Prey 2: Whitewashed?

[TsunamiWombat]

Prey was a PC (later ported to console, how about that) FPS released in 2006. It was a fairly generic shooter with an unusual premise - you play a Native American soldier fighting aliens who have returned to harvest earth, as long fortold by your people. The game's story actually drew on real native American folklore, and had very talented native american voice actors (not something you get in alot of spaghetti westerns i'll tell you). Hey, I even did a Lets Play on it!

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.163892-Damage-Over-Time-Prey-Complete

A few days ago, a sequel was announced. Yay! But here's the main character.

For reference, this is the main character of Prey-

There is also an article on Kotaku discussing what is believed to be the games impetus, here
http://kotaku.com/#!5782169/prey-2-drops-you-in-the-shoes-of-a-human-bounty-hunter

Now, they seem to be giving up on Prey's physics distorting head fuckery and thats fine, Portal has come and gone and done it better then Prey did in 2006. What concerns me is the abandonment of the Native american angle and the protagonist, Domasi (Tommy) for generic grizzle whitey protag #556.

I myself happen to be, whitey, and I tend to be desensitive to these things and frankly don't really give a shit. The last time the ethnicity of a character concerned me was the excreteble Avatar movie M. Night Shamalamadingdong crammed down our throats. But Prey's native american influence was central to the plot, tastefully done without being heavy handed, and frankly made the game DIFFERENT.

I am dissapointed this untapped potential is being dropped for Mos Eisely with Generic White guy. Am I just being a cyber-weenie?

PS: Has the Escapist news team covered this at all yet? Zomg firsts

 

[NathLines]

There is nothing wrong with being disappointed by generic white guys with guns. Most people are.

 

[Thomas Hoops]

Have they explicity stated that the new guy isn't just Tommy with a rad new hat? They kinda look alike, only new guy has a less plasticine looking face

 

[Zoe Castillo]

--

 

[JoJo]

Maybe their trying to play down the Native American angle this time? Still, replacing one type of man with another type of man with a slightly different skin tone isn't that much of a difference, it's not like they changed the character to a little Chinese girl or something

 

[Hiphophippo]

Ugh, that's the character from prey? I wish every game wasn't trying to look so goddamn similar these days.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Maybe their trying to play down the Native American angle this time? Still, replacing one type of man with another type of man with a slightly different skin tone isn't that much of a difference, it's not like they changed the character to a little Chinese girl or something

They likly are, but in that case, why even call it Prey? Why not just launch a new IP? Does Prey carry that much cache that attaching it's name will matter?

Prey was more or less defined by it's native american angle and it's portal play. It sounds like the sequel will have...neither.

Don't get me wrong the game does sound awesome. I just wish we could've kept a Native American protagonist. It was different, at least.

 

[RA92]

Bounty hunter...? ~.^

Seriously?

 

[NLS]

Maybe their trying to play down the Native American angle this time? Still, replacing one type of man with another type of man with a slightly different skin tone isn't that much of a difference, it's not like they changed the character to a little Chinese girl or something

They likly are, but in that case, why even call it Prey? Why not just launch a new IP? Does Prey carry that much cache that attaching it's name will matter

Yeah, I hope they keep more of the style from the original game and don't do a sequel in name only. Far Cry 2 wasn't Far Cry at all, just a game in some african country with the name slapped on it.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Tommy hated his culture, so he didn't feel particularly Native American.

But this is likely so they can remove the whole "can't die" mechanic in a logical manner. This guy can't use it.

 

[Aeshi]

I call sequel defilement on this! You ended Prey with a perfect setup for a sequel and now we're just supposed to follow this random berk while

Spoiler

Tommy goes through a portal to meet some aliens?

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Tommy hated his culture, so he didn't feel particularly Native American.

But this is likely so they can remove the whole "can't die" mechanic in a logical manner. This guy can't use it.

Spoiler: I'd say he made peace with it when...

I'd say he came to peace with it when he talked to his dead grandfather in the spirit lands of his ancestors and used the wisdom they gave him to stop the aliens harvesting earth for meat and piloted the giant death sphere into the Sun after wresting control from the last human to inherit it.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

As long as that isn't just Tommy in different clothes, it strikes me as a really od thing to do.

