Shadow
Of The Colossus

Shadow Of The Colossus (2005) is an action-adventure game where you play a young man who enters a forbidden land to defeat sixteen massive beings to restore the life of a girl he cares about. It sounds like any other video game, although in fact, Shadow of the Colossus stands apart in many ways.

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The landscape is vast and inviting, bereft of life apart from the huge monsters you hunt. There are no towns or dungeons to explore, no characters with whom to interact, only the Colossi to hunt. Each one has to be located with only the shining guidance of your sword and a rough map. To defeat them you must work out how to climb onto them and attack their vulnerable spots while being tossed around like a cat on a bear.

With its minimalist visual style and orchestral score, the game offers an experience that is as mournful and sad as it is full of excitement and adrenaline. Killing the Colossi almost feels like a mistake when you achieve it if it were not for the girl you must save.

This was released in a variety of iterations and forms part of a series of artistic games from developer Team Ico :

• Ico (2001) on PlayStation 2
• Shadow of the Colossus (2005) on PlayStation 2
• Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (2011) HD version on PlayStation 3
• Shadow of the Colossus (2018) remastered version on PlayStation 4
• The Last Guardian (2016) on PlayStation 4

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Our examiner, Jonah Monaghan, first checked Shadow Of The Colossus 4 years ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 3 months ago.