Shadow of the Colossus is a new, unique, and imaginative game. One of a kind. A must play!
Firing a couple rounds into the enemy, cutting through the opponents ranks with a sword, traveling the world in the same costume talking to similar innkeeper after intriguingly similar innkeeper, flying through space in identical looking spaceships, game after game, though all tried and true methods, after awhile, things start to get boring.
That’s why they, they being the same creators who brought us ICO, the extraordinary kid with the horns, in 2001, came out in 2005 with another new, unique, and imaginative game called Shadow of the Colossus. The main character of the story is a young warrior who has traveled on horseback to a sacred temple in a land lost to time and filled with ancient magic where he believes the girl who he loves, who has been killed, can be brought back.
Entering into the large temple chamber, dismounting from his horse, he carries his love to a stone altar and lays her there. Immediately following, he finds out from a mysterious voice coming from a large pillar of light inside the temple, that he can bring her back, but at a terrible price, he must first defeat sixteen powerful Colossi, who roam the surrounding lands. Wielding his ancient and magical sword, which he has previously gotten, and arming himself with courage, he mounts up and takes off towards his first challenge.
The storyline in Shadow of the Colossus, I think, is purposefully especially vague. This is because to play the game you don’t have to get bogged down by insignificant details like, where is this guy from? What is the history of his land? This is not important. What is important is the defeat of these colossal beasts that stand in your way of bringing back your significant other. And colossal they are. In fact, from the very beginning of the game you feel that your character doesn’t really belong in the world he is traversing. Everything around him is unusually big, otherwordly; this is a foreshadow of the colossi you will eventually have to face.
And face them you do. The game, in essence is thus: you set out from the temple, use your sword to guide you to the next colossi, defeat it, and after absorbing the strange shadowy material that emanates from the colossi, you’ll magically return to the temple to start the process all over again. Sounds extremely repetitive and boring? It isn’t. Each colossi is unique both in size, other than the fact that they are all unnaturally large, and in its abilities, giving each fight a distinctive different-ness to it. Some of the small colossi are the size of an elephant, and the largest reach over a hundred feet high. Each is different; fast, slow, flying, swimming, four legs, two, none; each one is uniquely designed and in my opinion, complementing the creators, truly amazing. I would have a hard time thinking up something so creative, nevertheless sixteen different ones. You will have to utilize both the environment and the game’s controls to achieve your goal. There is no leveling up, which, if there were, would effectively ruin the game with tediousness, and there is also no pointless gathering of “special artifacts” to defeat each colossus. The fact that the designers didn’t add in a bunch of lesser creatures on the map and long, meaningless puzzles, which would have only lengthened the game and bogged down gameplay extremely, makes Shadow of the Colossus all that more enjoyable.
Another great part of the game is that it is a great mix of action and a sort of puzzle in figuring out how to defeat each colossus. You’ll use your sword and bow plenty, but what you have most against the giant brutes, is your wits. Each Colossus is located in different part of the maps, large forests, giant lakes, desert, and many diverse places. This makes you use the environment, as much as anything else, to outwit the colossi, to take them down. Did I say the battles with the colossi are intense? This is an understatement, you really have to play, or watch the battles with a friend, to truly understand the excitement. I would have to say the most worn down button on my controller after this game would have to be R1; this is the gripping action on the controls and allows your character to grab on to certain parts of the colossi, usually fur or ledges on the armor, while the colossi thrash around, trying to rid themselves of the pesky little you! I used this the most, other than plunging my sword into the weak spots of the giants, which were on each colossi, usually in a different spots depending on the colossi, but always located high up, forcing you to climb. But the thing about R1 is you only have a certain amount of stamina until you’re thrown to the ground, sometimes from even a hundred feet up. But you are “filled with so much courage” this hardly does anything to your life. It does, however, force you to climb all the way back to where you were, and stab until the colossus falls. The fact that you can be thrown off at anytime you lose stamina, or aren’t gripping R1 insanely tight at the right moment, creates a continues feeling of tension throughout the battle, that continues until the very moment you bring the giant beast down. Another thing that adds to the tension is the music, which fits perfectly with this game, swelling at key moments in battle, and fading and dying out while traversing the vast world on your horse. But despite its beautifully done world, which has obviously seen many hours of work on the creators part, and is stunning in comparison to other action adventure games, and parallels the older ICO’s stunning landscapes and artistic buildings, and the intense battle sequences, the game does fall a little in the technical department. During the most climactic parts of the battles with the latter colossi in the game, the graphics got a little sketchy and skippy, and the camera got all “wacked” sometimes while climbing up the back of the colossi.
Also, I would not recommend playing the entire game in one sitting, as me and my friend did; though when you finish you get a great sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, things will seem a little repetitive at times.
The last thing I would have to point out is the controls; some buttons could have been utilized more fully, instead of doubling up, and adding to the confusion. One example would be the triangle which was for jumping and mounting your horse, this proves a crucial flaw when you need to mount your horse during a fight with the colossi and you instead jump up and down three or four times around your horse like a crazy psycho, ending up on the bottom of the colossus enormous hoof because you couldn’t get away fast enough. But don’t let these minor failings stop you from playing Shadow of the Colossus. It is a great game; a good change in pace from all the RPG’s and first person shooters out there. My friend and I enjoyed it very much and I recommend it for anyone looking for something new (still thrilling action-wise) and, a little bit different.