We played 13 hours and only finished the prologue at the following link.

This may read like a review, but it’s not. The last time I played Shadow Of The Colossus was when it released – on my birthday in 2005. That was it. I never went back and replayed it and I haven’t even started on the “remaster” that was released this week. By the way, we tend to think of these video game remasters as being a few touch ups to display on larger and higher definition screens with other quality of life improvements, but this particular remaster was built from the ground up to do all of that and has now set the bar on how remasters should aspire to be – just to make that clear.

Anyway, Shadow Of The Colossus is a game that I hold very dear and I think a lot of other gamers do as well and they all have their reasons. It’s a phenomenal game with nothing but boss battles. That’s it. There’s 16 of them in total and that’s all you do. Go out and bring down the Colossus one by one. It’s just you, them, your horse, and a massive wide open land to explore. No other inhabitants besides a few birds here and there. And maybe that’s the appeal to me…the connection. The isolation and solitude of that and there’s very little in the way of dialogue because it is just you and these giant beings. There’s a story being told as well, and I refuse to spoil that here, but the ending of the game is less to do with the story told and more to do with the journey getting there. It’s…complicated to tell without spoiling. And, it’s a feat most games would have trouble reaching and I’m not so sure anyone else has tried it before because of what publishers feel that we, as gamers, need. But they aren’t looking at what we need, they are looking at what we’ll pay for and what we’ll keep coming back for again and again.

Because they don’t want us to pick up a game in 2005 only to play it a single time and never return. And yet this game still remains top of mind when it comes to some of our most cherished experiences in gaming.