Prey

Setting
Prey takes place in an alternate timeline where the Soviet Union encounters a species of eusocial aliens called the Typhon aboard their satellite Vorona 1 in 1958. The Soviet Union works together with the United States to fight off and capture the aliens, unbeknownst to the general population. Together, they build the space station Kletka, situated in orbit around the Moon, to be used as a prison for the Typhon. After a failed assassination attempt on United States President John F. Kennedy, the United States wrests full control of the Kletka satellite from the Soviet Union. Research of the Typhon continues under the name "Project Axiom". After the 1980 "Pobeg Incident", which resulted in the Typhon killing some scientists aboard the station, the American government shut down Project Axiom but left the captive Typhon alive.
In 2025, the newly founded TranStar Corporation acquires Kletka and, by 2030, refits it as Talos I, a fully operational research laboratory to study the Typhon and create advances in neuroscience. This leads to the creation of Neuromods that harness the Typhon's physiology to restructure the human brain and grant the user new abilities, including superhuman ones. TranStar grows financially successful from sales of Neuromods on Earth. At the time of the setting, about 2035, TranStar has further expanded the station to make for suitable living quarters for its staff, which spends up to two years on the station between regular shuttles to Earth.



Synopsis

In March 2032, Morgan Yu (male voiced by Tim Kang, female voiced by Sumalee Montano) is recruited by their brother Alex (Benedict Wong) to join TranStar's research team on Talos I. Before leaving for the station, Morgan takes a series of tests. One of the supervising doctors is attacked by a Typhon during the testing process, and Morgan is knocked out.
In 2035, Morgan wakes up in their apartment and finds that it is a simulated environment; they have been living on Talos I for three years. Morgan is contacted by January (voiced by Kang or Montano, depending on the player's chosen gender), an Operator artificial intelligence that claims to have been built by Morgan. January warns Morgan that the Typhon have broken containment and taken over the station, killing much of the crew. It reveals to Morgan that it and Morgan had been testing Neuromods for the past three years. While they allow for instantaneous learning of complex skills and abilities, a side effect of removing them is that the user loses all memories gained after their installation, explaining Morgan's memory loss. January claims that Morgan built it to help destroy Talos I, taking the Typhon and all its research with it. Alex contacts Morgan and suggests instead building a special Nullwave device to destroy the Typhon but leave the station intact, citing that their research is too valuable to lose.
Morgan travels through the station and encounters other survivors, with players given a choice to help them or not. Alex tasks Morgan with scanning the Typhon "Coral" growing around the station and discovers that the Typhon are building a sort of neural network. 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 both the Typhon and any surviving station crew; after the cleanup crew is dealt with, Alex further analyzes the data and concludes that the Typhon are sending a signal into deep space to summon something. A gargantuan Typhon called the Apex appears and begins to devour Talos I. Morgan is given the choice to activate the station's self-destruct sequence or build the Nullwave device to defeat the Typhon.
If Morgan chooses to activate the Nullwave device, all the Typhon on Talos I are destroyed and the station is left intact. If Morgan chooses to activate the self-destruct, the entire station explodes, destroying all the Typhon with it. Morgan either finds a way to escape the station or is stranded and dies in the explosion, based on earlier choices in the game. In a post-credits scene, Morgan wakes up in a lab and learns that it is 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 Typhon have invaded Earth; Alex and his Operator assistants judge "Morgan" based on the choices it makes throughout the game. If "Morgan" fails to show human empathy, Alex destroys it and restarts the experiment. If "Morgan" did show human empathy, Alex lets it go, whereupon it can choose to accept his offer to bring peace between the Typhon and humanity or kill him.



Mooncrash

In 2036, Peter is stationed in a remote satellite orbiting the Moon and is forced under contract by the Kasma Corporation, a rival to TranStar, to undergo numerous simulations reliving a Typhon outbreak on TranStar's Pytheas Moon Base. As he completes his assigned tasks, his handler, Basilisk, warns him that Kasma will betray him once his mission is complete and helps him prepare to escape. When Peter fulfills his contract, Kasma congratulates him but claims that due to tight budgets, they cannot retrieve him from the satellite and shut off his life support. With help from Basilisk, Peter overrides the satellite's controls and crashes it near the real Pytheas facility, where he commandeers a shuttle and returns to Earth. In a post-credits scene, it is revealed that a Mimic has stowed away on Peter's shuttle.