Introduction

Prey is Arkane Studios' new single-player shooter that borrows elements from System Shock and Bioshock without being too much like the original Prey series, which was more shooter oriented. The game is rather action/adventure focused, with slight RPG elements and most fights happening at close range. Prey 2017 doesn't take any of the original's IP into account and just picks up the series name; it has its own sci-fi setting.

You are Morgan Yu, who's trapped on a space station ran by the infamous TranStar Corporation, where secret experiments are conducted. Of course these experiments go wrong, and suddenly, you are stuck on the station with a bunch of aliens that want to eat you. The plot does get better, trust me.

Unike their previous title (Dishonored 2), which used Void engine (based on id's Rage engine), Arkane Studios has opted for Crytek's CryEngine, using a DirectX 11 render path. Reason for the two different engines seems to be that one game was developed by Arkane's Lyon division and the other by the Austin TX division.

Instead of going for a photo-realistic approach, the art style is similar to Bioshock, slightly cartoonish as the following screenshots show.

Screenshots

All screenshots below were taken using the (highest available) Very High Preset at 2560x1600.

Graphics Settings

Prey only has few settings, which is slightly uncommon for Cry Engine games. On the first screen, the usual monitor options are included, and there is an option to turn off V-Sync, which still keeps a hidden FPS cap of 144 FPS activated.

Available graphics setting profiles are: Low, Medium, High, and Very High.



You can make more detailed changes on the second screen. Selectable anti-aliasing modes are: off, FXAA, SMAA 1X, SMAA 1TX, and SMAA 2TX.

Overall, the settings are sort of limited; what I really, really miss is an FOV slider!