Ah, Shadow of the Colossus. The strangest game I have ever played on, but also one of the best. The game can make you feel emotions that you never even knew you could feel.
This game makes you question every action you make in it. Why are you there? Who is that dead lass? Where the hell are you doing all this stuff? And what the hell are the colossi?
Well, you might ask these questions during the game, but they are never answered!! You might think the ending might answer the questions for you, but instead, it just creates more questions, that are never answered. Many people have their own opinions of what it means, but none have ever been confirmed as correct!
THE STORY (FROM MY POINT OF VIEW) You play as a young boy, (who runs like a girl). You carry your dead girlfriend into a temple, and place her body on an alter. A godly voice tells you that you have to kill 16 colossi. You assume that by doing this your dead girlfriend will come back to life. You are equipped with only a sword, and a bow and arrow. You need to kill the (gigantic) colossi with only a horse called Agro, a tiny sword and a flimsy bow and arrow. And it really is as hard as it sounds!!
You start in the main temple, (where you dead girlfriend is lying in the alter). A voice gives you a tiny bit of information on the next colossus you have to destroy, and then the fun, (and anger) begins. You have to look through a gigantic sprawling world to find the colossus that you need to kill. When you find it you will need to find out how to kill the colossus, (more after), you will get killed repeatedly trying to find out how to kill it, you will
(probably) eventually kill it, you will get knocked out by some black things, (similar to tentacles), and then you will somehow reappear back in the temple, where the process begins again to kill the next colossus! Repetitive, isn't it?
There are no levels, or any other enemies. There are just 16 colossi that need to be destroyed, that's it! In the whole game, that's it!! Sounds boring doesn't it. Well, I can tell you that it most certainly isn't, it is one of the hardest and most exciting games there are!
THE COLOSSI What are the colossi? Well, I can only really describe them as huge, living moving platforms. Well, some are shaped as animals or humans, but most of them just look inhuman. If you want a better idea of what some of them look like, go down and look at my review pictures.
So, there are 16 colossi in the game. And your objective is to kill all of them. Each one is different in every way. In appearance, behaviour, dangers and weaknesses. This is what makes the game so hard to complete. The game gives you no clues at all at how to destroy each colossus, so it is up to you and your intelligence to kill each one.
Each colossus has a weakness, so you have to find where it is on the colossus, get to it, and stab the weak point with your sword until the colossus' health meter is empty. This is extremely difficult, as the colossus have brains, and know that they are in danger, so they will fight for their lives, trying to shake you off, and knock you off them with their massive hands. If you do eventually reach their weak point, (with your sword equipped), the point will glow blue, and this is where you have to stab, until their health totally depletes. Some colossi are even harder to beat because they have more than 1 weak spot!!! The joy of the game is finding the weak point(s) on a colossus and destroying it after looking for it for absolutely ages. And what are you rewarded with for successfully destroying a colossus? Another bloody one to destroy!!!!
GAMEPLAY The gameplay in SOTC is both delicate and repetitive. But the two are balanced so well, it never gets boring. Sure, it does get frustrating at times, but when you do finally kill a colossus you get the feeling of success and relief, and it is this feeling that makes you come back for more, because you want to feel more of it, and there is only one way to get the feeling back, go search for colossi!!!
The controls for the game are very simple, and easy to learn. But when you are being confronted by a huge monster, your brain just manages to forget all the controls, so you have to keep your nerve when facing the colossi or else you are going to end up dead!
GRAPHICS One of the strongest features of the game. How the developers of the game have managed to get these graphics onto a PS2 discs baffles me. People say that games can't be very big on the current discs, and that they will only start been big when blu-ray discs are used for the PS3. But the developers have managed to create a beautiful living world with 16 gigantic monsters, that look absolutely perfect! Sometimes the frame-rate gets a bit slowed down because of the huge amount of data being put through the PS2's brain, but this is rare and barely noticeable.
The world that you are roaming in the game is absolutely gigantic, and the developers have put huge amount of detail into every single acre there is. Water looks pretty real, grass and trees sway in the wind, and small animals roam the giant land. Everything is beautiful in every way, and the makers of the game have done the Playstation 2 proud!!
SOUND Probably the best bit of the game. The amazing soundtrack. The whole music is inspiring and amazing. It is all an orchestra playing, and there are many different moods created from all the music in the game. The music starts and stops at exactly the correct times throughout the game, and makes the game that much more enjoyable and brilliant!!
LIFESPAN I think that if you persevere through the game, and really want to complete it, you will play on this game a minimum of a couple of months. But if you would like to finish it again on the harder level that gets unlocked once you have completed it the first time, then it will take you even longer, because the colossi are even harder to beat than they were before. And after completing the game the first time, a time-attack mode becomes available, where you can try and beat each colossus as fast as possible!!
PRICE I bought the game for £29.99. But you can buy it even cheaper now from most games stores!
OVERALL Together, Shadow of the colossus is one of the greatest games that have ever being released on the PS2. It is a fantastic puzzle, adventure and action rolled into one. It has a heartbreaking ending that you will never forget, and it is a game that you will be glad you have bought if you decide to. Some might be put off by the lack of big names or other licenses, but if you do decided to buy this, then you will have the greatest time of your life killing the huge monsters! Have fun!!!
<Thanks for reading>
<And Merry Christmas>
Pictures of Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
A Colossus
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Great review for a great game! This is my absolute favourite game of all time ;) I'm only annoyed that my review isn't in the listing, as I managed to give colossus two 'LL's! x
Coloneljohn 15.01.2007 23:45
Very well reviewed. Sounds like an interesting game. John
Shoka 07.01.2007 21:18
Gosh the deadgirlfriend on the altar bit sounds a little blood thirsty!
Advantages: Awesome graphics and scenery, amazing gameplay, music and sound effects Disadvantages: A few glitches and bugs here and there, camera and controls a little off
Advantages: Highly original and challenging gameplay, vast beautiful world Disadvantages: Controls can be occasionally annoying, some colossi can be frustrating, short
Dec 24th, 2006
exceptional by (7%):
very helpful by (93%):
