Simple yet stunning

User Rating: 9.1 | Shadow of the Colossus PS2
By c_met | Review Date:
When I bought Shadow of the Colossus, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. To my surprise, this became one of my favorite games on the PS2.

Gameplay - 9
The gameplay is extraordinarily original...ride a horse across a beautiful yet barren land, and find a beast. Then climb beast, and stab big glowing blue weak spots. While this seems repetitive, there is more variety in the killing than almost any other game ive played. One colossi requires you to hide underground and jump on it when it lowers its head, while another has you shoot it until it swoops down toward you. No two colossi play the same. Clunky controls and a rather inconveniently cinematic keep this from a perfect ten.

Graphics - 9
This is one of the most beautiful, artistic games to ever grace the PS2. Each colossus has individual hairs in its mane, and if you reach high enough ground you can see for virtual miles into the distance. Animations, especially that of the horse, are very realistic. The PS2 hardware keeps this from perfection: colors are rather washed out, adding to the atmosphere, but detracting from the overall beauty of the landscape, and the framerate has a tendency to dip when things get exiting.

Sound - 10
The sound always matches the feeling of the player at the time. Going to a colossus its quiet and lonely like the game itself. As you reach the colossus the music slowly builds up, and at the peak of the players excitement it plays to match the action.

Value - 7
This is the downfall of SotC. Beating the game unlocks Time Attack mode and Hard Mode, the former having you beat the colossi in timed sessions for neat items and weapons to use later. Hard mode is just like normal mode, but the colossi tend to be more aggressive and usually have an extra weak spot or two. Beating Hard mode unlocks Hard Time Attack, for more items. However this doesn't seem to get rid of the feeling that you're doing everything over and over again. 60% of the challenge is finding out how to reach the colossus's weakness, and once you've done that already the fights lose their luster

Tilt - 10
Since I got it, this game has spent more time in my PS2 than almost any other game i have.
This is worth a buy.

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