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Well you read the preview, now its time for the full review of the magical Shadow of the Colossus, which to me is as much art as as game. Its an experience not quickly forgotten. read on for the full review
Mythical giants walk the earth, crushing the ground under their stone feet and you (little Hero with a sword) it's your job to kill for the sake of your lost love. Welcome to Shadow of the Colossus a long-awaited title from the team that created the never forgotten ICO. Shadow of the Colossus shares a thick aesthetic and subtle attention to detail with ICO but is a totally different type of adventure. There game opens up giving you very little storyline, you'll play the role of a young warrior who has brought his fallen love far across the world to a temple in the hopes of restoring her to health. With-in the temple a mysterious voice starts to speak to you and after seeing your magic sword he states that to save you love you must hunt down and kill the 16 colossal beasts that roam the varied lands surrounding the temple. That is pretty much it and the story line keep about this quiet until around the end of the game (but this is a non spoiler review now. Who exactly is the girl, your wife?, your sister? Is she dead or injured? How did she get like this, who injured her? What about killing the colossi will give you the power to bring her back? and what is the spirit and why does he want the colossi dead? All the answers to these questions don't really matter that much as the main aspect of the game is to simply defeat of the colossi and ask questions later. But how does one kill a beast as big as the colossi? Well this is how the gameplay pans out. You leave the temple in search of the next colossus, ride your horse out and use your compass-esc sword to find where the beast is, once found you engage it (usually dealing the first blow yourself) and kill it. Once you've slain, strangely enough the (soul?) or something exits the best and is absorbed into your body, the hero then promptly faints and you wake up back at the temple in a haze. Now you repeat the process again and again and again. As stated above when not stabbing the magical animals, the sword acts as a compass which you use it to find the beasts, when on horseback and you hold it aloft in the air, the sword produces a beam of light that becomes more focused as you point it closer to the location of the next battle Once you've found where you suspect the beasts lies, there is a almost platformer-esc space where you must navigate the environment , climbing, jumping and crawling until you reach the area in which the colossus makes its home and there you do battle. There's no levelling up or any RPG elements there is no grunt combat to get in the way of each encounter. It?s completely straight through with boss battle, boss battle, boss battle as you fight each colossus in quick succession and finish the game in the same state as you began it with the same stats and weapons. All there is battling huge boss monsters, no watering down of the game at all. To match the linear design, your weapons are standard. Throughout the game you'll do battle with the same weapons, your trusty and a bow and arrow which stay with you till the end. The game is as much a puzzle game in many ways as much as an adventure the challenge is to kill the colossus but figuring out how to defeat each colossi which each has unique way, the game becomes a thinkers game. NO I repeat NO devil may cry hack 'n slash here, every blow you make is carefully planned and frantic, You won't last long if you run about like a mad man as the colossus will quickly stamp you into the ground, so you have to be quick witted to survive. As each of the battles is exceptionally hectic, thrilling as each monster fills up your screen just showing its feet. Simply put no two battles proceed in nearly the same manner. The only thing the same with all of the colossi, is their weak points, usually located on a high up spot like the neck, head or back. You have to climb right up the great beasts themselves to reach these points. Understandably none of the colossi are happy to simply sit down while you climb up them and stab them over and over again, they are constantly thrashing around wildly in an attempt to throw you to the ground (and your death) When climbing upon the beast's fur a grip mechanic comes into play. whereby holding R1 will cause you to grab onto any surface that will allow you to grab onto but meter will slowly decrease so you have to leg go eventually and find somewhere to stay at while it recharges, the constant threat of being thrown off creates a true sense of tension. These epic battles even push a sense of moral ambiguity as the colossi are generally not aggressive, most of them won't bother you when you arrive and simply walk about. As you kill each beast they stumble and groan in pain as they crash to the ground. You sometimes feel bad playing the game as although not cute and cuddly alike many Nintendo game, it seem quite cute, a little kid wanting to save his poor lost love............but then you go about culling mythical animals on the promise that a strange power will bring back your love......that you don't even know will prove true. It is simple to say that through the game you start to wonder what is really going on and who the real bad guy is. Even at around the end of the PS2's life the graphics are still amazing as a wonderous attention to detail has been pilled as you travel an immaculately detailed world which is designed right down to every piece of grass. The game streams all these environments so thankfully there are no loading screens as you move from one area to the next. The character animation and sound effects are also top-notch. As the player climbs up the colossi and they shake, the poor guy is flung from side to side and when he jumps he'll stumble a bit, flailing his legs all the way, imagine prince of Persia clumsy style. There are some flaws to the game though even with its beautiful graphics sometimes the frame-rate plays out, usually when a battle heats up. The camera can also be abit annoying while you're trying to climb around rocks and the back of a colossus. Other little flaws are that the game is fairly short and due to the linear gameplay it lacks and real replay value. You can finish the main story probably in 10 hours although it isn?t the type of game to sit down and play all the way through. It?s like an amazing and breathtaking movie...that losses charm if you watch it again. Also the controls can be somewhat tricky and aren't as responsive some other games as they take abit of getting used too. But these are really quite minor things, for all its flaws it?s an amazing game and probably something that will stay unique for many years. All in all it?s a great game that if you have the patience to stick with, it prove to be a beautiful experience A well deserved 9/10 -Bitorane |
