Prey 2 (Human Head Studios)

Prey 2 is a cancelled first-person shooter open-world video game developed by Human Head Studios, which would have been published by Bethesda Softworks, it was to release on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 after 2012.

Gameplay
Prey 2 was a first-person shooter set in an open alien world called Exodus. As a bounty hunter, the player will have over 20 gadgets with over 40 upgrades for those gadgets. The player will use a variety of Earthly and alien weapons to kill and capture his targets.

Agile combat is also a large part of the game, where the player will jump, climb, and hover with rocket boots to traverse large alien cities. The game has morality system in which the player will choose how to act in the world. When a bounty is captured there will be a choice to interrogate enemy to gain information or send to client and get money.

Plot
In Prey 2, the player is no longer the prey. The protagonist is Killian Samuels, a U.S. Marshall who was aboard Seajay Air 6401 when it crashed into the Sphere during the events of Prey. He escapes the Sphere with only his handgun and badge when he is abducted by the slavers. He later becomes a bounty hunter on an alien planet known as Exodus, with no memory of the events after his escape from the Sphere and a strange voice known as Ec'lora helping him. Exodus is a tidally locked planet (it orbits a star, but doesn't rotate). As a result it's three major cities, Locktown, The Bowery and Undercity are each in a permanent state of daylight, dusk and night, respectively. Exodus is also occupied by two warring factions: It's corrupt government, known as the Exodus Regime, and a mafia type crime ring, known as the Ceros Collective.

These two factions are Killian's main clients for his bounty hunting skills. Killian believes he is the only human on Exodus until he runs into Domasi "Tommy" Tawodi, who was brought to Exodus at the end of Prey by Elhuit. While the game was never released it was discovered that the Keepers, bitter and vengeful over the destruction of their Harvest Sphere, had built a War Sphere to destroy Earth. This new sphere was going to appear above Exodus around mid-way through the game, transporting Hunters to the planet's surface to kill and capture its citizens for whatever it required. In the final level of the game, Killian and Tommy were going to fight their way through the War Sphere and ultimately destroy it in order to save Earth and Exodus.

It's revealed near the end of the game that every time Samuels dies, he'd reawaken in his apartment on Exodus, apparently none the worse for wear but with no memory of his death and reincarnation.

This is because each time he died, his consciousness would be transferred into a new clone (source unknown but, from the sounds of it, somehow connected to Tommy), leaving him with no memory of the experience—something that happened literally hundreds of times during his ten years on Exodus. The true extent of this process would be made clear during the final attack on the bad guys, when he'd enter a room filled with dozens of dead clones—evidence of his past efforts, and repeated failures, to bring them down.

Finally, Killian manages to destroy the War Sphere and jumps out through the window into space. Not having any other choice, he attaches his capture device to himself and types random coordinates. This transfers Killian back to Earth where he'd live a long and happy live, raise a family, and eventually die peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones—only to awaken in his apartment on Exodus, in a new clone body.

Development
The sequel to 2006 game Prey was officially announced on March 14, 2011 as being developed by Human Head Studios using heavily modified Id Tech 4 engine. "We are thrilled to be working with Bethesda on Prey 2", said Chris Rhinehart, project lead. "Prey 2 will provide gamers the opportunity to explore a new facet of the Prey universe, one that offers fast-paced action in an open, alien world. We're excited to show gamers the title we have been working on and hope they will be as excited by this title as we are." Prey 2 was announced once before; shortly after the release of Prey, 3D Realms' Scott Miller confirmed that a sequel named Prey 2 was already in development.

On March 17, 2008, Miller's brand-management group Radar Group was officially launched, along with the announcement that it is managing Prey 2, and that it slated for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The rights were later transferred from Radar to Bethesda Softworks. According to Pete Hines, the vice president of PR and marketing at Bethesda, the current version of the game is what the developers wanted to make and not what has been announced before by the Radar Group.

On March 23, 2012, Dutch gaming website PS Focus reported a rumour that Prey 2 has been cancelled by ZeniMax Media. When asked, Bethesda Softworks reported with no comment regarding the rumour on their Twitter page. On April 19, 2012, Bethesda stated Prey 2 will not be cancelled, but instead it will not make its scheduled 2012 release. This was because "the game's development has not progressed satisfactorily this past year and the game does not currently meet [their] quality standards.". On August 20, 2012 the game was removed from the products page on Bethesda's website. A spokesperson from Bethesda informed Eurogamer that until they're ready to talk about the game more, the focus on the site is on their upcoming titles.

In May 2013 Kotaku reported rumors that development has moved to Arkane Studios and that the development has been rebooted scrapping all of Human Head Studios' work and with a targeted release of 2016. It has also been reported that Obsidian Entertainment worked on the game at one point for at least a few months. In August 2013 Bethesda Softworks' Pete Hines denied rumors that Arkane Studios was working on the game. However, on August 15, 2013, it was reported that leaked emails confirmed the reboot was in development.

Cancellation
On October 30, 2014 during PAX Australia, it was confirmed by Bethesda Softworks vice president Pete Hines that Prey 2 had been cancelled. Pete Hines statement as follows, "It was a game we believed in, but we never felt that it got to where it needed to be – we never saw a path to success if we finished it. It wasn't up to our quality standard, and we decided to cancel it. It's no longer in development. That wasn't an easy decision, but it's one that won't surprise many folks given that we hadn’t been talking about it. Human Head Studios is no longer working on it. It's a franchise we still believe we can do something with — we just need to see what that something is."

Tim Gerritsen, business development director at Human Head Studios, said, "While we are disappointed that we won't be able to deliver our vision of the game, we remain proud of our work on the franchise, which we feel speaks for itself, including the award-winning presentation of the game at E3 2011. We enjoyed working with the many talented people at Bethesda, and we wish them all the best of luck with any future plans they may have for the franchise."

According to former Human Head employee Jason Blair, who worked as Narrative Designer on Prey 2 for six months prior to its cancellation, the claims by Pete Hines were inaccurate: by his account the game was actually finished, and he called the cancellation "political and petty."