“Shadow of the Colossus” Revives a Gaming Giant

Recently, the gaming industry has been flooded with many uninspired stories and bland game play. An exception to this trend last year was a series of stunning games like Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild, Wolfenstein II, Super Mario Odyssey, and Horizon Zero Dawn.

Luckily for gamers, 2018 seems poised to continue this trend of great games with a recreation of a universal fan favorite: Shadow of the Colossus.

Shadow of the Colossus enables you to explore a massive world (larger than the real world city of New York City– and hunt down multiple a giant creature known as Colossus. There is plenty to explore and do in this game, with just enough downtime between the major points of action to allow you to take in the majesty of the world around you, but not enough to bore you.

The game originally came out back in 2005 for the Playstation 2 (PS2), and got a remaster only six years later on the Playstation 3 (PS3). However, Shadow of the Colossus’ new Playstation 4 (PS4) edition isn’t simply a remastered version of its predecessor.

Instead, the entire game has been completely remade from the ground up, allowing the full power of the PS4 to be accessed while playing. This means that the graphics look significantly better than the previous iterations of Shadow of the Colossus, and the game itself now runs smoother and faster than ever before.

This is often an odd choice for most gaming companies, as remaking older games completely is far more difficult and time-consuming than simply putting the old version on a new console. Thankfully, Bluepoint Games, the developer of Shadow of the Colossus, made the decision to put the love and passion into the remake that it truly deserves.

Now, I didn’t get to play Shadow of the Colossus before the PS4 remake, and honestly, I’m really disappointed that I didn’t.

Shadow of the Colossus has everything I love in a video game: a huge world with many areas to explore, a great story with lots of backstory and deep lore, and of course, combat.

I was skeptical about the combat system going in, since from an outside perspective they seemed mostly cinematic, with you climbing up the massive creatures looking for weak points in their armor. Although this probably sounds and looks awesome, I was anxious that it would become tedious and uninteresting.   

Honestly, however, I was surprised that the Colossus battles are quite possibly one of the best experiences I’ve had in my gaming experience, period. They are both stunning and intense, keeping you in the action constantly.

The battles manage to bring an immense feeling of power to the player, which is something that has become difficult to achieve in modern gaming.

I’m already hooked on Shadow of the Colossus, and it has immediately become one of my favorite games, which is a huge accomplishment considering how many different games I’ve tried out.

The game is currently $59.99, and is yet another PS4 exclusive. (Sorry, Xbox fans.)

Shadow of the Colossus is a classic, one that I’d recommend for any gamer, which has finally got the remake and accessibility it deserves. I give Shadow of the Colossus 4 times-I’ve-got-crushed-out- of-nowhere out of 5.