'Shadow of the Colossus' is going to be difficult to describe, because it's one of those titles that sits between genres, so I'm just going to go off on one about how great it is and see how it goes from there.

I think I should make clear first off that I LOVE THIS GAME!...Ahem...I mean to say, I find it beautiful, emotional, thrilling and entertaining, which, let's face it, is everything a game should be. To make thing easy for everyone, I've broken this review down into various elements, so you can skip the bits that bore you and head straight for the good stuff! Some catergories are also sub-divided, to safeguard against me waffling. Enjoy!

DESIGN/GRAPHICS:

The first thing that drew me to 'Colossus' was the visuals; everything about the world of 'Colossus' is, as you would expect, Big (I felt it deserved a capital B). The monsters themselves range from the size of an Indian Elephant to what is basically a living building.
The architecture too is truely romantic, in the literary sense, with huge bridges that disappear into the distance, grim mountains, smokey geysers and volcanic rockfaces. Because the environment all around the temple is streaming (it loads as you play), you can ride across a vast landscape for as long as you please, admiring the scenery.

The design of the hero's clothes, the landscape and the colossi give the whole thing a very Norse feel (there's also a bit od Aztec in there as well), and this is reflected well in the bleak, cold environments. Honestly, I spent my first fifteen minutes just running around, ogling the beautiful landscape and the way the horse was animated!

Of course, the big visual element in this game is the colossi themselves; and these are truely worthy of their title. The colossi all move much as living animals do and they're all based on recognisable animal forms (snake, ape, horse, gecko etc) and most have patches of fur all over them, but there's a biomechanical feel about all of them, as their faces and various other bodyparts are made of stone and metal. This gives them something of a 'living statue' vibe as you scramble all over them trying to find their weak points.

One thing you will notice early on in 'Colossus' is the limited palette - because of the dreary landscapes and dark, menacing monsters, the colous are all very drab. Personally, I don't mind this at all, as too much colour variation would detract from the beautiful giant forms all around. My visual philosophy is that there should be one focal element (in this case, Form) and everything else should just support this, without waving its arms and shouting 'hey, look at me!'

MUSIC:

The musical score is all classical, inkeeping with the medieval/Norse 'culture' of the game. There are some delightfully eerie, spine-tingling pieces here, as well as some overblown Wagnerian pieces for the tenser moments.
The way music is used here is pretty astute, as each quest begins with a long period of riding, followed by a nervous period of running around the collossus and then a frantic panic as you actually manage to get on the bloody thing and start stabbing.
The initial stage of riding across the landscape is accompanied only by the sound of Agro's hooves, building anticipation as you approach your destination. And when you find most of our colossi, the music doesn't instantly become overblown as you might expect, but begins with a sombre, eerie theme. This makes the images of huge lumbering statues beautifully uncanny as you run around beneath them, trying to find a way up (I spent a minute or two just looking at the thing because the designs are all soooooo beautiful!).

THE PREMISE:

The premise is very simple; a young man (we don't ever hear his name, but the guide refers to him as Wanda) has travelled to a remote temple with the body of a young woman in his arms. The God that dwells in this temple tells him that he can revive his dead girlfriend if he kills the sixteen Colossi that live in the surrounding countryside.
That's pretty much it - the -plot doesn't get much more complex than that. Every time a Colossus is killed, a statue in the temple is destroyed and the hero gradually becomes posessed by the spirits of the Colossi he's killed.

GAMEPLAY:

Agro:
You traverse a vast landscape on your trusty steed Agro - who is at times a great hindrance and at others a great help. Granted he does allow you to get to far-flung Colossi very quickly, but sometimes you are dependant on him when killing a target, since it has to be done from horseback, at which point, controlling Agro can be tricky.
The reason for this is down to the programmers, who werre adamant that riding Agro should be just like riding a real horse, so they all went off to pony camp to see what it felt like!
The intricacy of Agro's behaviour is very lifelike and a joy to behold, but horses are pretty erratic creatures and Agro's tendency to veer off and pull aginst you can become tiresome.
The biggest problem is the way he's controlled: if Wanda runs toward the screen, keeping an eye on the colossus behind, his directional control is relative to the camera (if you lean the analogue stick left, he will run to the left), whereas Agro's directional control is relative to him, so when he's running towards the screen, if you lean the analogue to the left, he will turn to your right.
I wouldn't find this confusing if either one rule was applied to both characters, but having to adjust to Agro's controlls when in the thick of an apocalyptic fight can be very tiresome indeed.

