August 16, 2023 - Day 228 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 248

Game: Praey for the Gods

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Dec 15, 2021
Library Date: Mar 10, 2023
Unplayed: 159d (5m6d)
Playtime: 29m

Praey for the Gods is a third-person "open-world" boss-climbing adventure game.

Set in a harsh frozen post-apocalyptic wilderness, you play a nameless woman on a quest to kill the "Gods" in an attempt to try and save your world.

I bought this as part of the "Humble Heroines" bundle in March, and had no idea what the game was about. I started playing at 11:58pm last night.

After playing it, I was still struggling to grapple with understanding exactly what was going on.

Apparently, the game is inspired by a PS2 / PS4 game called "Shadow of the Colossus"; the PS2 version was released in 2005, and remade for the PS4 in 2018. I have no experience with that game either, & I feel like the devs expect the player to be familiar with the concepts underlying the gameplay.

The game opens with an intro giving the basic concept of the world, & the "gods", after which you find yourself in a tutorial level that guides you through navigation & interaction; you progress through a map, interacting with various items along the way, including a pull-switch that you "attack" to open doors and activate items.

Until suddenly it doesn't.

I activated one of these switches as I had several times before, and instead of moving into the next section, I was somewhere else entirely different, with nothing in common with the environment I'd just been in (that would give me some clue to how I'd arrived there), with a skyscraper-sized monster trying to kill me.

I'm unarmed.

At this point, I'm glad I'd left the difficulty set to the easiest level, because otherwise I would have been dead. A lot.

After punching the monster proved ineffective, I eventually realised that maybe I could climb out of the way.

Success.

After an eternity of sluggish climbing, there was a switch at the top which activated a bell that affected the monster.

At which point I noticed that the monster had three of the switches attached to its body. Turns out you can climb the monster too.

Did I mention that climbing is sluggish and awkward?

These boss fights are the core of the game, and the core gameplay is just frustrating. Each time you attack the boss with one of these switches, which you need to do multiple times for each switch, it tries to shake you off, so you need to wildly tap a button to stay on.

This drains your stamina, until you get knocked off and have to climb back up again, frustratingly grinding your way to killing the boss.

The game is a good looking game, and apparently open-world with a "survival" mechanic as well, but with feeling like I'm just grinding to achieve anything, it doesn't feel worth the effort.

Praey for the Gods is:

2: Meh

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