مدیر فروشگاهTell me the most impressive (in your, undoubtedly, memory) long-term construction in the gaming industry, friends. Call of Cthulhu? Come on, wait, six years is not that long, and it came out this spring. Duke Nukem Forever? It’s already warmer, but still don’t forget about Duke Nukem 3D, that, illuminated by the rays of glory, he appeared in this inhospitable world in 2002. Nothing else comes to mind? But what about Prey? Don’t remember? I’m not surprised: only the oldest and most devoted PC gamers and those who regularly and closely follow all gaming news should remember it now.
In 1995 the company 3D Realms, having swam to your heart’s content in pools filled with champagne in celebration of the super-successful arrival Rise of the Triad, started creating a conceptually and technologically revolutionary shooter. The ambitious project was named Prey, and the developers, meanwhile, launched a powerful advertising campaign, using almost all means available at that time, such as the press, other games, various software products and even radio, hoping that the toy would appear by 1998. However, plans and hopes were apparently simply not destined to come true.
Now attentive readers can recall offhand a dozen or two projects, during the development of which the sculptors aimed at such features and declared such possibilities that only two outcomes of the clownery emerged. It was possible to postpone the release of the game indefinitely, thereby ensuring irreversible, joyless oblivion. Or you can sprinkle ashes on your head, crawl out to the gaming population on your knees and admit that there’s no way in hell you can do what the praises were sung in advance (By the way, after the release TES 4: Oblivion, Let us also note one more way of retreat, the most shameful and unscrupulous: simply not doing what was promised, without commenting on it in any way). 3D Realms did not take advantage of any of the innovations, and the result was that in 2001 all rights to “finish” the product were transferred to Human Head Studios, an exceptionally promising studio that has assembled a very nice Rune.
Path Prey from underground HHS workshops to end-user computers was a long time. Crazy long. The game flirtatiously tried on new physical and graphics engines, meticulously examined technologies, and rejected concepts one after another. Finally, the capricious girl was introduced to the hot brunette – the engine Doom 3, and the development, having found a second wind, quickly ran to the finish line.
Finishing ribbon.
The narration unexpectedly turns out to be quite interesting.
In the far distant state, in the thirtieth provincial backwater, where dinosaurs, troglodytes and Neanderthals have not yet completely died out, a simple working guy named Tommy lives and does not grieve. Tommy has the blood of real Cherokees, the proud rulers of the American prairies, the true masters of America, but here’s the problem: the over-aged blockhead hammered a big fat bolt on the noble traditions of his ancestors, consumes beer in terrible quantities and earns money for a living and drink by repairing.
According to the good old tradition, Tommy has a lady of his heart, the local bartender Jen, also, it must be said, a direct descendant of the red-skinned riders. Our hero’s grandfather generously agreed to play the obligatory role of the old, wise, but wildly boring Teacher. True, the efforts of the old man to hammer into the mindless youth the principles of the life wisdom of their ancestors crash with a crash on the cliff of misunderstanding. Foolish Tommy deeply and for a long time meant all and all kinds of instructions.
But one fine day, the idyll was disturbed in the most shameless way by desperately arrogant aliens who came to the blue planet Earth with goals that were probably incomprehensible even to themselves, who dragged Jen onto their ship for who knows why and sent their suddenly beloved grandfather to the Land of Eternal Hunt. The hero cannot endure such a personal insult, he grabs an adjustable wrench and sets off to “kill off” his chosen one and avenge his murdered grandfather.
By the way, the Indian did not abandon his grandson to the mercy of fate, returning (what a persistent!) from the other world in order to teach a relative Cherokee martial and mental arts.
Long way home.
First of all, Grandfather teaches Tommy the https://jetbingocasino.co.uk/withdrawal/ ability to leave his mortal body and roam the astral plane. This skill, without any exaggeration, largely determines the gameplay of the game. Firstly, having “forgotten” your body at home, you can walk through the cubicles of the alien plate, exactly along the green boulevard, without fear that the adversaries will notice and kick you. As a spirit, Tommy, of course, is much less cool than in a tangible state, but he still knows how to quite cleverly shoot holes in scoundrel aliens with a gigantic ghostly bow with unlimited ammunition (arrows are gradually restored). Sometimes, having suffered with a particularly difficult place, it is worth leaving the body in a corner and trying to exterminate enemies from the other side of existence. Just make sure that no one hits the physical embodiment of Tommy on the head while you are traveling in ethereal form, otherwise you will have to quickly return.
The art of visiting another world is especially useful in the event of the murder of the main character. As you might guess, the developers do not plan such an outcome of events at all, therefore, upon death, Tommy moves to a kind of purgatory, where he must spend ten seconds and be reborn, like a phoenix from the flames at the place of death. In addition to an educational excursion to the next world, you can also shoot birds that are found there in abundance: red birds will give an additional boost to health, and blue ones will restore energy, which is a kind of analogue of mana here. Yes, yes, it’s impossible to die here forever, and even the treasured Save-Load buttons are present, but they are a completely optional program number.
