Prey
Human Head    3D Realms

Earth's savior doesn't want the job.

Tommy is a down-on-his-luck garage mechanic, stuck in the middle on who-knows-where on some forgotten reservation, where Native Americans are tucked away out of sight, out of mind.

And then the unthinkable happens! Earth becomes prey to the galaxy's largest predator, a space bound Texas-sized alien that's looking to satiate its hunger with the organic goodness that most populates Earth: Us. And the first course is a certain forgotten reservation.

A Spiritual Awakening

Tommy and his girlfriend have become prey, his grandfather killed, and hundreds of his tribal nation have been abducted through space-warping portals. Freeing himself, all Tommy cares about is saving Jenny. But the spirit of his grandfather beckons him to embrace his heritage, accept the ancient teachings, and prepare to battle the menace that threatens to destroy all the planet's
life.  It's a choice between love and responsibility. It's a choice that cannot be made easily.

Innovative Gameplay

  • Built on an enhanced Doom 3 engine, the most impressive 3D engine used in a released game.
  • Portal technology adds a new dimension to gameplay, allowing enemies to appear out of thin air and create new and completely original puzzles and gameplay styles.
  • Several never-before-seen gameplay elements such as Spirit Walking, Wall Walking, and Deathwalk.
  • Highly organic, living environment that itself can attack Tommy.
  • Tommy has a sidekick, a spiritual hawk that can help him fight enemies and decipher the alien language of the living ship.
  • Multiplayer game support that takes advantage of the unique gameplay styles in Prey.



[ Check out the latest Prey news! ]

Originally released (PC/360) July 11, 2006
Originally released (Mac) Jan 19, 2007

PC Demo originally released June 22, 2006.
Xbox 360 Demo originally released Jun 30, 2006.
Macintosh Demo originally released Jan 12, 2007.
 
iPhone version to be released in 2009.
 


Prey Press


 


Nominated for Best PC Game
 and Best Shooting Game

Computer Games Magazine:

"Human Head has taken this concept (portals) to some brain twisting lengths. In addition to glowing dimensional portals floating in midair, there are boxes that tip over to reveal new rooms inside."

"We want to avoid that shelf moment, when the game goes back on the shelf and you leave it there."

"Combat should be filler between memorable bits. No one remembers a game as 'So I turned the corner and fought these guys'."

Play Magazine:

The game is absolutely incredible to look at, packed with all kinds of scintillating effects, moody shadows, detailed shading, and giant chunks of all sorts of fascinating anachronistic technology.

PC Gamer:

Ragdoll physics supply lifelike movement and destruction - and are used to the most disturbing effect in some scripted events that we won't soon forget seeing.

Expect a ton of bizarre scripted sights. The most insane we saw was a jumbo jet that had been "abducted" - and it's still in flight, aflame and disoriented, inside the vast bowels of the alien mothership.

Game Informer:

Prey is the next big thing in First Person Shooters.

Human Head has transformed the property into one of the most impressive shooters we've ever seen.

Prey looks able to stand alongside such high profile PC games such as Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, and the Xbox 360 version should easily compare to the best shooters on the console.

Prey may have been a long time coming, but it is definitely worth the wait.

Gamespot:

We came away from the Prey demo quite impressed with what was shown. The game's tagline, "Earth's savior doesn't want the job," was an amusing conclusion to a look at a game that seems to be going out of its way to defy many first-person-shooter conventions

IGN:

It makes awesome use of the DOOM 3 engine and creates some truly unique environments. There are some really awesome effects that help to create some twisted gameplay that is probably going to be fairly hard to describe without video to back it up.

Games Radar:
Watching the trailer is a genuinely mind-blowing experience - it looks unbelievably potent both in terms of technical ability and tantalising game play mechanics.  It's hard to describe just how staggering Prey looks, so we're not even going to bother trying - just believe us when we say that it's so far out if this world that it's cosmic.  Prey looks absolutely awesome.

Gamezone:

At this point, the game looks amazing, with detailed environments and freaky enemies. The use of portals is important to the gameplay mechanics, and these look especially cool, as they are basically windows that you can use to seamlessly pass from one area to another and back with no interruption in the gameplay.

Gamespy:

The portals also served as gateways to various parts of the game world, with creatures able to run back and forth between them, with gravity and perspective sometimes switching drastically from one side to another.  The highlight of the gravity tech demo was a tiny spherical planetoid floating inside a massive chamber. The player ran around the surface of the planetoid, the curved surface of which defined the ground.

