Using simple things like the ability to manually grab wool and climb up it, the game's authors create complex and very entertaining battles. You feel like a Lilliputian trying to rise up to Gulliver. The light reflected from the sword reveals vulnerable spots on the enemy's body. Hitting these points somehow weakens the enemy, reducing his health and opening up new approaches and ways of acrobatic interaction with him.
The correct use of terrain works in much the same way: you can hide from a huge monster by forcing it to crouch to the ground so that you can grab onto its fluffy beard. Sometimes you have to lure huge opponents into dangerous surroundings, scare them with fire, or attract attention with bow shots.
An important component of the gameplay is the balance of the character's stamina. Climbing and hanging on colossi will not work indefinitely: you need to constantly monitor the strength indicator, because if you fail, your hero will fly down from a great height, and you will have to start the difficult path up from the beginning. Stamina is pumped up a little automatically after defeating the next boss, but you can further improve this indicator by finding and eating white-tailed lizards. Directly in battles, you can restore strength by standing on the flat elements of the giant’s body - in those moments when he is trying to catch his breath.
Each battle with colossi is truly unique. We especially remember the flying and underwater species that lift the hero into the air or drag him to the bottom. Not only do they have a memorable design, but they are also full-fledged characters, although they don’t speak a word. And when they die, you feel the bitterness of the crime committed.
On PlayStation 2 The game was amazing. Imitation of HDR lighting, voluminous fur and cinematic blurring during sudden movements of heroes and the camera, along with grandiose landscapes and unique enemies - it was hard to believe that the developers were able to make outdated hardware produce such a beautiful picture. Unfortunately, restrictions PS2 were still noticeable - the game slowed down noticeably, giving out about 20 FPS.
The subsequent port in five years PS3 it could hardly be called successful: when transferring the game to Cell, the programmers lost some of the lighting effects, and many textures, instead of being accurately redrawn, were roughly passed through a clarity filter, which is why objects in the game were covered with unpleasant dots. At the same time, the draw distance remained at a low level, and despite some improvements in terms of wool, anti-aliasing and stability, the remaster was perceived more as a hastily made port, rather than a full-fledged re-release that fans of creativity deserved Fumito Ueda. This was especially annoying due to the constant transfers The Last Guardian.
Let's figure out how Sony manages to sell fans the same game for the third time
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We are familiar with the work of Team Ico from , And. All three games have a cult status and a number of similar features, and are also probably united into a single universe (but this is not certain). Moreover, they are essentially completely separate finished works. And yet it is precisely the main masterpiece of the studio. So it’s not surprising that this is the third time they’ve sold it to us.
Surely among our readers there are people who PS2 seen only in pictures, but at the time PS3 were at that age when shooters look much more attractive than the incomprehensible works of Japanese masters. So let's briefly go over the key features of the studio's other games, since they can be counted on one hand.
Works Team Ico - This is such an arthouse from the world of video games. There is a possibility that we are living in a virtual reality developed by these guys. Look out the window right now: this is the gray-brown color scheme that dominates the studio's games. If you have a snowstorm, this is generally ideal.
The second feature is the total loneliness of the main characters. In each of the games, there are two creatures on your screen almost all the time, but other than them in the entire world you will not find a single friendly - or even neutral - non-player character. The connection between the main character and the companion in this case especially highlights the emptiness of the surrounding world.
The third feature is a feeling of guilt, instilled in the player from the first minutes. The main character is literally used by a certain voice, forcing him to kill the colossi, which, in general, did not bother anyone, calmly walking through the meadows of the Forbidden Lands, until a man named Wander came up with his sword and horse. His ultimate goal is undoubtedly noble: he is trying to revive his girlfriend, who evil people sacrificed. For himself, Vander had long ago decided that he made it clear with his short “It doesn’t matter” in response to the message that the price he would pay for the services of the local deity could be terrible. But it’s up to the player to kill giant animals - and bear the burden of responsibility for their actions.
Actually, apart from killing Colossi, there is absolutely nothing to do in the game at first glance. There are sixteen giant creatures in total and they appear one after another, which, given the huge seamless world of the Forbidden Lands, gives us kilometers of space inhabited only by lizards and birds. The whole game goes like this: we received a tip on the Colossus from a mysterious deity, we climb on a horse and gallop, gallop, gallop, guided by the local GPS in the form of a beam of light from the protagonist’s sword. Along the way we admire the local beauty and curse the clumsy horse.
