Whether or not you played the original Shadow of the Colossus on PlayStation 2, you should really consider picking the PS4 remake of the game up when it comes out next week.
Not only was the original game a masterpiece in its own right, the remake is simply stunning. No, it's not the best-looking game on PlayStation 4, but it's still gorgeous and evocative. Few games could evoke such a sense of emptiness and lonesomeness as the original Shadow of the Colossus. The remake doesn't change that, it just makes it even more beautiful.
Here's some clips of gameplay footage I've captured in the game:
Horseback riding in Shadow of the Colossus.https://t.co/2aC13rBQ2U pic.twitter.com/E57h04VuCu
— Erik Kain (@erikkain) January 29, 2018
I love how fluid horseback riding is, and I love that there's no annoying stamina bar for riding. Stamina makes sense in combat/climbing but I hate it when running/riding in games.
And here's me taking down the third Colossus, Gaius.
Part one:
Shadow of the Colossus gameplay.https://t.co/2aC13rBQ2U pic.twitter.com/uXEEzUZA7I
— Erik Kain (@erikkain) January 29, 2018
Part two:
Shadow of the Colossus gameplay part 2.https://t.co/2aC13rBQ2U pic.twitter.com/6yL9i2SM2x
— Erik Kain (@erikkain) January 29, 2018
The hair effects are much more realistic now than in the original, which is nice.
That should give you a pretty good sense of what the game looks and feels like on PlayStation 4.
What It's All About
You play as the aptly named Wander, a Link-esque figure with a sword, a bow and a horse. The game was actually called Wander and the Colossus in Japan, a name I actually prefer quite a lot. There are too many video games called "Shadow" something.
As Wander, players find themselves in a strange, forbidden land with a mysterious voice telling you that in order to save the girl, Mono, you have to go out and defeat sixteen colossi. These gargantuan enemies are the only foes you fight in the game. There are no minions, no human-sized bogies, no goblins or trolls. In essence, this is a boss-fighting game. It's also a puzzle-platformer, as each Colossus has weaknesses to exploit and climbing each to find those weaknesses involves puzzling out just how to get from the ground to the summit. Each climb is a challenge that tests both your platforming ability and your ability to solve puzzles.
The remake doesn't really change any of this beyond the graphics. I do think controls are slightly better this time around than they were on the PS2, but it's been such a long time since I played the game that it's a bit hard to say for sure. Memory is a fickle thing. I will say that for whatever reason, perhaps simply that I'm more skilled as a gamer after many years of practice, I didn't find controlling Wander quite as difficult. There are still some funky things like using your sword to catch the light of the sun and point you in the right direction. This can be tricky especially on horseback. And I'm always pressing the wrong button to make my horse gallop (it's triangle, but I keep thinking it ought to be X which makes Wander leap off the horse instead.) A slightly wonky camera does make the platforming bits a little more challenging, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. It's not the worst camera I've seen by any means.
It's also an excellent game to take screenshots in. Everything from galloping across the wide open meadows to simply standing next to the vast canyons to climbing the colossi themselves feels cinematic and epic, even while the world itself is strangely stark and sparse. There's a beauty to this game's simplicity. No other game is really quite like it.
Shadow of the Colossus arrives on PS4 on February 6th.
