Prey is a criminally underrated game.

So good, I bought it twice.

A long, long time ago there was a company called 3d Realms. Well, they were around until a few years ago, at least. They were a game company out of Texas that made a little game called Duke Nukem 3d back in the mid-90's. Even though that game was amazing, and probably one of my favorite games of all the times combined into one time; 3d Realms will be known as the studio who took 15 years to develop and release a highly anticipated sequel that truly sucked huge donkey dong. But don't fret too soon, 3d Realms had another title that sat in development hell and it turned out to be quite good, actually.

Prey was originally slated to release in the late 90's, after Duke Nukem Forever (yes, really). It was partially developed before being scrapped and shelved, primarily due to technical difficulties. After a few years the game was totally rebooted by Human Head Studios, and finally released on PC and Xbox 360 in 2006. That is glossing over quite a bit of the game's history, but that's the general idea.

The game puts you in the shoes of a guy named Tommy, who is a Native American who has a girlfriend that is a bar tender. Long story short, you end up getting abducted by aliens and you have to fight your way out. Oh yeah, and your grandfather is there, too.

That's your grandfather. He's old.

Prey had very interesting gameplay mechanics, one of which being the weird gravity while on the alien vessel. You can walk up to a wall...and then walk up it. It's really sweet, actually. You also gain a spirit form to do certain tasks, and when you die you enter a spirit state where you shoot these soul bats to refill your life and energy. The biggest part of the game was the portal technology, which paved the way for the more renowned Portal in the coming years.

I don't really want to get into the nitty gritty about how the game plays, and if it sucks or not. I'll just tell you it's great and it's 100% worth playing. It's fun pretty much throughout, and there are some really cool moments during the game, as well. For the time, the game was pretty much cutting edge and I'm fairly sure most will scoff at it's visuals six years later. Either way, this game is probably $5 these days and worth at least 10 times that amount in my eyes.

There are some pretty ridiculous moments in the game, and ones I don't want to spoil, either. The one thing I will share with you is my affection for the ending credits in this game. At the very end of the game, you hear the song "Take Me Home" by the After Midnight Project, which is a pretty much no-name band from California. This song on it's own really isn't that special, but I 100% guarantee you this will become one of your most memorable video game moments when you finally beat this game and the end credits roll and this song starts playing. If you don't shed at least a single tear, you are a fucking terrorist from the Moon. I've shared this experience with two other people, and they both know what the fuck is up.

I'm telling you, this song at the end of the game. It's perfect.

I really think if you haven't played this game, you owe it to yourself to play it. It's not too terribly long, but it's slam packed with crunk ass shit. You fight ghost babies at one point. GHOST BABIES. That shit is horrifying, too. So heads up when that happens.