Prey for the Gods

It's the type of game you play one afternoon, don't dislike your time with it. But then you go to sleep and completely forget it existed and never finish the story.
It would be 6-7/10 in universe where media didn't completely break the scoring system.

To me this game has elements SOtC and BotW, but it is not as good as either of those titles. Its was good for about 15-20 hours of frozen wasteland exploration and boss killing then I didn't have much desire to continue exploring after I beat the game. Overall I appreciate what the developers were going for, but imo it needs more content and mechanics.
SPOILERS: I've done two playthroughs of this title. First one was during early release before the game was complete and then I just did a new play through in 2025 (most recent on hard/survival). So first, you don't have to do the bosses in any order after you beat the first guy and there is no real prerequisite to fight any boss (except last boss, which is beat all the others). The way you get more health and stamina is by collecting golden totems which does give you incentive to explore the remote portions of the map. I don't care for that as it makes the exploration feel forced. I feel like a mixture of other ways to up your stats -- in addition to the totems would make the game more fun. To find all these totems you basically have to wander frozen wastes while consuming food, resting and sitting by fire. Over and over again. There are 'champion' type bosses you can find in the wild (on your search for golden totems). It is kinda cool to just happen on a big guy during a blizzard and take em down. I found 3 overall, but they were all the same guy just in different locations.
You can get other gear that affects you cold resistance, speed, and defense by going in caves and solving some puzzles -- but I wasn't really motivated to find them as the starting set was more than adequate to finish the game. There are collectible notes and journals too, but beyond giving you a few hints about different ways to tackle a boss or hinting that there is gear in caves-- its mostly "its cold," "there's no supplies" and "we're dying over here."
There are very few non-boss enemies in the game. Some undead pop out of the ground here and there so you can beat them down with a melee weapon. Some wraith enemies will pop out of nowhere so you can one shot them with your grapple hook. Most of the enemies you will end up killing are rabbits, crows, deer, and pigs. Oh you'll also kill a lot of trees so you can cook all that meat from the animals you will mostly fight.
Crafting. Even after killing all those animals for food you will still end up not having enough hides unless you grind for them to fully upgrade your initial gear. Everything else comes out of wooden crates found scattered around the world. So get used to fighting those wooden crate enemies as well.
Lastly, the bosses themselves. There is something cool about a tiny little character fighting a monstrosity 10-100x their size. The intro to each fight gets you kinda hyped to fight it because they do look epic. When it comes down to actually beating it though it basically amounts to: find a way to climb it, push the little piston, tap right click till they stop wiggling around, repeat two more times, climb to another piston, repeat. The only boss that I thought made this more challenging/fun was the Yeti. Climbing on certain portions of his body can result in you getting insta-death eaten and there are multiple ways to begin the climb (foot stuck in the snow, arrow to the eye, jump off a high place/grapple hook onto him). The boss after the Yeti is basically the boss you fought before the Yeti -- just with alot more right clicking. The thrall boss does introduce a new mechanic, however, I didn't find him very immersive. I found if you just stood at certain spots in the arena it would stop moving/attacking altogether. The boulders change direction in mid flight depending on your which way you run, but all you have to do is roll and you are immune to damage. A direct hit doesn't even matter. It's not the fun kind of dodging. Also I think the whole "I'll standing completely still after every attack so you can attack now" took away from the excitement. It just felt scripted.
Overall this is a solid, playable game which I enjoyed enough to come back and see it in its complete form. Now that I have I'll probably never play it again, but I don't regret playing it. Mediocre experience: 3 out of 5 stars.

This was a much needed game to play when there are so few of its type. Like many people have said it feels like Shadow of Colossus and that is because there aren't many games like that. This was a pretty well done attempt at it. It has a mysterious atmosphere that has nuggets of lore that can be found around but also leaves stuff up to imagination for people to theorize. The game play is pretty solid with each boss feeling unique and challenging to figure out how to defeat. I see it as a spirit successor and hope more games like this come out with their own takes and unique additions. You can't beat that rush of facing down a titan and coming out on top

As someone who didn't get to play Shadow of the Colossus
but love the idea of fighting giant monsters up and close,
I loved the game!
The difficulty is customizable,
art style is good,
fights are challenging and rewarding,
world is immersive,
RPG elements are just right - enough to keep you engaged, but not requiring too much grind or management.
I'm enjoying it!
Kudos to the devs!

