Geek Pub Talk

While I’ve had the PS3 remaster of Shadow Of The Colossus on my machine since it came to the PS Plus service, I haven’t played it since I finished my first playthrough on the original PS2 version.  While I had wanted to go back and see the improvements made to the PS3 version, nothing pushed me to do so until my flatmate recently borrowed my PS2 version and we started talking about it.    The plan was to stay roughly at the same point my flatmate was at but a couple of free afternoons made me charge ahead.  There is something remarkably satisfying about finally toppling these creatures.

For those that haven’t heard of the game, its a series of sixteen boss encounters.  You play as Wanda/Wander (never sure which one is right) and your aim is to take down the colossi so you can resurrect a woman called Mono.  This is made possible by an entity called Dormin who speaks to you from the skies.  The game area is made up of various different areas from forests to deserts to lakes.  The only enemies in the game are the sixteen colossi and some harmless lizards that can be found roaming in areas, which could make the travel time between these seem boring but I often found myself straying away from just going straight to the next destination and seeing what was down a different path.  Luckily you can use your sword to find the direction of the next creature as the sunlight reflects into a beam to pin point its location.  Once you come face to face with the enemy, it then turns into a puzzle of how to get to the weak point and stab the hell out of it.  Some are as tall as buildings, some fly and some hide underground.  There is a nice variety in the design of the puzzles to get to the creatures weak point.  Even if you do stumble into the solution by accident sometimes.  Then there is the frustration of only needing to get one more hit in and being shaken off and having to perform the act again.

For the most part, the game holds up really well.  This is probably due to the work on the remaster.  I do remember the frame rate being all over the shop on the PS2 version.  I amlost feel like I could hear my old PS2 yelling “argh!  its too much!” while playing.  I can’t imagine how bad the frame rate would have been in its original mulitplayer incarnation.  I’m sure the graphics have been tweaked up here and there but its the art style that continues to look really good all these years on.  Shame they never managed to get an original game out on the PS3.

One of the things I really wanted to this time around was to visit the secret garden.  Then I found out you had to finish the game four times over to max out your grip to do it.  Youtube it is then!