Colossally timeless: Shadow of the Colossus (PS4) review | Technobubble

In the video game industry, age is usually unkind.

With the exception of a select number of timeless classics such as the original Super Mario Bros. or the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, many games age just about as well as milk left out on the porch on a hot and humid summer day. Yum.

I find this to be especially true for 3D games that came out during the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 era. Known as a period when the industry was just getting the hang of using polygons for gaming, many a title from that period look like a veritable hot mess these days. At least games from the 8-bit and 16-bit era have the advantage of that retro, pixel art aesthetic, which continues to have its own charming appeal nowadays.

This makes the longevity of Shadow of the Colossus a pleasant surprise. Originally released on the PlayStation 2, Shadow of the Colossus is one of those rare games that was high up on my list of games to get but never got to for some reason. In the case of the PS2 release, I remember being overseas for an extended amount of time as part of a Fulbright stint, which forced me to go on a sabbatical away from gaming for a while.

I got another chance to buy it when it was announced on PS3 as part of a two-game collection with Ico, another excellent game, I might add. At the time, though, I just started reviewing games as part of my job and had such a huge gaming backlog, I never got to buying the game.

By the time the PS4 remake came along, I pretty much told myself that I was out of excuses. Even as I painstakingly soldiered through a bunch of games to review in early 2018, I finally managed to get a copy of the game in March. After waiting to play this game for 13 years, being a month late is like a flash in the pan.

That being said, I was a bit unsure of what to expect. The original Shadow of the Colossus was described as a transformational experience by some players who played it back in 2005. By playing it 13 years later, did I deny myself from having that same transcendental experience by consuming the game way past its expiration date?

It didn’t take long, however, for me to realize that my worries were all for naught. Just minutes into the game, I found myself wowed by the game’s grand sense of scale and simple emotional poignancy. It’s like walking through sacred Japanese grounds marked by enormous torii gates, only to find a small understated shrine at the end. It’s these contrasts of scale and scope that make Shadow of the Colossus a wonderfully layered experience.

For those who were too young or simply didn’t have a chance to play the game when it first released more than a decade ago, Shadow of the Colossus chronicles the tale of Wander, a young man who journeys to a distant, forbidden land to resurrect a young maiden named Mono. Not much is known about Wander or the girl whose body he took with him to a far land. All the game reveals is that she was sacrificed for reasons that Wander refuses to accept. It’s par for the course for studio Team Ico, which tends to adopt a less-is-more approach to its storytelling. The result is a more mysterious narrative that ends up being as compelling as a player’s imagination makes it.

In addition to Team Ico’s familiar storytelling formula, Shadow of the Colossus also employs the game studio’s penchant for haunting landscapes. Only a few games have given me that same sense of melancholic wistfulness — an empty, unexplained sense of yearning that one feels when strolling alone through a bamboo forest that rustles from a gentle breeze or watching an empty snowscape on a clear winter evening. Castlevania IV and the original Dark Souls games come to mind. It’s definitely one of my joys as a gamer when I find myself connecting to a game not just on a mechanical level but an emotional one as well. It’s like being transported to a fantastic place that you can never experience in real life. In fact, I caught myself stopping from time to time just to slowly rotate the camera and check out the landscape. Add an excellent musical score that further adds a more layered experience and it’s no surprise that many gamers have been enamored by the Shadow of the Colossus experience.

I was also surprised at just how great the game looked on my PS4.

“This looks way too good for a PS2 game,” I thought.

It wasn’t until later that I found out the PS4 version actually is not a remaster but a straight up remake. Although the content is the same as the original game, all the assets were actually rebuilt by Bluepoint Games, according to Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida. I have no doubt that a remastered version of Shadow of the Colossus would still play well today. Remaking its assets, however, takes it to another level. On my PS4 Pro, the game not only looked great but played smoothly as well. I remember reading about frame rate being an issue in the original game to the point that it adversely affected people’s enjoyment of it. The PS4 version essentially makes that a non-issue.

The game’s titular giants, meanwhile, continue to be an impressive sight to behold. Like living forces of nature, the game’s colossi are as imposing as they are awe-inspiring at first glance. At the same time, they exhibit a pensive sense of vulnerability despite their hulking size. As I climbed on each one to ultimately take them down, I wasn’t quite sure if I was dooming them to death or releasing them from a cursed and sad existence. It’s a tribute to the game’s innate ability to draw an emotional reaction from you, even as you leverage its mechanics and “play” the game.

Granted, Shadow of the Colossus is not without its faults. While the game impresses with its visuals, for example, its camerawork can drift into wonkiness at times. Climbing, meanwhile — a key part of the game’s mechanics — can be cumbersome. There were times when I found myself wanting to do something and Wander ends up doing something else instead.

I’m also usually not a fan of big open landscapes that essentially have nothing in them. In the case of Shadow of the Colossus, however, that emptiness actually works as it ties into the overall mood of the game, as well as the concept of its forbidden land. Add a solid narrative that has you feeling a nagging sense of worry and dread instead of outright celebration each time Wander finishes a colossus and this is a game that hits all the right notes even after 13 years. All in all, Shadow of the Colossus was definitely worth the wait.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I waited 13 long years to finally play Shadow of the Colossus. All I can say is, boy, was it worth the wait. It’s undoubtedly a timeless classic that resonates even today.

• Rating: 9 out of 10
• Cost: $39.99, PS4
• www.playstation.com/en-us/games/shadow-of-the-colossus-ps4/

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