Sadly, I haven't had much time for videogames lately. Luckily, I was able to try the fairly new game, Shadow of the Colossus for the PS2. The story starts off as nothing special: hero needs to revive life of girl, sent on quest to defeat Colossi by powerful diety... and so on. The game however, is nothing short of amazing.
Okay, so your job is to fight these... Colossi. Then you actually see one for the first time, and you're overwhelmed! These things are HUGE! How does one approach this battle? How can the character defeat an enemy over 1000 times his size? Insane! Awesome! This is the first game in a long time where I am actually nervous when I play it. I don't know if its the realistic graphics, the intense action, or just the sheer size of the colossi compared to my character. This game gets my blood pumping.
The Graphics are superb as expected. They are meant to mimic realism. No silly, funky looking stuff. The tone and feel can range from sunny bright, to dark and gloomy. The graphics really play that out well.
The Music is also excellent. It is unique and fits the setting well. Music during battles give an epic feel plus a sense of urgency. It definitely adds to the excitment.
The Controls are very good. The player soon gets used to all the jumping and grappling. There's nothing overly tricky here. Naturally it takes a little time to get used to, but the controls don't get in the way. The horse controlling is a bit different. At first I questioned why they made controlling the horse so not user friendly. Then I realized they did it for realism. Here's how its done: to accelerate, you press a button that kicks the horse to move forward. More kicks, more speed. By turning left and right, the character in the game actually has to steer the horse left and right with the harness. Not the easiest to control, but I can totally appreciate the realism of the game. Controlling the horse isn't always easy, but that's probably the case in real life as well.
The Gameplay is amazing! The world of SOTC is so beautiful to just roam around in. Then you meet these Colossi that look like they could crush you with one finger. Its excitment and beauty in one colossal package. Nearly every level provides a new challenge and a unique way to defeat the colossus. I had a unique gaming moment of excitment while fighting the flying colossus (5th one I think).
The Value in replaying the game is there. Since you only fight each Colossus once and there's no real drudgery like fighting minions in between, I'd love to play thorough this game again after I'm done.
Take a look at the screenshots, and you'll know why its called a colossus.
Okay, so your job is to fight these... Colossi. Then you actually see one for the first time, and you're overwhelmed! These things are HUGE! How does one approach this battle? How can the character defeat an enemy over 1000 times his size? Insane! Awesome! This is the first game in a long time where I am actually nervous when I play it. I don't know if its the realistic graphics, the intense action, or just the sheer size of the colossi compared to my character. This game gets my blood pumping.
The Graphics are superb as expected. They are meant to mimic realism. No silly, funky looking stuff. The tone and feel can range from sunny bright, to dark and gloomy. The graphics really play that out well.
The Music is also excellent. It is unique and fits the setting well. Music during battles give an epic feel plus a sense of urgency. It definitely adds to the excitment.
The Controls are very good. The player soon gets used to all the jumping and grappling. There's nothing overly tricky here. Naturally it takes a little time to get used to, but the controls don't get in the way. The horse controlling is a bit different. At first I questioned why they made controlling the horse so not user friendly. Then I realized they did it for realism. Here's how its done: to accelerate, you press a button that kicks the horse to move forward. More kicks, more speed. By turning left and right, the character in the game actually has to steer the horse left and right with the harness. Not the easiest to control, but I can totally appreciate the realism of the game. Controlling the horse isn't always easy, but that's probably the case in real life as well.
The Gameplay is amazing! The world of SOTC is so beautiful to just roam around in. Then you meet these Colossi that look like they could crush you with one finger. Its excitment and beauty in one colossal package. Nearly every level provides a new challenge and a unique way to defeat the colossus. I had a unique gaming moment of excitment while fighting the flying colossus (5th one I think).
The Value in replaying the game is there. Since you only fight each Colossus once and there's no real drudgery like fighting minions in between, I'd love to play thorough this game again after I'm done.
Take a look at the screenshots, and you'll know why its called a colossus.
1 comment:
Re: ahdont
I agree. Its not difficult to beat the colossi once you figure out how to "approach" them. Naturally, I also see how games like RE4 are superior to Shadow.
Yet, I really like this game. I can attribute that to how the game puts me into a fantasy world unlike any other game. I had the similar feeling when I first played Myst. The simplicity of the plot (find colossus, kill colossus) also helps keep me in that fantasy mind state. Perhaps the sheer absurdity of even attempting to defeat monsters 1000x my size is what attracts me to this game. Even back in the days of playing spaceship shooters, I always enjoyed those levels where you had to destroy a ship so big that only a section of it could be displayed on the screen at one time.
Its definitely not as complex as other games, but I found a lot of value from this game.
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