- "We're gonna shake things up, like old times."
- – Alex Yu [src]
Doctor Alexander "Alex" Yu is the president and CEO of TranStar, and the older brother of Morgan Yu. He is a major character in Prey.
History
Background
Three years before the events of the game, Alex was still living on Earth. In 2025, he was made CEO of TranStar Industries and is largely responsible for most of what has happened or has been developed on the station Talos I. At some point in the past, he went through a great deal of trouble to keep Morgan Yu, his close brother/sister, incapacitated by removing some of the first Neuromods they've had installed, causing them to forget everything that has happened after they were installed, and made them into a test subject for several Neuromods based on Typhon Biology.
Later in the game, if Morgan enters Alex's Office prematurely, Alex admits that he once broke Morgan's arm when he found out that Morgan deleted the save files for one of his favorite games when they were young, which he regretted.
Prey (2017)
The first mention of Alex in-game is when a call is made to Morgan directly after they wake up. The call instructs Morgan to put on their TranStar uniform and meet him at the TranStar building. When Morgan arrives, Alex greets them directly before entering the tests, talking to them about the tests and how Morgan will soon be in space. Alex is next seen when Morgan is sedated and Alex instructs another voice to "keep him/her safe."
For a large portion of the game following this, Alex simply observes Morgan's journey, occasionally contacting Morgan and January. Notably at Morgan's first visit to Psychotronics, and when Alex initiates a station lockdown to trap Morgan in Deep Storage.
Following Morgan's escape from Deep Storage, Alex will reluctantly agree to meet up in person and offers Morgan his arming key, but not before he contacts Morgan and pleads with them to build a special Nullwave device that will destroy the Typhon but leave the station intact, citing how their research is too valuable to lose.
Alex can be killed at first sight, after which his Arming Key, the keycard to his suite, and some other supplies can be pick up off his body. The Apex Typhon will still appear.
Before Alex hands over the arming key, he tasks Morgan with scanning the Typhon "Coral" growing around the station, and discovers that the Typhon are building some sort of neural network. However, their attempts to study the neural network are interrupted when the TranStar Board of Directors learns of the containment breach and sends a cleanup crew to eliminate the Typhon and any surviving station crew. After the cleanup crew (Walther Dahl and his operator, KASPAR) is eliminated, Alex further analyzes the data and concludes that the Typhon are sending a signal into deep space to summon something. Following this, a massive Typhon will appear and disrupt Talos I's systems as it begins to surround the Arboretum.
Morgan then has the choice to save the now unconscious Alex by moving him into his secure bunker. If he survives, he will be on the Talos I Bridge at the end of the game. If both Alex and January are alive, they will have a confrontation which ends with either Alex killing January with a pistol or January knocking out Alex. If Morgan goes ahead with destroying the station and Alex is still conscious, he will stay behind. If Morgan sits in the captain's seat, Alex will stand beside them as they both wait for the station's self-destruct sequence to complete.
In a post-credits scene, Morgan wakes up in a lab and learns that they are not the real Morgan, but instead a captured Typhon implanted with Morgan's memories in an effort to teach it human emotions and empathy. The real Morgan is implied to be dead and the Typhon have already spread on Earth. Alex and his Operator assistants with the voices of Dayo Igwe, Mikhaila Ilyushin, Danielle Sho and Sarah Elazar then judge "Morgan" based on the choices it made throughout the game. If Igwe stated that "Morgan" failed to show human empathy, then Alex destroys it and starts the experiment over. If Igwe states that "Morgan" did show human empathy (whether it was middle or high) Alex lets it go, whereupon it can choose to accept his offer to become an ambassador between the species, or kill him and join the rest of its kind in the extermination of humanity.
Prey: Mooncrash
He sends a message to Riley Yu, informing her that things on Talos I are becoming chaotic and that Morgan was right about the Typhon being connected. He also tells her there might be a Kasma spy in her midst. Alex then tells Riley to make a mental copy of herself just in case she dies.
Personality and skills
His unshakeable confidence in his views allows him to easily manipulate almost everyone around him. He is also prone to nepotism when he judges his blood relatives apt. This is shown when he named his own sibling Morgan as Vice President of TranStar and Director of Research on Talos I, and his cousin Riley as Administrator of Pytheas.
Morgan describes Alex as a very proud man who is unwilling to acknowledge his failures, especially regarding the Typhon outbreak. Alex also appears to be somewhat arrogant and overconfident, chastising Sarah Elazar when she complained about their equipment and refusing to accept the quality of other ideas than his.
Despite this, he cares for his family, as shown in his messages to his cousin Riley. He also names a special moss-like organism that he created for colonizing Mars after his mother Catherine, showing affection to her. He also watched Morgan closely when they started showing personality changes, and expressed regret rather than anger after discovering their decision to sabotage Talos I. However, he later expresses little surprise at his father's decision to eliminate him and Morgan, exposing a previous awareness of William's cold pragmatism.
Trivia
- Killing Alex will earn an achievement called "Push the Fat Guy", referencing the test at the start of the game.
- Alex can be left alive in earning the achievement "Awkward Ride Home" because he will not take the escape shuttle.
- By going through emails on his personal computer, it is shown that Alex has been avoiding participating in exercise sessions with his colleagues on Talos I. A treadmill with boxes piled on it can be found in his room, indicating its lack of use.
- A wall plaque in Alex's office shows that he graduated from Cologne Technological Institute with the degree of Doctor Rerum Naturalium (Doctor of Science).
- Alex's appearance in the post-credits sequence is noticeably more weathered. His face is unshaven and his hair has spots of greying. The suit is scratched and its red color has faded. He is also no longer wearing glasses.