Food needs to be collected either by picking berries to eat on the spot or by hunting animals that one needs to cook later in order to eat, more effort put into food preparation makes for a better meal, replenishing more of your hunger meter and giving the player more health with each bite. The player can only take a nap at designated rest areas where there's a bed present, usually located in caves by a campfire. You have to keep warm, fed and well-rested to be fit for the god fights and this can be challenging at times.
The player has three things to keep track of if they're not going to not fall dead on the snow-clad ground. The harsh winter climate wouldn't be much of a threat if there were no survival elements added to the experience, so of course, there are some of those implemented to make sure the player stays on his or her toes throughout the game - one can never get too comfortable. There's more to the tactics that one has to take into consideration while exploring, though. There are few guidelines as to where you should be going first, so exploration and eventually stumbling upon a god to slay will most likely be one's only tactic. The Early Access version that we had the pleasure of playing had five slay-able gods included and all of these gave the player different tactical objectives for taking them down, some offering some puzzle-solving and some being straight-forward boss fights. The protagonist is mute and the game offers no dialogue, making the atmosphere all the more endearing and mysterious, this being added to with the fantastic soundtrack of the game.
Praey For The Gods drops you down into a cold winter landscape with little to no context as to why the character you're controlling is there, why no other people are around, or what you're supposed to do other than slay ancient, massive, godly beings for seemingly no reason at all. Despite the many similarities, however, the game feels like more than a love-letter to the beloved Colossus-slaying classic and not a rip-off, and there are some additions that make Praey For The Gods its own experience, keeping its identity its own. No Matter Studios doesn't try to hide the fact that the PlayStation 2 classic Shadow of the Colossus heavily inspired the studio's upcoming adventure game, Praey for the Gods - they embrace the likeness, they strived for it. There are games where you can kind of guess the influences that have informed their development by closely analysing minor aspects, and there are games that proudly and without shame wear their influences like a flashy jewel-clad crown.