell and Mirror's Edge and we have a winner"? No wonder they had a hard time trying to find a publisher.

  • LHH #25 1 year ago

    Gotta be an april fools

  • convercide #26 1 year ago

    Defintely an April Fool's joke because:

    "Portals and gravity were the functions of The Sphere [the mothership in the original game]. And The Sphere's gone."

    Except The Sphere is quite clearly in that trailer. ;)

  • Bulbatron #27 1 year ago

    Enjoyed the first one. But this one sounds like utter wank.

    EDIT: Forgot it was 1st April today. Hopefully this article was a 'joke'.
    Edited by Bulbatron at 01/04/11 @ 16:53

  • Adi-C #28 1 year ago

    [link url=http://beefjack.com/news/prey-2-drops-portals-because-devs-didnt-want-to-make-too-much-of-a-puzzle-game/
    ]http://beefjack.com/news/prey-2-drops-po...[/link]
    "Posted March 31, 2011"
    “We explored a lot of the ways you could use portals and gravity in combat, and I really wanted to shift away from making it too much of a puzzle game,” lead designer Chris Reinhart told the latest issue of PSM3.

    Would an april fools joke make its way to a mag...? DOUBT IT.

    Though i would rather believe it's a joke for now.
    Edited by Adi-C at 01/04/11 @ 19:20

  • Murton #29 1 year ago

    Sequel by name alone. Everything that made Prey special and memorable is gone, but we get a little of what made Mirror's Edge special provided they've implemented it correctly.

    Not sure how to feel about this, on one hand a much loved game has been forgotten, but another much loved title is getting hat tip. I guess we'll see on release day, but if this and Brink both do their free-running well enough, it might convince EA that a Mirror's Edge sequel is worth doing, and if that happens then maybe Prey 2 will serve a purpose, even if it isn't to create a stable franchise of its own.

  • Ahskay #30 1 year ago

    I actualy read a preview article in a Belgium multiplatform magazine and this game actually sounds very good. I don't understand all the negativity. When a game has a dumbed down singleplayer for the multiplayer it gets negged. When finally a dev makes a very interesting singleplayer that lasts longer as a measly 5 hrs it gets negged. Make up your damn mind!
    This game actually has some very good ideas and the beginning of prey 2 runs parallel as prey 1. I for one have this game on my radar as i'm not into silly games as cod or homefront that only make a singleplayer for the hell of it.
    I'm going to enjoy being an alien bounty hunter on an alien world and the whole premise of the game sounds very good. Even if it doesn't have portals to play around with we might get a game that deserves our full attention. But knowing the gaming world this game won't sell wel and everybody ends up buying homefront 2 or cod nr. 248 with shitty servers and zero customer support.
    Edited by Ahskay at 01/04/11 @ 21:04

  • ubergine #31 1 year ago

    The negativity is down to anti-marketing. Why release a list of excluded features? What ARE the features of Prey 2? And why are they good enough for Bethesda to slap money down?

    Bioware said "New Combat! Streamlined inventory!" not "Gimped combat! No Armour! Recycled Assets!"

  • r3n #32 1 year ago

    Somebody needs a new PR rep.

  • drhickman1983 #33 1 year ago

    having not played the first game (I know, it's cheap these days but never get round to trying it), I have to say the description describing Mirrors Edge and Riddick actually make me quite interested. The free running in Mirrors Edge and the stealth in Riddick was cool, but then both games tagged those mechanics onto iffy combat. Maybe I'm being uncharacteristically optimistic, but it has potential. As a sequel it does seem disconnected I guess though.

  • Ahskay #34 1 year ago

    What anti-marketing? They are doing every thing they can to set a new way forward for this IP or should they go bankrupt developing a game nobody would play. Yes, almost nobody played prey 1. Only thing you guys read was no portals... and then it was Blasphemy!
    Gtfo

  • apoc_reg #35 1 year ago

    So its gonna be just like all other fps games, yawn