Team Ico is one of the most original game studios of all time. Each of their games is designed around a central mechanic and utilizes that idea to its fullest potential. 

They started with Ico, which I reviewed a while back if you want to check that out, but overall it’s a unique, if dated game. Their most recent title, The Last Guardian, was highly anticipated but received lukewarm reception at release.

But between those two games was what many consider to be the studio’s magnum opus, and some consider to be the greatest game of all time- Shadow of the Colossus. A simple game about a boy destroying giant enemies with nothing but a sword, a bow, and a horse by his side. 

Years later, Bluepoint Studio has taken a shot at giving the game a face lift, breathing new life into the beautiful world with high-fidelity graphics and a seamless 30 frames per second. I never played the original, so I come into this review with one question in mind: does this game stand up to the test of time?

    As I said, I’ve never played the original before tackling the remake, so I won’t be able to give too much insight on how the game has changed, but looking online it seems as though not much has changed aside from the graphics and performance, so this should be a pretty pure experience.

    With that said, Shadow of the Colossus opens with a young boy riding his horse around with a dead girl in tow. He brings her to a temple in the hopes that the god Dormin can bring her back to life. 

Dormin tells him she’ll be brought back only if the boy can manage to kill each of the 16 colossi roaming the surrounding lands. The boy then gets on his horse and takes off, ready to begin the hunt.

    Honestly, until the end, that’s all we really get for a story. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are small details that keep things pequing your curiosity throughout the entire playthrough. 

The black smoke that Wander absorbs after defeating a colossus, the shadow figures, and the destroyed and buried colossi upon returning to a past arena all enhance the world building and keep you theorizing about how everything might end. 

The ending is pretty strange, but well done and maybe a bit more detail between fights would have been appreciated, but in the end it’s a well crafted story that just about anyone can enjoy.

    While the story may be simple, the graphics are anything but. The environments, the grass, the fur on each beast it’s all just an incredible sight to behold. It may only run at 30 frames per second on the standard PS4, but even so the game is a delight to the eyes.

    There are little details scattered throughout the world and the environments are just varied enough to make every new area feel fresh. There are even shrine towers, climbable for no reason other than to give the player a view of this magnificent world. The lighting, effects work, and stylization of everything in the game is top-notch.

    And if anyone wants proof of this, the game has unlockable comparisons between the original game and the remake, showcasing just how far the industry has come in the 13 years since the original’s release.

    That said, not all aspects are so great. For one, what the hell happened with Wander’s face? Everything else had so much detail put into it, but they couldn’t make the main character look better than a soulless mannequin?

On top of that, there are also some bugs when it comes to riding your horse Agro as well as a bit of popin now and again. While these are minor issues, when the game is merely supposed to be a visually updated version of the original, the visuals are pretty important to get right.

Even so, with the sheer scope of the game being what it is, all of that can be forgiven. The size of the world and the creatures within it is absolutely mind boggling and incredibly impressive, even to this day. 

The colossi themselves are truly some of the most awesome enemies in all of gaming. And I mean that. They inspire awe. Gigantic beings that you have to climb in order to defeat make for some of the most memorable boss fights ever made. 

Seriously, these things are so big that Wander looks like an ant by comparison. Also, I’m really glad they’re not anatomically correct or this moment would have been really uncomfortable.

Adding to all of this is the fantastic score. While wandering the world, there’s nothing but the sounds of the environment and the trotting of Agro’s hooves on the ground. It makes the ruined kingdom really come to fruition and feel like the burial ground for a once thriving civilization.

However, when the fighting starts, the score does as well. Beautiful sweeping symphonies that perfectly compliment the on screen action as well as unique themes for each enemy in the game make for one of the best game soundtracks ever made.

So the game is beautiful, but what exactly do you do in it? Well, you kill the colossi. That’s it. There’s no fluff, no mini bosses, no enemies in the environment, nothing. Just go out and hunt. This process repeats itself 16 times and the game ends.

This might seem like a boring way to design a game, but there are three distinct parts to each hunt- finding the colossus, figuring out how to get on top of it, and climbing all over it to hit its weak points.

The first part is probably the most divisive. Wander can hold his sword into the air to figure out where the nearest colossus is located. Then it’s just a matter of hopping onto Agro to find the right path. 

There are some dead ends, hidden pathways, and beautiful scenery along the way, but generally each colossus can be found in about 4 minutes without much difficulty. Which is good because any longer and the large distance travelled to get to each fight would have felt more like padding than world building.

Once a colossus has been awakened, the goal is to trick them into allowing you on their backs. While this might seem repetitive, this is actually the most varied and fun part of the game.

Each colossus has different requirements that need to be met before Wander can hop on for a good old fashioned stabbing. Some just walk around, some need to be flipped, and others have armour that needs breaking before becoming accessible. Each fight is uniquely crafted and most are an absolute joy.

