Cover artwork I generate from the game data. I do not use publisher artwork.
Game profile
Shadow of the Colossus
The 2018 remake brings the melancholic masterpiece to the PS4 in full visual splendor. A lone rider scales sixteen gigantic colossi in an empty, open world to bring back a lost love.
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What kind of game this is
At its core this is Action / Adventure, set in a fantasy world. Visually it is going for realism, and the overall tone stays somewhere between light and heavy. The world is open, so wandering off and ignoring the main path is part of the deal. Sessions of an hour or two sit at the sweet spot here.
The difficulty is moderate and fair, demanding attention without punishing you for it. The narrative carries the whole thing, and the mechanics serve it. It is a single player experience from start to finish. It is available on one platform. It sits in the mid price bracket.
What stands out
- Gigantic boss fights
- Sublime loneliness
- Pure climbing mechanics
This fits you if
- exploring for its own sake is the point for you
- you want to live through a story, not just play a system
- you like getting lost and ignoring the main objective for hours
- the writing matters more to you than the mechanics
- you play alone and want a complete experience without other people
- you want to actually finish something for once, 12 hours and done
Look elsewhere if
- you skip cutscenes and want to get to the gameplay
- you want to play it side by side with someone
- you prefer a stylised look over realism
- you want either a pure challenge or pure relaxation, not the middle
What it costs you in time
About 12 hours in total. At three evenings a week and two hours each, you will be busy for roughly 2 weeks, or 6 sessions.
How the rating ranks
Critics settled on 93 out of 100, which puts it above 95 percent of the 1206 games here and at rank 50 overall. That is a strong score, comfortably above what most releases manage.
For comparison, Action averages 83 points across the database, so this one sits 10 points above its own genre. The figure rests on 384 collected ratings.
Released in 2018, so it has 8 years behind it. Usually cheap by now and the rough edges are long fixed.
The facts
- Release year
- 2018
- Genres
- Action, Adventure
- Playtime
- approx. 12 hrs.
- Difficulty
- Moderate, fair
- Story weight
- Carries the whole game
- Play with
- Solo
- Setting
- Fantasy
- Visual style
- Realistic
- Price bracket
- Mid price
- Platforms
- PlayStation
- Critic rating
- 93 / 100
Direct comparison
| Genres | Release year | Playtime | Critic rating | Price bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow of the Colossus | 2018 | approx. 12 hrs. | 93 | Mid price |
| South of Midnight | 2025 | approx. 12 hrs. | 86 | Mid price |
| The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past | 1991 | approx. 15 hrs. | 95 | Budget |
| Neva | 2024 | approx. 6 hrs. | 82 | Mid price |
If you liked this, try these
- South of Midnight Shared: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Shared: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, rated higher
- Neva Shared: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, shorter
- Realm of Ink Shared: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, longer
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Shared: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Shared: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, longer