Shadow of the Colossus Review

A masterful remake of a masterful game

This game was reviewed using a PSN code provided by Sony for PlayStation 4.

Originally released in 2005, Shadow of the Colossus (SotC) was an instant classic. Within two days, around 80% of the initial shipment to Japan was sold. Not only a commercial success, it received critical acclaim, acquiring an average score of 91 on Metacritic. That being said, the game was plagued by poor controls and concerns around its brevity.

Its popularity, along with the similarly loved but less commercially successful Ico, led to both games being remastered and released together on PS3. Now, you can enjoy the experience all over again, beautifully reconstructed and brought to life on the PS4. If you thought this game was beautiful in 2005, now you can play it in 4K (if you have a PS4 Pro).

In SotC, you play as the main character Wander, who enters the Forbidden Land in order to seek Dormin, a disembodied spirit that he hopes can resurrect a mysterious girl named Mono. Dormin’s voice instructs eerily in a foreboding dual female-and-male voice that to fulfill his wish, Wander must defeat sixteen colossi that roam the land.

The game occurs in cycles. It involves starting from the Shrine of Worship, finding each colossus and defeating it, before being returned to the Shrine to find the next colossus. While the game does feature a map, the only way to find each colossi is by holding Wander’s sword to sky. A beam of light will emit from the tip, subtly guiding the player’s path. Accompanying Wander in these Herculean feats is his trusty horse Agro, who acts as his primary transport method through the world.

Each of the sixteen colossi are unique. Hulking structures of stone, skin and fur, they all feature different characteristics, different ways in which they attack, and different openings in which to attack them. These variables must all be considered when attempting to defeat each one. The colossi are essentially puzzles; each one is defeated by climbing atop them, finding their weak points (designated by a glowing magic sigil), and stabbing said points until they fall to the ground lifelessly.

There is a kind of gloomy sadness to each colossus; despite being physically active (and apparently living if not sentient creatures), there is no life in them. The gentle and grim morbidity of the colossi is also reflected in the beautiful landscape of the Forbidden Land, a vast and empty place, devoid of any vibrancy.

The most important aspect to consider when fighting each colossus is Wander’s stamina. Holding onto a colossus consumes stamina (indicated by the yellow circle in the bottom right hand corner of the screen); the more it depletes, the closer you are to being thrown off of a colossus. If it starts to tick, then you only have a matter of seconds to find somewhere to regenerate stamina. You have to manage your stamina effectively in SotC to be triumphant. It’s tricky at first, but I found by the fourth colossus, I was much better at doing it.

While at times SotC can indeed feel monotonous, its ending casts away any aspersions of repetitiveness. A powerful gaming experience requires a powerful ending, and SotC provides exactly this. In the best interests of preventing spoilers, I won’t say anymore about the game’s ending, but will say it is worth the wait.

The PS4 remaster of the game was mostly handled by Bluepoint Games, who were also involved in SotC’s PS3 remake. They did an incredible job when it comes to rebuilding all of the game’s assets from the ground up. Watching gameplay of both the PS2 and PS3 versions, the impressive graphical overhaul is immediately obvious; the game is stunning.

It’s not just good-looking; it’s so-beautiful-it-makes-you-want-to-sit-and-take-screenshots-as-wallpapers-for-hours good-looking. It retains relatively unchanged gameplay while achieving what I think is the most visually striking game I’ve ever seen or played on PS4. Bluepoint are truly to be commended.

As mentioned, SotC retains the same gameplay as the original, with only a slight tweak to the controls. Of course authenticity is the most important aspect of remastering a game, but this is the one area that Bluepoint’s tinkering could have gone further. The game’s controls and camera were apparently not its best features on either the PS2 or PS3 versions, and they are not great on the remastered version either. While they are by no means deplorable, they do lag behind what I would consider standard for 2018. My biggest problem in fights, for example, is constantly wrestling with the camera. Moving the right stick pans the camera, but its position continually changes automatically, meaning you constantly have to manually readjust it retain your preferred camera angle. You can hold L2 during fights to focus your camera on the colossus, but this is far from perfect and doesn’t always aid you in the way you wish.

Likewise, movement can feel very imprecise at times. Many a time it has cost me Wander’s life when I’ve been attempting to climb to a spot to regenerate my stamina when he climbs the wrong way. Moments like these and others did at times inflame my self-acknowledged rage but I had to remind myself this ultimately is a thirteen year old game with a fresh lick of paint.

Despite my caveats and gripes above, if I had only one word to describe Shadow of the Colossus in a review, this would be it:

That is the one word that keeps coming back to me when I think of SotC. Everything about this experience— its beautiful simplicity, gorgeous textures and animations, and challenging but rewarding gameplay — confronts the notion that games cannot be art. Let me be clear: this is art. The imaginary line between art and games need not be so blurry; SotC completely shattered it in 2005, and this holds just as true in 2018.

In fact, SotC took me back to when I first started gaming.

I still remember the first game I ever played. It was the original Star Wars: Battlefront on PC. My eyes were wide with delight as I roamed Hoth as an Imperial stormtrooper, or as I saw Jawas scampering around Mos Eisley. That game captured my heart, but also captured the essence of Star Wars.

I love that SotC gives me that same feeling of awe and wonderment that Star Wars: Battlefront gave me. It’s the kind of invisible stuff in games that can’t necessarily be quantified or even analysed, it’s just there or it isn’t. And SotC has it.

The original Shadow of the Colossus redefined what a game could be when it was originally released; can the same be said for the remastered PS4 version?

In a word, yes; it will allow an entire new generation of gamers — people like me who grew up with an increasing number of multiplayer-focused titles — to experience a game that challenged boundaries and enraptured fans all over the world.

Shadow of the Colossus quietly reminds us of the artistic power of a compelling single-player experience.

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