As good as exactly ten years ago, a video game came out that’s since played an amazingly significant part in the debate over whether or not these interactive playthings can be considered art. Team Ico’s PlayStation-exclusive Shadow of the Colossus is simple on paper, something else when experienced: a puzzling boss rush of a game, with only 16 gigantic opponents to overcome across its playtime (their scale successfully conveyed by the title, save a couple of sprightly, smaller beasts), but able to wash a very palpable emotional weight across the player. At least, that’s the feeling many an op-ed writer’s had.
Playing SotC today, it’s not without its flaws – as I wrote about earlier this year. But it’s a categorical classic of the PlayStation 2 catalogue, and a title that contemporary gamers really should take for a teary spin, what with the 2011 HD remaster making the sometimes grubby textures of the original rather more palatable for modern tastes.
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Or, you could just play the forthcoming clone, for want of a better term, that’s coming via No Matter Studios. The first trailer for the PC-destined Prey for the Gods came out over the weekend, and it features a few sights sure to set off alarm bells amongst SotC players past. Your protagonist is young and carrying a bow. They’re exploring what appears to be a largely lifeless wilderness, albeit one coated in snow, far away from the deserts and forests of SotC. This lonely soul’s one way out, their only means of survival, is to kill the gods of this desolate land. Sound familiar?
Certainly looks familiar once one of said gods ambles into view, doesn’t it?
‘Prey for the Gods’, official reveal trailer
The game’s hero, by the look of things, must scale these gargantuan creatures in order to take them down – just like SotC. However, that’s also like other games, too, most memorably Capcom’s underrated action-RPG of 2012, Dragon’s Dogma. Naturally, the aesthetic and mechanics of Prey for the Gods has had commenters on this internet of ours screaming copyright infringement; but while I’m no lawyer (that said, I’ve an A at AS Level, so, y’know, I know a bit), I’m fairly sure that it’s impossible to copyright atmospheric qualities, genres and artistic styles (unless, of course, you’re actually producing forgeries of masterworks). Don’t quote me on that, but say “DOOM” to me and I’ll point you to Gloom, an acclaimed Amiga “clone” of id’s seminal first-person shooter that sold just fine, without lawyers throwing their weight around.
No Matter’s game is, based on the trailer, a love letter to Team Ico’s inspirational work. It’s too early to say what it’ll do differently – Prey for the Gods is without a release date right now – but I’m sure that there will be some fundamental differences between what was and what is, today. If it socks the player in the guts half as hard as SotC did during its final battles, it’ll be worth checking out, however much it borrows from gaming history.
More information at the game’s official website.