The sacred Sword:
Wanda (why they felt the need to give the poor boy a girl's name I'm not entirely sure - maybe it's because he wears sandals and a tabbard...) has a sacred sword, which doesn't look like much, but is key to killing the Colossi. Not only must it be used to deliver blows to the colossi, but it must also be used to find them.
When out on Agro, galloping over beautiful huge vistas, you must hold your sword aloft to use it as a compass. A beam of light bounces off the sword and points out where your next target is. You do get a map as well, but it's not of much use, as areas only become visible as you ride into them.

Climbing:
You do a lot of climbing in Colossus...a lot. You'll do so much climbing, that when it's all over, you'll have arthritis in your index finger from keeping the R1 button depressed the whole time.
Wanda is a bit like Agro, as he's not very easy to control at times and can fumble jumps across ravines and that sort of thing. Once you're used to his behaviour, though you'll get used to climbing, falling, jumping and flailing your way up Colossi like you've been doing it all your life.

Swimming:
Yes, you do have to swim from time to time. There's even an aquatic colossus that you have to fight in the water. You won't have to do this much, but if you do need to cover large distances, for some reason, you swim faster when you're submerged.

LEVELLING UP:

Your health is divided into life and stamina - life depletes whe you take damage and replenishes as you take cover; stamina depletes as you hold on or hold your breath and replenishes as you rest. These will increase in capacity a little with every colossus you kill, but if you wish to improve your stats a little you can forage for things to do so in the wilderness.

Fruit:
This can be found on trees scattered around the lowlands and will add a little length to your life bar. Just shoot it down with an arrow and scoop it up.

Lizards:
I'm not sure exactly how or why this might be the case, but these will improve your stamina if you eat their tails. You can't eat just any ol' lizard tails though, you have to find a save point (big shrines dotted around the place) and look for a lizard with a white tail. You can either kill it or, if your aim is good, shoot the tail itself. This will detatch and the little beggar can run free to fight another day.

Wanda seems to go several days, fighting some pretty big beasties, subsisting only on soft fruit and lizard tails - Mmmm, delish!

COMBAT:

And now to the interesting part; because 'colossus' is basically a game comprised entirely of Boss battles, the creators have made each one unique by turning them into giant puzzles (I guess they worked out that slaying huge things gets repetitive after the first ten).

Just climbing onto a soft, hairy spot and hacking away isn't going to get you anywhere - you need to find special glyphs on the colossi that mark their weak spots. Finding these can be awkward on armoured beasts, as you need to find some way of exposing them, but the sword/compass can point out the right area to aim for.

But this is the fun part - using various colossi's natures to work out how to 'do them in'. Of course this can be frustrating. When my boyfirend first played this game, neither of us had played it before, so he found himself in a situation where his colossus was actually ignoring him. Normally when this happens (to most of them you're just too small to notice) you can fire a few arrows to get them riled up, but in this case he ended up running around on a platform in the middle of a lake shouting "AGRO!" repeatedly for two minutes out of exasperation...The colossus just stood there and looked bored.

Then there's the spider-esque colossus, that lives in the area where the sky is blackened from dirty steam that pours out of a load of geysers. No prizes for figuring out how he's to be dealt with - and yes, it really is as difficult as it sounds, especially when on a horse that can't tell the difference between right and left.

All these fights are pretty epic - not only are your targets very small spots on very big monsters, but you'll have to spend a long time working out how to go about getting to most of them. Some battles can last up to three quarters of an hour! Often you will find yourself tearing your hair out, knashing your teeth and cursing the day Agro was ever born, but when you deal that final blow, time slows and you see the colossus topple over, the joy and relief felt are like none other!

CONCLUSION:

'Shadow of the Colossus' is a very bleak and sombre game as well as a bit of a tear-jerker. I don't want to spoil things for anyone, so I'll just say that the conclusion of the game is emotionally pretty exhausting, but when you consider the pessimistic, apocalyptic feel to all that comes before, it all seems pretty inevitable. It's a bit of a Greek Tragedy when all is said and done.

But it's also a game that leaves you feeling like a better person for having played it (sounds crass, i know, but it's true!). The beautiful designs, sharp graphics, atmospheric music, emotional story and unique gameplay (I don't know of any other game comprised entirely of Bosses) make this a true work of art.