You know the feeling when you are in a gaming company, a debate begins and a classic is mentioned, and you just cling your head because you have never tried this cult title for your big shame. And while others strongly argue why X is better than Y, and moment Z is the best part of the game, you are already wondering how many times you will have to be uncomfortable to silence before the story moves to the next topic.
My Achilles heel for years was Shadow of the Colossus, one of the classics of the PlayStation 2 era - although I played and crossed Ico, I never tried Shadow of the Colossus. Fortunately, the happy stars and the hungry Sony decided to throw away the remake of this classic, and the job was handed to top quality Bluepoint Games surgeons who have refined the rejuvenation of old games.

What Bluepoint did not touch is a visual identity; it simply feels that this work of Team Ico has been transformed into a new look - from the unique appearance of the characters to the recognizable color palette. The entire visual identity is still articulate, every carefully planned view of the distant landscape is visible and they just miss the signature in the corner of the image to sell it as a work of art. Fortunately, in the remake, we've got a pretty advanced photo mode with numerous options, so all the artists in us can play with beautiful staff and create some of the best virtual world images.

No Shadow of the Colossus is not just a game with beautiful graphics, it's a lot more than that. The approach to the story is one of the biggest refinements today - without over-characterizing characters, deep background history and a million characters. The tale is similar to fairy tales, where a hero named Wander came to the goddamn earth on his faithful horse Agro in his arms, wearing Mono, a young girl unconscious and asking Dormin, the mystical being we can only hear, to revive Mono. Dormin tells him that he must defeat all the Colossus, the huge monsters wandering in this deserted part of the world, and then help him in his goal.

Particularly unusual is the simple design of the story and the world, without the desire to say anything too much to you. No time is known whether a Mono girl, a sister, or something of a third character, we do not have excessive characterization of Wanderer to justify his path and choice, as well as no major NPCs in a huge map. It is up to you to understand the story you want, but I promise you, the end will certainly not leave you indifferent and will probably change your view of the game as a medium.

Even going to Colossus himself is poetic, by simply raising the sword in the air, the light will show us the way to him, leaving us a space to explore the landscape while galloping through the desert, but a wonderful piece of the world.

The part of climbing and fighting is pretty tactical, where we have to keep watch over the stamina because only a certain part of the time can be kept on the fur. Safe place needs to be looked for in parts where we can fit and fill the stamina, but this is always a potential risk since Colossus can easily relieve you with yourself with a sudden movement. As I read, one of the promoted things is the controls, which are remastered much more meaningful and less effortless for longer battles.

The whole encounter with Colossus is a real little ceremony, with beautiful music specific to that moment, wildlife movement and the first encounter. The more work moves, the killing of these enormous monsters makes it more and more unfair, even to the extent that it will provoke sorrow when the last blow to this weird, yet graceful creature is in one way.

Perhaps the only major disadvantage that I can count on is the camera itself in the fight that can make it even more difficult. I'm not sure about the Bluepoint team's intention, to stay true to the original camera as a part of the challenge or simply a bad system, but I'd like this segment to be better done.

For the rest I have to go ashore, ritually bury a controller in the garden and ask the gods of gaming to forgive me because I have not played Shadow of the Colossus until now, because there is no justification for this act. Every moment in it is a small gaming victory, whether you look at a beautiful visual style or follow a poetic story that looks superficial, but carries so many layers and emotions and lets you think about the existence and the boundaries we are ready to go. There are a few titles I would recommend absolutely to anyone, but this one certainly is one of them. The Bluepoint team has faithfully transmitted the original in modern technologies and it would be a real sin to miss Shadow of the Colossus if you own a PS4.