Watch: Here's the first hour of Prey
Guten Morgan, Yu.
Last week, Aoife and I paid a visit to Bethesda's London offices to have a look at Prey. While neither of us managed to turn into a coffee cup, we did get the chance to play through the game's first hour. The demo, which you can watch in the video below, really showed off just how tense things can get as Morgan stalks about the place - doing his (or her) best to sniff out camouflaged enemies and bash them in with a wrench.
Satisfyingly, Arkane's approach to environment design also comes through strongly. The portion of the game world we got to see was strongly reminiscent of Dishonored 2's Clockwork Mansion level, for instance. A lot of the smaller flourishes that made Dishonored 2 such a treat also rear their heads in Prey, offering secrets, treasures and alternate routes to those who take the time to sniff them out. Scouring an area to find a carelessly unguarded safe code verged on being too familiar, but either way it's good to see that Arkane is trying to make another game world you can really chew on.
Click this video to watch me and Aoife pick our way through the game's first hour but be warned, there are story spoilers ahead.
Once we'd completed the demo and were left to roam around for a little while longer, we were surprised and delighted to discover that Prey also features a foam dart crossbow. While the huntress boltcaster does no damage to enemies, as you might expect, it is useful for providing a distraction and sneaking past foes, as well as generally tooling around.
All in all, I think there's a good deal to be excited about with Prey - assuming you aren't too squeamish about stabbing giant needles into your eyes, that is. If you have any observations or thoughts of your own on what you've seen, feel free to share them in the comments below.