Praey for the Gods has been in development for a long time. The first trailer was in 2015. This was before the team at No Matter Studios made a Kickstarter soon after. The updates were regular but the game never seemed like it was going to ever come out. The delays were endless. Even getting on Early Access platforms didn’t mean anything.
So, after all this time, was the wait worth it? Reviews are pretty mixed on Praey for the Gods. Some like the clear homages to Shadow of the Colossus and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Others found that it didn’t add enough new to make itself distinct from its heroes. How is this boss-focused game?
8 Best: Breath Of The Wild Elements
The Breath of the Wild elements from that game was a true surprise to see in Praey for the Gods. The coolest addition is the glider. It’s useful when exploring the world. It makes drifting over giant gaps or mountains easier.
Cooking has a similar element although it is scaled back. Climbing must anything is another cool feature borrowed from the Zelda series. All of these things add some nice flavor to the gameplay outside of the giant boss battles which is borrowed from Shadow of the Colossus of course.
7 Worst: Relies Too Much On Shadow Of The Colossus
One of Praey for the Gods’ greatest strengths is also its greatest weakness. It’s great that the developers finally took a stab at recreating the experience of Shadow of the Colossus. For example, players go to a mystic land in the hopes of both killing and convincing gods to heal someone close to them.
There is the wall of giant glyphs, disembodied voices, the heroine passing out after battles, glowing pillars to highlight where bosses are and the list continues. The added Breath of the Wild elements do change things a bit but they are not enough to make Praey for the Gods feel like an original game. That may not bother everyone though.
6 Best: The Difficulty Settings
There are no assist options in Praey for the Gods but there are multiple difficulty settings to make the journey more tolerable for some. There are four standard settings ranging from Easy to Legendary. Then there are three sub-settings called Story, Boost, and Survival.
These sub-settings change how effective the survival elements are. For example, there is a cold resistance status. If players are exposed too much to the cold then their bodies will start to stiffen. A freezing effect will also be applied to the screen. Playing on Easy-Story should make the game more lenient on effects like the cold.
5 Worst: Breakable Weapons
One thing Praey for the Gods borrowed from Breath of the Wild that it shouldn’t have are the breakable weapons. It’s one of the most debated and divisive topics regarding that game. Using a sword, ax, spear, or whatever only to have it break after a handful of uses was annoying.
Accompanying that issue was the limited inventory. Praey for the Gods is at least more lenient on inventory and how often weapons break. Still, it’s not exactly great to see breakable weapons in any regard even if most weapons are stronger than Breath of the Wild’s.
4 Best: The Bosses
There is probably one major reason why gamers will be buying Praey for the Gods: the bosses. All of the exploration elements in-between bosses add some nice flavor to the gameplay. However, none of those elements compare to the thrill of tackling giant bosses.
There is simply nothing like Praey for the Gods other than Shadow of the Colossus. The scale combined with the chaos of figuring out how to take these titans down is amazing. It can sometimes be frustrating like when players fall during a boss fight multiple times. These encounters shouldn’t be easy though so the annoyances are easy to shrug off.
3 Worst: The Tundra
Shadow of the Colossus had a lot of variety in its boss designs and environments. Praey for the Gods nails the boss part down but it fails to deliver on changing up the environments. This new land is cold, frigid, and barren. There are beautiful features to it.
Snow can look quite amazing and sailing around on the glider can make players appreciate the world more. However, the aforementioned survival elements, like cold, made this lack of change all the bleaker. There is also hunger, exhaustion, and health itself. These survival features can make some things more frustrating in Praey for the Gods than they need to be even on the easiest settings.
2 Best: Photo Mode
Praey for the Gods may look like a AAA game on the scale of Shadow of the Colossus. It might be easy to forget that this is still an indie title because of the game’s high-quality design. That’s why it was surprising to see, in a delightful way, that Praey for the Gods has a photo mode.
The options are not many, but the ability is still appreciated. Capturing an exciting moment from a boss fight can feel great. It can also help players appreciate the tundra more, as bleak as it can be.
1 Worst: The Grappling Hook
One of the best anime games of all time is the first Attack on Titan game from 2016. Flying around battlefields and fighting giants with ease thanks to the grappling devices is a feeling most players will never forget. Praey for the Gods has a grappling hook as well.
Unfortunately, the range is short and what players can and cannot latch onto is unclear. About 90% of surfaces in the game can be climbed but only about 30%, and that is being generous, of the game’s surface can be grappled onto. It would have made the game better if players could have used the grappling hook more dynamically during exploration or boss encounters.
Praey for the Gods was released on December 14, 2021, and is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.