Praey for the Gods

Praey is an interesting game. It has a unique gameplay mechanic of climbing the bosses you fight and turning them into more of an environmental challenge more so than a combat challenge. The survival system of hunger/sleep deprivation/cold also creates its own kind of challenge in the upkeep of your character as you traverse the frozen mountains and wastelands, paying attention to make sure none of those meters drop too low so they don't start lowering your health. Your only stats are your health and stamina bars, as weapons and gear are just upgraded via crafting or found in particular locations across the map. Again, this focus creates a reliance on being knowledgeable about your environment and having good stamina and health management as you fight enemies, be they common foes, sub-bosses, or main bosses. The narrative was interesting and there's tidbits of lore scattered about to find, though most of them you'll need to go out of your way to find (same with the totems for upgrading stats). I enjoyed the overall theme and design of the game, and only found some parts of some bosses to be a bit frustrating as there would occasionally be a time or two when I was very much ma…

This game doesn't even know how to spell it's own name consistently. Sometimes its Prey, sometimes it's Praey. TF is going on here you don't even know what your own name is? Anyway I changed my mind. I do recommend this, mainly because it's often on sale for cheap and it's a nice little boss-battler that isn't very difficult. I absolutely LOVE the minimalistic approach to everything. It tells you almost nothing and you figure it out. How games really should be. I don't need 40,000 different spells and abilities all the time, and I don't need the reflexes of a crackhead.

Devs spent so much time copying Shadow of the Colossus (PS2, 2005) 1:1, they forgot to make the game interesting or fun. To add differences, we get a bland, boring ice world, bosses with way too many weak points, and the protagonist taking forever to piston attack the weak point while getting interrupted and dislodged over and over again. Also we get a minimal low effort crafting system and cold weather survival mechanics that really aren't necessary. Wasted 1 hour fighting the boar boss with 4 points to be trampled on the last piston because the devs decided to put it on the underbelly so trying to exit from the hang results in instant death. Really needs a manual save or checkpointing system during these fights to avoid wasting players' time and effort. Such a missed opportunity to create a unique and fun game here. They could have added snow sledding mechanics, fire-based weapons, fire updrafts for the glider, more responsive and faster movement. Oh well, such is the case of tunnel-vision devs. A functional clone of SotC, but severely lacking in world exploration, points of interest discovery, and fun factor.

A little Zelda:BOTW mixed with Shadow of the Colossus.

It's like Shadow of Colossus but worse in every way. So you might as well play Shadow of Colossus.

If you want a shadow of the colossus like game this is pretty much the only one. I recommend for hardcore fans of the game, but don't go in expecting it to be better than its inspiration in any way. The game has a solid foundation and a few of the bosses were quite enjoyable, but most of them felt drug out and repetitive. The survival mechanics while interesting at first lacked depth to make them stand out, and the same can be said about the open world exploration. I think it is worth checking out, but it is for sure a 6/10 game for me.