March 2011 SotC Review
Coming from my backlog of shame is Shadow of the Colossus. I decided to play this now because it was always something I thought I needed to play as a hardcore gamer, and after finishing it I kind of have to agree. I could see this game being used as an example for the games-as-art argument, and because of how different it is I would recommend everyone at least try it. We're in a time in gaming where people aren't really willing to take risks, and I wanted to play something that was different, especially in story telling.
In Shadow of the Colossus you play as an unnamed, silent Wanderer. In the beginning you are shown carrying your supposed dead girlfriend to a temple where the Wanderer is trying to find a way to resurrect her. A disembodied voice in the temple tells you that your wish will be fulfilled if you are able to take out the 16 colossus' in the land which are represented by 16 statues standing in the temple you start at. It's a pretty simple back-story, and you don't really get much more than that.
The first thing I immediately noticed before even starting the game is the sense of scale on everything. The temple is huge, the landscape is ginormous, and this makes for a world that generally feels pretty empty but peaceful at the same time. The scale really helps with immersion and really gives you a sense of a very dead, and quiet world. Throughout the game, you will be wandering this mass environment on your horse, Argo, while being guided by the reflection of the sun from your sword (you press a button to hold the sword up) that points to the next colossi.
Each colossi battle is its own platforming puzzle that can move, and is about the size of an 8-story building . Equipped with only a bow and sword, you have to find a way to climb up the colossi and stab it at it's weak point. What makes this difficult is that the colossi are fully aware you're trying to climb scale them, and they don't like it. So as a massive slow moving beast made of stone, their only option most of the time is to try and shake you off; this is where grip comes into play. While scaling the colossus you have a limited amount of time you can hold on for shown as a pink grip meter. So while scaling these colossus, you have to find spots that you can rest on (mostly likely the shoulders or... anywhere you can stand and not fall off) to regain your grip strength on. This strength mechanic is also applied to the bow and sword, allowing you to charge your sword/bow and release it, causing more damage the longer you charge. When you first fight the colossus, it seems impossible to take down. But when you do take one out, it's a very satisfying feeling.
While traveling, the camera likes to pan around at odd angles to give it an artsy look, and you could probably take a screenshot of this game at anytime and use it as a picture or wallpaper. This may not be as true in 2011, though, as the game looks very dated compared to what's out there now; the amount of jagged edges in this game almost makes it look like a PS1 game. I personally think the Playstation 2 was not powerful enough to run this game, as if it would've been better to wait for the next generation of consoles before releasing it (PS3 owners rejoice as there are HD remakes of this and the studio's last game, ICO, coming soon in a pack). Even with a simplified water-painting style due to the technical limitations, there were constantly frame-rate issues throughout, but I personally found them very easy to overlook. When traveling, you could feel the horse slow down to load things that are in the distance. Also, whenever I was fighting a colossus, I knew that the frame-rate was hovering around 10-15. It doesn't help that the frame-rate will shoot up to 30-60 when nothing is happening, making the slow-downs even more noticeable. The only other complaint I have is the loose and floaty controls. A little bit of polish on controls could've made the game a lot better.
I make the frame-rate issue sound like a very big problem, but it really isn't. There is a sense of epicness in this game that I just haven't really felt before, and I urge any person that calls themselves a gamer to go and experience this game. It tells a story really well using minimal dialogue; you're basically given a few clues here and there as to what is going on. The game took me about 7 hours to finish, I didn't really go exploring, so that would be the total time it took me to find the 16 colossus and kill them. After you beat the game you unlock a time-attack mode and hard mode, which gives it some extra replayability.
Shadow of the Colossus is unique; it's fun. If you can overlook some of the graphical technical limitations, and some minor control problems, then you should definitely play this game at least for the experience. If you can't tolerate the graphics, you can wait for the PS3 collection coming out Q1/Q2 of 2011.
