Key Takeaways
- Prey turns 20 on July 11, and it beat Portal to gravity bending, portal hopping level design by a full year.
- Human Head Studios spent eleven years getting the game out after 3D Realms sat on it, and it still sold over a million copies in its first two months.
- It’s not the 2017 Arkane game with the same name. It’s a different, weirder, criminally underrated shooter, and it’s still playable today on Steam and GOG.
A Decade in Development Hell
Prey turns 20 this Saturday, July 11, and I need to talk about it because this game gets buried under its own confusing history. Not the 2017 reboot from Arkane, different game, same name, we’ll get to that mess of a naming decision another day. I mean the original Prey from Human Head Studios, published by 2K Games in 2006.
This thing was in development since 1995. Eleven years from first pitch to store shelves. 3D Realms owned the concept for most of that time and famously could not ship anything on schedule, see also Duke Nukem Forever. In 2001 they finally handed the reins to Human Head, a studio full of former Raven Software developers, and five years later it actually came out. I remember the vaporware jokes going around back then. Then it dropped and people were kind of stunned it was actually good.
The Portal Trick Nobody Remembers
Here’s the part that gets me every time I think about this game. Prey came out in July 2006. Portal came out in October 2007. A full year before Valve made “portal” a household gaming term, Human Head built an entire shooter around walking through portals mid firefight and flipping gravity on walls and ceilings like it was nothing. They ran it on a heavily modified id Tech 4 engine and it worked, no loading screens, no seams, just walk through a hole in the wall and now you’re upside down shooting aliens.
You played as Domasi “Tommy” Tawodi, a Cherokee mechanic pulled onto an alien ship called the Sphere along with his whole reservation. The Native American mythology angle wasn’t a gimmick either, it was baked into the mechanics, with a spirit walk ability that let you leave your body to solve puzzles. Genuinely different from every other space marine shooter on shelves that year.
Why It Still Holds Up
I fired this back up recently and the gravity puzzles still mess with your head in a good way. It sold over a million copies in its first two months, a real result for a game nobody expected to actually ship. And then it just kind of got forgotten. No sequel worth mentioning, the studio’s follow up plans fell apart, and by the time Arkane’s Prey showed up in 2017 with zero story connection, the original got buried under its own name.
That’s a shame, because this thing was pulling off tricks in 2006 that plenty of full price shooters still won’t attempt. If you’ve never played it, it’s sitting on Steam and GOG right now for less than a fast food combo meal. The intro alone is worth it. Still might be the best hook in an FPS from that entire console generation.
If you’re into games that got it right before the industry caught up, I broke down why Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is the remake I didn’t know I needed a few weeks ago. Same energy: old game, new respect.
Twenty years on, Prey deserves better than being the answer to a trivia question about name collisions. It was ambitious when ambition in this genre mostly meant a bigger gun. Go play it. You’ll wonder why more shooters didn’t steal from it.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Prey (2006) release?
July 11, 2006, published by 2K Games and developed by Human Head Studios.
Is Prey (2006) related to the 2017 Prey?
No. Arkane’s 2017 Prey shares only the name. The two games are completely unconnected.
What made Prey innovative for its time?
Seamless portals and variable gravity built on a modified id Tech 4 engine, a full year before Portal popularized the idea.
Can I still play Prey (2006) today?
Yes, it’s available on Steam and GOG.
Who was the main character in Prey?
Domasi “Tommy” Tawodi, a Cherokee mechanic abducted onto an alien ship called the Sphere.
