Review of the game Shadow of the Colossus. Shadow of the Colossus Review: Every Colossus Matters Share with your friends on social networks

The game Shadow of, released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 console the Colossus became a cult overnight. This was largely due to the revolutionary gameplay for that time and the unusual setting chosen by the developers from Team Ico. In 2011, an HD remaster of the game was released for, and very soon, namely on February 7, a full-fledged remake for PlayStation 4 will go on sale, which I want to tell you about in more detail today.

A game: Shadow of the Colossus
Platform: PlayStation 4
Genre: Action/Adventure
Date of release: February 7, 2018
Developer: Bluepoint Games
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Shadow of the Colossus is part of a wonderfully rich universe in which two other great games, Ico and . The author of these works, Fumito Ueda, does not like to reveal secrets to gamers and chew on points that they do not understand, so his works are always shrouded in mystery, and over time they become overgrown with fan theories and millions of guesses. It seems to me that it is this intrigue that makes the games of the talented Japanese game designer even more attractive.

The plot of Shadow of the Colossus is simple and clear at first glance. The main character named Wander (Wander - “to wander”, English), riding on his faithful horse Agro, delivers the body of his deceased beloved Mono to the ancient temple. Placing her on a stone altar, he appeals to the dark deity Dormin, begging him to bring the girl back to life. Dormin agrees to help the young man, but in return he asks to complete a difficult task: to find and kill sixteen giant colossi that live in a spacious valley.

You can travel around the valley either on foot or on horseback on the Agro. The latter method is much more preferable, since sometimes you have to travel huge distances. An important role is also played by the protagonist's sword, which, when unsheathed, can focus sunlight and point in the direction where the next colossus is located. The navigation system is quite non-standard, but it’s even more interesting to play this way. Despite the fact that the game does its best to create the illusion of an “open world,” the colossi will have to be killed in a strict sequence, thought out in advance by the scriptwriters. Unfortunately, you won't be able to go to any of the monsters of your choice.

Each fight with a colossus is a real test for the gamer’s gray matter and fingers. Monsters are giant creatures made of stone, living flesh, various designs, according to which main character must climb, trying to find weak spots with glowing glyphs and plunge his blade into them. And if the very first colossus is not particularly smart and agile, then with each subsequent boss the rules of the game will become more complicated. You will have to track them down, think through an attack strategy, take into account the features of the landscape, and even use the help of your horse Agro in order to defeat the monsters. It is battles with huge creatures that lie at the heart of this game and, take my word for it, it only benefits from this.

The controls in the game are quite simple and intuitive. The main skill of the main character is the ability to grab onto various ledges, fur of colossi and other objects. When climbing steep cliffs or the backs of giant monsters, you should not forget that the protagonist has a limited amount of stamina, and as soon as his strength leaves him, you risk falling from a great height and breaking on the rocky ground. During the battle, you can use your sword, which will tell you exactly where to climb on the colossus in order to find its weak point. There are other auxiliary weapons in the game, for example, a bow that can attract the boss's attention. Personally, I thought the controls were more responsive than the PS2 original was. This is also facilitated by additional control schemes that were not present in the original game.

If you think that the fights will be similar to one another, you are greatly mistaken. You will encounter not only land colossi, but also flying and even underwater monsters. The spectacle of such fights is so impressive that you sometimes forget that you are playing a game. Sometimes it feels like you are watching an expensive Hollywood blockbuster. Your consciousness is completely transported to an eerie fairy-tale world, alluring with myriads of secrets hidden in it. Despite the fact that for the most part the game world is deserted, occasionally you will meet representatives of the fauna, for example, lizards, which can be eaten, thereby increasing your health level.

Visually, the game was created from scratch, which immediately catches your eye. The picture is so clear, bright and detailed that you absolutely don’t want to go back to the original PS2 version or even the HD remaster. The development of the 2018 version of Shadow of the Colossus was the responsibility of the Bluepoint Games studio, which has eaten more than one dog in the re-release of classic games. Previously, they were the ones who worked on HD remasters of Ico, Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Uncharted and other great games, but in this case they were entrusted with creating not just a remaster, but a full-fledged high-budget remake. The source code of the game was taken from the 2005 original, but partially modified and adapted to modern realities.