The only times I can say I didn’t enjoy trying to get onto one of the enemies is with the two that have a charge attack. Getting hit by this thing sends Wander flying, knocking him out for a long time, only to be smacked again as soon as he gets back up. It’s frustrating and made even more irritating by the fact that these attacks are really difficult to dodge.

The only other complaint I have is with Dormin’s hints during each fight. By default, the game has these display during a fight to teach the player how to access a colossus’s body. 

The problem is that these hints come at the player way too early, sometimes granting no opportunity to figure things out on your own. If you end up getting this game, I highly recommend turning these off.

Once on top of a beast, the goal is to climb all over its body to get a stab in on each of its weak points. The colossus will do its best to shake you off, but by holding on tight, you’ll be able to stay on the colossus with an unbelievable amount of grip strength. Get enough stabs in and the colossus is defeated. Rinse and repeat.

In order to accomplish these monumental tasks, Wander is equipped with a sword, a bow, and his horse. The sword can damage weak points, but the bow can’t really do much damage to a colossus. However, it’s really good for getting their attention and opening up new paths to get to the weak points.

The main mechanic of this game is climbing. As long as the bar in the bottom corner of the screen exists, Wander can hold on no matter what happens. It can get a little silly when he’s essentially ragdolling around the enemy’s body, but managing this meter is what determines a successful climb versus a terrible fall to the ground.

While managing to defeat a colossus without falling off is exhilarating, some force you off in order to win the fight. This is the only time the game can get a bit repetitive as you have go through the same motions over and over again just to get back on for one final stab.

Add to that the fact that the game is incredibly easy and you have a few issues. The massive amount of health and grip strength combined with many of the puzzles for getting onto a beast make some battles feel simple by comparison. 

While the scale and pacing of the battles is always top-notch, I would have appreciated a bit more variety and challenge at points. It’s a shame, but at least all of the fights are satisfying and none of them will leave you feeling like you wasted your time.

Finishing all of this off is Agro, the best animal companion in any game. Period. She rides with you into battle, follows you when riding on top of a boss, and will always come when you call… Eeeexcept when she’s stuck behind a tree.

Her controls are phenomenal too. While she can be slow to start up, once running she’ll actually stick to the trail you’re currently following, giving you a chance to take a breather on the way to a boss and enjoy the scenery. 

During combat, she’s easily controlled with one stick while the other is used to move around the aiming reticle for your arrow. I’ve heard some people complain about the controls, but all in all I think Team Ico went more for realism in terms of how a horse actually moves than making everything happen instantaneously. Truly a welcome and endearing companion.

Which brings me to my only 2 issues with the boss fights- the controls and the camera. First, the controls are mostly fine. They take some getting used to, but they function as expected about 90 percent of the time. This issue is almost exclusively due to the climbing.

Wander stumbling around on an enemy’s back makes sense, but it can be really frustrating when he grabs onto a colossus with one hand and just absolutely refuses to lift up the other. 

There are also a lot of spots on each beast that are difficult to climb around, meaning you have to risk letting go and grabbing back on in order to continue the fight. This is something that can usually be worked around, but does get really annoying really often.

Even worse is the camera. While cinematic at most points, moving the camera around can be an infuriating test of patience. Not being able to see where you’re going or the action in front of you is a major issue in this kind of game and while I appreciate the updated visuals, what this game could have used even more is a modern camera system. 

I can understand the developers wanting to keep the spirit of the original game intact, but the original was released 13 years ago and with the advancements made in controls since then, I think we should have expected a bit more than simple button remapping for this remake.

Outside of the boss encounters there isn’t much to do. Wander can pray at shrines to save the game closer to a destination, hunt white tailed lizards for a stamina increase, and find fruits to eat for a health boost. 

All of this is optional and none of it is really positive enough to be praised or negative enough to be frustrating, but if you enjoy exploring the world, it’s a nice way to pass the time.

Then there’s the time trials. After beating the game, you can take on each colossus again to earn a reward, many of which are really cool and powerful. If you really enjoy this game, there’s plenty here to keep you busy after the credit roll.

    I now see why Shadow of the Colossus is often called one of the greatest games of all time. It’s a true masterpiece when it comes to style, design, and scale. It’s not a perfect game and its faults definitely drag things down, but only enough to change this game from impossibly incredible to exceedingly fantastic. 

Which is why Shadow of the Colossus for the PS4 gets an 8.5 out of 10. Despite its flaws, it’s still a game that everyone should play at least once, which is why it also earns a spot on the mighty nifty must play games list. 

    While I don’t think I can say this is one of the best games ever made, if you’re looking for something beautiful and completely original, to my knowledge there’s never really been a game like Shadow of the Colossus before or since its release. 

That being said I hope you enjoyed this review. If you did, be sure to like and subscribe to see more mighty reviews, dissections, and other gaming content. And as always, have a mighty nifty day today!