by 3D Realms

Learning from their success with Duke Nukem 3D, Prey will feature a identifiable character like Duke. Unlike Duke, however, is that this game is going to be 100% serious science fiction. You are Talon Brave, an American Indian that has stumbled into a battle between three alien races and is unwillingly sucked into an epic science fiction adventure. Now, you face the task of trying to stay alive while all three of the alien races turn their attention towards you.

Prey, however, will NOT be using the Quake engine. The 3D Realms development team is implementing a 3D engine called Portal Technology. Without getting too technical, all 3D first-person's you have played up until this point (from Doom to Quake) have used a technology called a "BSP Tree." This BSP Tree is used to determine the geometry of the game (what the player can and cannot see) and, until recently, has always been the standard for making 3D first-person games. Obviously, since it has been the standard for a number of years BSP tree's do the job quite well, but they have always had a few disadvantages. For example, because BSP tree's precalculate the player's entire environment, that environment cannot be dramatically changed. With Portal technology, it doesn't precalculate the entire environment and so you can change the environment as much as want, whenever you want.

By using "portals" you can look into another world, another level, or whatever the game wishes you to see. And the benefit of these portals doesn't end there, portals are generated dynamically (meaning they can pop up anywhere, at any time) which should definitely add a new dimension to gameplay. Along with the impressive Portal technology, Prey also features: shadow casting, 16-bit colored lighting, as well as, 16-bit texture art, an advanced kinematic character animation system, and they didn't forget TCP/IP Internet, LAN & modem play.

Unfortunately, with the use of all these technologies and graphical effects, Prey will be a major system hog. In fact, your system must be equipped with a 3D accelerator (like 3DFX or Riva TNT) to even be able to play Prey. Add the fact that Prey is going to be a Windows95 or Win98 only game and your hardware better be up to the task.

For those that do have the hardware to support it, though, Prey will also come with Preditor, a 3D level editor for Prey. 3D Realms is not schelduling an exact release date for the game saying "When it's done", but when it finally does hit the shelves you can bet that this "Son of Quake" that isn't will give the real "Sons of Quake" some competition.

Prey
by 3D Realms
RELEASE DATE: "When It's Done."

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