On a regular PS4 console, the game runs in 1080p resolution at 30 fps; the more advanced PS4 Pro displays the image in two modes: either 4K at 30 fps, or 1080p at 60 fps. Every texture, every three-dimensional object in the game was created from scratch using original concepts, but using modern graphics technologies, so the game looks very impressive and fresh. You can immediately feel the love that the Bluepoint Games employees put into the remake, because they are big fans of Fumito Ueda’s work, so they tried to transfer the game to the new generation of consoles as efficiently as possible. Another nice bonus of the remake is the photo mode, with which players can take beautiful screenshots, stylizing the picture with photo filters and optical effects.

Finally, the game has an intelligible automatic saving that will protect you in case of unexpected death. You can also save manually at special altars scattered around the map. After you defeat the final colossus, you will also be able to perform various Additional tasks and time trials. But personally, it seems to me that the game itself is quite complete, and such bonuses will please only the most dedicated fans. But their presence does not oblige the player to anything, so they can easily be considered one of the advantages of the remake.

Sound and music were preserved in full. The eerie voice of a dark deity, pronouncing words in a language specially created for the game, the sound of the heavy tread of a giant colossus, the clatter of Agro’s hooves across the plains, hundreds of sound effects will delight the ears of all players without exception. But the developers have made it so that this time everything sounds even more realistic and alive, making the atmosphere of the game noticeably deeper. The musical accompaniment skillfully emphasizes what is happening on the screen, also strengthening the emotional connection between the player and the fairy-tale world of Fumito Ueda.

Pros:

A perfect remake of the legendary game.
Each battle with a colossus is a small triumph of game design.
Visually, the game is stunning in every way.
The sound and music have become even more impressive.
Improved and expanded controls.
Finally, automatic saving has been added to the game.
Bonus content and additional challenges.
The game is completely translated into Russian.
A photo mode has been added to the game.

Minuses:

Problems with horse control persisted.

Shadow of the Colossus is an exemplary remake that takes us back to the distant past of the PlayStation 2 era, and allows us to once again experience long-forgotten emotions, living a small virtual life in a fantasy world full of creepy giants and mortal dangers. The developers from Bluepoint Games have done a truly magnificent job, giving the game beautiful graphics, reworking the control scheme, adding all this with a wonderful photo mode and significantly improving the sound quality. If you've never played Shadow of the Colossus, don't hesitate to buy it as soon as you get the chance. Similar games no longer exist in nature, so skipping this masterpiece is strictly not recommended. If you are already familiar with the 2005 original or the HD remake, this will be a great reason to replay the game in a new modern guise and refresh your memories. I bet the game 10 points out of 10, because this work of art simply cannot get anything less from me.

Released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 console, Shadow of the Colossus became an overnight cult classic. This was largely due to the revolutionary gameplay for that time and the unusual setting chosen by the developers from Team Ico. In 2011, an HD remaster of the game was released for the PlayStation 3, and very soon, namely on February 7, its full remake for the PlayStation 4 will go on sale, which we want to tell you about in more detail.

A game: Shadow of the Colossus;
Platform: PlayStation 4;
Genre: Action/Adventure;
Date of release: February 7, 2018;
Developer: Bluepoint Games;
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment;

Shadow of the Colossus is part of an amazingly rich universe that contains two other great games, Ico and The Last Guardian. The author of these works, Fumito Ueda, does not like to reveal secrets to gamers and chew on points that they do not understand, so his works are always shrouded in mystery, and over time they become overgrown with fan theories and millions of guesses. It seems to us that it is this intrigue that makes the games of the talented Japanese game designer even more attractive.

Dormin agrees to help the young man, but in return he asks to complete a difficult task: to find and kill sixteen giant colossi that live in a spacious valley.

