While it takes 10 hours to get a story and the camera can be cruel, the game is very intense, memorable and rewarding.
Anyone seeking another brilliant story similar to “Ico” might as well turn around now. “Shadow of the Colossus” cares more about creating the most memorable boss fights than making another “Ico” story. The only background you are given before the 10 hours of colossi-stabbing fun begins is that you are a teenager trying to resurrect your female companion. Is the girl your sister or your girlfriend? How did she die? Where did you get that cool sword? Who are these ambiguous gods that can apparently resurrect people if you defeat 16 colossi for them? None of these questions matter really. Fumito Ueda must have figured that players would simply use their imagination while practically platforming for hours. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work as well as Ueda probably expected and without a story to motivate you to continue, the game can have its dry spells. Regardless, the game knows how accomplish its main purpose and it does it far better than any other game in the colossus-riding genre.
“Shadow of the Colossus” is, at its core, the ultimate boss fighting game. Each “level” consists of you riding your horse throughout a rather large world in search of anything that is large, hairy, disgruntled and stereotypically labeled “colossus.” Your magical and apparently “forbidden” sword acts as a guide when you raise it up to the sun creating a beam of light pointing in the direction you are supposed to go. The beam of light, which is accompanied by a sound that should be in a sci-fi movie, can be deceiving at times and can also cause a lot of wasteful traveling. Traveling is also a burden considering that the camera is constantly moving the direction that it wishes to go and the fact that there is yet to be a video game that correctly implements horseback riding. The outdoor environments are certainly impressive to behold thanks to the amount of visible land around you, but the scenery is nowhere near polished enough to make 10 to 20 minutes of mindless traveling worthwhile.
When you finally meet up with a colossus and finish the usual “icebreakers,” your first job, and usually the hardest job, is to figure out how to get onto the massive mountain of stone and hair. This usually involves using the various environments to force the hulking beasts to bend over allowing you to jump on and hold on tight. Aside from the standard “giant stone creature in a temple” colossus, there are also aerial and aqueous colossi that bring entirely different “jump on” strategies.
As the colossus flails all of its body parts about like a rabid monkey, it’s up to you to find its multiple weak points and ultimately bring it shattering to the ground. A casual stroll about the colossus’s body will reveal its shiny and glowing weak points that you then incessantly stab with your sword. Making a simple stab can be quite difficult, however, since a colossus is far tougher than you think. You might even wonder if Fumito Ueda invented the phrase “Hold on for dear life,” when you are grasping onto the thick hair of a two hundred foot tall colossus. To make matters worse, you can’t hold on forever and you will eventually let go if you don’t find time to rest. While sometimes this process can seem rather easy, it can also make for an extremely rigorous and rewarding experience that even the most cinematic of World War II games can’t capture. There's nothing more exhilirating than trying to get one last powerful stab in on a colossus flailing its head about like a model in a shampoo commercial. Slap an elegant and epic soundtrack that practically tells its own story on top of this entire masterful boss fighting gameplay, and all that’s left to be said is, “Astonishing.”
Unfortunately, that’s not entirely the case. For those that become easily ignited in anger from camera issues, “Shadow of the Colossus” may not seem all that attractive. With some of the more unordinary colossi, fighting with who is in control of the camera can be more frustrating than simply finding a way to defeat it. It may sound odd that the game can create a memorable experience with a shoddy camera. This is mainly because the camera only becomes a severe problem during either traveling or while on an aqueous/aerial colossus. For the most part, “Shadow of the Colossus” tries to keep the camera in a steady spot that won’t cause too many problems.
“Shadow of the Colossus” also doesn’t exactly cater to those that rely on a story to help keep their interest and lead them through the game. The story is only important at the beginning and end of the game and totals about 40 minutes of storytelling altogether. Unless you are a fan of artistic stories with interpretative meanings, “Shadow of the Colossus” will look like a black wall lacking any purpose or point but to hunt down huge bosses.
Although “Shadow of the Colossus” has some faults hanging onto its back, what makes the game a far more notable game than many others in 2005 is its visual presentation that truly pushes the PS2 hardware. At first glance, the game’s visuals look like no more than that of an artistic third-person adventure game. Then you see a colossus. No matter how many screenshots you may have seen, laying your own eyes upon one of these towers is like the first time you look at the graphics for a next-gen console. It’s simply unmatchable. Every texture that may have been toned down in the environment is absolutely worth sacrificing to include the sheer magnitude of what you must face in “Shadow of the Colossus.” The fact that riding your horse is ridiculous hard or that the camera really isn’t your friend seems to fade away when you behold the magnificent appearance of each colossus. It may seem like a Jedi mind trick, but when it comes down to it, the game simply reminds you why you love to play games.
While most games of 2005 tried to kill my inner child, “Shadow of the Colossus” gave me a sword and let me resurrect it after I brought 16 massive colossi crumbling to the ground. “Shadow of the Colossus” is one of those games that you have to play to truly understand any critic’s numbers or witty remarks. With that said, go find a sword and a horse and hunt down “Shadow of the Colossus.” You won’t regret it.