Ico

The Good
This is the only PS2 game I'm interested in really. Well alright, Metal Gear Solid 2 has my attention but it's not the sort of thing I can be bothered with. Especially because I saw my friend playing it and near the end there was a 45-minute cutscene...

I like ICO because I'm still fanatical about old games, like Prince of Persia and Flashback, and their styles of playing. Maybe this is because my PC is pretty much incapable of playing any games released today (I don't actually own a PS2 but I have completed ICO), but at least this carries on the traditions of old. Although, unlike Prince Of Persia, it is gorgeous to look at. Even though graphics don't mean a thing these days, at least not in terms of the game having any lasting appeal, ICO has a particular look. It's sparse and drab, but it gives a hell of a lot of atmosphere because of it. And it also lets the lighting effects do their thing: inside the castle it's dark and gloomy, outside it's so bright it makes your eyes hurt. But that's great. The sense of scale too is a sight to behold. Standing on a bridge overlooking most of the castle, with about 3000 feet below to fall, is an experience in itself. As is plunging from the top of a windmill into a pool of some of the most brilliantly rendered water seen in a game.

The characters are beautiful too, especially in their animation. Ico really does run about and act like a 10yr old, albeit one with the combined fitness of 30 top class athletes. Yorda on the other hand would blow away in the wind and her daintiness is so great you just want to sit back and watch her do her own thing for half an hour.

Fighting is great fun. The shadow monsters are intelligent and almost funny to watch as they evade your blows; but there is still a real satisfaction when your strike hits home and you save Yorda and yourself from the jaws of death. Again, the graphics are top notch with the enemies. Even though they look like they've been stolen from Heart Of Darkness a little bit.

Finally, the showdown at the end is really exciting and tense to play and to watch. In fact, the whole game is a visual feast so I might as well shut up about the graphics. I don't actually remember any music in the game though, even though I'm sure there was some, but at least that shows it doesn't impose.

Great box covers too.

The Bad
No-one else I know seems to think this, but there just wasn't enough to it for my liking. It's very linear from start to finish both in the gameplay and in the environments. The latter is what I found the hardest to cope with: other than the grey stone walls of the castle and the beautiful skies and grass outside, there is nothing to look at. Even though the appeal is in the simplicity, there needs to be some other environment. It gets better near the end when all of a sudden Ico finds himself somewhere else, but that's not enough. My favourite bit in the whole game was with the windmill, that's the only time there is any water. Considering water has rarely been done so beautifully you think they'd have used it just a little more often.

Also I don't think there is any real story in this game. The game does give reasons for the presence of both characters but the reasons aren't important. The story never moves on except for one or two instances, the rest is just a lot of...dare I say...jumping around?

Also, because of the lack of variety, it can almost get boring. I can't imagine playing for much longer than an hour as the puzzles never let up, and they're all very similar anyway - usually involving Yorda, some boxes and switches.

The Bottom Line
Tranquil, occasionally frustrating and beautiful. If they just add a bit more to look at and do, (but not too much), for the sequel it'll be perfect. Still worth buying anyway.

The Good
ICO was the first Playstation 2 game I bought. It only took about eight days to finish it, but it was a memorable experience. Nothing on the Playstation 2 has ever quite managed to out do it. This is a game that is nothing like anything I've ever played before. A true masterpiece. Read onto the review to find out why.

Gameplay-

Puzzles galore. And not all the puzzles are the typical push the block stuff. No no, these puzzles require a fair amount brain matter to solve. Some require some backtracking, but it's usually a minimal distance. One of my favorites for instance- You have to get Yorda to a high ledge. But there's only a locked door and a climbing chain to get there. Yorda can't climb chains, so you have to figure out how to unlock the door. Once you're on the higher ledge, there are grates and a tunnel beneath them. You climb into the tunnel and go to the end and stand on a pressure pad. It opens the locked door and you call Yorda. She stands with you and on the pad. You leave her on the pad and go out the door. Climb back up and call Yorda to the open grate where you can pull her up.

Simple, yet requires thought. The first time I almost drove myself crazy trying to figure it out. If won't reveal anymore, but needless to say the puzzles are great.