Take the physics defying nonsense, portals and Native American influence out of Prey, and you're not making Prey anymore, so why give it the same name? And Prey had a really obvious hook for a sequel, so why not expand on that?

I actually quite enjoyed Prey. Certainly not one of the best games ever but much more enjoyable to me than most of the cover based miltaristic my country country 'tis of thee Call of Duty crap.

 

[Stavros Dimou]

Damn it.
Tommy wasn't just a native american.
He also was a mechanic,a simple ordinary dude that you would call to fix your house and happened to be picked up by an alien ship, with absolutely no militairy training.
Not another space marine with super armor.
Now since Bethesda will make that game,we can absolutely be sure that it won't feel anything like the game 3d realms made.
3d Realms and Bethesda are making far too different games.

3D Realms would never ship a game without materialising a unique fresh feature,and having playtested it for months or years to find all possible bugs.
That's why Duke Nukem Forever took them... forever!
Except that, 3d realms games are known for their explicit sexual content and gross disturbing/disgusting moments.
They are also known for making the protagonists of their games speaking all the time monlogues with harsh language.

Bethesda on the other hand usually releases games full of bugs,and they cut off things like nudity because they are afraid of bad publicity.
Usually the protagonist playble character at Bethesda games never speaks,and Bethesda is known for open world games with side quests.

I think Prey 2 might be a good game in its own but it won't feel like the original at all.

 

[Weaver]

SO they're calling it prey, but getting rid of the character, and all defining features of the first game?

Okay.

edit: if you haven't played it, it's actually a very good FPS game.

 

[NLS]

Damn it.
Tommy wasn't just a native american.
He also was a mechanic,a simple ordinary dude that you would call to fix your house and happened to be picked up by an alien ship, with absolutely no militairy training.
Not another space marine with super armor.
Now since Bethesda will make that game,we can absolutely be sure that it won't feel anything like the game 3d realms made.
3d Realms and Bethesda are making far too different games.

3D Realms would never ship a game without materialising a unique fresh feature,and having playtested it for months or years to find all possible bugs.
That's why Duke Nukem Forever took them... forever!
Except that, 3d realms games are known for their explicit sexual content and gross disturbing/disgusting moments.
They are also known for making the protagonists of their games speaking all the time monlogues with harsh language.

Bethesda on the other hand usually releases games full of bugs,and they cut off things like nudity because they are afraid of bad publicity.
Usually the protagonist playble character at Bethesda games never speaks,and Bethesda is known for open world games with side quests.

I think Prey 2 might be a good game in its own but it won't feel like the original at all.

Actually, Tommy had served in the military prior to the game's events. Also, Bethesda is only publishing the game, Human head Studios (developers of the first Prey game) is still developing the new game

 

[Katana314]

Like anything, I'll wait and see. I don't think they would make a new character without some reason for him to be interesting.

 

[Korzack]

I was intrigued as to seeing a Prey 2, but now heavily skeptical. The Amerindian mythos was definitely different, which when combined with the then-unique "gravity-defying paths of awesome" mechanic, helped it stand out from a market that even back in 2006 had serious identity issues. I could go fetch my cynic hat and make a hasty prediction of how it might turn out, but at the same time, I hate it when those turn out to be accurate.

 

[GotMalkAvian]

Does anyone else remember how much flak Prey caught initially for its portrayal of natives on reservations? We had alcoholism, near-vagrancy, subservience to white customers, running gambling establishments, and the pseudo spirit walk stuff. A lot of people took offence to the first game, and wel all know that when people take offence it's easier to drop the whole thing instead of making minor changes to be more respectful.

 

[nodanaonlyzuul]

But Prey's native american influence was central to the plot, tastefully done without being heavy handed, and frankly made the game DIFFERENT.

I usually just lurk the forums but this compelled me to sign up because this is spot-on and I feel extremely disappointed with the description of Prey 2. I feel less silly for feeling so let down because I see that others that feel the same way.

My fingers are crossed that perhaps Prey 2 will still include the Native American spirituality/mythos in to the plot. I'm not feeling very optimistic about it though.