The navigation system is quite non-standard, but it’s even more interesting to play this way. Despite the fact that the game does its best to create the illusion of an “open world,” the colossi will have to be killed in a strict sequence, thought out in advance by the scriptwriters. Unfortunately, you won't be able to go to any of the monsters of your choice.

Each fight with a colossus is a real test for the gamer’s gray matter and fingers. Monsters are giant creatures made of stone, living flesh, and various structures that the main character must climb, trying to find weak spots with glowing glyphs and stick his blade into them. And if the very first colossus is not particularly smart and agile, then with each subsequent boss the rules of the game will become more complicated.

You will have to track them down, think through an attack strategy, take into account the features of the landscape, and even use the help of your horse Agro in order to defeat the monsters. It is battles with huge creatures that lie at the heart of this game and, take my word for it, it only benefits from this.

During the battle, you can use your sword, which will tell you exactly where to climb on the colossus in order to find its weak point. There are other auxiliary weapons in the game, such as a bow that can attract the boss's attention. Personally, we found the controls to be more responsive than the PS2 original was. This is also facilitated by additional control schemes that were not present in the original game.

Sometimes it feels like you are watching an expensive Hollywood blockbuster. Your consciousness is completely transported to an eerie fairy-tale world, alluring with myriads of secrets hidden in it. Despite the fact that for the most part the game world is deserted, occasionally you will meet representatives of the fauna, for example, lizards, which can be eaten, thereby increasing your health level.

Previously, they were the ones who worked on HD remasters of Ico, Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Uncharted and other great games, but in this case they were entrusted with creating not just a remaster, but a full-fledged high-budget remake. The source code of the game was taken from the 2005 original, but partially modified and adapted to modern realities.

You can immediately feel the love that the Bluepoint Games employees put into the remake, because they are big fans of Fumito Ueda’s work, so they tried to transfer the game to the new generation of consoles as efficiently as possible. Another nice bonus of the remake is the photo mode, with which players can take beautiful screenshots, stylizing the picture with photo filters and optical effects.

Finally, the game has an intelligible automatic saving that will protect you in case of unexpected death. You can also save manually at special altars scattered around the map. Once you defeat the final colossus, you will also be able to complete various side missions and time trials.

But personally, it seems to us that the game itself is quite complete, and such bonuses will please only the most dedicated fans. But their presence does not oblige the player to anything, so they can easily be considered one of the advantages of the remake.

But the developers have made it so that this time everything sounds even more realistic and alive, making the atmosphere of the game noticeably deeper. The musical accompaniment skillfully emphasizes what is happening on the screen, also strengthening the emotional connection between the player and the fairy-tale world of Fumito Ueda.

Pros:

A perfect remake of the legendary game.

Each battle with a colossus is a small triumph of game design.

Visually, the game is stunning in every way.

The sound and music have become even more impressive.

Improved and expanded controls.

Finally, automatic saving has been added to the game.

Bonus content and additional challenges.

The game is completely translated into Russian.

A photo mode has been added to the game.

Minuses:

Problems with horse control persisted.

Shadow of the Colossus is an exemplary remake that takes us back to the distant past of the PlayStation 2 era, and allows us to once again experience long-forgotten emotions by living a small virtual life in a fantasy world full of creepy giants and deadly dangers.

The developers from Bluepoint Games have done a truly magnificent job, giving the game beautiful graphics, reworking the control scheme, adding all this with a wonderful photo mode and significantly improving the sound quality. If you've never played Shadow of the Colossus, don't hesitate to buy it as soon as you get the chance.

Similar games no longer exist in nature, so skipping this masterpiece is strictly not recommended. If you are already familiar with the 2005 original or the HD remake, this will be a great reason to replay the game in a new modern guise and refresh your memories.

Let's set the game 10 points out of 10, because this work of art simply cannot receive anything less from us.

