This game is absolutely incredible. 'nuff said.
You play as a young boy, Ico, who was born with horns coming out of his head. Everything that goes wrong in the village is blamed on poor Ico, as the horns are a bad omen. As he and his little horns grew to be 12, the village decided it was time to get rid of him.
Ico's taken to a deserted catle and trapped in a tomb, where he is left to die. (Good god these people are cruel, couldn't they just shoot him out back? who'd make a kid die of starvation?)
Luckily, Ico escapes from the tomb and you are free to roam about the creepy castle. You soon come across Yorda, a young girl. You don't know much about her as she doesn't speak your language. What you do know is that the girl seems to have a knack for making creepy dark spirits appear and try to capture her. Also, she has the ability to open doors that you cannot, so it's vital that you keep her safe so that you have a chance of escaping.
The spirits have no interest in you, therefore, they only attack you if you get in their way of capturing Yorda. There's no health bar or hearts/lives in ICO. You can't be killed from their attacks. The most their attacks can do is make you lie around for a bit in pain before you hop back to your feet. Therefore, the only way to die is by falling from an immense height. The only other way for a Game Over is if Yorda falls from a big height (which I don't think has ever happened haha she only jumps if she knows she can make it) or she is captured.
The castle of ICO appears to be huge. You have to go through many different trials to get out. Ico will have to shimmy on thin ledges, climb over instant-death heights, make huge jumps, and all while helping a young girl get through safely as well. You can either yank Yorda around by hand or have her follow you. Or you can leave her alone for a while- be careful though, leaving her alone for too long or going too far away means she can be captured easily. You have to find ways for her to get to certain points as she can't do everything Ico can- she won't climb chains or jump by herself. Getting her to jump can take a bit of time- you have to urge her and reach out for her to get her to finally jump and always just BARELY make it. And when she does do thinks of her own accord, it can be hard to get her to do things your way. In this way, ICO can be challenging and a bit of a puzzle/logic game. It's never too hard and frustrating though.
ICO can even creep you out at times. There's very little music, most of the time, you walk around and the only sounds are Ico and Yorda's footsteps and breathing. Ico's lonely shouts echo across walls.
The evil spirits can appear at any time. There can also be long stretches where they don't appear at all. When they finally do appear there's a very quiet warning music that oftentimes goes unnoticed until they grab Yorda from you.
When there is music, it's very haunting and memorable. The graphics are pretty good in my opinion. While they don't compare to all those "next-gen" games out now I think for the quality of gameplay most won't care.
This game is so different from any other game I've played, and the differences are very welcome. If only there were more games like this!
The only thing keeping me from giving a 10 is that it's too short! Doesn't take long to beat at all!