Arkane’s sci-fi immersive sim was a shock to the system, for players and its developer alike

By Rick Lane

TIME EXTEND

On its release in 2017, Prey burned brightly but all too briefly. A wave of glowing reviews arrived late, thanks to Bethesda withholding code from journalists, and the game was burdened with a title that suggested it was a reboot of a not-very-wellknown title from a decade prior – a decision director Raphaël Colantonio recently said was forced upon the developer. However, two games released in 2023 have helped to push Arkane Austin’s science-fiction immersive sim back into the spotlight, albeit for very different reasons.

On the one hand there is System Shock, Nightdive’s faithful update to the Looking Glass original, to which Prey owes almost as great a debt as its remake. On the other, there is Redfall, a game that highlighted the imagination, innovation and finesse demonstrated by Arkane Austin in Prey – by their lack in its followup. Yet those qualities weren’t properly appreciated at the time of Prey’s release, and not merely with the wider audience it failed to find. Many accustomed to the hazy playspaces of immersive sims found it systemically obscure and slow to satisfy. This is because Prey might be the least compromising of all Arkane’s immersive sims, if not the entire genre.

It lacks the flashy violence of Dishonored, the cyberpunk allure of Deus Ex, the undersea fantasy of BioShock. The toolset it offers you is eclectic, ranging from a gun that shoots glue to the ability to turn into a cup, and a literal toy. Its story and themes are coldly intellectual, avoiding emotive drivers such as revenge or conspiracy. There are no crazed megalomaniacs or scenery-chewing AIs to be found here; those enemies you do face are vague and amorphous by design.