2017 video game
Prey is a 2017 first-person shooter immersive sim video game developed by Arkane Austin and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on May 5, 2017.
"Prey" takes place in an alternate timeline in which an accelerated Space Race resulted in mankind taking to orbital stations far earlier. The player controls Morgan Yu while exploring the space station "Talos I", in orbit around Earth–Moon L2, where they were part of a scientific team researching the Typhon, a hostile alien force composed of many forms with both physical and psychic powers, such as shapeshifting into a clone of any inanimate object. As the Typhon escape confinement, the player uses a variety of weapons and abilities, some of which are derived from the Typhon themselves, to survive while progressing to end the alien outbreak on the station and ultimately escape. The player gradually gains access to areas of "Talos I" through linear mission progression - acquiring key items and abilities along the way - eventually allowing the player to explore the station in an open world setting. The game combines elements of first-person shooters, role-playing video games, stealth games, and Metroidvanias in its design.
Arkane's "Prey" is largely unrelated to the 2006 game "Prey" developed by Human Head Studios. While "Prey 2", a sequel to the 2006 game, had been planned by Human Head, it fell into development hell following the transfer of the intellectual property from 3D Realms to Bethesda Softworks, and was eventually canceled in 2014. Arkane's game does not use any of the planned sequel's assets and only incorporates the previous game's name and the broad theme of the protagonist being hunted by aliens. Arkane built "Prey" as a spiritual successor to "System Shock", giving players multiple avenues to approach and tackle missions while considering the "Talos I" station a thematic reinterpretation of the underground dungeon from their debut game, "Arx Fatalis".
"Prey" received positive reviews from critics and is considered one of the best games of 2017 by several gaming magazines and websites. Two expansions were released: "Mooncrash", a procedurally-generated mode inspired by various roguelike games, and a multiplayer "Typhon Hunter" that incorporates the Typhon shapeshifting abilities in a hide-and-seek style game. Retrospectively, the game has been recognized by several gaming publications as one of the best immersive sims released to date.
Gameplay.
"Prey" is a first-person shooter immersive sim with role-playing and stealth elements set in an open world environment. The player takes the role of Morgan Yu, a human aboard a space station overrun by the Typhon, a hostile alien race with various differing subspecies. In a play through, Players can customize Morgan’s attributes, such as gender, and make choices that may, or may not, ultimately influence the story. To survive, the player must collect and use weapons, tools, and resources aboard the station to fend off and defeat the Typhon threat. For example, "Recycler Charges" can be used to break down almost any object into raw materials, which can then be repurposed using the game's crafting system. The game also features a variation of the skill tree system, enabling players to tailor their playstyle to suit their preferences. In the game, skill points are obtained through an item called a Neuromod. These items can be discovered in the game world and, later on, crafted by the player. Neuromods enable the player to unlock a range of abilities like hacking and repairing. 
According to creative director Raphaël Colantonio, the station setting of "Talos I" is completely continuous rather than having separate levels or missions, at times requiring the player to return to areas they previously explored. Lacking a conventional fast travel system, the player can instead venture outside "Talos I" into space and find shortcuts connecting parts of the station. Colantonio stated that the Typhon aliens have an array of different physical and psychic powers that the player character can gain over time; one such alien, for example, can shapeshift into everyday items, such as a chair or coffee mug. The player can acquire the aliens' abilities by using a device called a psychoscope, which is found through mission progression.
"Prey" has multiple endings, according to lead designer Ricardo Bare; the endings fall into three major narrative structures depending on how the player broadly interacted with the station and surviving humans, but Bare said there are "tons of little permutations" based on specific events.
"Mooncrash" expansion.
The "Mooncrash" expansion, released in June 2018, is a separate game mode built atop the setting and gameplay of the base "Prey" game. It is a roguelike experience in which, while the levels of the expansion remain the same, the placement of enemies, weapons, and other items are randomized on each playthrough.
Narratively, the player takes the role of Peter, a hacker aboard a satellite orbiting the Moon, forced by his employer the Kasma Corporation to figure out what happened at the Pytheas Moonbase. Peter does this by running through simulations, in which he takes the place of one of five known survivors of the attack. The player must figure out how each of the five survived through the five various escape routes. This is presented by leading one character through the station, fighting off the Typhon, collecting equipment, hacking terminals, and other actions. If the player can lead that character to safety, they then must lead the other characters, one at a time, through the same game world to find a different escape point, with all of the changes from the previous characters still in place. Players may reset the simulation, randomizing the world elements and effectively starting a new run. However, the player gains points that they can use within the simulation to improve how any of the characters start, such as with better weapons or additional health packs, and they can permanently unlock skills for each character within future simulation runs by collecting certain objects.
"Typhon Hunter" expansion.
The "Typhon Hunter" expansion contains two game modes. One is designed as a single-player virtual reality experience known as Transtar VR, challenging the player to various escape room scenarios aboard the "Talos I" station. The second is an asymmetrical multiplayer mode for up to six players. One plays as Morgan while the others are Mimic Typhons, which can disguise themselves as nearly any object within the environment. The player as Morgan is challenged to find and kill all the other players within a limited amount of time, while the Mimic players can rearrange items in rooms, disguise themselves, and when the Morgan player is close, jump out and attack them before seeking another hiding place.
