Prey

There are several scenarios for the potential contact of humanity with aliens. Loved by filmmakers and game developers, it is, of course, war. Aliens will turn out to be unfriendly or people, but one race will definitely destroy the other.

In some cases, peaceful coexistence is described. Races share technologies, empower each other and together, holding hands, set off into the bright future of conquering distant stars.

Prey describes the third option - exploitation. But who and by whom is a completely different question.

Don't expect anything good from space

2032. Several decades ago, President John F. Kennedy, who survived the assassination attempt, began to actively sponsor space programs. Thanks to this, humanity went into deep space quickly enough, began to explore nearby planets and just try to look at the world outside the solar system.

This attracted the typhon race - aliens who were interested in the affairs of humanity and looked to Earth. The USA and the USSR united and fought back the cruel aliens. And then they built a space station at all, in which they began to study the captured aliens.

After a while, this space station came first under the control of the United States, and then under the control of the private company TranStar. She also named the site "Talos-1". TranStar is trying to use the technologies squeezed from the typhon aliens for personal purposes, for example, to modify the physiology of earthlings so that people have new interesting abilities.

At some point, an employee of the Morgan Yu station wakes up - and finds that Talos-1 is practically destroyed. Eerie monsters roam the narrow corridors, the voices of two operators according to the emergency protocols December and January are heard in the communicator, and the typhons, as usual, strive to seize and destroy the Earth. Morgan is faced with an important task to save humanity - it is necessary to somehow stop the aliens.

Prey as an ode to transhumanism and a solution to the paradox of Theseus' ship

As mentioned above, TranStar's job was to take Typhon alien technology and use it to modify human technology. Therefore, people who took advantage of them acquired very special opportunities. For example, they became telepathic, could change their form (transform) and simply control the flow of energy.

All this can be done in Prey. The main character has the right to pump himself up with neuromods for the most "I don't want" and become a full-fledged superman, whom even Nietzsche would envy. However, in this case, the "paradox of Theseus' ship" comes into force.

"Theseus' ship paradox" is the main problem of transhumanism. So, the ancient Greek navigator Theseus lived for himself. On another journey, he went on a ship. But, as usual, the ship gradually began to deteriorate. I had to replace the boards, then the rudder, then the sails. And when he returned to his native Greece, none of the details of his galley were the same as those that were installed on him at the time of departure. Question - is this the same ship or is it a different one?

It's the same with transhumanism. How many modifications are required to permanently lose human nature? If the hero becomes a telepath, will he remain human?

Prey is not the first game to raise such questions. Before her, there was Deus Ex, and even Bioshock looked into this field with one foot. But it is in Prey that the protagonist's "transhumanism" influences the ending and plot.

How to play Prey in general

At the same time, Prey herself gradually pushes the player to use neuromods. There are few cartridges here, there are even fewer weapons, resources for crafting at the levels are "the cat cried", but there is definitely no shortage of opponents. So you have to use your special abilities, otherwise you won't.

Opponents are also diverse. It seems that the alien race is one, and the creatures in it are very, very different. Some disguise themselves as pieces of furniture and attack on the sly, others create their own astral counterparts and distract attention, others block the telekinetic abilities of the protagonist, others are simply invisible ... In general, you definitely won't get bored.

But Prey is not a pure shooter. Every now and then strange puzzles begin with attempts to start a reactor or find a tiny ventilation hatch. The world is closed, but non-linear, so after purchasing the next side quest, additional sections of the station or previously locked rooms become available.

A plaster cannon, for example, speaks of nonlinearity. With its help, you can not only immobilize enemies, but also plug holes in pipelines or build ladders to get into hard-to-reach places.