We told you last week that 22 first-person shooters would be released this year. By any measure, that's a lot of games for one genre. Any developer brave enough to compete in this field better have a novel premise.

In late January, Kotaku got a hands-on preview of Prey by 2K Games, one of those shooters coming out this year (2K reps said around mid-year). Judging by one hour of play time, I think Prey has enough going for it to stand out in the crowded field.

Here's the quick take: The plot is your standard heavily-armed human-versus-alien. The graphics are based on the Doom 3 engine; they are decent, but nothing that takes your breath away. What makes the game noteworthy is its physics engine, which turns gravity upside down, literally.

There are areas of the ship (and arenas in multiplayer) where the characters can walk on gravity pathways up walls and ceilings, at which point the ceiling becomes the floor. There's also a gravity sphere around which the rooms of the ship are built. You can run along the surface of the sphere through various areas shooting enemies. In multiplayer, man, is this disorienting! It's been a long time since playing a shooter made me nauseous, but having your perspective constantly flip 90, 180, or 360 degrees really messes up your sense of balance (those of you who bought a big-screen HDTV along with the Xbox 360 better keep barf bags handy). It's probably one of the reasons why GameSpot awarded it "Best of E3 2005."

More about the preview and lots of screenshots in the extended entry.

Prey [Official site]

The plot involves a disaffected Cherokee mechanic getting abducted off the reservation by aliens. As the game progresses, the hero, Tommy, gets more in touch with his ancestory and spirituality. By doing so, he gets help from the spirit of his grandfather who gives him crucial clues. There's also a spirit bird who helps in battles and solving puzzles. The hero also has the ability to leave his body and roam the ship in a spirit form—a novel way of looking around the corner.

The 2K guys wouldn't tell us much more about the plot or the bosses, but the gist of the game is to kill the bad guys, rescue the girl and save humanity. Sounds banal, but I saw a couple of scenes in which trapped humans—including children screaming for their parents—were being processed along what looked like a mechanized slaughterhouse, which shocked the jadedness out of me.

I also have to give props to the game designers for avoiding FPS cliches. When you die, you don't just restart as if nothing happened. You enter a spirit world where you have to fight to get your spirit back into your body. It's a neat concept. And I didn't see any crates or exploding barrels, at least not in the demo.

Here are screenshots from Prey, courtesy of Jason, Derek and Chris.