Shadow of the Colossus

The Good
To start with, Shadow of the Colossus awakes a lot of feelings. I've been playing video games for 20 years or so and I can't remember many games that make me feel the things that I feel with this one. I'm talking about melancholy, tenderness and sadness as I've never feel before in any other game the way that Shadow of the Colossus does. The emotional burden of the game is what I really want to remark, over the game itself.

I can spend hours and hours talking about the landscapes in the game or the incredible post production on it, but the feelings that the game awakes are the most important thing and what makes this game unique. The loneliness of an insignificant character in a complete new world where his horse is his only friend. The relation between the character and his horse is so beautiful that I'm sure that many developers would be delighted if they could reach that depth in their games between their (human) characters. We'll spend hours riding our horse looking for the next battle, and we'll love the horse sincerely from the beginning. It's like if we know that we're nothing without the horse in such an enormous land.

Everything's colossal, heroic and epic. If we think about a little description of the game we'll realize how epic is this game: Take your horse and ride to the battle with 16 colossus that you must defeat, to give your beloved her life back, only with a bow and a sword that will guide you shining a light on your way once you aim it to the sun. Isn't it epic enough?

The colossus are the main attractive of the game. Many of the colossus are as you may imagine in your mind when you hear the word "colossus", but many others aren't, because we have many kinds of them. The game would have been a great one if they've featured just enormous creatures to be defeated, but they tried to make unique creatures too, and that's why you'll have to face flying colossus, giant sand worms (Dune!) or some surprises in the deep water.

Each colossus has a different way to be defeated, and that's why the experience of your previous battle will be useless in the next one. Some of them are agile and some aren't, others are harder to be climbed... Yes, that's right, we'll have to climb most of them to find their vital points, and some of them are so big that we'll have to spend some time resting in a platform of their armors. Battles are really long, and we'll have a hint if we spend a lot of time, but sometimes this hint is useless and we'll be frustrated if we don't know how to attack the creature. Shadow of the Colossus is not an action game, it's and adventure game. Drawing your sword and attack the colossus with it is as stupid as enormous are your enemies because you won't even hurt him a little bit.

There are no enemies besides the colossus, which is something that many people don't like about the game. It's certainly a double-edged decision, but I really think that it makes the game more intimate, increasing that loneliness feeling in the whole game and giving the story more depth. There's no justification to start killing minor creatures in that wasted land. Anyway, if you want to make other things rather than fighting against those creatures you can hunt small lizards and collect fruits from the trees, that will help you increasing your parameters.

The game has a monotonous story line but in the ending part everything's epic as the other aspects of the game, with a nice closure leaving a bittersweet feeling for the player that will rest for many time in the player's mind. A perfect combination of sadness and the strange feeling of finishing one of the most incredible games in a long time.

Talking about the gameplay, there are some problems with concrete jumps, but the controls response as they should. Sometimes we may think that they don't work as we try, but it's just because we're fighting against a colossus for 1 hour, and we're tired, and when that happens everything seems to be harder than it really is. Anyway, controls aren't easy, but it's good because it's like feeling the effort of our character climbing the giant creatures to defeat them. It really works fine and improves the epic experience of the game.

Kow Otani is the compositor for the soundtrack of the game which is as epic as all the other things. Kow Otani will intimidate with the music every time that we face the colossus, in those moments that we don't know exactly what to do. Then, when we start to thing about how defeating the colossus, the music changes (that's when we're climbing the colossus for example) to a more heroic and vivid tone. Once we've defeated our foe, the music will harmonize with a sweet melody to accompany our rest of the battle. This cycle is repeated in every colossus (with different compositions, of course). The music will also accompany us in our riding through many different landscapes, like dry deserts, old ruined temples or giant lakes.

The Bad
There are some inadequate things in Shadow of the Colossus. There are not big prize in riding all over the map because the game has no extra things to do. There's not even a special motivation about doing that. I'm one of those players that really need to see everything of a game, visiting each place and taking every single item. I've played Shadow of the Colossus three times, and none of them I feel like I should explore all the map.