The platforming in the game is good, but plain. It's mainly jumping across gaps and scaling ledges. Some of the scaling in the later parts of the castle is cool, but some of it can be tedious. It certainly doesn't detract from the gameplay, but only adds one really innovative thing. When you're travelling with Yorda and you cross a gap, you can call to Yorda to come to the other side of the ledge so she can leap across and you can grab her, and pull her up. You have to do the same with some ledges and ladders. You have to escort Yorda throughout most of the game, but it's not usually aggravating. The first time she's being abducted by shadow beings, you might jump out of your seat with fear of not getting there in time. It creates a special bond between the two of you. If she gets lost you feel you have to go back and get her. It may be somewhat cumbersome to go back whole areas to do it, but you have to in order to finish the game, and to have some peace of mind.

The combat in the game is simplistic, but I wouldn't want something more complicated in a game like this because it would bog it down. The square button is always attack. But you gain weapons in the game. It goes from a wood plank, to a sword, to a mace and ultimately the magic sword. The mace is the best weapon for most of the game. It beats out the sword easily, and anything beats the plank. The magic sword kills shadow beings in one swipe. But by that point, they won't try to seriously harm you. The showdown with the evil queen is actually the hardest part of the game. Once you hit her, the sword goes off in a different direction out of your hands. It took me about seven tries to finally get her.

All in all the gameplay is some of the best I've ever experienced in a Playstation game.

Sound-

Like no other 3D game, it does audio in a minimalistic way, but it's incredibly convincing. When you're near the sea, you hear gulls, the sound of waves crashing into the cliffs below. The crackles of torches pop and crack while your footsteps echo in the lonely halls. In the courtyards, birds chirp, the breeze rustles the leaves in the trees gently lulling them back and forth. The sounds of shadow beings squirming out of their pools makes your skin crawl. You...am I getting too poetic ? Well it was at least it was well written. The music is a bit more difficult to describe. It's mainly made up of classical pieces, but some sound like keyboards or like they were electric. Regardless of how it was made, it absolutely resembles nothing I've heard in other videogames or movies, or otherwise. Very incredible. The voice acting is good, but somewhat hard judge. All the dialogue is done in a fictional language. I heard somewhere it was backwards Japanese. But not to fear, all of it's subtitled. But some of it (everything Yorda says) is done in symbol subtitles that aren't translated. But I suppose that would be redundant. The queen sounds as nasty as she acts. Very condescending. ICO himself sounds concerning but innocent. Yorda is impossible to judge accurately, because almost all of speech is very quiet. But not bad at all. To wrap it up for sound. Great ! Fantastic !

Graphics-

Now this is where ICO shows how well it has aged. The one thing people talk about when discussing this game is the lighting. And rightly so. Never before or since in my opinion has a game ever managed to duplicate light so perfectly. That type of blue-grey you get in the shadows, the way the grass almost looks yellow in the sunlight, or how it shines brilliantly in the open. The shadows come across like they do in real life. Words simply do not do most of it justice. A tired cliche' yes but true. The areas you get to play in are no slouches either. Drab, broken down, overgrown with weeds, and not too much color. Why is this appealing ? By itself it would look horrible. But the light gives it it's color and depth. Like in real life. And boy are those depths and colors pulled together well. Torches give off a flickering glow, the sun makes even the blandest looking of stones brilliant. One cool graphical element is that if you look at certain points in the game, you can see future ares of the game.

Whoever did the character animation should get a award for their work. It can be a little jerky sometimes, but more realistic than any other game in 3D history. The cutscene at the gate after the queen leaves, ICO looks filled with dread and shock as rushes back towards Yorda. His eyes grow wide, and his shoulders fall back just before he runs. That attention to detail is impressive and puts most other 3D games of that era and even today to shame. Yorda shivers when the wind blows, and looks around curiously. Most impressive of all are the shadow beings. They drip of black, smokey, oil like stuff. It's almost impossible to believe that those things are made of polygons. Amazing. One last thing I wanted to mention are the trees in the courtyard of the earlier mentioned puzzle. It just fun to zoom in on them and see the bright green leaves sway back and forth in the breeze. It's for whatever reason very captivating.

Controls-

Simple. Intuitive. Precise and responsive. A perfect dream for those who hate complicated, unresponsive control schemes. Nothing more need be said.