A nice love letter to Shadow of the Colossus. Minimal story, plenty of exploring, mild survival play, strategic battles with the giant beasts. It can be a bit "bland" roaming the overworld as there is not a lot going on, even wild life is scarce making the survival aspect a bit difficult. Overall, A fun, well made title that I think any Shadow of the Colossus fan will enjoy in their spare time.

TL:DR: 7/10 - Frustrating frozen fun found from first fight forward until finish.
For those still reading. This game is basically Shadow of The Colossus in the deep Nordth, on a mission to save the world from a never ending winter. The game is much smaller than SotC and swaps mounted travel, for a grappling hook and glider. On Legendary/Survival difficulty I did not feel like I could really take in and appreciate the world as much. I was on a mad dash to make it from one boss to the next -stopping of course to kill champions and strip the landscape bare to the extent i was able to- all while constantly freezing to death.
There are spitting worms, frozen, undead warriors, banshees, champions (mini boss), boars and bunnies a plenty to slice, club, and shoot for loot. The precious loot you'll need to craft and upgrade so you can better survive the harsh, unforgiving landscape. Survival mechanics on top added an immersive layer of difficulty that was coupled by some frustrating limitations (I'm looking at you cooking) Berries and scavenged bread made up the majority of my diet, as cooking meat and mushrooms requires campsites that are scattered throughout the landscape, you're not able to craft cooking implementations all by your lonesome... which I have issues with. It created an undo stress and prevented me from being able to get better benefits from food I needed, all because I, the survivalist, couldn't make a spit out of all the wood around me.
The combat with minions is clunky/floaty and could be improved on. The presence of a lock-on does help with melee combat, but distance and gap closure is iffy. You're best to get right up on your enemy before spamming melee. There is no block or parry so dodging is your best friend. Melee and Archery don't take any stamina, but running, climbing, gliding, and dodging do. Stamina management is KEY to survival, so I put all my totem upgrades into stamina and relied on dodging to not get hit.
While trying not to die of frost and hunger, you'll notice the landscape is beautiful. Ancient ruins and abandoned camps pepper the environment. Trees sway in the wind, and the sudden and powerful storms impact your vision and ability to traverse the terrain. Your character leaves deep trenches in the snow as the struggle through. This eerie, haunting landscape still has a peaceful beauty. Some areas hint at a forgotten history frozen in time. The area surrounding boss 4 in particular is one of my personal favorites, the atmosphere is great and really shows the love and effort put into the visuals. Each boss fight is unique and usually involves activating a mechanism to stun the boss, or help you to reach them in some way. Each boss is a puzzle of both, how do I get on it, and what do I do once I'm up there. The feeling you get from scaling these titans is on point with this game.
Praey for the Gods wears it's inspiration proudly and I salute NO MATTER STUDIOS. I hope they make more games in this vein, as the set piece moments are wonderful and really gave me that SotC feeling I loved so much. While the story -and ending especially- leave a lot of questions, I came to the game to climb and fell titans, and that's what I really enjoyed. Great job and I hope to play another!

This game was really good. I had a lot of fun playing it. However, it need's a final coat of paint. There are a lot of details that are missing, especially from the cut scenes and animation. The foundation is all there, it just needs that extra finish.

The main thing I love about this game is the freedom it gives to perform stunts. One moment in particular stood out to me: During the winged boss fight, I was holding onto the tip of the left wing and I was running out of stamina. I needed to get to it's other wing to finish the fight, but the boss started making a right turn. I could have taken the safe route by climbing down the wing, but instead, I let go of the wing and slid down to the other side. Sliding down the wing of a giant flying creature, a thousand miles in the air, with wind rushing past me felt so epic. The moments like that made this game exciting and satisfying to play.

I have mixed feelings about the survival aspect of the game. Parts of it were fun, but other parts were tedious. It would be interesting to see it integrated into the boss fights more. Like maybe having a fight lasting so long that you need to camp out on the bosses back, or in a cliff-side cave while a giant creature stomps around outside.

The story didn't feel compelling enough. It took away from the cinematic nature of the game. The main character was unexpressive and I couldn't figure out why she was pursuing her goals. That was probably the weakest point of the game. It's tempting as a writer to make stories intentionally vague because it makes it come across more poetic. However, if nobody knows what's going on, then it's very difficult to empathize with the characters. This completely wipes out any chance for a deep emotional response from the player. For a game who's main selling point is epic and jaw dropping scale, a vague story only takes away from that WOW feeling.

The extra polish for the cut scenes would help emphasize that WOW feeling, but the story needs to be more emotionally engaging as well. That being said, I had a lot of fun playing this game and I would love to see more.