Prey

Mobile and PC/console/handheld games are several worlds apart. The biggest console game of the year, Halo 3, retails for $60. I’m not sure what the biggest mobile game has been, but you can be sure it retails for less than $20.

PC/console/handheld have an elaborate control setup, either built-in (handheld) or external. Mobile games use a number keypad that was designed not for gaming but for dialing and possibly texting.

PC/console/handheld games are played by every kind of gamer. Mobile games primarily reach an audience of casual and so-called “non” gamers. They do not reach the hardcore crowd. That’s why you don’t see Nintendo making cell phones. They know that the best way to reach new and existing gamers is to create a dedicated game machine.

 
Prey Mobile

Cell phone users don’t care. They don’t anticipate the release of new games – they only go looking for them when they’re bored and want something to play. If they expect anything, it’s that the games will be simple, colorful, and offer gameplay that’s very straightforward. They also want the ability to leave the game at any time without feeling obligated to “save” first.

Thus, we – the hardcore gamers – don’t think that Halo, the most mainstream FPS, will appear on a Nokia device anytime in the near future. A scaled-down version, maybe. But not the main game. And we never expect to see a hardcore gamers’ game – something only we would be familiar with – on a mobile phone. But as we all know, there is a first time fore everything. Enter the release of Prey, an unlikely game for an unlikely platform.

 
This formation is doing its best Han Solo impersonation.

Prey is not the kind of game that the average cell user will play, leaving the hardcore crowd as its primary market, a group of gamers who get their on-the-go fix from PSP and Nintendo DS. That poses a problem for the mobile version. It certainly looks the part. The screenshots are eye-catching with rich textures, diverse environments, and a true FPS view.

The gameplay, however, is not much like Prey, or any other FPS you may have played in the last 10 years. Remember Doom for the 32X? Prey mobile looks better but runs slower because the hardware (a cell phone) just isn’t powerful enough. The controls are acceptable considering you don’t have a controller or mouse and keyboard support. Use either the arrow buttons or the number keys to strafe, move, and attack. You can also tilt the camera up to look around.

Prey is a step forward, and I hope to see more of this in the future (with a frame rate we can stomach). But unless game developers can push cell phone manufacturers into producing better devices, they won’t have a prayer in advancing mobile-game content.

Gameplay: 5.0
The effort is noteworthy and important to mobile game development. Console, PC and handheld first-person shooters didn’t get good overnight. They achieved “Halo” and “Call of Duty” status over time – a very long time. Unfortunately, that means it’s going to be years before cell phones are powerful enough to produce a comparable experience.

Graphics: 8.0
Prey looks great when it’s not moving. If you can ignore the frame rate, it still looks pretty good – much more advanced than anything else a mobile game has produced.

Sound: 3.0
No better than any other mobile game.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
The hardest part is working the controls and enduring the frame rate. The game itself is very easy.

Concept: 6.5
No brilliant ideas in this port.

Overall: 5.0
Prey won’t lure gamers away from their handheld game devices, but it is an ambitious step ahead of the pack. The graphics are like nothing you’ve seen before on a phone. But the frame rate is too slow to produce enjoyable gameplay.