The Bad
Graphics-

I noticed that some of the textures were a mix of high-res and low-res textures. It didn't look cohesive in some spots and was slightly distracting in one part of the game. I know this game was originally intended for the Playstation 1, but I swear I saw some textures that looked like there on the Playstation 1. At one point early in the game I noticed that a wall looked like a mess of pixels. When I zoomed in on it, it smoothed out. But zoom out and you get pixels. I just wonder if they were in such a rush to get it onto the Playstation 2 if they cut corners there. It ultimately doesn't matter though. And at the top of the cart rail track during a fight, the frame-rate dipped slightly.

Gameplay-

Yorda can be a bit much to handle at times. If she gets lost you have to go get her. Sometimes she'll climb a ladder, stop, and go back the other way. Sigh.

The Bottom Line
I have said everything I can to convince you to get this game or try it in the review above. If you actually read (Yes most people skim huge reviews like this)it that is. But I fully recommend it for something that's truly a unique experience.

The Good
I personally love these type of games. They are ones that do not really rely on twitch reflexes but more brain power. Puzzles are in the form of mostly environmental puzzles. That is, you manipulate the environment around you in order to progress. The graphics are top notch with volumetric lighting and fog. The castle is EXPANSIVE and completely interconnecting. Meaning, you at time cross a place where you were at earlier in the game but in another position (higher or lower or on that bridge you wondered if you could get to it). You and your female counterpart need to stay together to solve this game. You can leave her alone for a little while but the baddies will come and take her away if you neglect her thus ending the game. I like the fact that you have to have her with you in order to save the game, it adds an extra layer of complexity. As for people who have complained that the game was too short, I disagree. It converyed what the story was in a tight time frame that leaves you feeling that you completed a great game, not painfully trudged through a all nighter. The puzzles range from easy to diabolical! The sound is excellent. Ambient sounds and light music intersparsed gives a great feel for the environments. Nothing is loud or nerving.

The Bad
My only complaint for this game is that the combat system is TOO simplistic. It boils down to swinging your board, or sword over and over with one button until they baddies are dead. Nothing more to it. Granted this is a thinking persons game but would have liked a little more oomph.

The Bottom Line
Hey! You want some puzzles and a beautifully created world to explore? ICO is your best bet for that intellectual game that dazzles you with a great story and visuals.

The Good
Like everyone else I fell hook, line and sinker for all the hype and marketing surrounding the PS2 launch. Since I didn't have my act together to pre-order a system I was stuck driving to Best Buy everyday to see if a new shipment came in. Finally I got my PS2 and went on a buying frenzy of games and accessories. Now I that I probably own fourteen or fifteen PS2 games I must say I have been slightly disappointed. That is up till now. ICO has got to be the sleeper hit of the year if not the decade. It was quietly developed by an internal development team at Sony Computer Entertainment and launched in North America with out any fanfare by Sony Computer Entertainment of America. I only bought this game because I wanted something to play while I waited for Metal Gear Solid 2 and Grand Theft Auto 3 to come out. Boy oh boy did I find a gem.

If you liked Prince of Persia you will love this game. Ico embodies the absolute pinnacle to date of the Adventure / Puzzle-Solving genre. The world is completely interactive. There is nothing in Ico's environment that you can not climb, hang, push, pull or jump off of. If you think you can do it you probably can. Every edge, every railing, every banister you can climb and hang off of even though it most likely does not progress the plot. The controls are fluid and elegant. The movement of Ico is incredibly realistic. It quite fun just to mess around seeing what the young lad is capable of.

If you liked Myst you will love Ico. I have yet to see a more meticulously detailed or more beautifully rendered 3D world than this game. It for the first time really showcases what the PS2 is capable of. The lighting effects are amazing. The camera angels are flawless. There are certain parts of the game where the shear scale are breathtaking and the heights dizzying.

A unique twist of the traditional rescue/escape theme is that Ico and Yorda, the young Princess also trapped in the castle, survival and success are intertwined. Neither one can communicate with each other, but understanding is immediately apparent. Yorda can not jump or climb as well as Ico. If they are to escape he will have to pull her up steep climbs, catch her jumping across large gaps and coach and encourage her to climb up or down ladders and stairs. Ico will have to constantly protect her from the demons that try to steal her away. Yorda however is the only one who knows the secrets of the castle and can open the magically locked doors. The relationship between the two is very tender and innocent.