Shacknews:

Those worried about the loss of Portal Technology need to fear not. During the demo, a door-shaped structure rose from out of the floor. It showed a completely another room with a huge beast walking past. Jumping through it, you drop in front of the goliath and are quickly under fire. The entire transition was seamless and incredibly slick.

The demo also showed what happens when killed in combat. The character's body becomes suspended in a sort of spirit world in a setting very similar to that of World of Warcraft when dead; the environment is dark and foggy with other threatening spirits running about. While in this world, killing creatures with the bow and arrow rejuvenates your corpse and after a few kills, you're back in the think of the action.

MTV's "Peep Show":

Native American mysticism meets alien-abduction horror in Prey, the best looking first-person shooter to grace your Xbox 360 screen since, well, ever. Slip on the moccasins of Cherokee auto mechanic, Tommy, board an oozing, pulsing alien mothership, and give the evil scum a taste of the same medicine your brethren served Custer.

 

 More previews & interviews:

  1. Game Daily Preview - Dec 2005
  2. Play Magazine cover article - Nov 2005
  3. Computer Games World Preview - September 2005
  4. Gamespot Preview - Aug 2005
  5. Next Generation Interview w/ Chris Rhinehart - Aug 2005
  6. Gamezone Preview - May 2005
  7. Gamecloud Preview - May 2005
  8. Shacknews / Gamespy / IGN E3 Remarks - May 2005
  9. Gamespot E3 Review - May 2005
  10. Gamespot Interview w/ Humanhead - May 2005
 

  Prey Videos


Want to see Prey in action?
Check these out - videos don't lie.

Watch "Prey Super Trailer" Video:
(via Google Video, requires Flash Player)


 

Watch Official E3 2005 Video:
(via Google Video, requires Flash Player)


 

Watch Xbox 360 Trailer Video:
(via Google Video, requires Flash Player)

Or download your own copy of them:

"Prey Super Trailer" - Apr 2006
Click here for download links
Official E3 2005 Prey Trailer
Contains 12 minutes of game footage!
Click here for download links
Official Xbox 360 Prey Trailer
Click here for download links

Additional links on Xbox 360 site!

 

Prey Image Gallery

 
Click on any of these screenshot thumbnails for a larger image.

 

There's also some concept art over at IGN.
 


iPhone Version Screenshots

Click on any of these screenshot thumbnails for a larger image.

 


 

 

System Requirements


 Minimum
  • CPU Speed: Intel Pentium 4 2.0Ghz / AMD Athlon XP 2000+ processor
  • RAM: 512MB system RAM
  • Video Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 64MB video card with latest manufacturer drivers (see supported chipsets below)
  • Drive: 8X CD-ROM (standard edition), DVD-ROM (Limited Collector's Edition)
  • Hard Drive: 2.2GB of uncompressed free hard drive space
  • Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 16-bit sound card
  • Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP with latest service pack installed
  • DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c
Recommended
  • CPU Speed: Intel Pentium 4 2.5Ghz / AMD Athlon XP 2500+ processor
  • RAM: 1GB system RAM
  • Video Card: ATI Radeon X800 series or higher video card with latest manufacturer drivers
  • Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series sound card
  • Internet: Broadband internet connection or LAN required for multiplayer
Supported Video Card Chipsets
  • ATI: ATI Radeon 9600 series, ATI Radeon 9700 series, ATI Radeon 9800 series, ATI Radeon X300 series, ATI Radeon X550 series, ATI Radeon X600 series, ATI Radeon X700 series, ATI Radeon X800 series, ATI Radeon X1300 series, ATI Radeon X1600 series, ATI Radeon X1800 series, ATI Radeon X1900 series, or better with latest manufacturer drivers
  • NVIDIA: NVIDIA GeForce3/Ti series, NVIDIA GeForce4/Ti, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 series, NVIDIA GeForce 5900 series, NVIDIA GeForce 6200 series, NVIDIA GeForce 6600 series, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series, NVIDIA GeForce 7300 series, NVIDIA GeForce 7600 series, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 series, NVIDIA GeForce 7900 series, or better with latest manufacturer drivers.

PREY takes full advantage of the Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ sound card. PREY supports OpenAL hardware acceleration, EAX® ADVANCED HD™ 5.0 features of 4 reverberation effects at once, and uses Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XRAM feature to load audio samples on the cards with 64 megs of RAM. For more information on the benefits of having one of the Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ series, you can go to http://www.soundblaster.com.