'Prey' is video games' latest sci-fi epic

It may share the same name, but the video game Prey has little in common with its 2006 predecessor.

Publisher Bethesda Softworks has just launched Prey, a science-fiction epic carrying the brand the video game publisher's parent company, ZeniMax Media, acquired nearly eight years ago.

The original Prey, which publisher 2K Games launched in 2006, starred Native American protagonist Tommy, who embarks on a quest to stop aliens from destroying Earth after he's abducted along with his girlfriend and his grandfather. Players explored a spaceship with living flesh-like interiors and warp holes used to navigate.

The 2017 Prey for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One features Morgan Yu, a participant in experiments done aboard the space station Talos I. One of the experiments goes horribly wrong, with Yu waking up aboard the space station, which has been overrun by mysterious aliens.

“You have no memory of how you got on the space station,” said Ricardo Bare, lead designer on Prey, in an interview with Paste BN. “You don't understand the purpose of the experiments or why the aliens are trying to kill you, so you've got to quickly figure this stuff out.”

ZeniMax scooped up the rights to the original Prey in 2009. Two years later, Bethesda revealed it was planning to release a sequel to Prey in 2012, with the makers of the first game, Human Head Studios, on board.

However, in an interview with CNet in 2014, Bethesda confirmed it was dropping the project. “It wasn't up to our quality standard and we decided to cancel it,” said Pete Hines, Bethesda's vice president of marketing, in the interview.

The reincarnated Prey was developed by Arkane Studios, which crafted the award-winning franchise Dishonored.

“We were working on the game before we even knew what it would be called,” said Bare, adding Bethesda approached the studio about using the name to determine whether it was a good fit.

Prey features some similarities to Dishonored, such as the ability to complete objectives in any manner players choose using a combination of physical weapons and super powers. Prey is described by Arkane as an "open space station game," so although players remain within the confines of the space station, there are multiple paths, sometimes hidden, players can choose to explore and navigate.

Bare says the development team was influenced by games such as Deus Ex and BioShock, as well as classic science fiction ranging from Aliens to Solaris. But Prey also draws inspiration from what's happening in the real world.

“A lot of the ideas in the game spring from actual scientific discoveries that are happening right now that are really exciting, and actual history of things like NASA and the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union,” he said.

Prey shares some “high-level themes” in common with the 2006 game, such as its sci-fi setting and first-person perspective, says Bare, but follows in the footsteps of Arkane's other works. “We spend a lot of time going really deep into our world building, our history, to create a very coherent living breathing space for players to inhabit.”

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.