My girlfriend, who could take or leave the whole video game thing, spent five hours on Sunday watching me play Ico and she loved every minute. She was able to suspend disbelief and immerse herself in this incredibly beautiful world SCEI created. We were both touched by the sad and very Japanese ending.

Ico also has great voice acting ( I think ). My main irritation with most video games is the terrible voice acting that goes into them. Silent Hill 2 is a decent game but the acting is do damn corny the experience is lost. The same is true with the Resident Evil series. Ico however is in Japanese with English subtitles. Though there are few spoken parts when there is acting it is quite well done. Another nice touch is that it is impossible to make any puzzles unsolvable. I hate games that allow you to destroy the only ladder you need to climb out of the pit or let you progress so far in the game without the necessary key, again Resident Evil comes to mind.

The Bad
It was short and linear. Neither one was is a huge complaint. Given the scale of this game I probably just finished it too fast. There are many things I could still explore so there is some replayability. I understand why the game is so linear. The environment is so large it would be too easy to get lost and not progress the plot for hours and hours if you could just wonder around willy nilly.

The Bottom Line
The best PS2 game to date. Do not be fooled by it's seemingly timid packaging there is an amazing game underneath.

The Good
ICO is very unique in the way that it combines graphics and music in order to achieve a wonderful feeling of nostalgia/longing, while being very dark and stressful at the same time. Additionally, it makes an interesting use of the surroundings in order to produce puzzles that fit the game perfectly, not being blatantly easy nor excruciatingly difficult. The use of voices is also very well executed, even if it is used scarcely (which just feels right in the barren, lonesome world of ICO). And of course, the main characters themselves are what makes the game work, with the relationship existing between them being the focal point of the game, and what stood out the most – it is a beautiful portray of friendship, and probably the game’s most appealing trait.

The Bad
The only negative aspects of ICO are really the fact that combat is very plain and simple (even though this is most likely purposeful to fit the mood of the game), and being a relatively short game (despite being slow-paced).

The Bottom Line
While surely not a game for everyone (due to its slow pace and heavy mood), ICO can arguably be considered one of the top - let’s call it “spiritually enhancing” - games ever made. If you let it, ICO grabs you by the hand (pun intended) and takes you along an emotional rollercoaster that you cannot feel disconnected from - both graphics and music contribute immensely in order to make sure your anxiety will leave you on edge, yet totally immersed. And that is probably ICO’s most recognizable trait – it deep-dives you in such a way that you will not want to surface back to the real world. Essentially, that’s what games are really all about.

The Good
Every generation the Curse is visited upon the Village and a child is born with tiny horns. The horns grow larger and the child is blamed for failing crops and sickened animals. When the horns are full-sized, faceless riders take the child from the Village, across the water to the Castle. There the child is entombed in an urn and left to die—for the good of the Village. Except that is not the fate Destiny has in store for Ico.

Alive, in his funerary urn, Ico has a vision of a Princess trapped in a cage suspended by a chain, high above him. Freeing himself from the urn, Ico now has a purpose, escaping the Castle with the Princess, even though that means defying the Queen of the Castle. To do so, he will have to overcome the greatest of all environmental obstacles—the entire Castle. He will have to lead the weakened Princess through one gigantic, intricate puzzle while fighting off the Queen’s Shadow Demons who seek to return the Princess to her mother.

Ico has three major elements. First Ico must find a way to navigate through the Castle. He climbs, crawls and jumps well so he is able to find hidden switches, creep along narrow ledges, and swing from ropes and chains. The Princess is in a weakened state, so Ico must lead her through the Castle by pulling her hand or calling out to her and also by finding a less acrobatic way for her to get through the Castle. Finally, if the Princess is out of sight for too long (or certain events are triggered) Shadow Demons rise up from smoky portals and attempt to drag the Princess away.

Ico’s primary weapon is a length of wood he can use to hammer at the demons. He can find a sword (later in the game) which makes quicker work of them and there is at least one (maybe two) secret weapon to be found. The Shadow Demons are cunning opponents seeking to distract Ico while kidnapping the Princess or knocking him off high areas, but they cannot kill him. The game, except for the final sequence, ends only if Ico falls too far or the Princess is taken away.

When playing Ico, I was struck that no extra lines were drawn, no extra words spoken, no extra notes played. Ico is detailed where detail is called for and sparse where it is not. Previous reviews have referred to Ico’s artistic merits and they are definitely there in terms of graphics, sound and music. It is a beautiful game, yet players who play Prince of Persia: Sands of Time before Ico will probably be disappointed.