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_Lemon_
Here we go again. But before I start responding specifically to your message, let's take a quick tour of image formats, because I really get the impression that outside of this comment thread, you've never heard of them, or rather the difference in them.
"The PNG format is a format in which compression occurs without loss. In this format, there are 3 color channels per pixel (RGB - red, green, blue), thereby full-color image formation without distortion is realized. By color display quality PNG format can be superior to JPEG, but the file size will also be larger."
"Format JPEG is a format that has color loss. The algorithm for working in this format is such that it compresses images with gradients very well (the colors of the first pixel in the gradient and the last are saved, and when displaying the image, all intermediate colors between these points are calculated), which makes it useful for storing images in a smaller size than in BMP format."
Moreover, in JPEG there is an option for saving with minimal losses (the quality will be almost identical to PNG or BMP, but it will also weigh no less). But on PS4 there is no way to adjust the level of image compression, so there is always one option that compresses images in 1080p resolution to 150-300kb. Screenshots in similar resolution in PNG weigh from 2.5 to 5 MB. And as we found out earlier, images are saved losslessly in PNG, so where does the weight of the image in JPEG go? Where do the whole megabytes go? Maybe JPEG still degrades the image so that it takes up less space?

Now the moment with PS4. An ordinary curling iron in its depths generates an image in a resolution of 1920x1080, which is 2,073,600 pixels. Simply put, all these pixels are transmitted via an HDMI cable without any compression (there can be no compression at this point, lol) to your screen. On your screen, these same 2,073,600 pixels look the same as the PS4 rendered them. Perhaps, due to incorrect monitor settings, at this moment you will see a lighter or darker picture (but this is not the fault of the console, it transmits colors correctly, this is the fault of the monitor settings), but the image quality will still be maximum, in every pixel there will be The same information that is given by the game is “registered”. And at this moment we press the Share button to take a screenshot in .PNG format, which saves the image losslessly, that is, it captures all the information that was on the screen at the moment. No less, no more (and where can more of it come from? Just where??), but precisely everything that is transmitted in each pixel to the screen. The output is all those 2,073,600 unique pixels.
In the case of saving a screenshot in JPEG format, the image is processed by compression algorithms in order to fit, for example, information weighing 5 megabytes in 300 kilobytes. This compression occurs, simply put, due to smearing and overlaying the colors that are embedded in the pixels on top of each other. Fewer unique colors -> Less information. The first to suffer are shades, small details and the edges of objects where the transition from one color to another occurs. I will show this below in your screenshots.

Now do you understand that when capturing in JPEG, the information that is not up-to-date is transferred to the screenshot, not the information that was originally transferred from the console to the screen? This means that the game is not shown as it is.

My task is to show the game, including in motion.
This is a good and correct aspiration. But to show the game in dynamics, you need to use the screen capture format without losing quality. The JPEG compression settings that are specified in the curling iron cannot provide this.

> it is better to take screenshots for all reviewed games under the same conditions.
> To prove that the game requires special conditions for screenshots to make it look better is to prove the failure of the game.
Well, I didn’t just bring you screenshots from Ancharted. The same mistakes are not only in the review of Colossi.

No. You made similar ones. Make a jeep and get on the move. Let's compare.
Why do it in JPEG if it doesn’t transmit the same picture that the PS4 outputs via HDMI to the screen? I can make you screenshots in this format without any problems, but why? This is not a real type of game. This is a 150kb compressed image that can be uploaded to Twitter. Precisely for instant transmission to social media. networks are just the same in PS4 and can be set as JPEG capture format.

The editors show the game as it is. If the user cannot accept it, the editors cannot do anything about it.
No, it doesn't show. I can't accept this because it's not true.

If you want, I'll do the same for you. Maybe this will convince you?
What is there to convince me of? It's just that you deliberately take screenshots not in the maximum quality that the console provides.

She doesn’t squeeze it even in PNG. What are you making an argument for?
Not in favor, but against JPEG. I’m saying that the curling iron then displays a clean image on the screen, and then the JPEG compresses it when captured.

PNG actually looks better. Simply better than the game itself.
This is unscientific. This is simply impossible. Prove how this happens? Does the format itself contain mechanisms that improve the graphics of console games?
The PNG image looks exactly the way the PS4 generates it.

