Praey for the Gods is a game that wants to be Breath of the Wild and Shadow of the Colossus. Both games are great games, so it is a lofty goal. On paper, Praey for the Gods could be a great game. Unfortunately, the results are mixed.
The storytelling in Praey for the Gods is minimal, but it works well. The world has ended, and an unnamed hero tries her luck at fixing it. Many have tried, but no one has succeeded. Can she? The hero never speaks, so there is a lot of showing, not telling. It fit the game, but the ending was a little too ambiguous for my tastes.
With a light story, the gameplay kept most of my attention throughout the game. There is a lot to unpack. The game has survival meters to manage, resources to scavenge, and enemies to kill. Of course, the wintry world needs to be explored. The real stars are the colossal bosses, but I am getting ahead of myself.
For survival, there are meters for hunger, sleep, and warmth. Depending on the difficulty and mode, they can affect health and stamina. I started playing on normal difficulty with boost mode selected. Boost made it so hunger and sleep could only boost my stamina regeneration, but not negatively affect it. My warmth would regenerate outside of extreme cold. On normal, extreme cold would damage me, but not kill me. Low health, also, regenerated. I still found this annoying, and I ended up bumping the difficulty to easy, and changing it to story mode. This made the survival meters irrelevant. I recommend playing this way, because it is not fun babysitting these meters.
I had a lot of time to explore the world while heading towards a boss. The snowy landscape is beautiful. The developers captured the feeling of winter. The sound of the wind during a snow storm chilled me to the bone. My character moved slowly in deep snow, but carved out a path. If I retraced my steps, I moved a little faster. It is a cool detail. Weapons and items can break. There seemed to be many replacements lying around, but I did not have to worry since I was on a lower difficulty. Even on a lower difficulty, I made sure to search out crafting materials and items.
Like Breath of the Wild, Praey for the Gods has a lot of climbing. The climbing feels good. It uses stamina, but it can be upgraded. Items can bolster stamina, but they are rare. Grappling hooks speed up climbing, but they can break. There is a parachute, which comes in handy. It seemed like I always had rotten luck, as the wind was never in my favor. I hate that running uses stamina; game developers, stop doing this! It is not fun.
Exploring is fun, but non-boss enemies are another matter. Combat against them feels bad. The sword does not feel good to swing, and the bow is not satisfying to shoot. I could not block, but could dodge. Timing my dodges felt clumsy. Even on easy the enemies hit hard. Healing items felt rare, so this is a big deal. There are not a lot of normal enemies, but I was never happy whenever they popped up on my path.
Thankfully, the bosses are fun. Like Shadow of the Colossus, the bosses are puzzles bagging to be solved. I had to climb them, find their weak points, and, literally, ring their bell. I think the weakpoints need to standout more. They glowed when I got close, but fur seemed to always be obscuring them. Some of them left me scratching my head. I would look them up in a guide, and wonder how I was suppose to know to do something. Thankfully, the controls are responsive while climbing on these beasts. It feels good to cling to their fur, and scrounge around. I never felt frustrated by the game, just my puzzle solving abilities.
While playing Praey for the Gods, I caught myself thinking, “This is good, but it could be great if it did,” something differently. The survival elements could be great, if resources were less scarce… and if I had a bigger inventory… and if the recipes were better. Really, if it were more like Breath of the Wild, then the survival aspects of the game might be great. Instead Praey for the Gods conflicts me. The world is outstanding. Exploration is fun, and the bosses are a treat. However, the survival elements are not fun and the combat sucks. It is not a bad first attempt for the indie developer; actually, it is quite a feat for a team their size. However, Shadow of the Colossus and Breath of the Wild are better games. If you can find Praey for the Gods for cheap, then I think it might be worth your time.
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