Maybe not popular with most gamers, but a masterpiece that every hardcore gamer should have experienced!
The game starts with an in-game cut-scene where a couple of men go to a mysterious castle to offer a young boy to the gods. At this point in the game you don’t know anything about this boy, but you can assume that this is ICO. Thanks to a small earthquake ICO is able to free himself from his small tomb and is given the opportunity to escape. This is where your adventure begins.
When you start controlling ICO, you notice that they are pretty basic. There is a jump, action and walk button (there are more but they will be explained later). After a short while you approach a hanging cage with a girl in it. Heroic as you are you find a way to free her, but as soon as you do shadow-creatures appear out of the ground and take her away. This where you first get into battle, although it’s not very complicated. The action button is used for attack (with either a stick and later in the game a sword). This is also the point in the game where you get introduced to protecting Yorda (the girl you just rescued). You have to prevent from Yorda being sucked into one of the black holes. When she does get sucked into one, you have to use the R1-button to pull her back out. When you defeat all the shadow-creatures, the rampage stops and the black holes disappear. Now that you have met Yorda, you have to get her out of here as well, also because you need her to escape. She can open doors with some kind of special power. With the R1-button you hold her hand and she will follow you wherever she can. Also, if you get too far from her, you can use the L1-button to call her. Just don’t get too far too long or she might abducted by another one of those shadow-creatures.
ICO might be a little old, but the graphics are still top of the line. The environments absolutely look amazing and the level-design, which is one huge castle, is literally a piece of art. When it comes to sound there aren’t any complaints, but it also isn’t superb. Nothing wrong there.
There were some complaints about the length of the game (you can play through it in less than 4 hours), but with a game this original that shouldn’t be a real problem. The game and gameplay is just so amazing that a single play-through is something real gamers just have to experience at least once.
With the release of Shadow of the Colossus, ICO got its re-release and maybe it finally receives the appreciation it deserves. It really is a masterpiece and it would be a shame to let a game like this miss out in your collection!