Prey 2 average play through 15 hours

2012 shooter Prey 2 will on average take 15 hours to play through, developer Human Head has revealed.

But it will take substantially longer to complete the Bethesda-published first-person shooter, which does not feature multiplayer, if you explore the open world and complete side quests.

"We're focused on making it a strong, powerful single-player experience," project lead Chris Reinhart said.

"And we're tied with Bethesda, which has proven they are the masters of making awesome single-player experiences."

He added: "It's an interesting challenge. It makes us change some of the other things we do. The single-player game has to be larger. There's more player choice. There's more to do.

"We're targeting, for the average player, at least around 15 hours to play through. But because there are so many open world activities you can do when you explore around and find different things, it's hard to put an upper cap on it.

"I guess if someone were to haul ass, they might be able to get through it under that. But I could haul ass through many open world games and get through them in a handful of hours."

Human Head's decision to ditch multiplayer for the shooter was a matter of focus, Reinhart said.

And he suggested more developers do the same – rather than compete with the gargantuan online experience offered by the likes of Call of Duty.

"It would be great if more people focused on single-player," Reinhart said.

"I love playing multiplayer. My big thing with that, if you're not going to be able to beat or exceed Call of Duty, don't do that kind of multiplayer, to be perfectly honest.

"If you're going to do multiplayer, do something else that fits with your style of game, and something that's going to be really fun, that's going to get people to play together in this game.

"The other thing is, I would want to make sure developers put their focus in the right place and area. Taking and watering down both single-player and multiplayer is not good for the developer. It's not good for the publisher. It's not good for the game player.

"It's better to focus your energy on one or the other. If there's a focus issue and you need to be able to focus on one, do that."

Eurogamer travelled to Utah to see the game in action. Check out our Prey 2 preview for more.