Hands On: Jumping at Shadows in Prey on PS4

Welcome to the first-person perspective of Morgan Yu, the androgynous protagonist of Prey. Once you've assigned Morgan a gender (a choice with no experiential ramifications) you awake in Morgan's apartment, decorated in a style delicately coined 'neo-deco' that somehow feels like a familiar sight. It's here that Prey sets to work exhibiting its playground nature – nearly everything in the apartment can be picked up, inspected, and satisfyingly tossed across the threshold. You're even able to get drunk and play Frisbee with a pizza box before you've even left the apartment.

But, is it actually your apartment? During what appears to be a routine test the veil is lifted and you suddenly become aware that not everything is as it seems. You're not in your home, you're not even at the TranStar offices: you're aboard Talos I, a massive luxury space station orbiting the Moon. Still fabulously neo-deco, Talos I appears to be deserted, but you soon realise you're not all that alone. Strange phantom-like aliens stalk you through the station, while an unidentified soul helps you navigate the station.

The first hour alone is packed full of jump scares, with many of the smaller creatures, known as mimics, launching themselves at you from within the confines of the carcasses of previous Talos crew members. Morgan is initially armed with a wrench to fend off these smaller aliens but you'll progressively discover and build up an arsenal of helpful tools and weapons to dispatch the larger threats, such as the looming Phantoms. We managed to get our hands on the trusty shotgun and the GLOO Cannon. While the former performs as we've all come to know and love, the latter has a bit more depth than simple spray and pray.

The GLOO Cannon can be used to encase enemies in a cement-like material for a short time, allowing you to whip out your wrench and turn them to dust. Switching weapons uses a click-wheel function just the same as Dishonored, while health packs and other items can be hot-keyed for easy access in the heat of confrontation. The GLOO Cannon can also be used to help you navigate the sprawling environments of Talos I, firing the material at the wall to create ledges to climb or sealing burst pipes to clear previously aflame pathways.

Prey is quite evidently splattered with the hallmarks of developers Arkane Studios and is all the better for it. The wonderfully visualised neo-deco environments are loaded with alternate routes, puzzles, shortcuts, and surprises. Every desk houses something of interest and most computers will yield a delicious morsel of world building information if you prowl their emails. Some doors can be hacked using a simple yet challenging minigame while the majority are blocked using key cards. Key cards are often rewards for the more eagle-eyed players and provide a welcome bonus for exploration, yielding shortcuts and upgrades in return for your efforts.

If the environment itself didn't offer enough depth and freedom, Morgan can also be improved through the use of Neuro Mods to unlock abilities. These mods can be found strewn throughout the facility and once they've been jammed into your eye – yep, it's grim – you're able to spend your ability point on one of three skill trees. Engineer enables you to modify your gear, improving the effectiveness of tools like the wrench, while Security offers boosts to physical prowess and your skills with firearms. Finally, the Scientist tree bolsters your medical skills, improves the effectiveness of things like health packs and your ability to interact with the many varieties of equipment found throughout Talos I. Later in the game, alien abilities become available to Morgan, however we were unable to test out these or the infamous coffee mug morphing trick for ourselves.

Each point you spend improving Morgan's abilities further works to finetune the unique identity of your Morgan Yu and thusly your experience in Prey. Much like Arkane's previous work, there's a definitive emphasis on freedom of choice that's pleasantly counterbalanced with a feeling of success, irrespective of your chosen path. If you over-indulge in the Scientist skill tree, you won't feel cheated out of an experience as you'll instead be subtly moulding your experience to suit that play style. This theme of identity and choice, paired with the consistently exquisite level design, makes for a hugely enjoyable playground, albeit an eerie and foreboding one.

Talos I feels undeniably familiar, from the neo-deco architecture to the skulking enemies that populate its halls – this feels like a return to BioShock's Rapture. But it's a welcome return and the familiarity at play isn't necessarily a carbon copy: Prey feels distinguished enough to pay homage to the underwater masterpiece while staying largely out of its shadow and forges its own (non-linear) path. On all accounts, Prey looks, feels, and plays brilliantly. Even having only scratched the surface of what it has to offer, it's clear that Prey has been very successful at morphing and adapting Dishonored's pedigree and BioShock's heritage into a science fiction world that's abundant with choice and mystery and intrigue.

Are you looking forward to playing Prey later this year? Does a blend of BioShock and Dishonored sound compelling to you? Turn into a coffee cup in the comments section below.