Shadow of the Colossus (2018)

I recently decided that now that I had a PS4 I should pick up the remaster of Shadow of the Colossus, a game I enjoyed first probably nearly a decade ago after I finally got my hands on a PS2. After playing on and off for months, I finally finished it last night. I had some thoughts as I was playing that I sort of just wanted to get out there. Not quite a review, more just sort of thinking about the game, how its aged, and the existence of the remastered version. I don't want to delve super deep into anything, so I figure some long bullet points'll do.

• What first struck me upon returning to the Forbidden Land was how fantastic it all looked. The team behind the game really put in the work to make a game that I had felt aged fairly well visually into a thing of beauty while fully capturing the style of the original. So props to them for that.
• The above said, it is a very faithful remaster. And that means little to no additions were made on the gameplay side of things. And I think that's where the game really shows its age. For those unfamiliar, the game takes a sort of open world style approach to things while still forcing you to fight the colossi in order. What became immediately evident to me as I played was just how barren the world of Shadow of the Colossus really is. Your goal is to slay the colossi, and there is very little else to do here. Now, over 15 years after its release, it's jarring to have an open world that so large yet so entirely void of anything interesting to do. Despite the world itself being intriguing and beautiful, tempting me to explore, I just couldn't bring myself to do it, because I knew that there was absolutely nothing to be gained from it. No interesting collectibles, no lore bits, nada. There are some lizards you can kill, some fruit you can eat, and I guess little shiny things that don't seem to do all that much and that's it. Yet the game's setting begs for some deep interesting backstory. Even the addition of little tidbits of lore here and there, maybe slabs of stone with engravings to find, would have me scouring the land in search of them, but there's really nothing. It's a shame. Some might see it as a virtue for the game to be so laser-focused on its goal, but to me it felt just a little starved.
• Continuing on the thought of the game feeling outdated, I've gotta point out the way Wander and more specifically Agro, his horse, control. On top of the world offering little incentive to explore, the controls you use to navigate it make doing so an absolute chore. Riding Agro is a massive pain because he takes an eternity to get up to max speed and another to wind down to a halt. Not to speak of * shudder * turning him. Any attempt to slightly adjust his position either did nearly nothing or completely changed the direction he was facing, and when the auto camera (which it seemed I couldn't turn off?) swings as wildy as it does in this game, it makes it impossible to get a good look at much of the gorgeous scenery the game has to offer. Disappointing. Instead of exploring I found myself wanting to get from the Shrine of Worship to each colossus as quickly as I could. And Wander himself isn't much better. It's in part due to personal error, but in the final fight I fell something like 6-7 times simply due to the clunkiness of the climbing and jumping-off controls. You can make the comparison to the original Silent Hill games which likely were clunky on purpose for atmosphere and tension in combat, but when it directly gets in the way of enjoyment is where I draw the line.
• All that said, despite everything I think the game still stands strong as one of the best examples of games as art. The story while not overly complex is tragic and holds powerful themes of hope and despair. In a way the minimalism of the game serves to accentuate this, though I don't find that the sacrifice is worth the cost of my desire to explore. I think most players will find themselves stopping at some point, if not even at the first colossus, and wondering Am I doing the right thing? Do these beautiful creatures deserve the fate I am forcing upon them? It's a game that provokes powerful emotions with little text or spoken dialogue.

I think because of how strong the games themes and world are, it absolutely warranted a remaster, if only to bring its story to a new generation with a beautiful fresh coat of paint. I don't think it's aged well at all when it comes to gameplay, but I suppose I'm more happy with little change to the game than I would be if they added a massive amount of unnecessary junk.