And in this sense, I see that zhipeg is closer to the game itself.
This is impossible. If you don’t believe what I wrote above, you can read the specifications of this format yourself. It compresses the image, no matter how you look at it.

And you could spend another billion hours on this conversation. My conclusion will be exactly the same.
It's a pity. I’m ready to stop this conversation, because it already seems to me that you are simply trolling me.

Two screenshots taken one after the other. jipeg and png. Look for the difference
As I said above. Due to JPEG compression algorithms, image details are lost because... it mixes colors at their borders. For clarity, I increased your screenshots to 300%; there was no interference in quality.
Stones at minimum and maximum settings. It’s the fault of the zhipeg, and not the fact that one version was launched on the stove.

Here, Wander’s parts (straps) on his bracers disappeared, and the edges of his shirt and sword began to merge with his pants.

Etc. But in general, this screenshot of yours, even in zhpg, is relatively good, because... here compression artifacts are not superimposed on the motion blur that is present in the game in dynamics.
In PNG, even in dynamics with motion blur turned on, the clarity of static parts of the picture does not change, just as its saturation does not change. For example, a few more of my screenshots, which were not taken on purpose, but simply during the game. See how neat and natural motion blur looks. It’s impossible to even call it soap here.

And by the way. About filters and color scheme in photo fashion. I somehow didn’t notice right away when we just started the discussion, but all this can be turned on in the game settings during gameplay. That is, the entire color scheme will be in the actual gameplay, and these are not third-party tools that process the finished image.

Created by Team Ico studio. At the time, the game seemed like something completely new in terms of gameplay and storytelling. Six years later, a re-release of the game was released for the PlayStation 3, which, like the original, still caused only positive impressions, and therefore Sony decided to try its luck for the third time, releasing a remake of Shadow of the Colossus for the PlayStation 4 in 2018. Let's take a look , did Bluepoint Games (developer studio), 12 years after the release of the original game, manage to pleasantly surprise gamers again?

Plot

Before we start looking at the features of the remake, I would like to talk about the game itself and its key components. Firstly, the plot in the game is presented in an unusual format, which is now rarely used anywhere. We are shown an intriguing beginning, and then the whole narrative boils down to the fact that most of the story must be completed by our imagination. Fortunately, her excellent artistic style and unsurpassed musical accompaniment help her in this.

However, in order not to confuse anyone, let’s still figure out who we are playing for and what is our main goal as we progress. Shadow of the Colossus begins with a young man named Vander riding a horse named Agro with a dead girl. The hero brings the girl to an ancient temple (Sanctuary of Adoration), the path to which lies through a long bridge stretching from the outside world. It turns out that the girl's name is Mono, and death befell her as a result of sacrifice.

In the temple, Wander asks a certain entity named Dormin to revive the girl and reintroduce the missing soul into her lifeless body. The entity tells the hero that this is practically impossible, unless he can destroy the sixteen idols located in the temple. However, everything is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. Each idol has a living embodiment in the form of a colossus, living outside the temple. The hero is tasked with tracking down and destroying all the colossi.

After this, right up to the very end of the game, the plot begins to be presented in small chunks, from which the player must independently cobble together the overall concept of the in-game story. As the character travels, we can learn several interesting details. For example, Dormin was once a single whole, but his physical image was divided by a sorcerer, whom, by the way, we meet at a certain point during the passage.

To an unprepared player, at first the plot may seem extremely unsaid and incomprehensible, but in Shadow of the Colossus everything is like the series Dark Souls, you need to look in small details. It is important to note that the lion's share of interest during the passage is caused by the in-game world, which can be freely explored on horseback or on foot. Despite the fact that almost any characters are completely absent in the game world, with the exception of the colossi, it exudes liveliness and depth. Here and there we find the ruins of some lost civilization, explore ancient temples and independently recreate the lore of the game in our heads. Shadow of the Colossus, how very good book, makes the most of our imagination.

