Prey 2 ditches portal and gravity gameplay

by Justin McElroy on Apr 1st 2011 12:40PM

Ask most who played the first Prey what they thought of it and you'll invariably get some variation on: "It was just okay, but I really liked the stuff with gravity manipulation (à la Kineticarnage) and portals (à la ... well, Portal)." Well, friends, it appears developer Human Head has been listening to you. Well, listening to you and hating you, because it's done away with both of those things for Prey 2.

Speaking with PS3M Magazine (via Beefjack), lead designer Chris Reinhart said, "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."

We're glad to hear the brainy "puzzle game" bits have been left to rot, and we think we join in a chorus of gamers here when we say, "Finally, a shooting game."

Source: Beefjack

Tags: human-head, kineticarnage, microsoft, pc, playstation, prey-2, ps3, xbox

Reader Comments (124)

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU--

@beefbearsupreme

Soooo.....why calling it prey???? no badass native american, no puzzles, no gravitiy, no connection with the cliffhanger of the first one......so why the name PREY?????

@Hunter141072 Because they are stupid and should be fired.

@beefbearsupreme

*single tear*

.....Screw it, cries like a little b****

@beefbearsupreme Dare I assume this is an April Fools joke....

@Hunter141072

Think of it kinda like Far Cry 2, Banjo Kazooie nuts and bolts or Rayman - raving rabbids

@Hunter141072 Simple, they're keeping the vagina doors.

@Hunter141072
to answer your question: Because 3drealms went under and the Prey trademark was bought up by another company. It would be like someone else jumping in and trying to finish a conversation that you started, but had to leave in the middle of. It would be too difficult to try and continue in the footsteps of what made the first one good, so human head decided to just make it suck instead.

This is looking like the most backwards sequel of all time. Did the people making this even enjoy the original prey or did they just want to make another shooter.

@ZoneoftheEnders
That's what I was thinking as well. AND it looks like that's what everyone else was thinking.

Perhaps they just feel like whatever they do will be outclassed by Portal 2? Let's face it, Portal 2 is going to be the king of games involving...portals. I'm thinking they are probably feeling inadequate by comparison, which is a shame because I LOVED Prey and thought the portal and gravity stuff in it was awesome.

@Morph156

"Perhaps they just feel like whatever they do will be outclassed by Portal 2?"

so they're going to make it more generic so they can compete with CoD? good luck.

@maveric101 I really hope this was an April Fools' joke. The shooter portion of Prey was tedious, gravity and portals were on point...without them, Prey 2 is just another shooter...

Who said they hated the puzzles? Damn low IQ gamers.

@Ballistic H

Damn low IQ developers*

@Ballistic H

Just imagine playing Half-life with all the puzzels missing...
:(

Puzzels in games are brilliant. Solving a problem so that you can carry on is a good feeling, it sure beats killing lots of things so that you can carry on.

YAY FOR GENERIC FPS SEQUELS

Hahaha April Fools guys! You're totally having gravity and portals, right?

...right?

That's what I thought when I read this. That's the only reason I liked the 1st.

...RIGHT?!

@dudes113
I wish, but the source posted it yesterday.

@dudes113 Ha ha ha, yeah, they totally had me too, I mean Prey 2 without portals and American Indians would be like Duke Nukem without strippers and masogyny. They... didn't take the strippers out of Duke Nukem did they? DID THEY!?

So basically, there is no reason for this game to exist. Great.

So the two of the things that made the first game original in any way is now no longer in there?

You know what. I really liked those bits and was looking forward to more of that honestly. Now I can just write this game off.

Yet another sequel gets Dumbed Down For The DudeBros.

@TheRedComet

Yep.

DD'd for the DB's.

(Note - DB can also stand for douche-bag)

@TheRedComet

OH DUDE WTF BRO WHY YOU GOTTA BE LIKE THAT DAWG?

April Fools? Har har? Either way the write-up for this was brilliantly scathing. Well played Justin, well played.

