Just when you think you know someone near and dear, they go and surprise you all over again. It's been some 12 years since Shadow of the Colossus' original release, and one remaster and a fresh new remake later it's lost absolutely none of its ability to awe. This is a game whose power hasn't diminished one iota in all that time, and in Bluepoint's exquisite remake it's a game with the capacity to spring a surprise or two, no matter how familiar you are with the original.
Not that anything has changed, per se, with the PlayStation 4 remake proving resolutely faithful to the 2005. It's been built from the ground up, but everything's just as you remembered it, and everything's just where you'd expect to find it. Guide protagonist Wanda up the cliffs as you make your way to the first colossus and there's that same clumsiness in his animations as he stumbles and fumbles for grip. Mount your horse Agro and there's that same slight unease in your motion, and there's that same eerie emptiness to be found out in the wilds beyond Mono's tomb.
And yet, when you encounter that first colossus - surely one of the most iconic gaming moments of the 21st century - it's like experiencing it all anew. That fur is denser and more detailed as it glistens in the light cast by Shadow of the Colossus' downbeat sun, and it all feels a little more alive in 4K and HDR enabled by a PlayStation 4 Pro. It's all enough to make you wince that little bit more when you plunge the blade into its skull having climbed the beast's back.
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