We sat down with Chris Rhinehart, co-founder of Human Head Studios, to discuss the development of Prey 2.
Why did you decide to switch main characters for the sequel?
We love Tommy, but he had his story and it didn't allow us any room to develop the story more. Instead we introduce Killian Samuels, sheriff and warden, and someone more suited to be a bad ass in an open world where you can do what you want. He is kidnapped at the same time as Tommy, who you'll also meet in Prey 2, but they part ways and we get to tell a completely different story.
Has Prey 2 been in development ever since Prey was released?
No, not continuously. We had a lot of ideas we wanted to try, and we started development, but things didn't turn out the way we wanted them. And after a year or so we got another project that never panned out. When 3D Realms run into financial problems, they were forced to sell off the Prey license and Bethesda wound up buying it, so we sat down with them and discussed what Prey 2 should be about. Three years ago we started development of the code you're seeing now.
Was there something you were unhappy with in Prey?
No, not really. I'm extremely happy with Prey and thought it was real badass.
What platforms are you developing Prey 2 for?
We haven't officially announced it yet. Xbox 360 is our lead platform, and it's this version that we've shown off and that other versions will be based on. But it will also be released on PC and Playstation 3, and we're not content until it looks good on all platforms.
Is there room for different play styles in Prey 2?
Absolutely. The entire game is designed to let you play it any way you want. You can take a stealthy approach, climb walls and silently taking down enemies from behind. Or you can storm in guns blazing and shoot in all directions. And naturally anything in between these extremes.
We are very happy with Exodus, a planet that doesn't rotate. This means that there is a constant light and dark side. The inspiration came from Chronicles of Riddick, but since it's a constant state you don't have to chase around to avoid melting. We will also have other types of areas such as cities, caves, and areas with vegetation even if we want to avoid the worst clichés such as jungle levels.
To what extent have you been inspired by Mirror's Edge?
We have absolutely been inspired by Mirror's Edge. We wanted to create a large open world where the player would be able to go everywhere, and have the same freedom of movement as you see in third person games. We feel that we have managed to make it very accessible, and it takes very few button presses to jump and pull off spectacular moves. We feel that we have created a very intuitive control scheme and we hope that people will enjoy it.
Are there any plans for multiplayer?
- Why would you want to play Prey 2 online when there is Halo? We would rather make a really good single player adventure. We have very high ambitions and if we cannot make a truly great multiplayer component we'd rather skip it altogether. That is also why we won't support stereoscopic 3D, Kinect or Move. Human Head don't do things half-hearted.
