haxxiy

User Score
8.0

Presentation - 9.5
Gameplay - 5.0
Value - 7.5

Unlike many people out there, I've played ICO before I played Shadow of the Colossus because some nice coincidence made me found myself with a brand-new copy of this game for 20 bucks. How lucky I was, even if I didn't know it at time. Back in these days, almost three yeas now, I thought only Nintendo had the most innovative games, after all, having Shigeru Miyamoto in your ranks is quite something. No need to mention how much ICO surprised me - a game different from anything I've played before, trully a work of art.

Then came Shadow of the Colossus, ICO's direct sequel, so to speak. Later in the game you could theorize that is actually a prequel, but that is a big spoiler that I won't touch anymore. Shadow of the Colossus is, well, colossal. The concept behind it is brilliant like no other, while keeping simple most of the points much like ICO did years ago.

The concept behind SotC is simple: you have to find and murder sixteen Colossi so some sort of god-like power will ressurect your beloved one. The Colossi are scattered around the temple where the godly power and your lover lurk, and you will find them by raising your sword onto the skies and following the light beams that show up, much like a track toward your target.

And that's it: SotC is nothing less than sixteen amazing boss battles. They are well hidden, and find them could be one hell of a task. Not only that, each Colossus brings out an innovative and challenging fight. These Colossi battles can also be considered puzzles, since you'll have to find out each creature's weak spots and then discover how to harm them. Is intersting to notice many of the Colossi seems actually 'kind' creatures, that look at you with almost ingenuous curiosity. It makes you feel guilty and selfish for killing them just to save your lover. After the Colossi are defeated, well... be prepared to one hell of an ending.

The soundtrack is one of the game's strongest aspects. My God, what a soundtrack, surely fits perfectly the Colossi battles and makes you feel like you are watching a good action movie like Lord of the Rings. Even more than FF, SotC has become one of my favorite soundtracks even though I still have not found it as a CD or such. Well, this is real life, and there is no swords pointing toward what you are looking for

The gameplay is one of the game's weak points, sometimes even hindering your Colossi hunt, altough many of times this won't be your main issue, which you'll find out later. Your unnamed character stumbles around, falls to the ground and takes ages to get up and barely can shake a sword into the air. He's flawed beyond human levels, to the point you think he's retarded. Your horse and the camera angles are another issues. Is somewhat hard to lock the camera at the colossus without fucking up your own point of view. The horse, well, it looks like your character just found a random stallion in the field and decided to ride it. The developers tried to make it's controls look 'realistic' without even thinking that isn't exactly what gamers look for. And you though RE tank controls were bad...

Despite some weird textures when looking from near, and weird rain effects near to the end, SotC has incredible graphics, surely one of the best the PS2 can offer. Altough, these beautiful landscapes took their heavy toll in the gameplay. The framerate works around 20-25 FPS most of the game, and can fall down to 10-15 when fighting against one Colossus close-range. This is annoying and makes the game completely unplayable sometimes, like in the last battle, and if not ruined, threw a big and dark stain into SotC brilliant concept. If the game ran at 10FPS above what it currently rans, you could add three points into the gameplay score, and one point into the final score. Pity.

SotC is surely an enjoyable experience both as a work of art and an action/adventure game, and shows one of the best concepts games could offer to you. Surely a remarkable title, even tough the feeling it could be better in a graphicall stronger platform remains. Play it, and find a world like no other. Just make sure you are prepared to fight these beasts...