I see what you did there...clever

By portals do you mean the spirit world parts? I don't really remember portals but I liked going to-and-from the spirit world (a la Soul Reaver)

@xreadmore they didn't really look like portals, they were set in crates and let you warp to different parts of the game world

This reminds of Far Cry 2. As in there is absolutely no connection or reference to the first one.

Dem puzzles and magnets and gravities make my brain confused.

@rullers

This isn't entirely apt. Far Cry 2 was vastly different, true, but it kept the lush environments and open-world approach to shooting. Not to mention it was an Ubisoft Montreal production; Crytek had nothing to do with it.

This here is a case of the developer of a first game with some minor cult fanbase alienating everyone who bought the original game.

Why does everything I love get cancelled (Bumpy Trot 2 and The Agency), but everything I despise still live on? Why is life so cruel?

Nice i really thought you guys where serious about the gameplay.

Real or not, I can't remember a thing about the first Prey, so whatever.

@Apakal
Well thank whatever you believe in that you don't recall the orifice doorways.

GUH!

I haven't played the first one. How good is it? I get bored of shooters fairly quick unless there's something really cool about it. Should I pick it up if I see it in a used bin or something?

@PlagueDoctor357

It was fun and had some minor innovations when it first came out, but it wasn't really anything special. I thought the best thing about it was the story and characters. It had a few memorable scenes, like the opening scene in the bar and what happened to ol' granpaps. Oh, and the genitalia doors. Yeah.

I guess if you get bored with current shooters, then you probably would get bored of this one, too.

Never played the first one, but I heard quite a bit about its new ideas, meaning portals and gravity. Good to hear that they'll make it a generic shooter. We don't have enough of those.

Wow, I'm pretty sure Prey got rid of the two things that differentiated itself from the multitude of other shooters. Awesome. /sarcasm

I'd really like it if game companies could start to mature the FPS genre a bit. At least we still have Valve.

w

@willchristiansen

Three things.

Portals, gravity and Native American mythology.

So it's now Prey: Generic Alien Shooter

April fools?

"We're glad to hear the brainy "puzzle game" bits have been left to rot, and we think we join in a chorus of gamers here when we say, "Finally, a shooting game.""

I think you need to change that to "Ugh, another shooting game with nothing new."

@DeadpooI
I find it sad that someone who calls himself Deadpool doesn't recognize sarcasm.

@MLS
Where I live, April Fools day ended way before this was posted.

Stupid Joystiq not accounting for the rest of the world.

@DeadpooI

they're a US-based blog covering a US-based studio. maybe YOU should take that into account.

But you'll still have the Native American lead character, right?

Oh...

But what say you...

Right...

Just another shooter, you say? You have no brains, you lament?

Yeah...

While it doesn't have portals and gravity, the people saying that it's just another shooter are wrong. Prey takes inspiration from many games, like Mirror's Edge, for example. There are many things in Prey 2 that make it more than "just another bro fest shooter". But how am I to change these jaded opinions that have no truth to them? Ugh, ugh, ugh. I guess pouring on hyperbole is the only way to do it in this industry.

I'm not saying Prey 2 will be any good, but let's give credit where credit is due.

@KungFuChaosNinja

When you say Prey takes inspiration from Mirror's Edge, you do mean Prey 2 right? Because the original Prey came out in 2006, and Mirror's Edge released in 2008.

@KungFuChaosNinja
Yes, lets.

There's absolutely no reason to call it Prey anything.

THAT'S the difference. What the hell does it have in common with the original besides some basic underlying mechanics?

Not much. They're better off creating a new game instead of trying to cash-in on a name that didn't do the greatest to begin with.

Everyone is obsessed with sequels thinking it'll make them money on name alone. Then when it doesn't it's the consumer's fault, not the idiot devs that were so out of touch they only could see $$$.

IMA RAGIN' ON THE INTERNETZ NAOW!11!!111

That better?

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Prey 2

Prey 2 ditches portal and gravity gameplay

Reader Comments (124)

Posted: Apr 1st 2011 12:42PM beefbearsupreme said

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