To put it lightly, it's been a rough week in the world of Xbox and gaming. Microsoft closed three Xbox Game Studios developers on Tuesday, including Hi-Fi Rush maker Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, half of Arkane Studios that worked on Dishonored and created both Prey and Redfall. Redfall, a multiplayer open-world co-op shooter, was a critical and commercial flop — one that many Austin developers reportedly didn't want to make, and even hoped Microsoft would cancel after it acquired ZeniMax in 2021 — but Prey stands out as a single player masterpiece from the studio, fondly looked back on as one of the best immersive sims of all time.
The shuttering of Arkane Austin is a devastating loss for the industry, and the developer will forever be remembered for the work of art it created with Prey despite how criminally underrated it was at launch. If you've never played it, you can get it and two other games on Steam for just $4.99 as part of a Fanatical Trinity Bundle deal right now (normally, it's $29.99). You can also get five games for $7.99 or seven for $9.99. Notably, two of the other games you can add to your bundle include Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, two of the best Fallout games.
Play Prey — I promise you'll love it
Like System Shock, BioShock, and Arkane's own Dishonored, Prey is an "immersive sim" — a game that puts player choice front and center, with non-linear worlds and many linked systems that allow you to approach and resolve quests or problems in numerous different ways. In short, it's a genre that handsomely rewards creativity and fosters emergent gameplay, and Prey does both better than any other immersive sim I've ever played.
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The game is set aboard Talos I, a colossal space station in orbit around Earth's moon in the near future. When terrifying aliens known as the Typhon capable of supernatural powers like energy manipulation and shapeshifting begin taking over the ship, you — one of Talos I's last survivors — must fight to survive using anything you can while searching for a way to save or escape the vessel. As you explore each of its sections, you'll find new tools and weapons to wield and gain special "neuromods," or upgrades that can enhance your natural abilities, give you advanced control over technology on the station, or even grant you the same unique powers being used by the Typhon.
With all of its different items, physics interactions, and its diverse array of neuromods, Prey's sandbox is varied and wonderful, and a joy to experiment with. Where one player might get past a security system by hacking into it and disabling it, another might use the game's famous GLOO Cannon to muck up automated defenses or build a pathway around them altogether. You may also find success by shapeshifting into a cup and rolling through a small opening, or by simply picking up a large prop and hurling it at whatever's in your way with superhuman strength. Almost every single puzzle or combat encounter in Prey has an ocean of different solutions like these, offering its players unrivaled levels of freedom.
Pair that incredible design with a charming stylized presentation, masterfully crafted atmosphere, and one of the cleverest stories in all of gaming, and Prey unquestionably cements itself as one of the best PC games of all time (it's on consoles, too, but isn't on sale on those platforms right now). Note that the edition of it you can choose in Fanatical's bundle doesn't include the excellent Prey: Mooncrash DLC, so make sure you pick that up on Steam (it's absolutely worth the $20 MSRP, though it occasionally goes on sale so keep that in mind).
As for the other games to get in your bundle, I strongly recommend both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, which we put in second and first place in our ranking of the Fallout games, respectively. I've also played and enjoyed the short-but-sweet Soulslike Mortal Shell, as well as the hilarious co-op physics puzzler Human Fall Flat.
