The game was rated PEGI 12 for moderate violence towards a human character. The Last Guardian (2016) on PlayStation 4 Shadow of the Colossus (2018) remastered version on PlayStation 4 Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (2011) HD version on PlayStation 3 Shadow of the Colossus (2005) on PlayStation 2 This was released in a variety of iterations and forms part of a series of artistic games from developer Team Ico : Killing the Colossi almost feels like a mistake when you achieve it if it were not for the girl you must save. With its minimalist visual style and orchestral score, the game offers an experience that is as mournful and sad as it is full of excitement and adrenaline. To defeat them you must work out how to climb onto them and attack their vulnerable spots while being tossed around like a cat on a bear. Each one has to be located with only the shining guidance of your sword and a rough map. There are no towns or dungeons to explore, no characters with whom to interact, only the Colossi to hunt. The landscape is vast and inviting, bereft of life apart from the huge monsters you hunt. It sounds like any other video game, although in fact, Shadow of the Colossus stands apart in many ways. Overall, following the somewhat disappointing The Last Guardian, this is an astonishingly good remake of a classic PS2 game and one that everyone who owns a PS4 should play.You play a young man who enters a forbidden land to defeat sixteen massive beings to restore the life of a girl he cares about. While I still wish the money invested in gaming remakes would be used for entirely new games, in this instance I feel the effort and craftsmanship are worth it. Kow Otani's sweeping score and the bittersweet narrative are also things that really shine through again on this remake and that is a testament to Bluepoint Games not trying to re-invent the wheel like other studios have done on similar such remakes. Looking back, from interviewing Fumito Ueda before Shadow of the Colossus was released on PS2, to unlocking absolutely everything in the game once it was out to the extent of reaching the Secret Garden atop the main shrine, this PS4 remake brings all that back for me and more. This is what all gaming remakes should do and I only hope that the approach of Bluepoint Games will become more widespread across the industry when it comes to gaming remakes. While we also have a new photo mode and countless new control and HUD options to play with, among other things, what really stands out for me here is that this is the same game in terms of how it plays but it now just looks like a modern release would. Though I do admit these are entirely minor gripes and the rest of the game is just brilliantly done. The only things that bug me about this PS4 version are that Wanda’s face just looks wrong and the grip meter has been unnecessarily changed compared to the PS2 original. Credit: Sony Interactive EntertainmentĮven on the standard PS4, which I used for this review, the framerate is also much improved over the PS2 original and that makes for a huge difference on how the game plays. While the PS2 version pushed the hardware to its limit, this PS4 release does likewise and the results are genuinely amazing.ĭespite the PS2 origins of the game, this PS4 version is visually stunning. Visually though this is an utterly stunning game. From the inexplicably different grip meter to the more welcome bug fixes to do with jumping and bow aiming but overall the studio has done a very careful job here in ensuring the gaming functionality from the PS2 version has been faithfully retained. I will be honest, Bluepoint Games have made some changes albeit minimal ones. This is because staying this true to a game released two console generations and 13 years ago is incredibly difficult, not only from a technical standpoint but also a creative one, as making ill-advised improvements is sadly commonplace in most modern remakes. The latter is also why so many remakes deviate so drastically in their functionality over the original game. Ultimately, the layout of the world, each colossus and how you control Wanda hasn’t really changed from the PS2 original and that is hugely impressive to behold. The remake aspect is almost entirely to do with how the graphics and visual assets have been updated. This new PS4 version then has a lot to live up to but what separates this game from other modern remakes, is that it hasn’t changed how the game plays. The juxtaposition of the beautiful but empty landscape with the somber giants you must vanquish still makes for a haunting game but not one without a good deal of skill required to complete it. With you also having to use the surrounding environment to your advantage in each encounter. In Shadow of the Colossus, this approach is inverted, as the level design is often wrapped across each colossus.
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