Developer: Team Ico Publisher: Sony Release: 10/18/05 Genre: Action-Adventure
This is a tough review to write. Not because Shadow of the Colossus is bad, far from it. The game is a phenomenal achievement and you should play it as soon as possible. But there is a lot of mystery and suspense that I do not want to spoil to keep the experience fresh. From its design to its technical merits Sony knock it out of the park with this one. Shadow of the Colossus is a work of art, one of the greatest PlayStation 2 games of all time, and possibly one of my favorite games ever. Now how do I get that across without spoiling it?
Shadow of the Colossus follows Wander, a young man on a mission in a forbidden realm to resurrect a girl named Mono. A disembodied entity named Dormin instructs Wander in this task, sending him on a quest to destroy sixteen Colossi to hopefully obtain the power to revive the dead. That is not a spoiler mind you, the game says it outright. But that at least lets you know that not everything is on the up and up.
The plot in Shadow of the Colossus is minimalist. For nearly the entire game the only dialogue comes from Dormin and that is only to offer vague clues to the location of the next Colossus. It is not until close to the end that you are given more details about this strange land and why it is closed off to the rest of the world. Yet despite that it does an excellent job of conveying emotion by working with so little. The various deserts, forests, elaborate temples and abandoned cities all tell a tale without words. The calmness of riding through these structures on horseback is followed by excitement as you clash with these giants. Before games like Journey this was one of the most unique experiences on the market and remains so today.
Like the story the mechanics are minimal. From the onset you have everything you to complete the game: a sword, a bow and arrows, and your horse. Your sword doubles as both an offensive weapon and the means to locating each Colossus. Holding it aloft in the sun creates a ray of light that points in the direction of your next foe. It is a cool idea but one that can be a little frustrating. You will often have the general direction but no idea if you are even in the right location. I would imagine most that look at guides for the game do so to simply find the damn monsters and not how to beat them. That is a treat best discovered on your own.
Shadow of the Colossus is essentially a boss rush. Each Colossus is a puzzle to solve. Despite their unique forms they have elements in common: armor that covers some their body, fur to grip, and a weak point that switches with damage. But how you access it is what makes the game fun. For some it is immediately obvious like the first two. But soon the Colossi have a multi-step process before becoming vulnerable. The 13th Colossus is a flying dragon you fight on horseback and must find a way to grab its back. One of the smallest Colossi is the most heavily armored. This fight is in an abandoned city and you are left to figure out how to use this massive environment. The fact that all sixteen are this unique is an amazing achievement and I could easily fight ten more.
Even attacking the vital spot is an adventure in itself. Once you grab a Colossus it naturally tries to shake you off. Your fingers will hurt holding on for dear life and feel terror as your grip strength begins to wane. The grip meter is a brilliant mechanic that prevents you from steamrolling each battle within moments. It forces you to seek cover to recover lest you fall off and start the process all over again. In some cases you must repeat each pattern multiple times, a harrowing prospect considering the lengths they entail. They are like extreme versions of Treasure bosses. As you progress the game forces you to use the environment in each battle with the finale being one of the most epic I have come across. They absolutely stick the landing.
Shadow of the Colossus pushes the PS2 to the breaking point to realize its vision. There are a lot of effects that should not be possible on the system but they serve the gameplay. Fur shading was almost completely absent on the PS2 but is present as part of the Colossi’s design. There is motion blur to accentuate their movements and each is rendered with a generous amount of polygons. The animation uses inverse kinematics so that Wander’s body appropriately responds to each surface. This is crucial as each Colossus body is unique and their movement causes you to shift and shake accordingly. It can be over indulgent and slow at times but adds to the realism.
The sacrifice necessary to achieve this is the game’s framerate. Unfortunately the game dips in to the teens while battling the bosses and the sluggish framerate is immediately apparent. The game’s design takes this in to account somewhat; because they are so massive nearly all of them move slowly. But the erratic framerate will cause mistakes and even some deaths. Next to the unintuitive controls these are the only blemishes on a fantastic package and ones you can work around.
The music and the lack thereof does a wonderful job of eliciting an emotional response. You will appreciate the quiet serenity as you ride Argo through the varied landscape. Once you reach a Colossus the music kicks in to a frenzy that drives home the level of danger. The triumphant ditty that plays as you attack the weak point is rousing. The following melancholy track makes you feel that, yes, you were successful slaying this majestic beast but at what cost? Each piece is not very long but the game once again shows how to do a lot with very little.
In Closing
Shadow of the Colossus is a fantastic marriage of gameplay and technology and an essential title in the PlayStation 2 library. To this day it remains one of the most unique games ever created and a triumph in game design. Shadow of the Colossus is one of the main titles we point to when we talk about games as art for good reason, every facet of its design is carefully crafted to elicit an emotional response and it succeeds at that beautifully. I cannot say enough good things about it, go out and buy this game!
