You can play the first hour of ‘Prey’ for free starting April 27

By Steven Petite April 12, 2017

Prey Demo – Play the Opening Hour

Arkane Studios’ highly anticipated reboot of Prey is the big May game release, but it turns out players will be able to get their hands on the first hour of the game a week early. Bethesda, Prey‘s publisher, announced “Prey Demo: Opening Hour,” set to arrive for free on April 27 for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users.

Prey lets you take hold of Morgan Yu, whose job is to stop an alien invasion from destroying humanity. The narrative gradually builds up to those inevitable clashes but in the first hour, you’re just a man or woman trying to make it through your first day at a new job.

We played the first hour of the game for a couple months ago in our preview, remarking that it “sets the stage for a System Shock 2-style mystery.”

At the outset, Alex Yu, Morgan’s brother, is testing out the newly implanted “neuromod” on Morgan. Things quickly veer off course from there, as Morgan witnesses the brutal killing of a scientist. Darkness engulfs Morgan, and then he wakes up again in a Groundhog Day-esque setup. Morgan quickly realizes that he is living in a lie, that he is already on the Talos 1 station and it is overrun by deceptive aliens called Mimics. Throughout the first hour, players will soon realize that the Mimics have the means to transform into benign objects, which turns simple interactions into possible alien encounters. All the while, a mysterious voice called January provides insight to Morgan through a radio.

Bear in mind, progress made in the demo will not be accessible in the full game, so you will have to replay the first hour at launch. Also, PC users will not get to participate in the April 27 demo, as it is exclusive to consoles.

Prey launches on May 5 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

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Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…

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