Each Colossus is a huge moving puzzle. Most of our opponents are similar in height to a residential building, through which we will have to crawl in search of weak spots in order to poke them with a sword. Having successfully poked the monster, we return to the Temple and receive the next order. We jump, we climb onto the monster, we poke, we are transported to the temple, we get the next tip, we jump, we climb, we poke... Add to this two long story videos at the beginning and end of the game and you get a cult game with millions in sales.
If ever on a dark night in a deserted place you are surrounded by fans Xbox One, which will talk about backward compatibility with Xbox 360, remind them about for PS4. The game has been almost completely remade. She looks great in UHD resolution on Playstation 4 Pro, maintains a stable framerate of 60 FPS and will even prompt you to enable HDR if your TV supports it. But most importantly, the developers got rid of the dunghill-colored filter, which they retained in the HD re-release for Playstation 3. Now in the game you can find a green field, a yellow desert and water the color of... water. This is a big step forward and, in fact, it is very important, because previously game screenshots could only scare children, but now they even motivate them to buy. This is truly the best HD re-release we've ever seen.
But the most important thing is the fact that such games really need to be re-released. went on sale just a little over 10 years ago, but today it is absolutely impossible to look at it without tears. Emulators, backward compatibility - any attempt to force a modern gamer to run the original and, moreover, go through it from beginning to end, is doomed to failure. It's too outdated. But the UHD remaster will attract people, they will start playing and will be able to live a very beautiful and tragic story, get a gaming experience that is no longer done today for several reasons.
The other day, modern Britons were shown old films about James Bond. The public was outraged. Something like this: the main defender of the Crown, the legendary British Superman turned out to be vulgar, sexist and racist. Modern youth simply cannot watch this. The story is a classic story about Lady in Trouble. No one really asked the girl if she wanted to die as a ritual sacrifice. No one even asked if he wanted to be resurrected. This is old good fairy tale, which you and I are given to live independently. A fairy tale in the style of the Brothers Grimm, but still very good and instructive.
Now not a single major publisher will dare to make a game with such a story: they are all very careful and sensitive to making sure they don’t offend anyone. And with re-releases of games everything is a little simpler. Thanks to them, such terribly politically incorrect stories reach the modern player, allowing them to slightly dilute the flow of depressingly boring and colorless stories with a clearly counted number of men, women, transgender people and other genders of various colors and body types represented on our planet. Variety of this is good, but it would be nice sometimes to see a simple story about Man and Woman. AND Horse.
All in all, Team Ico made a masterpiece, and Bluepoint, the authors of the reissue, did exactly the same excellent job in technological terms. This is truly the best re-release we've seen.
How do you feel about reissues? Do you think the modern gaming industry needs more re-releases of cult projects?
Throughout the existence of reissues Shadows of the Colossus (and this is from the time of its release on PS3) I personally have not seen a single negative opinion, bad review or low rating of this game. And now with its release on PS4 It was my turn to try out this creation.
A little story from life:
As a child I had a game disc for the second PS. At that time, as far as I can remember, I had completed only two colossi. And then the dog chewed the box and the disk because I left it on the floor. This was my first encounter with the game. 
And what can I say about the game after so many years? Well, I’ll start with the main thing - don’t rush to buy it because of the screams" Masterpiece!"on every corner. No, no, and no again. No matter how much you praise her, no matter how much you lick her, you will have to make a decent amount of concessions in order to enjoy the gameplay. No matter where I look, everyone either misses these moments , or they mention them in passing. Which seems wrong to me, because a person who spends his money on a game, after a ton of read text and hours of watched reviews and gameplay, will be surprised by what awaits him. Surprised, not in the best sense. And whether he will like it game after all this? Did I like it? Let's go in order.
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I will not go into a bunch of details, which, most likely, have already been known to most for a long time. I will only raise topics that are significant to me, which, in my opinion, do not often come up in discussions Shadows of the Colossus
Camera. Oh this camera. Asians have some kind of personal vendetta with her. And again - I heard about its problems in reviews, but the way they were described does not even come close to reflecting the reality. I've played a lot of games with a tight camera and I was ready... I thought I was ready.
So that you understand: the game has an optional collecting element. There are fruits on trees that increase your maximum health, and lizards that increase your maximum stamina. And if fruits are easier to find, ( although not always, because green fruit does not stand out much in green foliage) then lizards are another story. They move often, they are small, they get lost in textures, they end up hiding. But the most important thing is that the lizards and fruits are above you, that is, you need to raise the camera to find them. Sounds easy? Yes, that's just it No. After all, the camera in the game always strives to return to the horizon position. It doesn't have a static position when you look up. To do this, you need to find the ideal position of the stick, in which the gaze does not continue to go higher, but does not start to go back.
