Since its release back in 2005, Shadow of the Colossus has often been heralded as not just one of the best PS2 games but one of the best games of all time. As someone who played the original PS2 release and absolutely loved every second of it, I was more than excited to relive the atmospheric journey that I remember… only now with the HD power of PS4.
So first things first, let’s address the giant Colossus in the room and talk about graphics. The original release was nice to look at the time but given the massive leaps and bounds since then, it definitely looks more muddy and blocky then you’ll remember and as one of my personal “most beautiful games of all time” it was pretty weird to actually go back play it again and realise it actually doesn’t look as good I remember. Luckily for me, and anyone else with the same issue, this remake addresses that issue by delivering a game so outstanding in beauty it will really take your breath away. Sony and Team ICO opted to not just take the original and boost the graphics, but to rebuild the entire game, utilising new advances in graphics and HDR, giving us a game that not only looks the same as the original but also looks 100 times better than it did at the same time.
Of course games aren’t just graphics and to make a great game you need an engrossing story and an atmosphere that makes you keep on playing till your hands get numb. SOTC takes the tried and tested formula of saving a fair maiden and has you making a deal with ethereal forces to bring her back. You are the protagonist named Wander and the deal you take part in involves you finding and destroying Colossi, with each one felled changing you whilst bringing you closer to the end. The story itself, like many crafted by Fumito Ueda, is sparse on detail and allows you to drink in the barren wide open world with its various locales and let your mind run free as you piece together what you think might be related to the narrative.
With that in mind, you can’t talk about piecing together narrative elements without talking about the Colossi themselves as they are the entirety of the game. As you hunt through the world meeting these titans, you can’t help but be taken aback by the monstrous size of the lumbering beasts but also the mixture of sadness and anger mixed into their eyes. It’s a strange juxtaposition and as you play further and further through the game you will start to feel guilty about felling them and long for the time when you just watched them go about their business from a distance. This is no mean feat for a game with next to no narrative and really cements the game’s legacy as one of the best visual stories in all-visual medium.
Nothing’s perfect though and with any faithful remaster of a game comes some of the hang-ups and issues that plagued the original debut. Shadow of the Colossus is no different and for all its perfections it has some of the most infuriating issues I’ve come across in recent memory. These issues can be boiled into two things and whilst they don’t ruin the game they remind you how things have changed. Issue one is the camera that seemingly has a mind of its own, refusing to stay where you point and constantly clipping its way through a Colossus as you climb an area if it passes behind another. I get that it’s a cinematic game and the camera is designed to guide and showcase narrative but sometimes it’s such a stress to see what you need to that it has to be mentioned.
The second issue is with the controls themselves and how clunky and awkward they can feel in times of great stress and difficulty. Nothing is more annoying than climbing the hairy back of a Colossi to get to the head only to have Wander suddenly face another direction and grab onto a ledge-like protrusion and you try to rectify his direction all with the looming knowledge that your stamina will soon run out. Also riding the horse is an absolute nightmare if you want to do anything other than “run forward”. Like I said before these aspects don’t ruin the game but when you look at newer titles such as Breath and the Wild and Nier:Automata it’s easy to see how dated Shadow of the Colossus is in some areas and it could definitely push some newcomers away with it’s older controls. That being said, it’s difficult to reprimand a game for bad controls when I played the original, with the same controls, and had no issue whatsoever… it’s a conundrum that I doubt I’ll figure out in this lifetime that’s for sure.
In conclusion Shadow of the Colossus is a game that you need to play if you ever played the original and I’d even recommend it to anyone who hasn’t played it before… just give it a chance to win you over before you freak out over the controls.
Author: Hal, Plymouth store
