Shadow of the Colossus review

If I was given the choice to review a game in three words or less, I would choose the following three for Shadow of the Colossus:

Epic
Beautiful
Moving

I've been playing games for damn near 20 years now. Never in my life have I experienced a vision of art, be it a TV show, movie, or video game, that has engulfed me so wholly into its world. Shadow of the Colossus is as much a video game as it is an emotionally engaging piece of art. It is as fun as anything I've ever played, while simultaneously being as engrossing as anything I've ever watched. It's a huge, sprawling world, and it's just you, your horse, and 16 of the biggest, baddest beasts on the planet.

I suppose I should tell you about the story. Don't worry, I won't give anything away. Basically, you play as Wander, and you enter this forbidden world where it's just you and the dead woman on your back. You place her on an alter, and are told that it "may not be impossible" to bring her back to life from a mysterious voice above you. From there, you set forth on your journey.

On paper, the game doesn't even sound like it should be good. It's basically 16 boss battles when you get right down to the nitty gritty of it. But wow, what boss battles they are. Each one completely outdoes the one before it, whether it be in size, challenge, appearance, or just utter coolness. For a game to have even ONE boss battle like any of these is already awesome, but considering there are 16 of them in this game, it's nothing short of mindblowing.

The battles themselves are completely remarkable. Your task is to fell a huge beast. You first need to figure out just how the hell to get on the damn thing before you can even figure out how to go about fighting it. In that regard, it's somewhat of a puzzle game amidst the other obvious elements of action and adventure. Once you figure out how to get onto the colossus, you're in for literally a wild ride, holding on for dear life as the colossus shakes and tries to get you off of it. Being on the top of a giant colossus and seeing the entire world in front of you is nothing short of breathtaking, and is something that literally knocks the wind out of you at times.

What makes this game so emotionally enthralling is because it picks and prods at tons of feelings a human is capable of experiencing. Love, loneliness, pride, curiosity, excitement, thrill, sadness, happiness, confusion... The list goes on. This is a game that thrusts you square in the middle of a huge, empty world. It's this loneliness that gives you chance to connect with this game. When most games try to cram tons of NPCs and other things into their world, SotC limits your inhabitants to you, your horse, your dead lover, a voice above you, some bugs scattered around, and 16 giant bosses. It sounds boring, but once you sit back and let yourself get lost in the world, you'll realize that it's unlike anything you have or likely will ever experience for a long time.

Visually, the game excels nearly flawlessly. It may not have the prettiest-looking things, but the art direction is simply unmatched. Even visual spectacles like God of War have nothing on the size and scope of this game's art direction. Imagine being told to create a literally EMPTY world, save for a few landmarks to save your game, and 16 resting places for colossi. It's a daunting task, and the fact that it was created with such unmatched beauty and grace is just remarkable.

Aurally, this is one of the most incredible scores I've ever heard. It's brilliant on its own, but when you hear it all in-game, it makes the battles with the colossi all the more exciting. My only gripe is the super-noticable crossfade done to transition from "less exciting" to "super exciting" pieces of music. Nothing huge, but compared to a game like Zelda: Twilight Princess that uses MIDI tracks, I end up missing the seamless musical transitions that MIDI allows you. Oh well, that's just me.

My main gripe about this game when I first played it were with the controls. Over time, you get accustomed to them, but I still feel that they feel almost TOO organic. it makes great use of the pressure sensitivity of the controller, but I can't help but feel like it still controls strangely. It feels very much like Ico, a game I tried and tried to get into, but couldn't. In the end, it controls well, but it feels weird nonetheless.

Once the game is over, you are treated to the option to play it through in hard mode, and also fight against the colossi in a time trial mode. This is all excellent, because it gives you more excuses to play through this game again.

Shadow of the Colossus is not a game from everyone, but I still think that everyone should play it. It's easily one of the most engaging games ever made, and one of the most emotionally gripping as well. The ending will leave you shocked and speechless. It's powerful to say the least, and undoubtedly one of the most well-played endings I've ever witnessed. It is a game that is not to be missed, and if you ask me, it is the best game of the previous generation, and one of the best games of all time.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

None that I could find, and I'm a picky bastard when it comes to games. The story is basically you trying to bring the dead girl you brought with you back to life, with the story deepening the further along you get in the game. It's very well done.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

There's a bit of slowdown, yeah, but that doesn't detract from the overall experience. I wouldn't have remembered it if you hadn't mentioned it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.