By the way, the key to solving some mysteries is precisely the ability of our red-skinned warrior to wander in the Astral Realm. The fact is that sometimes it is required that two people perform certain actions. I don’t want to give specific examples so as not to spoil your enjoyment of the game, but think about it – you can “split into two” at any moment, draw your own conclusions!
In addition to such amazing opportunities, grandfather gave the savior of humanity perhaps the most original gaming assistant in the last five years of gaming history – a ghostly hawk who died a long time ago. This Pokemon doesn’t help much in fights, albeit very unconvincingly, and also serves as a pocket alien-English-obscene phrase book for the hero. I probably won’t tell you how this is reflected in the game either, because this information could easily pass for a spoiler!
Come one at a time – I’ll make shawarma!
Tommy’s small and golden arsenal of weapons will help him turn his adversaries into thousands of little neutrons. There are seven types of it observed here. The adjustable wrench mentioned above served the owner well in the workshop and using it anywhere else is the height of hindsight. An automatic rifle with an optical sight screwed on top is a smart choice for almost any situation, but going against a seasoned enemy with it is akin to suicide. The remaining means of denaturalizing vital alien proteins are entirely imported. Crawling spider bombs have an explosive temperament and will most likely destroy an enemy who was careless enough to get close to them. The lych cannon (sic) is recharged at peculiar “gas stations” on the ship, and depending on the “gasoline”, it shoots either quick and short bursts of energy, or freezes enemies. A couple more “trunks” are very unusual. One of them is the alien’s former upper limb, which now, correcting what the owner had done (he decided to get in Tommy’s way), serves the Indian as a grenade launcher. The second one spits a nasty-looking green liquid with pronounced acidic properties. The final chord in this weapons parade will be played by a rocket launcher. In Prey, the rocket launcher decides how powerful and all-conquering a shot from it is.
All this wealth of diversity, as you undoubtedly realized, can and should be used to tastefully smear unfriendly alien guests on the walls of their own vessel. "Hurray! I want to see these fearsomes as soon as possible!" – the delighted reader will exclaim. And here the first drawback awaits us Prey – opponents are licked off, brought together almost with a pencil under that very ink black copy paper with Doom 3. It’s so obvious that it immediately catches your eye. The role of zombies is played by humanoid aliens, they, damn it, even move in a similar way, with their arms outstretched and stumbling, as if not seeing what is happening under their feet. Arachnids in assortment moved to Prey straight from the Martian colonies. The big, brainless flying ball loves to play basketball with Tommy, using our hero as a ball, but otherwise it’s still the same cacodemon. Personally, I’m very upset for the developers who, perhaps due to natural laziness (there was more than enough time), were unable, having done some of the work brilliantly, to create worthy opponents, stupidly copy-pasting them from the great and terrible D3.
The situation is largely corrected by magnificent locations. Unlike all the same Doom 3 here, fortunately, we will not be frightened by the endless, sticky darkness. All corridors, rooms, niches are lovingly drawn, covered with high-quality textures and equipped with a large number of eye-pleasing details. And the most important thing is gravity, which works differently in different parts of the ship. Moreover, the effect of gravitational forces can be adjusted using special control panels. Thus, having dashingly burst into the next “room”, you can switch gravity, run like a bullet to the ceiling and from there treat a large, strong, but not so efficient monster with a portion of lead.
Another extremely important part of the game is portals. These are, so to speak, two-way “doors” leading to different compartments of the ship. They are both permanent and temporary. Stationary ones won’t run out for beer over time, so Tommy can freely use them. Aliens create temporary ones to quickly move from place to place, and our brave warrior is not allowed to jump into them.
Beautiful piece of paper.
Remember, at the very beginning of my story today, I mentioned that in the heart Prey a patented engine works Doom 3? I have to sadly admit that the graphics are not one iota different from what we saw in D3, Quake 4, and what we will definitely see in a good hundred more crafts “based on”. To be honest, there is simply nothing to say about the graphics: neither good nor bad, since at one time the visual merits of the above-mentioned games were commented on by everyone who is not too lazy, and there really is little point in repeating the same thing.
The sound support is at the highest level of quality, but the main praise we will give is not to the voice acting of the characters – it is quite ordinary, not bang-bang and b-dah-bang, but the amazing, magical, and whatever, unsurpassed music of the brilliant Jeremy Soule, a composer well known to many (just one word – Morrowind).
Brief summary.
Plot. A funny tale about a red-skinned superhero who inherited the wisdom of his ancestors in order to successfully apply the acquired knowledge against the scoundrels who intend to gain power over our planet.
Graphics. Prey with Doom 3 – "twin" brothers.
Sound. The lion’s share of the atmosphere is created by the absolutely amazing music of Jeremy Soule, you need to hear it.
Finally, this gigantic long-term construction was completed, and it ended, alas, not in order to snatch all conceivable and inconceivable awards, but only so that you could spend several evenings in the company of a very good, but nothing more, fantastic shooter with familiar graphics, several wonderful ideas and untapped potential. Not mediocre by any means, not a failure by any means, but not a masterpiece either. no way.
