Shadow of the Colossus is one of those rare games that comes along and enthralls you into a different world. The opening scene sets up the story, and the rest will not come until the end. Which is a change of pace and a throw back to the 8-bit and 16-bit era, where it tells you the beginning and an end, nothing much in between, and it fits this game perfectly. You start the game with a special sword that reflects sunlight to show you your next destination, a horse, and a bow and arrow. You are able to hang from ledges and fur, as your hanging you can jump either up, left or right to gain distance quickly. That is it, there is no leveling up, no new weapons to get during story mode, no new abilities or powers, and you start the game as you end it. Except for being able to gain a longer life bar, by finding fruit trees and eating the fruit, and finding lizards with a glowing tail, killing them, and eating the tail to make your grip last longer. So what do you do for the 6-8 hours it will take you to beat it your first time through, kill colossi, which are towering beasts that are scattered through out the games map, unfortunately you do have an order at which you will be able to tackle them. Each colossi has a particular way to dispatch them, some even have multiple ways. Each colossi has a glowing spot on their body somewhere, you find it by shining the sunrays reflections from your sword onto the colossi, when you hit an attack spot it lights up, this is also the way you find out where the next area to travel is. And your job is to mount the beast and slay it, each colossi has multiple areas that needs to be attacked before the beast will fall. There are no other battles besides the colossi, which I found refreshing.
The graphics on the characters and colossi are great, but many of the textures of the environments are bland and blocky, and while each colossi looks enormous and are very detailed, they all still end up looking the same since each just seems to be the same color and textures, just a different shape. Also it is easy to get lost while looking for your next colossi to fight, while you can shine the sunrays off your sword and it rumbles when you hit the right area, you’ll find yourself stuck with nowhere to go even though it points you in that direction. The music is great and adds to the tension, the sound effects are nothing great, but not bad. This game is trail and error you will be getting lost a lot, plus you may die while trying to figure out how to slay the colossi, just to respawn at the last save point. Save points are temples and are placed well enough, to not have to retravel a long distance that is if you remember to save or find one before each encounter.
The AI of each colossi is great, they each have their own personality, and that is an important factor these aren’t just beasts who are willing to attack you at any moment, some may, while others won’t even bother you. As you climb them, they will try to get you off by shaking and throwing their limbs in every direction. In addition, their eyes seem to convey emotion, the looks some of them give you, calls into question this quest that you’re on. The battles are varied and fantastic, and show great attention to detail. Shadow of the Colossus does have its share of problem and frustrations, but you will be lucky to find a game that matches it atmosphere and emotion. This is a game every serious collector should have, and enjoy.
The story of Shadow of the Colossus is a fairly simple one: You must bring down 16 giants so that you can revive the woman you love. The concept of the game is also simple. There are no lesser minions to battle through a... Read Full Review
I am gonna start off saying that after seeing this game at E3 got me amazingly excited. I was a tad worried if the game play would get boring after awhile doing what would have seemed the same thing 16 times and that it.... Read Full Review
