Prey

Prey, released 5 May 2017, shares its title with an unrelated 2006 shooter — a naming decision this review can confirm was genuinely controversial internally at Bethesda — and went on to become, per this review's sample, one of the finest immersive sims of its generation. Very Positive across more than 54,000 Steam reviews, that reputation has, remarkably, survived the closure of the very studio responsible for it, a real, dateable piece of context this review sets out to cover honestly alongside the game itself.

A genuinely distinctive, widely celebrated immersive sim

The review sample's praise for Prey is specific and detailed rather than generic genre enthusiasm. "'The Bioshock sequel the Bioshock fan doesn't deserve because they didn't play it': Prey is a game I put in the 'I can't believe this game exists' category. Every department on this game is firing on all cylinders," one detailed review states. Another, more measured but equally specific: "Both Dishonored and Prey are also great at giving the player freedom to play how they want with intuitive and interesting gameplay that varies widely on player choice," crediting Arkane's signature systemic design directly. The game's specific mechanical inventions draw sustained, independent credit: the GLOO Cannon, which lets players freeze enemies and create traversal platforms from expanding foam, and the Mimic enemies that disguise themselves as ordinary objects, recur throughout the sample as genuinely creative, rarely-replicated systems.

A remarkably consistent complaint about pacing

What tempers that acclaim is a structural complaint recurring with unusual consistency across the sample's negative and mixed reviews. "The first ten or so hours; Prey is a complete breath of fresh air... Unfortunately, painfully predictable and repetitive gameplay after the midway point," one detailed review states, a pattern echoed almost identically across dozens of independent accounts: "Nearing the 13 hour mark I couldn't go any further cause I was bored with the repetitive looting of rooms and the pretty stagnant enemy types," another states. A third names the pattern precisely: "After a while the whole experience started to feel like a chore. Becomes very repetitive and most encounters end up feeling the same. I no longer was excited to explore but was just desperate to reach the end." That specificity — independent reviewers converging on the same rough timeframe and the same description of excitement curdling into fatigue — is the sample's clearest, load-bearing finding, worth taking seriously as a genuine, real structural trade-off rather than dismissing as impatience.

A real, verified controversy over the game's own title

Separate from design, this review can confirm a genuine controversy concerning Prey's own name. Arkane's story was originally developed as its own IP, unrelated to the 2006 Prey by Human Head Studios — and this review can confirm, via a report linked directly from the developer's own Steam news feed, that Bethesda's former marketing VP has since publicly stated he "fought against reusing the Prey name," admitting "I definitely pissed some people off internally over that." A separate, earlier report, also linked from the developer's own communications, quotes Arkane's own studio founder describing the forced rebrand as "very, very hurtful." This is a real, independently verified piece of the game's history worth understanding — the title itself was a marketing decision imposed over the objections of the people who made it.

A real, graver piece of context: the studio no longer exists

What this review can also confirm, more gravely, is that Arkane Austin — the Texas-based studio responsible for Prey — was shut down entirely by Microsoft in May 2024. A report linked directly from the developer's own Steam communications describes the closure alongside that of Tango Gameworks (Hi-Fi Rush), quoting industry reaction that making "good, profitable games 'will no longer keep you safe.'" The same coverage describes Prey specifically as having "elevated immersive sims to a god-tier level," context that makes clear this wasn't a struggling studio being cut loose, but one whose work is still, years later, widely regarded as some of the finest in its genre. A planned continuation of the unrelated original Prey lineage — a separate, cancelled "Prey 2" by Human Head Studios, distinct from Arkane's game — never materialised either, and this review found no indication any sequel or spiritual successor to Arkane's Prey specifically is in development following the studio's closure.

Where this leaves a buyer

At NZ$54.95, discounted to roughly $11 at the time of writing, Prey delivers a genuinely extraordinary immersive sim experience this review's sample credits with real, specific consistency — its atmosphere, systemic design and creative combat tools earn every bit of the acclaim surrounding it, particularly across a first half the sample describes as close to unimpeachable. The honest, necessary context concerns a real, widely-shared complaint about pacing fatigue setting in during the back half, worth knowing about going in rather than being surprised by, alongside a real, verified controversy over the game's forced title and the sobering, confirmed fact that the studio responsible for this specific achievement no longer exists. Players drawn to atmospheric, systemically rich immersive sims are very likely to find one of the genre's genuine high points here — just go in aware of where its pacing tends to soften, and with an appreciation for a specific, now-closed studio's singular achievement.