Hunting small lizards will increase your parameters, but... some of them are really evasive! You'll need to take your time just for hunting a single small lizard. Some of them are even harder than the colossus! Maybe the game should've been called "Shadow of the Lizards" or something.

If you stop for a moment and think, you'll realize soon that the game is just going from point A to B to defeat a big boss in there and nothing more. There's no important story in between, so the concept is really simple.

We have to use the sword to guide us to our next challenge, but sometimes it's not the best GPS in the world. For example, if the enemy is at the other side of a mountain the sword will guide you directly to it, and it won't avoid the mountain between you and where you must go. It's possible that you get lost because of that, and in such an enormous place it's not something really funny. What's more, in some places you can't see where you must go because you can't see the ray of light. It happens when there's no sun shining, when you're inside a cavern or inside a deep forest, sometimes it's a bit annoying. Anyway, it's still so epic...

Once you've finished the game you won't play it much more times. A game with a concept so simple (unique, but simple) don't need to be played many times. You'll unlock a time attack mode when you've finished the game for the first time, and it's the only new thing to play, which is the same thing that you've been doing before, so, no new feature at all.

Another thing about its low replay value is the fact that every colossus is so unique that you'll remember easy how to defeat it when you play the game again, no matter if it's been months from the last time. There's only one way to kill each colossus and weak points are always in the same place, so you won't have to play again to find new ways of defeating them because there aren't. There are some strange ways to defeating them but they're more like a bug than other thing. When you finish the game you won't feel again the same feelings that the first time, the experience changes a lot, but it's still a good game.

Game's not hard at all, only a bit frustrating sometimes. It's really difficult that a colossus hurts you because they move slow and they need a lot of time to turn around. Don't forget that it's like fighting against mountains! To avoid the attack of a colossus is easy, and one hit of them won't kill you at all. The only limit of the game is your own patience, you have to be really patience because it's possible that you climb a lot of time to reach the weak point of the colossus, which is most of the times on the head and then you may fall from there to the ground and you'll have to start all over again from the beginning, but colossus aren't dangerous at all.

The Bottom Line
Shadow of the Colossus may not be the best game for the PlayStation 2 because some aspects like its replayability, but it's clear that it's one of the most unique games made not only for the Playstation 2 but the whole video game industry. The game design is unforgettable and the concept is revolutionary in every aspect, but the storyline and the emotions that it awakes are even more remarkable, showing us how colossal love could be.

The Good
One of the things that rubbed me up the right way in this game is the main character. Sir, "whatever the fuck his name was" is not your everyday knight that you see in most medieval themed games. He is not on some holy quest, he is not even trying to get by, he is just been a completely pathetic loser. The story goes that this lad's girl dies and he can't for the love of God get over it and move on. Instead he brings her to a forbidden land and makes a deal with a demon, he is to hunt down 16 gigantic monsters and kill them, corrupting his body and soul in the process and throwing away everything he's got. Even the player can likely tell that his quest is going to be fruitless, but he is such an emotional wreck that he doesn't care either way.

Before we get to the meat of this game I'd like to EXPAND on the forbidden land in question (u c what I did thar?). This place is gigantic and very well designed, it is almost completely untouched by civilization and consists entirely out of natural beauty (or pixels). There were waterfalls, mountains, endless deserts, lush forests and even an area that looked like The Shire from Lord of the Rings. The few buildings you do run into make for an interesting change and they are often nicely fit with the area you were in anyway.

The world is not the only aspect that looks rather beautiful though, the characters are nothing different. While you will mostly be looking at "what's his name", that's not really a problem at all because his design is very good. He doesn't wear overly excessive clothing, but he does just enough to rise above standard clothing. Just like with Fi from Skyward Sword I loved the way his clothes moved in the wind.

But who the hell plays this game to look at that loser, we are here for the true stars of this game: The colossi. The best thing about these monsters is that they are actually gigantic monstrosities, not like most other fantasy games where "huge" is about the size of a house. The colossi are hulking giants that, as you might have guessed from the title, look like walking castles in terms of size.

