Shadow of the Collosus

[Hitman81]

Ok I've now tried to play this on PS2 and PS4 and seriously what in the fuck is wrong with the controls in this game?! I'm trying to adjust but they feel completely broken and useless. The camera keeps swinging back to center as I'm trying to maneuver around the giant enemies. It's seriously rage inducing. I want to like this game but I don't know if I'm going to be able to get over this glaring problem.

 

[jojoRed]

Change the controls settings in the menu to the more modernised version, you'll enjoy the game much more if youve got the remastered version.

The creator of the game wanted the player to feel the anguish and pain of the Wander as he climbs and holds on to these massive colossi, but some people kinda see at as sluggish, un-intuitive and badly designed in the original. The modernised controls fix some of the issues.

 

[Hitman81]

Change the controls settings in the menu to the more modernised version, you'll enjoy the game much more if youve got the remastered version.

The creator of the game wanted the player to feel the anguish and pain of the Wander as he climbs and holds on to these massive colossi, but some people kinda see at as sluggish, un-intuitive and badly designed in the original. The modernised controls fix some of the issues.

Yes I changed the button layout which helped a little but the control scheme in general is still shit.

 

[Wingslaught]

You can press L2 to focus on the Colossi, but yeah the controls are imprecise.

 

[Deleted member 391673]

never played the game. was thinking of picking up the ps4 port but i honestly don't feel down with killing the colossi - i wiki'd the story too and it makes me want to kill them even less.

 

[HereticBD]

Yeah, I had the same issue when I played the original remaster on PS3. It feels like you're fighting the controls. You do get used to them eventually though. Stick with it. The game didn't really click for me until around the fourth Collossi.

 

[IamStryker]

So I am getting close to finishing this game and I have some pretty strong opinions on it.

What the game does well is very impressive. The game is incredible to look at. Riding around without doing much would normally be really boring but in this game I don't mind so much because it looks so unbelievably good. This is something that years ago I would have drooled over playing. The Colossus' are also amazing. I like solving puzzles so these fights are mostly enjoyable and I don't mind just spending time looking at these creatures.

Here's the problem. This game is highly praised by gamers everywhere. I understand why they like it however it has some very glaring flaws that IMO keep it away from being a 10/10 game. Here are the issues.....

-Bad controls. Controlling the horse is just not good in this game. For me it was a chore most of the time to get it to do what I wanted and keep up speed without stopping when I don't want to stop and then starting all over again.

-Bad camera. Camera problems pop up throughout the game. I don't know why it's like this but the camera just gets fixed on one spot sometimes and you fight with it to go where you need it to go. I didn't have a huge issue with it but there were a few times it got annoying.

-Incredibly bad boss battle (The Bull). I couldn't believe this battle was in the game at all. It was so much different than every other Colossus I had seen. The others were massive and breath taking and this one was small and annoying. The absolute worst part was how it would ram you and then your character would be face down on the ground for awhile and then as soon as you get up he rams you again. This is HORRIBLE design. Whoever created this battle should have been fired. I like a good challenge so that isn't the issue here. This battle was nothing but tedious and unnecessary frustration. Bloodborne hasn't pissed me off this much.

-The only other thing I will say is that without the above issues I would want to give this game a 10/10 and I think it would deserve it. In the back of my mind I would normally want a game to have more content than this but I would probably be able to forgive it that just because of how good everything else is. Unfortunately that isn't the case and my score would have to be lower. Not sure how much right now but at least a point or two.

 

[Protegejoe296]

the controls turned me off of the game for years. I cruised through the first 2, but then could not, for the life of me, make the frigging jump to get to the third. Quit playing, then re-picked up the ICO/Shadow collection and finally beat the damn thing.

 

[IndyCovaHart]

Sounds more like you suck at the game.

 

[Burt Reynolds]

Sounds more like you suck at the game.

 

[blaseblah]

So I am getting close to finishing this game and I have some pretty strong opinions on it.

What the game does well is very impressive. The game is incredible to look at. Riding around without doing much would normally be really boring but in this game I don't mind so much because it looks so unbelievably good. This is something that years ago I would have drooled over playing. The Colossus' are also amazing. I like solving puzzles so these fights are mostly enjoyable and I don't mind just spending time looking at these creatures.

Here's the problem. This game is highly praised by gamers everywhere. I understand why they like it however it has some very glaring flaws that IMO keep it away from being a 10/10 game. Here are the issues.....

-Bad controls. Controlling the horse is just not good in this game. For me it was a chore most of the time to get it to do what I wanted and keep up speed without stopping when I don't want to stop and then starting all over again.

-Bad camera. Camera problems pop up throughout the game. I don't know why it's like this but the camera just gets fixed on one spot sometimes and you fight with it to go where you need it to go. I didn't have a huge issue with it but there were a few times it got annoying.

-Incredibly bad boss battle (The Bull). I couldn't believe this battle was in the game at all. It was so much different than every other Colossus I had seen. The others were massive and breath taking and this one was small and annoying. The absolute worst part was how it would ram you and then your character would be face down on the ground for awhile and then as soon as you get up he rams you again. This is HORRIBLE design. Whoever created this battle should have been fired. I like a good challenge so that isn't the issue here. This battle was nothing but tedious and unnecessary frustration. Bloodborne hasn't pissed me off this much.

-The only other thing I will say is that without the above issues I would want to give this game a 10/10 and I think it would deserve it. In the back of my mind I would normally want a game to have more content than this but I would probably be able to forgive it that just because of how good everything else is. Unfortunately that isn't the case and my score would have to be lower. Not sure how much right now but at least a point or two.

The horse riding in this game was ground breaking. By far the most realistic horse and horse riding there was in gaming at the time. Still holds up today. Maybe you just need to learn the controls? You need to hold the button down to keep up speed.

The fixed camera is a big issue though. I'm shocked they didn't remove it in the remaster. Best thing is to just ignore the camera entirely.

 

[IamStryker]

The horse riding in this game was ground breaking. By far the most realistic horse and horse riding there was in gaming at the time. Still holds up today. Maybe you just need to learn the controls? You need to hold the button down to keep up speed.

The fixed camera is a big issue though. I'm shocked they didn't remove it in the remaster. Best thing is to just ignore the camera entirely.

Having to tap or hold down a button just to keep speed is pretty dumb imo. I don't find it realistic, it's just tedious. Then the horse stops when it shouldn't. If you are facing a wall it takes too long to get the horse to turn around. I kind of get what they were trying to do but I don't think it made the game better. I prefer horse riding to be intuitive and fluid.

The visuals and atmosphere are by far the best parts of the game. The boss battles themselves range from decent to terrible. If I evaluate them like puzzles which they are for the most part, they get bad scores all around. They are easy to figure out and usually tedious to finish off. Usually I felt like they were easy but artificially made tedious to make it take longer to bring down.