(Press access at Playstation Experience was provided to Handsome Phantom by Sony)
With Shadow of the Colossus being such a legendary series, I was very excited at the idea of it coming to my current console of choice. I always knew how important the game was and how it had inspired many games since, but I had never taken the opportunity to give it a shot. It wasn’t until after I checked it out at PSX 2107 that the hype made sense.
This may be one of the best looking games I have ever seen on PS4 Pro. Even in the short time I had with the game I was blown away with the sprawling vistas and the beautiful structures. The developers really gave the people what we want on this one. There is a choice to run at 4K 30FPS or 1080p in 60FPS. Truth be told, I wish all “Pro supported” games did these two options exactly. Although I very much did enjoy the beautiful 4K, the 1080 would be my option of choice. Achieving 60FPS consistently on any console is always a thing of beauty.
Shadow of the Colossus truly is a site you need to see for yourself. The game was built from the ground up, not just reskinned. Anyone who doesn’t know that this is an older game will have a hard time finding out. In addition to the new coat of paint, this game also has a very nice modernized control option. At no point did I feel like the controls were not something that could have been put out today. Nostalgia sometimes tricks us into thinking that older games played better than they really did. However, when we go back, that’s simply not the case. This game is not going to be one of them. However, if you prefer the old control layout for a trip down memory lane – it’s there too as an option!
Because I have never played the game, I found myself wishing for a tutorial during the demo that I played. There will likely be one included in the final product.
The game gave me three colossus options. I picked the first one and ended up getting the big boy on the cover of the game. This battle was not only fun, but made me feel super badass. Very few games I have played have given me an option to try and take something down vastly large than I am. Pair with the epic music in the background and I felt like little Kratos.
After beating the beast all I could think of was “Who is next?”
The good news is we don’t have to wait very long to do just that. Shadow of the Colossus is set to release on February 6th 2018. This demo made me a believer and I think many bigger games could benefit from some sort of trial period – this one included. I know for a fact that the demo took me from being kind of interested to Shadow of the Colossus being a day one buy.
The only problem now is that wait. Cheers to the beginning of next year. Whether it is God of War or Shadow of the Colossus I know there will be a lot of big things being slain by a lot of small guys.
