Arkane Studios and Bethesda released a new trailer for the reboot of Prey, this time featuring the female version of Morgan Yu, the alternate female protagonist for the horror first-person shooter. It’s an alternate version of the original trailer, showing that they’re giving gamers an option in the upcoming shooter.
This tactic from some studios to spend extra funds on voice acting, modelers, artists and writing to give feminist critics an extra play option is proving to be very interesting. Things didn’t quite turn out so well for Ubisoft with Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, costing them quite a bit compared to previous entries in the series… so we’ll see how things fare for Arkane with Prey.
The trailer is just under a minute and is identical to the previous promotional trailer, only this time the voice is softer and the hands are smaller – not as small as Donald Trump’s hands, though.
The comments under the trailer are typically what you would find from people who were unaware of the game offered the option to play as a female. Some of the comments joke about not being able to play as an attack helicopter, while others decry the industry’s kowtowing to third-wave feminism. Some have defended Arkane for the choice, saying it broadens the options in gameplay while a few more have said that Bethesda have always gone with giving gamers options when it comes to many of the games that they publish.
Some gamers weren’t so much worried about the feminism aspect but more-so concerned with the gameplay divergence from the sci-fi bounty hunter rendition of Prey 2 that Human Head Studios had been working on for years. Even though that version of the game was way too big for seventh gen consoles, some gamers hoped it would make a return for the PS4 and Xbox One… but given the eighth-gen twins’ low-end specs and their struggling ability to even hit 1080p at 60fps, it makes it difficult to see either of the two handling Human Head’s vision without serious technical struggles.
Anyway, we’ll have to wait for more info and gameplay footage to see how this upcoming Prey reboot will do and if Arkane will be able to capture the attention of gamers the way Human Head did with their CG trailer from back in 2011.
Right now I haven’t seen enough of this new game to make any judgment calls one way or another. The Prey reboot is due for release in 2017 for the PS4, Xbox One and PC.