10 Forgotten Sci-Fi Video Games You Need To Play

5. Prey - 2K Games (2006)

Binary Domain
2K Games

The title Prey actually covers two different games (2006 and 2017) and if you want to get technical, either one is a worthy entry to this list.

Boasting the distinction of having begun development conceptually all the way back in 1995, Prey was expected to actually be released around late 1996. The developers were being bombarded with technology advancing quicker than they could settle into their engine and with company resource priorities being directed toward another franchise (Duke Nukem), Prey was continually pushed to the backburner.

It finally released for Windows, PS3 and 360 in 2016 as a first-person story of a lone civilian battling the occupants of an alien ship after they kidnapped his girlfriend. It was known for integrating a whole plethora of tech and gadgets, gravity-defying gameplay physics, and some truly horrific organisms in need of slaughter.

A sequel to the game was put into development almost immediately upon release but ended up getting scrapped. Thankfully the mythos itself was strong enough to warrant a return trip to the franchise with the 2017 release - that is neither a sequel nor a remake. Instead, it is another tale in the same universe and a sort of showcase for how far first-person shooters have evolved in a decade's time.

The original Prey is all but forgotten now but worthy of a look if you can track it down.

Contributor

Jason Russell has been working in video game journalism since the early 1990s before the internet existed, the term "fanzine" had meaning and sailors still debated as to whether or not the earth was flat. The first time. More recently he has been the guy responsible for the Retrospective column for Old School Gamer Magazine, pens up a Game Skinny column on a plethora of video game topics. He's somehow managed to author nine novels, writes and runs the blog CG Movie Review, is co-founder of the science fiction publishing house Starry Eyed Press, and sometimes, when the planets align and the caffeine has fully left his system, it's rumored he sleeps.