Shadow of the Colossus is simply put "Amazing!"
The artwork of this game blends the scenery together so well its like real life. I do not know how many times i have let my horse stroll me through a forested path or gotten off my horse and wandered the vast landscape and the dry deserts. The scenery is not something you can describe, you must play it for yourself to realize just how great it is.
You enter the game solo and throughout the game your only real partner is probably your horse which you can stand on the saddle of, ride normally or leap off your horse onto various terrain. Whip out your bow! Fire arrows at the giant beasts and try to injure them then gallop forward leap off your horse and carve away at the giant beasts skin and bring him to his knees. If not for Ahro you would be alone to face the beasts.
Ride on your horse, fire arrows, slash do anything to bring these beasts down. At the start of every boss fight your going to have to charge your brain up and think of a strategy to bring this colossus down so you can grab a hold and climb towards his weakspot. The weakspot is on every boss, its a blinking blue spot that has a strange design, this is what you should pull out your sword get ready and plunge into and hang on for your life because the beast will not like you after you hit it. The joy of taking down a colossus is overwhelming! You have got to try it.
Finding the colossus is alot of the fun in the game, you can travel across a vast plain a foresty desert, climb a mountain or dive into the water for a swim. After every defeating of the colossus you return to the temple in a daze and by the command of a creepy voice you set out and raise your sword to the sky and galop toward the destination. Once you find the destination your looking for you should hold your sword up and it should glow a green tinge, thats how you know to poke around and uncover the giant.
The realism of this game is just fanominal, you can make a huge jump but when you land your going to stumble if you stay under water to long you will come up for air. The holding on system and breathing system both are controlled by the stamina circle which grows smaller if your exhausted or out of breath. If it runs out you either come up for air from a lake or loose grip and fall towards the ground off the back of a colossus. While climbing you can press "triangle" button to pull yourself up onto a ledge or hold it down to make a jump in any direction. "R1" will keep you hanging on anything until you become tired or miss the que between running free on the beast and when it starts to shake.
Besides a few minor glitches now and then and some lagging i think Shadow of the Colossus deserves a whole point higher than Gamespot rated it. If you do have a PS2 then you go out to the nearest game store and pick up a copy of Shadow of the Colossus, its a must buy. So overall it deserves a 9.7 to 9.9, alot more than Gamespot would have scored it. Thank you if you didn't quit when you saw a few paragraphs and read my review of Shadow of the Colossus.