When it comes to remaking a game that’s considered a classic, and is revered by many, there’s always a lot of skepticism. How much of the original will be changed? What will be kept intact? What will be added, and if anything is added, will the game be just as good as before? These are all questions that were asked about Bluepoint Games’ Shadow of the Colossus, and they’re all things that we never needed to worry about at all.
Some may call Bluepoint’s version of Shadow a remaster, but it’s really a remake. Content wise, nothing has been changed. Everything else though has been redone from the ground up with painstaking attention to detail and care for the original game, and it shows in every facet of the game. Whether it be the art, animations, controls, and even the HUD, everything has been redone and improved in a way that makes this version of the game a step up over past versions.
The story is straightforward. You play as Wander, a young man who’s run off to an ancient forbidden land with a girl that’s passed away. In this land is a place where a long dormant deity lives that promises to help bring the girl back to life. All that you must do is slay the sixteen Colossi that reside across the land.
And that’s it. There’s no extra fluff. No side quests. Just you and your single mission of killing these beasts in this vast open world. This allows the story to remain focused and keep you moving forward in your journey to bring your love back to life. This was my second time playing the game, so although I knew what was going to happen, I was able to appreciate it much more than I did my first time on the PS3. I won’t talk too much about the story so as to avoid spoilers, but if you’re worried about anything that can be considered a spoiler, just skip to the paragraph under the picture below.
SPOILER WARNING
Shadow of the Colossus is a game about life, death, and the lengths one would go to in order to bring a loved one back to life. As you work your way through the game, in very subtle ways it makes you question everything that’s been happening and wonder if what you’re doing is the right thing to do at all. It all culminates in an ending that is fitting for the game and sure to make you feel emotional.
It may sound like a simple and boring game at first, but that perception gets changed entirely once you come across the first Colossi. These fights are challenging and intense. In order to take down the Colossi, you have to stab their weak points multiple times. While that may sound easy, it’s anything but. You have to first find their weak point, and then discover a way to scale the Colossi and reach the weak point. Some of the Colossi have multiple weak points, forcing you to plan and strategize multiple times before you finally defeat them.
Scaling them isn’t easy either, as you only have a certain amount of stamina available to hold onto and climb them. It becomes a race against time as you try to climb as fast as you can to reach a spot where you can let go and regain your stamina before continuing the climb to the weak point and doing as much damage as possible, and then moving back to a spot for you to rest and recover, all while trying to stay on the beast.
Things are made more difficult by the fact that the Colossi are living creatures. They’ll fight back and shake themselves around to try and make you fall off, causing you to stop climbing and be flung around as your stamina continues to decrease. While it is annoying having them constantly shake and make you stop in your tracks (especially right before you attack their weak points), it makes the fights more engaging and exciting. It emphasizes how much of a struggle your task actually is and makes you truly feel that struggle alongside Wander.
This struggle is also emphasized in how Wander controls as well. He isn’t a superhuman that runs, jumps, and climbs with perfect poise. He’s a normal person whose movements are sluggish and filled with weight. It all works towards exhausting you and making you feel like you’ve gone through a major endeavor with each Colossi you beat, giving each victory a powerful sense of achievement and accomplishment.
The only area where the controls can be annoying is with your horse Agro. Riding around on him is problem free for the most part, but there are times where turning him can be a bit finicky, causing you to have to stop moving him entirely and slowly turn him in the direction you want before proceeding. These moments mainly happened in more enclosed environments, such as in the forest or along narrow pathways. It’s a minor gripe, but it can be frustrating and make the experience less of a fun struggle, and more of an annoying one.
All in all, the whole story can be completed in about six hours. It’s short, but that’s perfectly fine for this game. It doesn’t need to be a 20-hour epic journey that drags on and gets tiring after hour eight. The game moves along at a nice pace and doesn’t overstay its welcome at all. For those who want to take multiple journeys through the game, New Game Plus and Time Attacks return, allowing you to unlock new items to use in subsequent playthroughs.
Everything in Shadow of the Colossus is accentuated by the incredible music. From the moment the game starts, the music is setting the tone and bringing you on a journey.
As you watch the prologue, the music is haunting, yet calming at the same time. It’s mysterious, making you wonder just what awaits you in the game, yet soothing, allowing you to relax and get comfortable as you witness the journey that Wander undertakes to get to the forbidden land.
Once you arrive in the forbidden land and begin playing, there is no music to be found outside of the Colossi fights and cutscenes. The only sound to be heard is that of Wander and Agro. This lack of music really drives home the emptiness and loneliness that the forbidden land exudes. It also makes the moments when it kicks in that much more impactful.
All of the Colossi fights are heightened and made even more exciting by the stellar music as well. Take the song “The Opened Way” for example.
It gets you pumped and feeling powerful, like you can take on this massive beast in front of you whenever it plays.
The song “Revived Power” rejuvenates you, giving you that last push of encouragement that you need to keep climbing whichever colossus you’re fighting and get in your last couple of hits.
On the other end of the scale is “The End of the Battle,” which plays after you beat each colossus. It’s somber and makes you feel as if you’ve possibly done something wrong by killing the Colossi each time you hear it.
It goes without saying, but the game is just stunning graphically. I don’t have a PS4 Pro, but I have a 4K HDR TV, and the game was something I was in awe of all the time. Everything in the game looks amazing, from the trees and temples, to the fields and sand dunes. It’s truly amazing how great this game looks. The lighting is great and really makes the environments shine. There can be a case made for the graphical improvements changing the mood and atmosphere of the game, that I would completely understand, but I feel like the game still retains the same atmosphere that it did in previous versions.
The centerpiece of the game, the Colossi themselves, remain a true sight to behold. Each of these beasts were jaw dropping in past versions of the game, and that remains the case in this new version. The scale of the Colossi and how fluidly they move make them more beautiful to look at, while remaining imposing at the same time. I constantly found myself stopping to stare at just how fantastic they looked. The level of detail that went into the Colossi is insane and downright impressive. All one has to do is look at the fur on them, and you’ll immediately understand. This improvement in graphics serves to make the Colossi more like real creatures, which in turn makes it all the more sad to kill them.
Even if you aren’t an experienced photographer, you’ll definitely find yourself using the game’s newly added Photo Mode to take multiple screenshots as you play. There are a number of filters and settings for you to play with so that you can take the perfect picture. If you want, you can even set a filter over the game itself. That way, you can play the game with an entirely different mood being laid out for you.
On PS4 Pro, the game can run in 4K at 30 FPS in “cinematic mode,” or in 1080p at 60 FPS in “resolution mode.” For non-PS4 Pro owners, the game runs at a solid 30 FPS, and it feels great. The frame rate never dragged down for me when I played, so there are no issues in that area.
Bluepoint Games have done a masterful job with Shadow of the Colossus. With their very clear respect and admiration for the original, they’ve brought an old and fairly clunky PS2 game into the modern era with brand new visuals and made it feel like a fresh new game. Fans of the original should definitely buy the remake, as it is what I would call the definitive version of the game. For those who have never played either previous version of Shadow, you should stop what you’re doing right now and go pick this game up. It’s a fantastic, beautiful experience that will keep you engaged and excited the entire time, and a must play for any PS4 owner.
TheComfySpot 