You find yourself aboard Talos I, a state-of-the-art R&D facility orbiting Earth, and you’re immediately thrown into a world of danger after an alien lifeform (known as Typhon) breaks containment. It’s up to you to combat the threat that has taken over the space station using your wits and any of the unique weapons and tools you find onboard the station, along with a host of mysterious abilities. This is Prey, Arkane Studios’ bold reimaging of the franchise.
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Set in an alternate future, Prey puts you into the uniform of Morgan Yu, the subject of morally dubious experiments designed to grant you alien powers. At QuakeCon 2016, Arkane’s Co-creative Director Raphael Colantonio and Lead Designer Ricardo Bare delivered a first look at Prey’s gameplay, followed by the worldwide premiere of the first official gameplay trailer, which you can watch right now.
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In addition to the gameplay trailer, Colantonio and Bare also showed off an extensive gameplay demo. While the gameplay presentation was revealed behind closed doors exclusively to QuakeCon attendees, we’ve got the full rundown of what was shown, including new insights into how Prey plays.
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The Threat in Space
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Typhon are roaming the halls of Talos I, hunting down the remaining humans. How you choose to deal with these creatures is up to you. You can take a stealthier route, finding secret paths around the station while using your tools and abilities to avoid confrontation. The station itself is a completely contiguous world. The entirety of Talos I is open to you immediately… provided you can find a way to get there.
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Whatever path you forge, you’ll face different dangers at every turn. One of the keys to survival are the neuromods you’ll find scattered around the station, as they allow you to enhance yourself with alien-based powers.
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Each type of Typhon you encounter will require a different approach, as they have vastly different powers. The Mimics can camouflage themselves to look like ordinary objects in the environment. With their inherent aptitude for catching you completely off-guard, these aliens can be more deadly than their diminutive size might suggest. You’ll have to keep an eye out for duplicate objects around you: you never know if that office chair or garbage can is a Mimic just waiting to spring into action.
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Phantoms, on the other hand, are much larger than the Mimics, though not nearly as big as the Nightmare. They appear humanoid – if humans were crafted from shadow. The fight we saw in the gameplay demo revealed the Phantom’s peculiar mode of locomotion, as they seem to almost teleport from one location to another, rather than running or walking. One moment a Phantom could be right in front of you, the next it will be at your back.
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Know Thy Enemy
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You don’t just destroy the Typhon. You also learn from your mysterious foes. Studying them allows you to take on their powers with the help of neuromods. From the Mimics you can learn how to transform, useful for stealth and puzzle-solving. In the demo, we saw Morgan transform himself into a coffee cup in order to slip through a small opening and enter a room he otherwise would not have been able to access. Later, Morgan became a round Recycler Charge – a special grenade that turns the matter around it (including certain enemies) into craftable resources – and rolled past some hostile Operator bots.
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In signature Arkane fashion, you can chain your abilities. After transforming into the Recycler Charge in the demo, Morgan used the Kinetic Blast power to rocket into the air, reaching an elevated overhang while remaining undetected by the Operators. Kinetic Blast is another of Morgan’s alien powers, learned by studying one of the Phantoms’ methods of attack. It can also be used in combat to push away anything within range while dealing a chunk of damage.
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At another point we also saw Morgan use an ability called Superthermal to create a fiery proximity trap and deal with a horde of Mimics.
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The Tools at Your Disposal
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Should you choose, you can limit your use of powers and instead focus on the wide variety of tools and weapons you’ll find on Talos I, some of which are repurposed pieces of maintenance equipment. Take the GLOO Cannon: this incredibly versatile tool shoots… well, glue, which instantly hardens, trapping foes where they stand, covering exposed flaming pipes and surging electrical boxes, or providing an interesting new path.
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We saw both uses in the playthrough, as Morgan examined a group of Mimics trapped in the glue, before eliminating them with a silenced pistol found on the corpse of a fallen security guard. Later, he used the GLOO Cannon to form a makeshift ramp leading to a walkway above his head.
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Prey also has a crafting system, allowing you to create items using resources you gain by breaking down items around the station. Along with weapons and ammo, you can build tools like the Artax Propulsion System at one of the many Fabricators on the station. In the demo, Morgan used this zero g propulsion device to explore the space outside the station. The Artax Propulsion System can be used to quickly access new areas of the station by bypassing the interior and heading straight for an airlock.
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Even if you find a shortcut through space, you’ll need to be vigilant. Danger lurks around every corner, and the Typhon aren’t the only threat on Talos I. Along with weapons, powers, tools and your wits, a little healthy paranoia will be key to your survival.
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