It wasn't Prey that people were excited about, but the Prey 2 game that was in development by Human Head Studios that Bethseda axed because they refused to sell their studio to Bethseda so they basically tanked the project and stopped development of it out of spite.
Watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPMr0joaE6A
That is what had a ton of people excited about Prey 2. Basically imagine playing a bounty hunter on an Alien world with a Blade Runner'ish aesthetic.
Was far more compelling of a premise then another "Stuck on a spaceship" shooter that we've had time and again.