Format: PlayStation 3
Developer: Team Ico
Publisher: Sony Computer ENtertainment
Age rating: PEGI 12
Released: 30 September 2011
It’s easy to be cynical about high-definition remakes of last-generation games. Many are little more than opportunistic cash-grabs, while others are more sensitively updated. Regardless of the approach, they can be a force for good, allowing people who missed these titles on their original release to experience them anew. Often, the most interested parties are those who were there at launch and want the opportunity to revisit their gaming past with the added bonus of sharper graphics.
The hazy, dreamlike feel of both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus might ostensibly seem to benefit less from an HD makeover than their peers. But play the PS2 versions on a modern TV set and the look is not so much soft-focus as unfocussed, a mess of fuzzy shapes and muddy textures that does Fumito Ueda’s original vision no favours at all.
At times, the crispness of the visuals occasionally betrays the last-generation origins of both games, though this is most noticeable in the infrequent cutscenes as the camera moves in for a closer, less flattering look. Elsewhere, they remain startlingly attractive, with HD picking out individual strands of fur and beams of light. In motion, everything is that bit smoother, with any frame-rate drops – previously most noticeable during colossus encounters – all but wiped out. Surround sound, 3D support and a suite of making-of videos are the icing on an already delicious cake.
Of the two games, perhaps surprisingly, it’s ICO that has aged most gracefully. While the once groundbreaking animation now looks a little clumsy in these days of full body motion capture, it remains a starkly beautiful experience. It’s also a mass of contradictions: its castle environment is forebidding yet constantly encourages exploration, and there’s something oddly artful about its guilelessness in combat and platforming. You are, after all, playing a clumsy young boy, whose awkward swings as he fends off shadowy enemies feel as authentic as his stumbling gait.
Meanwhile, Yorda, the girl joining you in your attempted escape, needs constant encouragement and the reassurance of a hand to hold, yet her frailties make the central relationship more affecting. The brief periods the two are separated induce a genuine sense of concern for Yorda’s wellbeing, despite her often being a hindrance to your own exit strategy. Beyond this emotional core, there are myriad grace notes that make ICO special, like the barely-perceptible tremor from the controller as you pull Yorda along, or the gentle beauty of the save music as the pair sit side-by-side on stone seats. At around six hours long, it’s short, but irresistibly sweet.
By contrast, Shadow of the Colossus isn’t afraid to dream a little bigger. The sixteen behemoths you must slay to resurrect a loved one provide bursts of dramatic intensity after lengthy horseback rides across a bleak, barren land. It shares a visual style with ICO, the control scheme is near-identical and there are hints to how the two worlds are connected, but otherwise the two could hardly be more different.
There’s a sense of ritual about Colossus, a more traditional, game-like structure that can prove extremely moreish. Defeat one colossus, and you’ll be tempted to immediately move onto the next, even given that the journey may be long and the battle itself rather arduous. Each of these towering creatures is a self-contained puzzle, a walking conundrum to solve, as you firstly work out how to clamber aboard the monster and then to reach its weak points.
As you plunge your sword in for the final time, there’s a real conflict of emotion – most will experience a blend of triumph, relief and sadness, the latter coming through strongly when defeating those which didn’t attack first. Yet the fights themselves are a mix of exhilaration and frustration. You’ll fall, get trampled, crushed, drowned and zapped, yet the thrill of clinging on for dear life as these enormous monsters shake and shudder to throw you off is almost unparalleled, not least thanks to a sublime orchestral soundtrack. The camera defaults to the most visually appealing angle rather than the most helpful perspective, but that’s a price worth paying for the frequently astonishing spectacle.
Experienced afresh, it’s noticeable that most of the highlights come in the first half. A sword-wielding monster is followed by a head-scratching equine encounter and a heart-stopping airborne battle with a banking, swooping avian beast. It’s impossible not to hold your breath as a gigantic eel drags you underwater, as an insistent chime shows your oxygen supply is about to run out. But later colossi retread old ground, occasionally requiring the kind of exacting movements that the controls and camera can make difficult. Still, there can be few more extraordinary moments in gaming than the sequence where you leap from your galloping steed to board the grounded number 13. And, as mentioned before, you can do all this without the hardware wheezing and groaning under the weight of its makers’ ambition.
So, two superb games, packaged together with a suite of enhancements that help provide the optimal way to experience them. Whether you’re new to this unique pairing or you’ve played one or both before, this splendid collection is pretty much a compulsory purchase.
Pre-order Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection (Amazon UK)