Lastly, I was initially annoyed with the mechanics behind the Princess. She comes when called and goes where dragged, but as a character she offers little. In terms of game play, she is used to open certain magical doors, so she is mostly a key shaped like a girl. But there is something sweet about Ico’s interaction with her—the way he protects her, how he holds her hand, the way they sit together on the couches which act as save points—and this pays off with one of the best endings I’ve ever seen.

The Bad
Ico doesn’t take long to play. It takes time to figure out what to do, but not that long to do it. While I appreciate that nothing was added to the game to lengthen game play, I do wish that the NTSC release had some of the features of the PAL release which add to replay—learning more of the story the second time around and allowing a second player to play as the Princess.

The Bottom Line
If you play Ico before Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, you probably think Sands ripped Ico off. If you play Ico after Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, you probably think that Sands really improved on what Ico accomplished. I recommend this game, but you may have been here before and already done that.

The Good
The beautiful and just slightly surreal surroundings, the emotionally-charged artwork and story, and the very lifelike animation of the main characters make this game very emotionally touching. It's like a masterpiece of fine art that you can play. The first time I saw the pathos of the little boy holding out his hand to lead the little girl out of danger my heart skipped a beat.

The actual gameplay emphasizes creative thinking over reaction time, and rewards experimentation - there is no jarring death screen if you miss a jump, you just start the long fall, the screen fades out, and you are back to a little bit before the mistake. There is no inventory management beyond finding weapons; all the puzzles revolve around looking at the environment and finding a path through it.

The complete lack of words in most of the gameplay makes the story really revolve around actions of the boy and the girl, and makes their relationship as human beings in a strange and scary place much more touching than mere words would; the actual words in speech from the maleficent being (avoiding a spoiler here) are even more dramatic against that backdrop. Everything in the game is finely tuned to touch you in the heart, not just the mind or kinesthetic sense.

The Bad
Sometimes the interface is confusing. It took me a dozen tries to light the end of the stick, despite the instructions in the manual and more detailed instructions from online sources.

The Bottom Line
Since nearly the beginning of computer games in the 70s and 80s, people have talked about them becoming an art form. This is the first, and so far only, game to really live up to that idea, providing an evocative emotional experience unique to the medium. It's beautiful, it's fun, and it seems way too short when you've finished it.

The Good
I have a lot of pity for Ico. He and Yorda are so poor. They are just little innocent children. But those people are so bad, put them in that castle.

Gameplay is very special. It's the only game where you have to care for another person. In the battles, you can't die yourself, but you have to protect Yorda. As a woman, that was also pretty annoying for me!

There are such cute save points in the game. You and Yorda sit together on the sofa and hold hands to save the game. And if you reload the game later, you'll see that Ico was sleeping!

The puzzles are pretty hard, you'll have to find lots of ways to help Yorda. But that's because you work as a team. Only Yorda can open those blue doors. That's why you must help each other to escape the castle. And there is a very special final boss battle. It has a connection with the normal battles of the game, with this wave of darkness that captures Yorda when the shadows take her.

The graphics are excellent. I played this game six years after it was released, and it looks as if it was made just now! Everything looks perfect. Animations are especially realistic. This and Shadow of the Colossus have the best animation of all games. And those two games also have connection in story, and have a similar kind of story, with unexpected endings.

The quality of the story is almost the same like in "Shadow of the Colossus", although I think the ending of "Shadow of the Colossus" was better. And also like that other game, there is not much conversation, but the story is in the action and cut scene. You feel the story from how Ico and Yorda help each other and look at each other.

The music during the final cut scene is great. Very fitting for what is happening.

The Bad
In this game, you'll always have to protect Yorda. How annoying. You have to escape yourself, but now you have this Yorda to take care of. You can't even be killed, but the game is over if you don't protect Yorda. And she really can't do anything, can't protect herself at all. Of course, this is the idea of the game.

I don't like this feeling of protecting someone. I'm a woman, so I want to be protected. But I'm sure many men will like this game, because they like the feeling of protecting a woman. Like my husband!

The Bottom Line
Very recommended. The game is six year old, but even its graphics look great today, and its story hasn't got old, better than in most today's games, many of which are rubbish!