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    Shadow of the Colossus

    Game » consists of 9 releases. Released Oct 18, 2005

    Explore the Forbidden Land as Wander, a young warrior who must slay sixteen Colossi in order to restore the life of a sacrificed maiden.

    hazelnutman's Wander to Kyozou (PlayStation 2) review

    Avatar image for hazelnutman

    If the word EPIC was tangible, it comes packaged with Shadow.

    Shadow of the Colossus is not a video game. It's more like an interactive piece of art. In an industry full of shooters and generic games, Shadow is a huge breath of fresh air. Personally, I think Shadow of the Colossus was 5 years ahead of its time. It never let me go until I finished it. Not once.

    Graphics – 9/10:
    The graphics still look great today for a PS2 game. Shadow uses a light blurring effect which makes the entire world seem better looking. The draw distance is superb and the colossi look downright gorgeous. Everything looks as it should be. The animation is absolutely the best you can hope for, as the characters have expression-filled movements with plenty of depth and good movement transitions. There are some glitchy textures now and then with some objects popping into the screen, but all is forgiven when you really look at everything that makes this game shine.

    Gameplay – 9/10:
    Shadow of the Colossus is one hell of a unique game. Take an average adventure game, and take out all of the repetitiveness, any enemies between bosses, make unique boss fights, throw in tons of unique elements, and you've got Shadow. That's right; you have no enemies in between boss battles.

    Instead, you start each level at the center temple in a huge over-world. You count on only your sword, bow/arrows, and horse to hunt down and battle each colossus (the huge bosses). This is where the game gets crazy fun. Each battle, you are presented with a colossus with a different method of fighting in a different environment. You run around searching for a weakness, or a way to trigger an opening. Once you find it, you usually have to climb onto the fur/scales/anything you can get your hands on. Shadow uses an interesting system, where you hold down R1 to grab onto virtually anything exposed as good climbing material on the colossi's body. This gets really crazy as the colossi are usually 50 times your size! As they try to shake you off, you'll struggle to find their weak spot and stab it silly until the monstrous beast dies. Each battle will leave you speechless and utterly hooked into the game.

    You have your horse for battling some colossi, as well as being a fantastic way to travel through a HUGE world. You'll have your sword, which is good for battling colossi, as well as acting as a compass/guide to your next destination/colossi's weakness. The bows and arrows come in handy during some brain teasing battles. You never get stronger in Shadow. Only the player can improve, and that's it. (save for raising your HP and grip meter) You can unlock some extra items such as the whistling arrow later, but don't add a huge layer to the gameplay.

    Everything's fantastic gameplay-wise, and this is mostly true for the controls as well. The button layout is great, and camera controlling is a breeze, but you'll find that your character is quite delayed and sometimes frustrating to control. The movements feel a little slippery at the beginning, but you'll soon get the hang of it, although more tuning up on controls would have been nice.


    Sound – 10/10:
    Team ICO didn't hold anything back when it came to the sound. The music is just freaking perfect, as it sets the mood for epic confrontations and fast battles. To add to that, all dialogue is spoken. Not satisfied? The dialogue spoken is not English, but a made up language with subtitles underneath it which just blew my mind away. This fictional language is very believable and every well spoken. The voice acting is great, although there are just two main voices in the game. Everything shines in the sound department.

    Value – 8/10:
    Shadow of the Colossus will take you around eight to ten hours, and once you beat each boss, you will have already figured out their weaknesses, which ruins some of the fun. Yet, there's a time-attack mode which adds an element of competition into it, and extra miscellaneous items you can unlock. Other than that, there's nothing much to keep you into Shadow of the Colossus except for one thing; the pure art of the game. Who wouldn't want to keep a game where you can fight gigantic monsters? It's just so satisfying to have a game like this in your possession. So run, don't walk to a game dealership. Besides, the game's only 30 dollars now.

    Story – "a familiar story turned enchanting and epic"
    Shadow's story is quite special. It has managed to turn a story, in which would have been incredibly generic into something special. The main story is of a young man with the help of his trusty stallion who travel to a forbidden land in search of a spirit known as Dormin. He seeks Dormin because he wishes to bring his lady friend back from the dead. He makes a deal with the mysterious spirit and agrees to seek and destroy 16 colossi without any thought.

    This may seem like a "save your girl from death" boring story, but it's ingeniously put together with tons of great voice acting and a mysterious atmosphere. There's a huge twist at the end, which you can predict if you can spot the clues. It just has that rich and hearty feeling of epicness which cannot be described in a player review.
    You have to experience it first hand.

    CONCLUSION:

    Team ICO is absolutely amazing. How they come up with these things is unknown, but they delivered a jam-packed thrill ride here. You have never seen such a game in your life. The rush, the thrill of climbing gigantic and elegant creatures is absolute magic.

    The entire game makes me want to cry with joy. There may be some frustrating times of not being able to find the colossi, giving up on finding weak spots, and the like, but they just add onto the final feeling for this game. And it's a good feeling for sure.

    Graphics - 9/10
    Gameplay - 9/10
    Sound - 10/10
    Value - 8/10
    Story - " a familiar story turned enchanting and epic"
    OVERALL – 4.5 STARS

    Other reviews for Wander to Kyozou (PlayStation 2)

      Ah, Nostalgia 0

      Review/Rant: I feel a great sense of nostalgia whenever I think about this game. Few other game immersed me completely in their world as this game did. This an incredible feat considering that the main character only says one word over and over throughout the whole game (Agro). Other characters have very limited dialogue. The gameplay comprises of a series of boss fights, say HUUUGE boss fights, with a few platforming segments and horseback riding through vast environments to get to those boss f...

      13 out of 13 found this review helpful.

      A True Masterpiece 0

      Shadow of the Colossus is a game unlike any other. You play a young man trying to save his one true love by defeating a number of enemies that hold the secret to bringing her back to life. Okay...so maybe the premise isn't exactly original, but that's where the unoriginality ends. The game comes to us from the same development team that brought us one of the best PS2 games ever made, ICO. Adored by critics yet ignored by buyers, ICO was an artistic adventure that will be long remembered by anyon...

      10 out of 10 found this review helpful.

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