The story behind Prey is an interesting one that's been kicked around the industry for some time. The game was actually conceived way back in 1997, back when the first-person shooting genre was still sprouting its legs, and the game boasted many ambitious ideas and a storyline that seemed to have more weight and scope than any of its competition. But a year later, the game development was shelved, and the team moved on to bigger and better projects, and many wondered if it would ever see the light of day. Sometimes game projects just get that way, you know. However, Prey soon found itself luckily picked up by 2K Games, who assigned the team of Human Head Studios and the Quake 4 engine to bring its vast ideas to be on the next-gen front. And now, nearly ten years after its conception, the final result has hit store shelves. So, was it worth it?

Well, mostly yes. I say mostly because it manages to come up short in one nagging area that will probably prevent some of its replayability. But we'll get to that shortly. The story of Prey revolves around a young Cherokee named Tommy, who's sick of life on his reservation. He feels that the whole Indian spiritual thing is nothing but a bunch of bullshit and wants nothing more than to leave with his girlfriend, Jen. A man he calls "Grandfather" insists that the spirits have something in mind for Tommy, but he brushes him off. After an argument with Jen over their fate and the beating of a couple of drunks who try to get fresh with her, he finds the local bar suddenly invaded with alien craft and soldiers. Tommy, Jen, and "Grandfather" find themselves captured and whisking their way through a massive alien vessel, wondering what's going on. Suddenly, a strange figure manages to free Tommy, and the game unfolds from there, with this lone man going up against devasating forces as he attempts to rescue the woman he loves. Oh, yeah, and Earth, too.

Along the way, Tommy makes some strange discoveries that help twist the gameplay around a little bit. For instance, gravity is no object here, as Tommy can make his way along lighted walkways that twist and turn all over the walls and ceilings, which can probably get a little disorienting at first but soon becomes a nice twist on the genre. Tommy also discovers multiple portals, some easily lighted and some not so obvious, that whisk him to different locations on the ship, so he can make his way around if a door doesn't quite open for him like he expects.

But things get really interesting the first time Tommy bites it on a walkway. "Grandfather" reappears and notifies Tommy about the Spirit Walk, a maneuver that allows him to temporarily leave his body and "spirit walk" through barriers and some walls to activate switches and panels that will help him get ahead. In this Spirit Walk mode, Tommy can also use a limited weapon called the Spirit Bow, which allows him to shoot at enemies with arrows and fire away at markers on the floor that help him shift his gravitational state to another wall, so he can move that much closer past an object or to a portal.

Along with spirtual powers, Tommy also picks up rather easy on weapons. He starts out with a lowly wrench but soon gains access to a number of cool weapons, such as a mini-gun with glowing bullets, a gun that fires mist that forces enemies to freeze into blocks of ice, and, my personal favorite, little bugs that act as living, breathing grenades. As Tommy continues on his journey, he runs into even cooler weapons, but I'll leave that to your discovery.

The game does have some excellent level design going for it that requires you to think at times. What you might think is a straight-ahead path from point A to point B can sometimes twist around to point C or even point X, requiring you to Spirit Walk in an area to activate a switch. You'll want to keep a close eye on your health and spiritual meters as well, as their energy can run out if you're ambushed. However, your death leads to an interesting situation, instead of a "Game Over" screen. More on this in a second.