Prey Demo

I downloaded the new Prey demo on XBL last night and fired it up. For the
amount of time that I've played both of these games, take me calling Prey
"Half-life meets Geist" with a grain of salt.

What happens to me when I play a game involving anything with native
Americans is that I'm so open to any content you throw into this untapped
game character pool, that being whisked out of an Indian reservation bar
by beams of light will definetly make me finish the demo. Having not heard
a word about what the game was about, it was, to say the least, the last
thing I expected.

I was perfectly content turning on and off the lights and flushing the
urinals in the bathroom. I thought talking to myself in a mirror and
making mental notes to myself as I walk down the hallway was genuine
enough, though a weird way to introduce a player to his current lifestyle
(i.e. "I think she needs to order more tequila" as a way to tell you your
in a bar).

When my character watched his grandfather be pulverized by some human
juice sucking machine and then walk up a wall onto the ceiling in a huge
spaceship, Nicole had had enough. Her stomach couldn't handle all that
along with the skinless dog like creatures and fresh meat conduits running
throughout the ship. I, on the other hand, was drawn into the details of
the graphics. Veins and all.

I didn't quite know what to think of the spirit side of the gameplay.
Leaving my body to walk through a force field and fire spirit arrows was
borderline gimmicky. I almost needed the character to continue to freak
out about his new powers a little more once he was put back on the ship,
post imminent death, to save his girlfriend. He would be such a pussy one
minute and then pick up a new, bigger gun and remember he was ex-military
the next. The weapons were cool. All three of them that I saw. I mean,
when you pick up a three legged creature and tear it's legs off to
activate the explosive insides, you tend to smirk a little.

The controls were nice enough. Left and right triggers fired primary and
secondary shots and the bumpers switched weapons. I was never able to map
weapons to the d-pad in the demo though. Jumping and crouching and
activating were pretty standard. Sometimes it would take just a little
longer than you'd expect for the animations to put your gun down and bring
your other hand up to tell you that you could, indeed, touch "that". When
your being shot at by upside down enemies on the ceiling, milliseconds are
your friend.

I would like to see more of the game, but I know that it's going to come
out for like $60 when it is most likely a $45 game. With my current trend
in gameplay time, a subscription to GameFly sounds better and better every
week.