Fighting these creatures feels fittingly epic and is way better than most other games where you just keep firing arrows at something like this or go through some routine to hurt him. Some colossi do require you to stun them and all of them have scripted weak-spots, but you will have to climb your way to them, jumping from ledge to ledge and desperately clinging to their hair as they shake you around. The grip-bar that shows you how much longer you can cling to the monster is a great way to force you to take chances and act riskier than you normally would.

Logically these monsters also pose a huge challenge and you will want to avoid getting hit by them. Even the trembles send out by their footsteps are enough to take a bit of health away, but if they manage to hit you with their attacks they will likely kill you in one or two hits. This is one of the rare games where I was actually sweating while playing it, the last one been the latest Zelda game for less fair reasons.

One thing I can't thank the game enough for though is the fact that it automatically puts up a checkpoint for you whenever you start a boss-fight. There were also some neat optional save-points set up all over the land that could come in handy.

Finally, I should mentioned the soundtrack. It was actually hearing the final boss theme that sold this game to me and there was a lot more where that came from. Overall it's the boss themes that make up the best songs in this game and they always helped keeping me hyped for the next encounter.

The Bad
I am going to get hate-mail for this, but I just hated that damn horse. Agro, as it is apparently called is your companion for this adventure and also your mount. I really tried to like her, but while the story tries its best, it is just held back by how utterly and completely annoying the horse is during gameplay. I think everybody can agree that a mount is supposed to get you from A to B as fast as possible, but Agro has to be arsed every second you are on top of her, to go at a reasonable pace and the slightest bump in the road will make her stagger. You also need to kick her like five times before she even starts moving to begin with. I am sorry, but I simply can't feel sympathy for something that annoys me.

Something that kinda makes me sad is that the Forbidden Land is naturally rather empty and this means that there are no characters. Aside from you, your horse, the imprisoned demon and your girlfriend who is apparently immune to rotting, there are no characters anywhere. This means that there is nobody to interact with and interacting with characters is my favorite part of any video games as it helps flesh out the world and immerse me into the story.

The only negative review I could find on this game on Mobygames mentioned the voice-acting was horrible, but I am not quite sure if "voice-acting" can be actually named here. The reason for this is that I am not even sure what these people are supposed to be speaking, it just sounds like complete gibberish to me and I didn't blame The Sims for bad voice-acting either. The language does annoy me though because it's crap like this that makes this game awkward to play when friends are near, like a family member walking in on you watching Star Trek in the middle of some Alien conversation.

While I mentioned that I liked the grip-mechanics there is one problem with them that just annoyed me. I was told that in order to increase your grip you need to shoot arrows into lizards and while I found a lot of lizards, I was never sure if I was actually getting more grip from them, the bar never seemed to increase. This made it even more difficult for me when I walked into a lizard paradise with over eight of the buggers in the same five square meters of ground.

The Bottom Line
I clocked a short five hours on this game and this was my first playthrough ever, but unlike say... Call of Duty this game actually feels that much longer. Shadow of the Colossus feels like a very rich experience whereas most games are long and stretched, this game is short and stuffed. Fighting the colossi is by far one of the most exciting things I have done in a game for a while and despite some flaws and a weak ending, I am really glad I played this game.

This game is not meant for the people who expect a game to be paced very fast, keeping you in the action at all times. Shadow of the Colossus takes its time to immerse you into the world and you will spend 70% of your time travelling instead. If you like immersive games than you owe it to yourself to check this one out. If you are a fan of platform games or you like the premise of killing colossi than you should be aware of the pacing and try this at your own risk.

The Good
Before I get started, let’s just consider this scenario.

“Okay guys,I have this new idea! We’ll make a game that’s entirely made out of boss fights!” “Nothing else?” “Yeah! Just really awesome bosses!” “So you just teleport from boss level to boss level and fight them?” “No! You have to ride to each boss for several minutes from the starting point first!” “Ah, I see! Any enemies on the way there?” “Nope.” “Obstacles then! Tough platform challenges?” “No.” “That’s..... nice. Anyway, we’re doing sushi for lunch again?”

