Prey: new screens, info

By Ellie Gibson Published 19 May, 2005

With added "portal technology".

3D Realms has revealed some more details of Prey, its forthcoming first-person shooter for PC. You can find some new screenshots here.

The game follows the adventures of a Native American garage mechanic called Tommy, whose daily grind of changing tyres, fixing engines and making up prices off the top of his head is interrupted one day when he gets abducted by aliens.

They take Tommy, along with some fellow Cherokees from the reservation he lives on, to a giant mothership orbiting the Earth. It's a living machine that can sense, react to and even attack Tommy, making his mission - rescuing his girlfriend, defeating the aliens and generally saving the world - an even harder task.

Still, he's got a few tricks up his sleeve, such as special powers Spirit Walking, Wall Walking and Deathwalk, and a helpful sidekick in the shape of a “spiritual hawk” that can understand the ship's alien language.

The game also features something called “portal technology”, which allows enemies to appear out of thin air and creates “new and completely original puzzles and gameplay styles”. Crikey.

It's being built using the Doom 3 engine and will feature multiplayer modes alongside the single-player game, but there's no word yet on what form these will take.

Prey was first announced back in 1997, but was later cancelled so the 3DR team could concentrate on other projects. It's now fully back on track, however, and should be in the shops by Christmas.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tyronne #1 7 years ago

    wow portal technology enabling you to go from one place to another, otherwise known as a door.

  • KraftWerk #2 7 years ago

    Truth be told, this game looked amazing in 1998. If it had been finished then, It would have been a classic. I'm not so optimistic now though.. but I'm still looking forward to it, that's for sure.

  • ali-uk #3 7 years ago

    I can't believe they called the main character Tommy Hawk.

    Game looks fun, although I'm getting kinda sick of the D3 engine.
    Edited by 1 at 20/05/05 @ 00:25

  • Royal Fool #4 7 years ago

    I don't think I've ever seen such disgusting concept art. Check it out at GameSpot or IGN, if you can stomach it. Yuck.

  • #5 7 years ago

    hooray for prey

    "wow portal technology enabling you to go from one place to
    another, otherwise known as a door."

    ugh

  • cyacomini #6 7 years ago

    Oh dear !

    Such a bad choice of 'media luvvy' quotes. Who on earth are they claiming that portal technology is new and exciting ? This was one of the main selling points back in 1997. From what i remember, the tech demo simply showed a hovering doorway (portal) which had a mirrored like surface textured over the top. The mirror didnt reflect, but displayed a "stream" from somewhere else in the map. Nothing special these days...I think i'll hang off for the return of the Duke in DNF.

    skiddy pants to Prey.

  • Tiiti #7 7 years ago

    It does look to much like Doom 3

  • sickpuppysoftware #8 7 years ago

    I think portal technology in this case means "don't bother with decent enemy placement", "cheap shock value" and "respawning enemies"

    Joy! #ahem#

  • drumbaby #9 7 years ago

    My initial 'gawsh that shor is purdy' reactions to this game (from about 50 years ago) has turned into one long MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

  • Teeth #10 7 years ago

    laughable.

  • space_ace #11 7 years ago

    if it has humor in it, it mught make some sense...

  • FinbarSaunders #12 7 years ago

    Portal Technology is pretty old hat to be honest. Have a quick search on Google.

    You don't hear games banging on about how they use BSP Trees, even though it's a fairly stanfdard technique for quickly deciding what parts of the world are visible.

    Anyway, our game is using "Polygon Technology". It has to be seen to be believed!

    Conclusion: Technology != Decent Game.

  • Graeme_N #13 7 years ago

    Gosh, enemies appearing out of nowhere. I can't remember any other game using that trick.

    And I know plots aren't really important elements in FPS games, but "Native American auto mechanic with spiritual powers saves world and girlfriend from alien invasion" appeals to me only slightly more than Redneck Rampage did.

    But I suppose we should reserve judgment until people actually get to play the game.

  • Sko #14 7 years ago

    They're trying to make respawning enemies a unique selling point? *goink*

  • Bezzy #15 7 years ago

    The wall walking thing looks nice, though. Interesting possiblities if used well. I hope they don't do the Alien vs. Predator view angle transition stuff, where your view gets kicked around and knocks you off aim.

  • jumpdeveraux #16 7 years ago

    I'm sure Wall Walking, Spirit Walking and Deathwalk have proven invaluable skills to him during his day to day garage mechanic activities pre-arrival of a huge mothership...

    "You want a tyre changed? Hmmmm, it'll cost yer as I'll need to do a bit of Spirit Walking..."

  • drumbaby #17 7 years ago

    Two PS2 games I've played using impressive use of portals: God of War, and Ghosthunter.

    You can see a refracted part of the level glimmering through a 'portal' and can walk through it with no load, and then look back and see where you've come from.

    Whoop-de-fucking-dooo!

  • Yama #18 7 years ago

    Further proof that 3D Realms is experiencing a game development 'Groundhog's Day' stuck in the 90's.

  • Bezzy #19 7 years ago

    You'd think that'd allow them to get a game done by themselves, though.

    Yay! 3DR cheap shots!

  • #20 7 years ago

    "NEWSFLASH" "NEWSFLASH" "NEWSFLASH"

    The Xbox 360 "IS MORE POWERFUL" than the PS3!

    Goto the link below and all will be explained:

    htt p://xbox360.ign.com/articles/617/617951p1.html

    By the way, I'm going to post this on every comments page on this site; because this is the type of information Eurogamer doesn't want you to see because this site is bias towards the PS3!

    If get banned, so what! At lest some of you would of saw this news by then!

  • darkmistx #21 7 years ago

    Stop spamming, you idiot.