Plot.
Setting.
"Prey" takes place in an alternate timeline where in 1958 the Soviet Union encounters a species of eusocial aliens, called the Typhon, aboard their satellite "Vorona 1". The Soviet Union works together with the United States to fight off and capture the aliens, unbeknownst to the general population. Together, they build the space station "Kletka" to be used as a prison for the Typhon situated in orbit around the Moon. After a failed assassination attempt on United States President John F. Kennedy, the United States wrests full control of the "Kletka" satellite from the Soviet Union. Research of the Typhon continues under the name "Project Axiom". After the "Pobeg Incident" in 1980 where some scientists aboard the station lost their lives to the Typhon, the American government shutters Project Axiom, leaving the captive Typhon alive.
By 2025, the newly founded TranStar Corporation acquires "Kletka" and by 2030, has refitted it as "Talos I", a fully operational research laboratory to study the Typhon and develop advances in neuroscience; this leads to the creation of neuromods that harness the Typhon's physiology to restructure the human brain to grant the user new abilities, including superhuman ones. TranStar grows financially successful from sales of neuromods on Earth. At the time of the setting, about 2035, TranStar has further expanded the station to make for suitable living quarters for its staff that spend up to two years on the station between regular shuttles to Earth.
Because of the numerous agencies that operated and expanded "Talos I" over the decades, the station includes a large mix of architectural designs, ranging from retrofuturism that was popular in 1960s America, to brutalist styles that were common in the Soviet Bloc in the mid-20th century, to opulent Art Deco put in place by the wealthy TranStar executives.
Synopsis.
In March 2032, Morgan Yu (male voiced by Tim Kang, female voiced by Sumalee Montano) is recruited by their brother Alex (Benedict Wong) to join TranStar's research team on "Talos I". Before leaving for the station, Morgan takes a series of tests including the Trolley problem and the Rorschach test. One of the supervising doctors is attacked by a Typhon during the testing process, and Morgan is knocked out. Morgan wakes up in their apartment and finds that it is a simulated environment. It is 2035 and Morgan has been living on "Talos I" for three years. Morgan is contacted by January (voiced by Kang or Montano, depending on the player's chosen gender), an Operator artificial intelligence that claims to have been built by Morgan. January warns Morgan that the Typhon have broken containment and taken over the station, killing the majority of the crew. It reveals to Morgan that they had been testing neuromods for the past three years, with Morgan continually adding and removing them. While these neuromods allow for instantaneous learning of complex skills and abilities, a side effect of removing a neuromod is that the user loses all memories gained after installation of that neuromod, explaining Morgan's memory loss. January claims that Morgan built it to help destroy "Talos I", taking the Typhon and all of its research with it. Alex contacts Morgan and suggests instead building a special Nullwave device that will destroy the Typhon but leave the station intact, citing how their research is too valuable to lose.
Morgan travels through the station and encounters other survivors, with a choice of whether to help them or not. Alex tasks Morgan with scanning the Typhon "Coral" growing around the station and discovers that the Typhon are building some sort of neural network. Their attempts to study the neural network are interrupted when the TranStar Board of Directors learns of the containment breach and sends a cleanup crew to eliminate both the Typhon and any surviving station crew. After the cleanup crew is dealt with, Alex further analyzes the data and concludes that the Typhon are sending a signal into deep space to summon something. A gargantuan Typhon called the Apex appears and begins to devour "Talos I". Morgan is given the choice of to activate the station's self-destruct sequence or build the Nullwave device to defeat the Typhon.
If Morgan chooses to activate the Nullwave device, all of the Typhon on "Talos I" are destroyed and the station is left intact. If Morgan chooses to activate the self-destruct, the entire station explodes, destroying all of the Typhon with it. Morgan either finds a way to escape the station or is stranded and dies in the explosion, based on earlier choices in the game.
In a post-credits scene, Morgan wakes up in a lab and learns that it is not the real Morgan, but instead, a captured Typhon implanted with Morgan's memories in an effort to teach it human emotions and empathy. The Typhon have invaded Earth; Alex and his Operator assistants judge "Morgan" based on the choices it made throughout the game. If "Morgan" failed to show human empathy, Alex destroys it and starts the experiment over. If "Morgan" did show human empathy, Alex lets it go, whereupon it can choose to accept his offer to bring peace between the Typhon and humanity or kill him.
"Mooncrash".
In 2036, Peter is stationed in a remote satellite orbiting the Moon and is forced under contract by the Kasma Corporation, a rival to TranStar, to undergo numerous simulations reliving a Typhon outbreak on Transtar's Pytheas Moon Base. As he completes his assigned tasks, his handler Basilisk warns him that Kasma will betray him once his mission is complete and helps him make preparations to escape. When Peter fulfills his contract, Kasma congratulates him but claims that due to tight budgets, they cannot retrieve him from the satellite and shut off its life support. With help from Basilisk, Peter overrides the satellite's