'Shadow of the Colossus' remake turns rose-tinted memories into something real
Reverence can be blinding, but Bluepoint Games' Shadow of the Colossus remake uses it as a guiding light instead.
The original 2005 release from Team Ico has achieved near-mythic status in video game fandom. It's simple enough on the surface: A young boy sets out to destroy 16 towering Colossi in a cursed land, and in return, the life of his dearly departed love will be restored.
There isn't an army of baddies separating you from each Colossus — just a vast open world dotted with 16 lumbering behemoths, each one a kinetic puzzle disguised as a boss fight.
Shadow of the Colossus, the first one, is many positive things: Beautiful, challenging, contemplative. Undeniably ahead of its time. For 2005, it was fresh, original, and wholly unique. But it's also a rough experience: Inaccessible. Unwieldy. Inscrutable. Even ugly, on closer inspection.
This is a remake that feels like the game you want to remember.
Over time, those sharper edges have faded away. Shadow of the Colossus is revered now as an early art game, one that found secure footing at a time when fandom as a whole still thought there was merit to debating whether or not video games qualify as art.
Now, 12 years later, we have this Shadow of the Colossus remake from Bluepoint Games. Its foundation is Team Ico's original code, but everything else — the look and feel, the pace, even the boring stuff like which buttons do what — is the product of Bluepoint's tinkering.
What a success. This is a remake that feels like the game you want to remember. It's still the same damn thing, but with so many of those once-jagged edges newly sanded down.
Wander, the story's protagonist, moves with fluid grace. He responds to your moving thumbstick as easily as Breath of the Wild's Link or Horizon: Zero Dawn's Aloy.
The world that surrounds him is brimming with detail. Its uneven cliffsides, misshapen fences, and moss-covered cobblestones convey a sense of place that fans of the 2005 game or even its 2012 PlayStation 3 remake could only imagine.
There's no longer a need to fill in the blanks. Bluepoint has done the job for us. Just look at all the technical jargon, helpfully included in Sony's review materials.
The underlying takeaway of all those stats: This is Shadow of the Colossus as fandom remembers it, not as it actually was.
Nitpickers will find things to complain about. The camera has a pesky habit of auto-centering behind Wander for cinematic effect, but it's sometimes to the detriment of your puzzle-solving. There's nothing worse than carefully lining up for a leap across a deadly drop only to have the camera shift and throw off your aim at the last minute.
Wander's horse, Agro, is also a difficult beast to tame. You're constantly spurring it on to maintain even a moderate speed, especially when turning. Agro is great for crossing huge expanses, but maneuvering in tight quarters is often trying.
Those aren't memories that spring to mind by the time the credits roll, however. You'll remember flinging Wander through the open air to land safely in a tuft of Colossus fur. The heart-wrenching sight of the 16 behemoths toppling to the ground in their death throes. The head-scratcher of an ending, a thought-provoking reveal that intentionally leaves every major story beat open for interpretation.
You'll also remember the photo mode. This increasingly prevalent trademark of PlayStation-exclusive games is used to great effect here. Shadow of the Colossus is a generally slow-paced game that takes the time to linger for beautiful moments, and the easily accessed photo mode — it's always just a button press away — lets you freeze frame your personal highlights.
In other words: the right memories are allowed to linger. This is more than just a Shadow of the Colossus remake; it's a definitive take, the game as it was always meant to be in our heads.
Topics Gaming PlayStation
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