I can picture a similar scenario in a lesser studio, where the concept of Shadow Of The Colossus would have been shot down in a heartbeat. However, we’re talking the brainchild of Sony’s (ex) trump card, Fumito Ueda, who came up with this very idea, and Team Ico went through with it.

And made one of the best games in video game history.

The premise itself is quickly told - you, the young hero, travel with your trusty horse to a place virtually at the end of the Earth, trying to appease the divine forces there to resurrect the girl you love.

You are given a chance to win her life back by defeating 16 colossi. And thus begins your adventure.

Following the light reflected off your sword, you head in a direction in the vast barren land until you encounter the next colossus to battle. The actual fight typically involves climbing up the body of the huge colossus, finding a weak spot and plunging your sword into it until the monster is dead.

This is not easy, given that you can only climb on the furry parts of the beast, that you can only hold on for a certain duration, and given that these giants thrash about like crazy when you start getting on their nerves, forcing you to hold on to your dear life.

Let’s go to those colossi - they are the substance of the game, and they are fantastic. Each one is very distinct in look and behavior, each one requires a different approach. The game will give you just enough clues to figure out what to do without being too easy or too cryptic. Most of them are absolutely huge and intimidating, with the camera placed strategically to emphasize their dimensions.

Paired with that is absolutely gorgeous and atmospheric music, great particle effects and visuals. Every single battle is nothing short of epic, and I mean that in the classic sense of the word.

Even the rides to the bosses I made fun of in my intro are great. While they might appear a bit hollow, gameplay-wise, they’re fantastic to set the scene. You get to experience the vast landscape with swamps, mountains, and sheer drops that appear almost endless. They are complemented by a fantastic soundscape - loud winds in the canyons, roaring waterfalls, and the rustling of leaves in the forest. The graphics themselves have a minimalistic sense to them, as you would expect from Ueda, but they’re by no means ugly. While simple in geometry, they are nonetheless enormous - the plains are spacious in side, the mountains are tall, the dangerous cliffs span miles.

The story, while simple, has a fascinating twist to it that slowly unfolds as you progress. There is no sense of repetition, every fight presents you with a new area, a new nemesis, and a new strategy that you need to find. I don’t want to go into the resolution of the narrative, but it works out great.

The Bad
There’s really not much that I didn’t like about the game. At best, I can find some trifles to nitpick about. And just to keep this section wordy, I will.

The controls can be a bit tricky sometimes. One of the silliest exercises is trying to mount your horse - you’ll usually spend some time hopping up and down next to your horse while it looks at you with confusion.

This is more of an issue in the short platform sections right before you get to a boss, the worst one being a long ascending walkway over a big lake that forces you to make two jumps at the top, which you’re likely to miss... causing you to plummet down into the water, where you have to slowly swim back to the beginning of the walkway and try again. I think I ended up with some bite marks on my controller.

You think you’re clever and save the game at the top of said walkway? Nah, you can only save at the end of a boss, or at a few save locations sparsely scattered around the world.

I’ll briefly mention the PS3 version - it’s definitely an improvement over the PS2 version, mostly in terms of framerate (the PS2 can get very laggy during boss fights, which is precisely when you don’t need it), although the graphics themselves haven’t been updated much. The textures could have really benefited from a higher resolution. Overall, you could say that the PS2 version is on the upper spectrum of the console’s capabilities, while the PS3 is on the lower end. If given a choice though, you should obviously go for the PS3 version.

The Bottom Line
Shadow of the Colossus is simply stunning. From the intro sequence down, it oozes atmosphere every second. It doesn’t waste time with gameplay fillers like mini-bosses or waves of enemies. Instead, it tells a story and delivers carefully tuned gameplay where it matters.

If there is any doubt as to whether games are art or not, this game should eliminate any possible doubt. It has everything you could possibly ask - fantastic atmosphere, great visuals, a film-like score, solid gameplay, and a touching story.