Next Level: Prey (2017)

The ongoing layoffs in the games industry (and elsewhere) are awful and almost exclusively blatant plays to increase shareholder value at the cost of the humans actually doing the work. Instead of focusing attention on the corporations ruining lives, I wanted to use this episode of Next Level to highlight Prey, one of the incredible games made by people at Arkane Austin, one of the studios Microsoft recently closed.

Today's episode is specifically about the incredible beginning of Prey, how it does an great job of explaining the stakes, showing you what this game is all about, and how you learn to navigate Talos I in your own way.

So much of Prey's gameplay and design is a huge flex. Only rivaled in my mind with their sister studio's work on Dishonored, Prey is absolutely gorgeous and a world wholly its own, from the technology design to finials on display cases. Which is why it's probably no surprise that Prey (2017) is one of my all-time favorite games and one I think about constantly.

If you've ever been curious about playing Prey, check out our non-spoiler discussion about one of the greatest immersive sims made in recent memory.