Nick Suttner - Shadow of the Colossus

A massive, open world with almost nothing in it. A big-budget game thats more interested in exploring the experience of its questions than distracting you with answers. An unwavering trust that players will figure out where to go, what to do, and even think about why theyre doing it. Shadow of the Colossus is a landmark in so many ways, and still unique more than a decade after its release.

Its also a study in focus, as it was in its time amongst its peers. Resident Evil 4 released earlier that same year in 2005, revitalizing the entire survival-horror genre with a tight over-the-shoulder perspective that made combat a tense, precise nightmare. Just a couple of months later came God of War , a bold and bawdy exploration of Greek mythology with a deeply satisfying bloodlust.

All three games have since seen HD re-releases and are considered seminal events in gaming history. Yet both Resident Evil 4 and God of War hew closely to convention, very much gamers games filled with inventories, attack combos, and carefully scripted setpieces always upping the ante. Both games are also very filmic, with long expository cutscenes wrapped around every big event, and a monologue for every hero and villain that dives deeply into their lore.

Clearly, 2005 was an incredible year for games. But what interests me is just how far Shadow swung away from those other hits. Its reductions were across the board, and uncompromising: Only sixteen enemies. Only two weapons, both of which you start with and will never level up. Youll never learn new moves, only strengthen your grip and your health over time. You wont unlock new areas, only new challenges in places that have been accessible all along. You wont meet any new main characters after the opening cinematic. Theres (almost) nothing to collect.

Yet despite all that isnt there, Shadow is absolutely riveting. At a time when games were doubling down on the gamer by betting big on proven formulas, and leaning on the legacy of film to tell their stories, Shadow was content to spin its mystery up front and shove you into the blinding sun to fend for yourself and figure out the rest. The entirety of the experience lives deep within me, like some primordial dream. Soaring high above the sprawling desert, clinging to my foe as the wind laps at my unsteady feet. Finding the relief of fire at the bottom of a treacherous crevasse, itself in the shadow of an ancient, endless bridge.

I first read about Shadow in the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly , a long-running gaming magazine I would later write for. A game in which entire levels were puzzles set atop the backs of massive creatures, the promise of an epic puzzle-platformer from the team behind the thoughtful, sweetly haunting Ico . Building on their craft and artistry, Team Icos Shadow promised action, and a gauntlet of giants to conquer. Its titular creatures were striking, even in those early screenshots. Towering, dimly sentient relics with piercing yellow eyes and mossy manes. I was smitten.

In broad strokes, Shadow is about a boy trying to save a girl. The situation is dire, and her last hope lies in a distant, long-abandoned corner of the world. He brings her to this place, throwing himself at the mercy of its overseer. This spirit tasks him with defeating a number of guardians that dwell within the land, and in exchange there may be a glimmer of hope for her yet.

But like so many wonderful moments in life and art, Shadow of the Colossus is defined by the space between its lines: the gulf between its quieter, contemplative moments and its tremendous spectacle. Strung end to end, its titanic battles would make for an amazingif exhaustingbarrage of action. But driving your horse across an imposing sunbaked expanse, twisting up through shade-mottled woods, only to find your ageless, unwitting foe at rest in the stillness of a lake gives the encounter exactly the breathing room it needs. Shadow lets its best moments come to you at your own pace, subtly leading and showing rather than telling.

There were rumors that Shadow was originally planned to have whole cities and dungeons dotting its spartan landscapes, lost in time to schedules, or budgets, or something equally mundane. And one of the best, most wonderful things about it is that it feels that way. The remnants of a world that once was, or never was, frozen in time. A lost civilization perpetually under construction.

There are so many empty, functionally useless corners of Shadow s expansive world, but it hurts to even call them that. They still feel alive and mysterious, as if exploring the right nook or climbing an especially precarious peak will unlock something. A bridge to that lost civilization, a seventeenth colossus, some armor for my horse maybe. Despite its creator Fumito Ueda telling me years ago in an e-mail interview that all of Shadow s secrets had been found, it never felt that way, and still doesnt.