Innovative, immersive, and thought provoking. With a beautiful sound-track and art-style, sotc is a gem among videogames
First off, let's talk about the gameplay. To me, the most memorable, and sometimes most fun, parts of a game are the boss fights. And when the entire game is basically a series of boss fights, that equals a serious WIN. The games main objective is to slay sixteen massive colossi that each function as a large puzzle. For each colossi, you need to find and exploit its weakness. Some are obvious, and you'll be able to topple them in no time; however, with others, such as the sand colossus and the giant bull that shoots lightning at you, it may take some time. At least it did for me :/ Once you do figure things out though, the satisfaction is uncomparable to any other you will get from a single game. And no, I'm not exaggerating.
Now, about the actual controls... At first, they will be a bit akward; especially when it comes to Agro, your horse. I had to readjust myself peronally because I was accustomed to the x button being jump instead of triangle (minus in devil may cry). Anyway, after beatig the first few colossi, you'll probably have it down. One word for the wiser though... hold down x to keep Agro at a constant speed instead of just continuously pressing x. You'll understand when you play it. :)
On to the story. You play as Wander, a boy that sets off to a forbidden temple in hopes of ressurecting his girlfriend. The temple is rumored to be the home of Dormin, a demon (I believe) who can bring the dead back to life, and it is Dormin that commands Wander to slay the colossi in order to complete the ritual. That's about as far as I'm going to go into the story, as to not spoil it for you, but I will say that I had CHILLS after the ending. The symbolism of this game is just remarkable. The story is very open-ended, leaving the player to decide who the real villain was, whether it was Emon (a character from later in the game), Dormin, or even Wander. You WILL need to brush up on the story from Ico (which sotc is the prequel of) to get a better understanding of what happens in the end.
I absolutely love the art style of this game. Each colossi is intricately designed, as is Wander, and just the grand-scheme of the sotc world is beautiful. The graphics are comparable only to that of God of War 2 for ps2, and you can literally hear how hard your system is working to keep up with everything. You will find no bright colors, but not to the extent of games like Gears of War, where everytrhing is a shade of gray. No, this is more of an overcast to the colors and it adds to somber, melancholy mood, rather than take away from it. In fact, the color scheme reminds me a lot of Twilight Princess now that I think about it.
The music in this game is top-notch. This is one of the games that has a soundtrack that, once playing through the game, you will be able to pick out from a mile away. You will thoroughly enjoy it, as it enhances the mood of the game just as the art-style has.
In conclusion, Shadow of the Colossus is a MUST HAVE for any ps2 owner. With a great story and amazing and unique gameplay, how can it not be? It is definitely one of the most satisfying games I have ever played, anb I hope you find it to be as well.