Gameplay

Those who will be playing Shadow of the Colossus for the first time may initially be a little confused about the gameplay. For example, you need to track down colossi with the help of light emitted by a sword and serving as a navigator. Gradually you get used to the mechanics, but that doesn’t stop them from being pleasantly pleasing. In this game we are not led by the hand or pointed in the places we need. Here you need to figure everything out on your own. We strongly recommend that you turn off hints before playing so as not to spoil the pleasure of turning on your ingenuity from time to time.

The puzzles in the game are hidden in the combat system, which combines several mechanics at once. First, after we have found the colossus, we need to know its weak points. Each enemy has them unique, and therefore the fights look interesting until the very end credits. Secondly, after we know the enemy's weakness, we must figure out how to approach him. Each colossus is a huge creature, reminiscent of a giant, and therefore it is sometimes very difficult to climb onto the enemy’s back and deal a decisive blow to him, especially at the first stage of the fight. By the way, this contains platforming mechanics that complement the combat system.

It is also worth noting that the game designers did an excellent job of thinking through the features of the colossi. One enemy flies, another jumps sharply, and the third does everything in turn. Thanks to this, it is impossible to work out one single tactic that affects all enemies, which will greatly please fans of a variety of battles. The fights may remind younger generations of gamers a bit of Dark Souls, where when fighting a boss you always have to learn its behavior first before getting the key to victory.

Each enemy has a health bar, and therefore it is important not only to strike, but also to monitor the strength of the attack. If you really want to do something special in the game, then you can kill the enemy even with a bow, but in this case you will have to be quite confused. There is no replaceable equipment as such; the game is primarily an old-school adventure game that does not have RPG elements. This actually explains the presence of endless arrows used by the main character.

Shadow of the Colossus cannot be called hardcore unless you select a high difficulty mode. In this case, the game reveals itself most strongly and will especially interest people looking for a specific challenge. The character has a health scale, and therefore any blow from the colossus can be fatal to the life of our hero. Because of this, you need to always be on the move, somersaulting and jumping if the enemy creates a shock wave.

Features of the remake

If anyone has played Shadow of the Colossus and is looking for a new experience from the game, we have good news: this game can provide them. The gameplay remains the same, but thanks to a significant improvement in the visual component, the game feels like something new and in no way outdated. The developers from Bluepoint Games tried not only to increase the resolution of the game, but also did a tremendous job on the three-dimensional models of objects. The horse, the main character, the details on his clothes, the small creatures that live in the in-game world and, of course, the colossi, now look completely new.

On the left is the original Shadow of the Colossus, on the right is the remake for PS4:

If you don't tell the person it's a remake old game, then many may even get the impression that Shadow of the Colossus is a completely new game with unique gameplay and advanced graphics. However, the features of the PS4 version of the game do not end with the graphics alone. Following the latest trends, game makers have equipped their product with a built-in photo mode that has many settings. There are so many image filters alone in the game that those who regret changing the wallpaper on their desktop will be pleasantly surprised. In this case, image filters are used not only in photo mode, but also during gameplay.

Another nice feature of the game is the ability to change graphics settings. As with other games, this setting is only available on PlayStation 4 Pro. We can make the picture clearer or increase the frame rate. If in most other games it is quite difficult to notice the difference between FPS and picture clarity, then in Shadow of the Colossus each setting is truly different from each other. When you turn on graphics mode, many fine details appear sharper, but the frame rate is noticeably reduced. If you increase the FPS, the game still looks quite beautiful, but the battles and camera rotation are much smoother.

What's the catch, some gamers will ask. The downside, as in the original Shadow of the Colossus, is hidden in the controls. Rotating the camera in the remake is almost as awkward as in the 2005 game. In the settings, of course, you can slightly optimize the camera for yourself, but in battles with monsters, and especially when jumping, all the shortcomings quickly come to light. The second disadvantage is riding a horse. Directing your horse in one direction or another is extremely inconvenient, and therefore sometimes you even want to move around the world of the game on your own two feet, forgetting about the faithful Agro (the horse’s name). Otherwise, the game turned out to be an excellent remake, which is ideal for those who missed this masterpiece on PS2 or PS3.

