Shadow of the Colossus is a game that excelled in its simplicity. Only last week did I finally complete the game, and I could say that I never expected the experience that it provided and the knowledge that it imparted upon me. What I felt was the culmination of simple, pure elemental implementation, but there’s one part that brought all of this together into one, magnificent whole, and something that’s sorely under-appreciated.
When you think Shadow of the Colossus, I’m sure the first things that crawl from the depths of your minds are white knuckle boss battles and vast mysterious lands, and you couldn’t be further from the truth. The game itself provides and unforgettable experience, but after almost a year between buying it and finishing it, I have always wondered what made it the subject of the long impassioned rants that I’ve bombarded my friends with.
Something was shining through from the moment I began to explore the Forbidden Land and traversed my first piece of hazardous landscape, and that was the way in which things moved. Pulling ourselves back to the present, it’s almost impossible to identify a game in which the character doesn’t move like a mechanised puppet, fastened to the controller and restricting the player’s ability to interact with the world that the developer has strived to so believably render. You could rationalise this by stating that it would be to the detriment of the gameplay if done otherwise, but I think this mentality is being used as a cover for formulaic game design.
In Shadow of the Colossus, the character moves like a human would. Wander trips, he stumbles, leaps, lurches and rolls both in accordance to his own actions and those of the environment surrounding him, and this adds unprecedented depth to the players interaction and lending subtle suggestion toward his person and character. Wander is just a boy, desperate to bring his loved one back to life, so he steals away into the wilderness without training, driven only by desperation. Whether or not this is how everyone will view him is completely open to discussion, but cleverly brought about through such subtlety, suggesting that gameplay can have a powerful impact upon subtext.
Although it is often bemoaned by fans that Shadow of the Colossus featured cutscenes in contrast to its predecessor Ico, there are so many small, yet emotionally gripping moments within the game that take advantage of the fact that the player is in control. I daren’t divulge these key moments without warning, but generally speaking a complete control over Wander’s actions sort of discards the game context and suspends the player’s disbelief. Take a game like God of War for instance. If you want Kratos to run up that monster’s arm, you just hit square triangle circle, whereas here it’s only you, locked it a battle of chance and strategy as you clamber slowly up the Colossi’s mane, struggling for finger-holds in amongst the fur and stone. *SPOILER* During the endgame sequence there was a moment in which Wander is dragged towards his inevitably death as the player is forced to take control of the struggling man – jumping forward and hopelessly trying to grab handholds as he is drawn towards the enchanted pool; the player in control throughout the entire gut wrenching experience. *END SPOILERS*.I clearly remember the first time I engaged a colossi, and the sheer terror and excitement it brewed within me; never before had I had such a connection with the character’s action. Considering the depth of both immersion and emotion that this feature adds within the experience, I’m astounded that it hasn’t been more extensively experimented with, however one developer dared to take a risk on such endeavours, who would have thought it would have been EA.
Mirrors Edge was a daring piece of work that aspired to put the player into the shoes of a courier traceur named Faith as she traverses a metropolitan terrain with grace and ease; the first person adding depth to the player’s immersion, and it was great. Discounting the terrible enemy encounters, the game had created a spiritual relationship with Shadow, in a sense, as it too embraced the essence of movement and control and took it in its own direction. Conversely, Mirrors Edge lacked substance. Although it was an excellent piece of gameplay design, it almost felt squandered on such a bland setting; one that effectively limited the potential of the gameplay itself.
Entertain the thought, if you will of a hybrid of both styles. Shadow excelled in creating an intense connection with the player with its human analogous movements and reactions, whilst Mirrors Edge provided the first person perspective, complimentary to full body model interaction with the environment. Whilst setting Shadow of the Colossus in first person would be at best hazardous, the model provides an excellent base for exploring player/ environment interaction. Say for instance that Mirrors Edge was set in a more natural environment; the player traversing intricate terrain and stalking foes with agility, yet always knowing that they may stumble, trip or fall. The potential is seemingly endless, and almost completely unexplored as game design trends tend to favour features that will placate their audience instead of challenging and allowing them to accept a broader range of concepts.
