Honestly, it takes a lot of guts to look at one of the greatest games ever made—Shadow of the Colossus—and say, "Yeah, we can do that, but with survival mechanics and a freezing blizzard." That is exactly what No Matter Studios tried to pull off. When Praey for the Gods PS4 finally landed, it carried the weight of massive expectations from a Kickstarter community that had been waiting since 2016. It wasn't just another indie game. It was a spiritual successor to a masterpiece.
You play as a nameless protagonist sent to a dying, frozen world to slay the very gods your people once worshipped. It's bleak. It’s lonely. And man, is it cold.
The Performance Reality on Base PS4 vs. PS5
Let’s get the technical stuff out of the way because if you're playing Praey for the Gods PS4 on original hardware, your experience is going to be wildly different than someone on a Pro or a PS5 via backward compatibility. On a base PlayStation 4, the frame rate struggles. It’s just the truth. When the snow particles start whipping around and you're clinging to the fur of a three-story-tall flying bird, the console screams.
You’ll see dips below 30fps. Is it unplayable? No. But it lacks that buttery smoothness you might expect from modern titles. However, the art direction does a lot of heavy lifting here. The scale is genuinely massive. Looking up at a monolithic stone beast while the wind howls in your headphones makes you feel tiny, which is exactly the point.
Survival Mechanics: The Love-It-Or-Hate-It Divider
The biggest departure from its inspiration is the survival system. In Colossus, you just rode your horse. Here, you have to eat. You have to sleep. You have to stay warm. Some players find this incredibly annoying because it interrupts the boss-rush flow.
Imagine you’re halfway up a giant's back, your stamina is draining, and suddenly your "exhaustion" meter hits red. You start slipping. It adds a layer of tension that makes the world feel hostile, not just empty. You aren't a god-slayer; you're a shivering human trying to survive long enough to do something impossible. You'll spend a lot of time punching bushes for fiber and cooking crow meat over small fires in caves. It’s a loop that grounds the high-fantasy action in a gritty reality.
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The Bosses Are the Stars (Mostly)
There are several core bosses in Praey for the Gods PS4, and they vary from "wow, that was incredible" to "why is the camera doing that?" The physics-based climbing is the core hook. You aren't just hitting a "climb" button; you're grappling, jumping, and clinging for dear life as the creature tries to shake you off.
The first few encounters are magical. Finding the bell-clapper weak points and slamming them home feels visceral.
- The Satyr is a great introduction to the verticality.
- The Devourer forces you to use the environment and your grappling hook.
- The Boar... well, the Boar can be a bit of a janky mess if the AI gets stuck on a rock.
That’s the thing about this game. It’s ambitious. Maybe a little too ambitious for a three-person dev team. You’ll encounter bugs. You’ll see clipping. You’ll occasionally get launched into the stratosphere because a collision box didn't behave. But when it works? When you're gliding through the air with your cloth cape, aiming a fire arrow at a weak point while an orchestral score swells? It’s pure gaming bliss.
Combat and the Weapon Durability Problem
The combat isn't just about the giants. There are smaller enemies—undead minions that haunt the ruins. To deal with them, you have a bow, a sword, and eventually more specialized gear.
But here’s the kicker: everything breaks.
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Weapon durability is a polarizing mechanic in any game (just ask anyone who played Breath of the Wild), but in a frozen wasteland, it feels especially punishing. You find a cool legendary sword, use it for two fights, and snap. It’s gone unless you have the materials to repair it. This forces you to be a scavenger. You can't just power-level; you have to manage your inventory like a resource professional.
Why the PS4 Version Still Matters in 2026
You might wonder why anyone would specifically seek out the PS4 version now. For one, it’s often on sale for a fraction of the cost of "AAA" titles. Secondly, for fans of the "Ico-style" aesthetic, there aren't many options left on the platform.
The game also received several "quality of life" patches after its initial launch. The developers added a "Story Mode" that tones down the survival requirements. If you just want to fight big monsters without worrying about starving to death, you can do that now. That single update saved the game for a lot of people who found the original release too tedious.
Navigating the Frozen Open World
The world isn't just a hallway between bosses. It’s a semi-open map filled with secrets, lore notes, and hidden stat boosts. Finding "Idols" increases your health or stamina, which is basically mandatory for the later bosses.
The movement feels great once you get the grapple hook and the glider. It turns the world into a playground. You see a mountain in the distance? You can probably climb it. Once you’re at the top, you can jump off and glide across half the map. It’s a sense of freedom that the original Shadow of the Colossus didn't quite have, as that game was more about the solemn journey on horseback.
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The Lore: Showing, Not Telling
Don't expect 20-minute cutscenes or a talking companion. The story is told through the environment. You find murals. You find the remains of those who came before you. It’s a "show, don't tell" approach that respects the player's intelligence. You're piecing together why the winter won't end and what these gods actually represent. Is killing them actually saving the world, or are you making it worse? The game keeps you guessing.
Technical Nuances You Should Know
If you're playing on a standard PS4, go into the settings immediately and see if you can tweak the motion blur. It helps hide some of the frame pacing issues. Also, keep multiple save files. While the game has stabilized significantly since the 1.0 version, the physics engine can still occasionally trap you in the geometry.
Interestingly, the haptic feedback on the PS5 controller actually works if you’re playing the PS4 disc on a newer console, providing a bit more "crunch" to the snow footsteps. It’s a small touch, but it adds to the immersion.
Actionable Steps for New Players
If you’re picking up Praey for the Gods PS4 today, here is how you should approach your first few hours to avoid frustration:
- Prioritize the Grapple Hook: Don't even try to explore heavily until you've upgraded your mobility. It changes the game from a slow trudge to a fast-paced explorer.
- Focus on Stamina First: You might think Health is king, but in this game, if you run out of stamina while climbing a god, you're dead anyway. Upgrade your lungs before your heart.
- Use the Map Markers: The map is purposefully vague. When you find a cave with a fire or a stash of wood, mark it. You will need to return to these "safe zones" when a blizzard hits and visibility drops to zero.
- Don't Hoard Rare Materials: Since weapons break, people tend to save their best stuff for "later." In this game, "later" is usually when you're being stomped on by a giant. Use your best gear to survive the encounter you're in.
- Check Your Difficulty Settings: If the survival meters feel like a chore rather than a challenge, go to the options and move the survival difficulty down. There is no shame in enjoying the boss fights without worrying about eating a mushroom every five minutes.
Praey for the Gods PS4 isn't a perfect game. It’s janky, it’s difficult, and it can be incredibly lonely. But it’s also a rare example of a small team swinging for the fences and hitting surprisingly close to the mark. It captures a specific atmosphere—a mix of awe and dread—that few other games even attempt. If you can overlook some technical rough edges, you’ll find a hauntingly beautiful experience that stays with you long after the final god falls and the snow finally stops.