Why was this done? You're doing a remake of the game. Yes, you tried to meticulously preserve every element of the gameplay, but would the game be much worse if I could control the camera like a human being? Searching for the above-mentioned things is already not easy, but with this camera I completely abandoned this idea. Yes, you can control the camera normally if you aim with a bow, but then you cannot move. That is, don’t run around among the trees looking for the next fruit. And it's quite annoying.
The second point, which greatly hurt me personally and, most likely, could not be corrected by a similar approach to re-release ( This means a literal transfer of the game design of the first part) - invisible walls. They are sometimes placed so unobviously that you, as a player, find yourself in a situation where you have spent last minutes 5 climbing a cliff to look around, but at some point the character simply refuses to jump higher. And it’s kind of a shame. After all, the views in the game are truly breathtaking, the beauty is simply colossal in size, which makes you feel incredibly small in this huge world. And so you want to climb higher to feel all this coverage, all the grandeur, but the game says - " No, guy, grab Andryukha by the mane and jump from the village not all 4 directions".
Battles with colossi. The main element of the game, its most important part, was implemented so clumsily at times that I almost flew the gamepad into the wall out of disappointment several times. Yes, the character’s sticky behavior and heavy control were left on purpose, but I’m talking about something else. Again, let's look at an example. Some colossi have weak points at the junction of two planes, at the bend. And then the character under your control begins to shake a lot. The creature itself may stand completely motionless, but for some reason the hero will spin in place like a propeller. I almost went crazy on the fourth colossus, since the character agreed to stick the sword normally only at certain points. A little to the right, a little to the left - and I managed to make a weak blow, and then I was again shaken from side to side. And this is incredibly annoying, considering that at the moment when you have already figured out how to get to the weak point, when you have overcome all the difficulties, you have to spend a lot of time just fighting with the pixels. I also play on high difficulty and several times it happened that after falling due to such a defect, the character was successfully killed and this whole “fascinating” process had to be repeated all over again. How much joy there was... 
Yes and in principle AI sometimes it crashes. Several times it happened that the enemy simply did not make the movement that would allow me to climb on him. The underwater colossus swam around me for about 5 minutes, and only then deigned to attack in order to expose me. And I'm not even talking about your faithful horse - Agro. Although people know him as Andryukha. So Andrei is quite... specific. It is also a very important part of the gameplay and its control is as cool and exciting as it is clumsy and awkward. But again, this is an exact transfer rather than a defect. But his behavior at times makes you ask him a couple of questions. As if - Andryukha once got lost in the forest. Seriously - he just couldn't get out of it. It’s difficult to ride it among a bunch of trees, so I decided to walk. Coming out of the forest, I began to call him. And I called... and called... and called. I had already come to terms with the fact that I was left without a stallion, when I decided to try again and then I saw him galloping towards me in the distance, the only thing missing was romantic music.
Well, more than once it happened that I needed to dismount for a second, but the horse decided to run as far as possible at the same moment when I dismounted. And no matter how much I scold Andryukha now, the game creates such an atmosphere of loneliness and detachment that even after all these antics, when this beautiful black horse returns you are not angry with him, but think to yourself " Andryukha, whore... well, okay, let's gallop". 
In general, in the game you will have to swear and get angry at such moments more than once. This is a game from the " Not for all"in the most literal sense. It is not for selected soulful people, one cannot say" Just give you KaLo Dyuti, you don’t understand anything". It doesn’t have a high barrier to entry, no, that’s not the point. It’s just that if you are willing to endure the disadvantages of the gameplay of the 2000s, all of the above subtleties, if you like meditative gameplay, when most of the time you just jump until the next battle, then this game for you. It's been a long time since I felt so good in a game, just slowly clopping on a horse and looking around. The game makes you feel your size not only by the height of the next colossus. This is achieved by the music, architecture, landscape, lighting and the overall atmosphere of the game And I felt this irritation while fighting these giants because I was completely captivated by what was happening. The game so strongly conveys what it strives to convey that while passing the underwater colossus, I was truly scared, since I have bathophobia. At the moment, when the creature pulled my character deep under the water and I had to surface with the last drops of stamina (and the character is far from the fastest swimmer) - I literally felt my heart pounding. 
So I can say that Shadow of the Colossus I really like it, but that doesn't mean I don't see why it might piss off most players. Think twice before buying, but remember - if you like it and accept its shortcomings, it will give you a unique experience.
Thank you for your attention. Play good games.
Released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 console Shadow game of the Colossus became an overnight cult. 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 calls on 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 " 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.
