Past Mortem – Prey

Modern game design has been changed in many ways by Portal’s release in 2007. Not only have first-person puzzles games such as Antichamber and The Talos Principle become a genre of their own, the game has influenced many others with its physics-based gameplay. It’s safe to say that these days, we’re thinking with portals. However, Portal wasn’t the first game to feature its namesake as a problem-solving mechanic. A much bigger game came out a year earlier that made use of similar features. Prey was released in 2006 to a rather positive reception and yet, the game barely seems to have made an impact on the industry as whole. There are a number of reasons why this might be the case, including the famously protracted development that surrounded the game. Prey had been trying to implement portals into gaming since it was first announced in 1995. During that 11 year development cycle, the team behind Prey faced numerous challenges in bringing the game to market.