The aesthetic of movement it really something that is at best, underdeveloped in games, and I’m sure that this has animators screaming for change. Fumito Ueda, creative director from Shadow of the Colossus was an impassioned animator; a sound reflection on his resulting work, but I’m not convinced that this is solely the influence of one infatuated with movement. Gameplay needs to evolve in equal measures, and not just as an act of accommodation. The addition of more intimate player/ environment interaction calls for an integral gameplay revision, one that wouldn’t be as simple as adding tried and tested new features, but would be potentially more rewarding. Maybe this has been met with hesitation because developers feel that they’d have to draw compromises and take extraordinary risks to meet these standards, but could they be achieved, amazing new heights in gameplay and narrative potential could be reached.
Miles Newton – Once again I’ve been shackled to the MACHINE. Expect shorter entries until my next break.
I know I’m a couple weeks late to the party here, but I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading your thoughts on this subject. I think movement is a terribly underrated aspect of game design and realism, so it’s nice to see that I’m not alone in my opinion. But while I was nodding vigorously through the Mirror’s Edge section, I’m afraid most of the other anecdotes kinda passed me by–I haven’t played Shadow of the Colossus, although I badly want to. I mention this so that you will understand my uninformed perspective on this next point:
That part in the fourth paragraph where you talk about how Wander trips and stumbles of his own accord? That sounds like a terrible, horrible idea. It sounds like it takes the control of the player character away from the player, and introduces a mechanic that will hinder the player’s fluidity of movement for no reason. It sounds like a frustrating, boneheaded way to kill the game’s wonderful sense of immersion, all in a misguided attempt to add another “realistic” element to the game. Please, please tell me I’m wrong.
And then tell me when I can expect a PC port of this game. Please?
Hey, thank you very much for your comment! The issue I was addressing in Shadow of the Colossus isn’t one of a hindrance, although I may have worded it poorly. What I meant was Wander stumbles, trips etc in accordance to the environment. Say you’re clambering up the mane of a Colossus, that thing will try to sway and swat you off, and in the meanwhile, you’ll be swinging around and stumbling as you grasp at handholds. I didn’t mean that he just randomly fell over when going for a stroll. That would have been hilarious. Also, it’s nice to find someone else who shares these views. I guess I’ve always been interested in gameplay aesthetics; things that ramp up the immersion without becoming too obstructive or unbelievable. Movement seems to be one that everyone forgets. After all, you do spend the duration of the game in your character’s shoes, it might as well be something special.
Great Article, you’re dead on about Shadow of the Colossus.
Something that struck me about its’ movement and physics when I last played it was how great they would be translated into a co-op dungeon crawler. Just imagine climbing through gigantic ancient ruins with a band of intrepid friends fighting or avoiding the the blasphemous denizens in search of treasure. And all with the wonderful weight of SOTC’s movement mechanics. All you would need is class that uses a sword exactly the way Wander does, and another class that has the bow, maybe a sheild for the sword user. Combine that with some big fuck off ruins filled with some monsters of various sizes and you have an almost perfect game anything else on top would be gravy.
Yeah, you’re totally right. I’ve had this idea for an RPG that Jack and I have been toying with for quite a long time, and I’ve often imagined just how great it would be to play as a thief, assassin or an explorer; clambering over terrain in pursuit of your goal – feeling for every stumble, every hand-hold the character purchases. A system like this really just reinforces all of the experiences the player has had personally and truly draws them into the game. Did you ever hear about the time when Shadow of the Colossus was going to be an online co-op game? Your example reminded me of this and just how fantastic it could have been, but the concept definitely deserves to be applied to all sorts of different genres. I guess having the whole co-op wouldn’t have allowed for the narrative.
I never did hear about that. It could have worked sort of post-game bonus in the time attack mode. Or for laughs as drop in co-op for the horse, that would rock and work well for about half of the fights. Dreams…
Honestly I think that good, grounded movement mechanics would be the only thing that would get me back into rpgs. I love the idea of rpgs, but the lack of physical connection with the world just throws me. Look at Diablo, the concept is perfect, the execution has perhaps single-handedly devalued both the concept of dungeons as something mythic and wonderful in the mainstream. As well as pushingenviromental interaction in rpgs so far down that most people don’t even question that everything is just flat.
Of course most mainstream games these days seem to be embracing flatness.
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