Chris Rhinehart: No, we definitely didn’t intend to go in and try to just tack on multiplayer for Prey 1. We spent a lot of time on the multiplayer mode there. There were game modes that had Wall Walk, where you could Spirit Walk, and there were strategies where you could use the two in gameplay. We played a lot of Prey 1 multiplayer when we were first developing it. Internally, there were constant battles. It was pretty awesome.
Chris Rhinehart: There’s kind of two entry points into the game. As to how he becomes a bounty hunter, that’s a bit of a mystery that’s revealed throughout the game. But one entry point at the very beginning sees Killian get abducted during the same invasion that took Tommy in the first Prey.
Killian finds himself in the same sphere as Tommy, but gets off in a completely different way. The second entry point takes place years after that incident, when Killian finds himself on Exodus and the story unfolds to reveal what he was up to during the years he was there and how he became a bounty hunter. It also explains what he and Tommy were up to together, and the larger events that occurred on Exodus.
But the thing we’ve been spending a lot of time on is making sure that the plot is very much a bounty hunter story. You’ll be tracking down characters throughout the game, and then there are throwaway characters that still add something to the proceedings.
Chris Rhinehart: My personal take on it is that it’s a tough line to walk on in this genre, because there’s a lot of different potential pitfalls. What you need is something that’s going to stand out in the market. Either from the high-concept, or visually, or gameplay-wise. But you also can’t do something that’s so crazy and out-there that people just don’t get it. Player expectations are so much higher in terms of quality and execution.
That’s a big reason why we’re excited about the bounty hunter idea, because we think it’s something that people can understand and latch onto. The gameplay that we’ve created in terms of combat is fast and fluid, but accessible at the same time. But despite the cool bounty hunter stuff, the gadgets and exploration, it’s a shooter at its very heart. So we spent a lot of time making sure those core mechanics really fun and rewarding.
The other big aspect to it as well, is to simply give the game longevity. Exploration, the open-world features and player choice all tie together... it’s almost like self-directed gameplay to a certain extent. If I want to go through the core narrative, the game gives me a very clear channel to do that. But if I get bored with that, and step away from it for a while, there are other things you can do. There are mini-games, collectibles to find, optional targets to hunt down.
Chris Rhinehart: It’s definitely more open-world than the previous title... the story is linear, the narrative is but a single story thread that you play through. But like I said, if you want to branch out and explore and find other side-quests, you can do that as well.
SPOnG: You mentioned Tommy features in the story of Prey 2. Can you elaborate on that at all?
Chris Rhinehart: It’s not something we can talk about quite yet. I can say it’s more than just a cameo - he doesn’t just show up once. He’s integral to the whole story.
Chris Rhinehart: I’ve got a lot of other ideas about stories that we can tell within the Prey universe. How those stories are going to be told - whether it’s through other media or future games - is still to be determined. But there are lots of ways in which we can explore the universe.
This is actually the first time I’ve mentioned this in an interview, but there’s a line at the very beginning of Prey 1 that says, “The world is full of stories, and from time to time they permit themselves to be told.” That’s very much an ethos of where we’re going in the Prey universe.
SPOnG: Thank you very much for your time.
Chris Rhinehart: Thank you.