What 3D realms and Human Head tried to do with the game is cool and, in their own right, I can appreciate the new(er) concepts and mechanics they implemented. However, because the new elements have very little purpose other than to make your life in the game more difficult, it's hard to support them as a viable, gameplay-enriching feature in their current form. Instead the portals, wall walking, and gravity rooms feel very gimmicky. Earlier on in the game they seem neat but once they lose their luster, which happens quickly because of their triteness, they end up being nothing more than hassles. A perfect example are the wall-walkways; rather than being able to progress through levels normally, you have to deal with powering on the wall-walkways whose “on” switch is in the same room… I mean, what’s the point in having it powered off in the first place when all you make me do is walk over to the switch? It’s redundant, trivial, and just bad game design.

Oddly enough, even with these wrenches (superfluous wall-walking/portals/gravity-rooms) thrown into the game's gears, it's still an incredibly linear play through. Embarrassingly so: While other FPSs use puzzles or story or anything to add weight to your actions, Prey uses repetition and corridor crawling and labels it “nostalgic FPS gaming”. SiN: Emergence did the same thing, but had the benefit of being only 4 hours long… Plus it had adaptive AI/difficulty and was based in an already established game-universe. It took me about 8 hours to beat Prey on my first go and that was about 4 hours too long.

One of the coolest concepts implemented in Prey, the spiritual realm, serves as a way to cheat death. Unfortunately, as cool as it is, it feels like you are, in fact, cheating. Plowing your way through Normal and then Cherokee difficulties (which is unlocked after you beat the game once) is surprisingly easy. In the spirit realm, you use your spirit bow to kill the wandering souls of the damned; killing red souls give you health, killing blue souls give you spirit. When you've regenerated enough power you're teleported to the exact place that you died. So yeah, it feels a lot like cheating.

Actually that reminds me of one of the game’s few strengths: you can also perform a spirit walk. Spirit walk allows you to leave your body behind to go places you couldn't normally go in order to unlock doors or solve environmental puzzles. While in spirit mode your body reminds completely unprotected and vulnerable, but, due to spiritual realm revival, dying has absolutely no consequence. It's the one great feature that ironically doesn't get used to death throughout the game.

The enemies also seem familiar -- as if they were recycled Doom 3 characters, although this could be do to game engine limitations. The boss battles (there are roughly three in the game) are slightly unique, but nothing to write home about -- even the ones that try to be emotional. Again, it felt very gimmicky, which ultimately ruined it for me.

Breaking up the gameplay are the descent-like spaceship sequences, which serve their purpose -- they break up gameplay. Not unlike the wall-walking or portals, the spaceship levels seem a little too long and remain unvaried throughout the game. Luckily there are a few instances that make the ship portions worthwhile, and the fact that they're usable in multiplayer also adds a little something to the title.

Online is decent, not extraordinary. In fact, the wall-walking and portals probably work the best in multiplay. Prey basically uses the same tried and true formula pioneered with Doom - Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch -- but has the added benefit of complete portal/wall-walking disorientation. You often times end up in the same room as other players without even knowing it because they're running on the roof or teleported in behind you. This cat and mouse mechanic keeps multiplay intense and satisfying (nothing like sneaking up/above someone, dropping down, and killing them with a wrench).

While the online sounds promising, all is not roses. Unfortunately the game suffers very badly from Lag... More than any other game I've played on Live (including pre-patched CoD2). I'm sure this will be fixed, but I wouldn't be surprised if the amount of players drops off considerably before it does. After all Gears of War is only a couple of months out.

Overall the game felt lackluster. If you've played the demo you've seen pretty much all this game has to offer. You're essentially getting an average game, for an above average price. As a 360 "budget" title Prey would have been a good value; as it is, however, it’s more of a distraction while we await Gears of War (which, itself, is a distraction while we wait for Halo 3).