A different take on Shadow of the Colossus

In the tired old basement of a glorious gaming bar with cocktails on our flanks, my friend and I dusted off the Playstation 2 in front of us. As it spluttered to life, we spotted Shadow of the Colossus amongst the debris, and naturally we inserted the disc.

Looking at all the reviews and all the immensely great things we’d heard about the game, we eagerly anticipated playing a true classic. As a warrior whose lover has been sacrificed, we steal a sacred sword, travel to the forbidden lands and haplessly aim to massacre giants so that she may be resurrected and their love restored. It’s a shame that my love for the game doesn’t extend as far as his undying love does.

The world is far-reaching and you always begin your hunt from the altar. It’s seamlessly connected, enabling one to roam around the arid deserts, lush green-land, rocky mountainsides and azure lakes with the comfort of knowing that you can’t really get lost. Another nice feature is the way that your character’s sword can be held up to the sun and a bright beam of light will kindly guide you toward your next victim, it allowed us to get on with the task at hand without any hitches – or so we thought.

The first task was to actually hop onto our faithful steed. It should have been a swift press of a button and we were ready to canter our way out of the starting zone. However it soon deteriorated into our character jumping into the horse repeatedly, clipping textures, and genuinely just looking a bit daft. After jumping at it a certain number of times from a number of different angles – with run-ups and without – we managed to clamber on.

We’re galloping our way to our first colossus. He stumbles into our view and we can’t help but feel intimidated. The art style is incredible and the craftsmanship of its appearance is reminiscent of the care and attention brought to each boss in the Dark Souls series. It towers above us and we are a little lost as to what to do. Eventually we figure it out and attempt to climb up the fur/moss on its back. Being essentially the core mechanics behind the game, you’d think it would be a simple process: climb up its back, watch the stamina bar deplete, relax on one of the conveniently placed platforms that jut out of its back, watch stamina bar rise steadily, continue climbing, and jam your sword into the sections which are glowing (indicative of a weak spot).

Unfortunately the colossus doesn’t want to be stabbed in the head and makes things a lot more difficult for you. He’ll swing his head back and forth or just flail around in general, almost as if you’re some annoying fly who just won’t go away. The first time you clamber onto his back is an exhilarating feeling. You’re launched into the air all of a sudden and you’re monitoring the stamina bar with clenched teeth as you desperately scramble towards the weak spot. What hampers the experience is the control scheme – or rather, the response from the game. When you’re on top of a colossus, things can get a bit heated, especially if you’re jamming the analogue stick to the left, and your character decides otherwise. It’s excruciating and sometimes infuriating as you will your character to move in a direction and he just doesn’t want to co-operate. This was only the beginning.

I understand that the intensity of the situation as you’re flung about like a ragdoll is part of the game. It’s thrilling and part of the fun. The laughter it brought us – aside from the occasional weeping – was unparalleled.

As we moved through the game, encountered more environments and more bosses I couldn’t help but feel that certain elements were marring the experience.

Fond memories lie in a section whereby my friend wished to run across a bridge structure, jump from the edge, land on the side of another structure and then proceed to jump from this to a new area. There was a lake below so falling was no real issue. However we found that the lake proved to be a hidden boss, even stronger than a colossus. Again, the game made things more difficult for us, in a section which should have been fairly simple. Jumping across took a number of years, and was only made more difficult by the fact that our character had an inability to swim just a little faster. You could argue that it was our own incompetency that caused us to have so much trouble. Sure, we weren’t exactly masters of the game, but the majority of other people who would have, or will play it are going to be the same as us – sitting in a basement, with cocktails, happy to be average at the game. It shouldn’t take a master to get through sections that aren’t central to the game.

Later in the game the bosses were much more creative, with environmental interactions and the use of the bow. There should be a a smooth feeling when drawing the bow, but it ends up feeling a bit tangled. It’s more of a hindrance than anything as you stand rooted to the ground and struggle to bring your cursor off the floor – or some other new found direction – and actually shoot the area you want. All the while the colossus has probably decided that you’r not worth their time and just clomp off in the opposite direction.

Examples of the environmental interactions included luring the colossi into attacking a certain area and lowering their defences in the progress. At one stage we hid from a colossus as it searched for us, before proceeding to jump off our horse and onto its fur. Even airborne colossi were to be lured from the sky and courageously jumped upon. This was where the game shone in terms of engagement. You felt like the colossi were sentient and you became enveloped in the game world, as you tried to figure out just how you were going to clamber up its fur.

Despite the fact that it was thrilling the first three or so times, the novelty began to wear off. It became a repetitive loop of finding the colossus, finding some way to lure the colossus, then climbing onto fur, struggling to keep my sanity, before finding its weak spot and jabbing your sword into it.

Shadow of the Colossus was a strange experience. Viewing it from a 2005 perspective, it was certainly a spectacular and unique game that showcased some glorious graphical detail, a sense of scale not normally achieved in games and a divergence from the usual “hack ‘n slash” or shooter genres. Perhaps playing the game back then would have given me a completely different view of the game. However, in 2015, the game just felt clunky. It was great fun for all the wrong reasons.

Shadow of the Colossus to many gamers was an exceptional experience then, and even now. Unfortunately the magical moments and ground-breaking content were hampered by the gameplay and not the game itself, which was a great surprise to me.

Shadow of the Colossus was originally released on PS2, and remastered on PS3. Buy it now on Amazon