The original Shadow of the Colossus is one of the most beautiful games of all time, but paradoxically it did not grow old in a lot of areas. The game keeps stirring in your memories, but a play session in 2018 feels far from inviting. Given the strength that the game draws from its visual presentation, it is also a perfect candidate for a graphical upheavals, although the truly timeless power of the game does not need any repair work.
Magical imagination
Shadow of the Colossus leaves much to your imagination and that still works as strongly as fifteen years ago. Like the rest of Team Ico's repertoire, the story remains cryptic and misty in mystery without being inimitable. The nameless protagonist - Wanderer - arrives on horseback in a foreign country to save an equally nameless woman from a curse. Ethereal voices send him on his way to the destruction of sixteen colossal beings, with the promise that this destructive path leads to the rescue of his companion.
The game does not need more than this simplistic setup, because Shadow of the Colossus does not tell a story through dialogue. From his message in silence through the atmospheric environments and the imposing battle against the colossus where your own emotion fills in the void. Desolate landscapes make you feel lonely and the felling of a coloss elicits an astonishing feeling of mourning. There is also a failing tacit bond with the horse Agro, which makes you constantly worried when he is running through the landscape while a gigantic, loose colossus is pounding around. "Agro, please look out," you whisper. The game continuously elicits a strong personal reaction; an impressive achievement that is achieved thanks to the visual beauty.
A sober journey
Although the original game has lost none of its magic, the gloss of the presentation is a bit off. The misty environments are therefore in stark contrast to the beautiful locations that the remake offers. You gallop through dangerous high rock bridges across ferocious waterfalls towards a vast desert and maneuver the sharp turns of a rock passage. Or walk through a secluded forest, where a fleeting serene moment is created by the twilight sun. They are images that you want to be without exception with the extensive photo mode, but nevertheless constantly lonely and deserted eyes.
You are always on the way to the next target; the umpteenth colossus that must be disturbed. The environments are not filled with meaningful activities en route and therefore do not invite you to be fully explored. Shadow of the Colossus is not an open-world game that you constantly want to distract; it is rather the opposite. There is one simple task that needs to be fulfilled, where the journey only leads to self-reflection, while the enigmatic clues that lead to the location of the colossus should go through your head. This is only occasionally interrupted by light platform elements which in turn are disturbed by stubborn camera work.
The camera has its own will and pushes itself into artistic curves, so you sometimes lose the overview. For example, it prefers to zoom out so that you can take in the surroundings, but you do not have much of that if you want to make a leap over a rocky gorge. The game seldom requires precise platform work, but it is precisely at these times that you are struggling with the camera.
Lofty challenges
Discovering your first Colossus and finally defeating it is always as impressive as before. It towers far above you and swings with a giant stone bat as you run nervously around him, searching for an opening while the music stirs up. The sixteen different colossi do not only differ in size - some are a true apartment building and others a small Volkswagen van - but can never be approached in the same way. The fights are far from traditional and can be approached as individual puzzles. First you search with the beam of light from your sword to their weak spot and then have to figure out how to get there to put in a lot.
As a result, you observe their behavior from a distance, the possible interactions with the environment that you can exploit and the places where the colossus can be climbed on his body. The solutions are obvious to the first few colossi and require little experimentation. It is mainly the last six that require a lot more of you and where even the directions of the voice in the air do not make you any wiser. Yet the solutions are never far-fetched, as long as you can make peace with the fact that you hit your head against the same stone a number of times.
Compared to the original, the controls have been taken up so much that climbing the different colosses is a less frustrating exercise, but it is not yet fully optimal. This is partly a conscious design decision; the jumps of Wanderer have a weight so that he never lands perfectly, he bumbles and stumbles a lot and demands a lot of momentum. It often makes the platform work unnecessarily difficult. On the other hand, getting yourself in the right position to put the colossus in a weak spot is often made unnecessarily difficult. Where you always seem to crawl the other way, even if you push the analog stick in the same direction. Add to this the struggles with the camera and despite the many improvements you still have a game that is not optimally controlled. It appears again that some things are timeless.
Conclusion
Shadow of the Colossus creates with surrender the same magical moments as the original. The mysterious atmosphere responds to the emotions, the battle with the impressive colossus look better than ever and the beautiful surroundings make you grateful for the extensive photo mode. However, it remains so close to the original that all weaknesses - despite the improvements - are still present. Once again, it turns out that every work of art has its imperfections.
The plus and minus points
✔ Unique atmosphere
✔ Beautiful environments
✔ Every battle with a colossus is unique
✔ Photo mode
✖ Control is again the weakness
✖ Struggles with the camera
Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it!
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