The return of one of the most unconventional action games in the history of the gaming industry.

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It's difficult to write about games that have already been called immortal classics by both gamers and critics. Released in 2005 Shadow of the Colossus amazed by the size of the giants and how all this could even work on the PlayStation 2. In 2018, after the huge enemies from God of War, open worlds "The Witcher" and recent "Zelda", hardly anyone will be surprised by such a game if they look at it superficially. But Shadow of the Colossus requires a much more thoughtful approach.

Trailer from E3.

I'll go out into the field with my horse in the morning

Japanese game designer Fumito Ueda is not used to making typical games. Each of his projects provides a unique gaming experience and tells an equally unusual tale. Vander's story was no exception. The game greets us with riddles right from the introductory video. The young man takes his dead girlfriend through the mountains and fields to some castle, where they will help him resurrect her. What happened to the girl? What kind of castle is this? Why does the hero have to kill giants to return his beloved? No one will chew anything.

Armed with a sword and a bow, riding our faithful horse Agro, we set off on our way to meet the first colossus. If you played the HD re-release on PS3 or even caught the original on PS2, then forget everything you saw there. On PS4 the project looks amazing and completely new. To ensure that all this beauty doesn’t go to waste, Shadow of the Colossus even added a photo mode.

But what hasn’t gone away are the problems with navigation in a rather vast world. Perhaps only we had this problem, but the trip to each new colossus was real torture. Our “compass” shows the direction, but we may be separated from our goal by mountains, abysses, or even different tiers on which a giant may be located.

The emptiness of the world is still there. Forbidden lands, apparently, are forbidden because no one lives there. Only lonely birds soar and lizards crawl past the hero. The world of Shadow of the Colossus is not like the typical open worlds of current generation games. Congenial Horizon Zero Dawn Although the world was empty, life was still in full swing in it. And here, on the way to a new goal, the player is not even accompanied by music, only the clatter of hooves and the rustling of grass.

But then we get to the colossi, and the fun begins.

I kill giants

As before, the enemies are striking in their size. B O Most of the monsters are hulks the size of a house. And finally the moment has come when the console hardware can pull out all the details at the level at which the developers wanted back in 2005, but then the frame rate could drop to 15 fps, and playing became... hmm... problematic .

Now, forget about it. Now the game works perfectly. The wool that the hero needs to cling to sways in the wind, all bone or stone growths are worked out to every roughness. The picture is clear, and the movements are smooth and lively.

But, alas, we did not come to admire the colossus, but to kill it, otherwise the local spirits will not bring back the life of our beloved. Everything here is the same as thirteen years ago - we climb onto the thug, look for a weak spot, plunge our magic blade into it several times, and we’re done. After defeating the giant, his lifeless body falls, shaking the earth. But we don't hear victory music. A sad melody plays, which evokes genuine regret for what has been done. However, there is no time to think about it, because we have already teleported to the castle, and the voice tells us where the next target is.

Who pulls the hero's strings?

The hero's interface has also been modernized. Stamina is now displayed as a yellow circle, which is pumped up as the game progresses, and when it starts to run out, a tick is turned on, preventing you from missing this dangerous moment if you are riding a colossus. The weapon indicator no longer constantly hangs in the right corner, but appears only at the moment of switching. The rest of the time we see for ourselves what the hero has in his hands.

Over the past ten years, nothing truly similar to Shadow of the Colossus has appeared. Melancholy open world, where no one guides the player and no one meets him. Huge colossi, each of which needs to be approached: some prop up the clouds with the top of their heads, some spend almost all their time in the air, and some, on the contrary, under water...

After all, Fumito Ueda's plot and style are visible to the naked eye. They don’t do that anymore, because Shadow of the Colossus doesn’t play itself, it challenges the player. Wander the hero or the villain? What awaits the girl Mono after fulfilling the conditions set by the local spirit Dormin? Once you decide to complete the game, you will remember the answers to these questions forever. And they will be by no means unambiguous.

Pleased

V good game from the past can be played on a modern console;
perfectly redesigned graphics;
advanced management.