Arkane’s deeply ambitious and perennially underrated immersive sim Prey is celebrating its fifth anniversary today. The game, developed by Arkane’s Austin studio, is a reboot of the series after the original Prey‘s release in 2006.
The game follows main character Morgan Yu as he attempts to navigate a space station, Talos I, in dissaray that has been overrun by an alien species known as Typhon.
What makes Prey so unique and ultimately everlasting is the level design and ability to play how you want to. Early on in the game, you are free to explore the station as you see fit. The moment to moment gameplay adds layers to this freedom as you are able to tackle most situations in a variety of ways. Stealth is a great choice to safely navigate Talos I, but the GLOO cannon, wrench, and various other firearms and gadgets give you ultimate freedom in how you want to proceed through the game.
Scan complete… happy birthday Morgan. 🔧
— Bethesda (@bethesda) May 5, 2022
Celebrating 5 years of PREY with our amazing team at @ArkaneSudios. pic.twitter.com/zWZ9wS8X0g
Prey feels like a culmination of Arkane’s excellent level design and systems based gameplay with odes to other games in the genre that came before it such as Bioshock, System Shock, Thief, and Arkane’s own Dishonored series. This may be their best game, and that is notable considering their track record.
Arkane became an Xbox Game Studio after Microsoft’s purchase of their parent company Zenimax/Bethesda in 2021. A sequel to Prey is something that both Arkane and Xbox should want, the only question is, when? The same team that developed Prey is working on Redfall, a part immersive sim, part optional co-op, part vampire hunter game that is supposed to release very soon. Will Arkane want to return to Prey after that? Will they want to continue making new and exciting IP’s? Maybe a return to Dishonored is in the cards? Anything is possible.
Even if a sequel isn’t something Arkane is planning for, the original game still holds strong as an incredibly replayable immersive sim made by one of the world’s most creative studios. If you haven’t had a chance to play it yet, don’t wait. It’s on Game Pass, so there really isn’t an excuse to keep putting off one of the best games ever made.
