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I want you to do something for me. Think of your top sixteen favorite boss battles in gaming. Good, now imagine those bosses were 100 times the size of you. Good. You basically have Shadow of the Colossus's core concept down.
You start off Shadow as a nameless warrior on his horse crossing the countryside with a dead girl and arriving at a temple with a booming voice saying that killing sixteen giants could revive your love. That is pretty much all of the story you're going to get from Shadow untill the end of the game. Although the plot is minimal, this story is one of the most emotionally crippling you can ever see in a videogame.
Now, I don't want to spoil anything about the story, so let's head onto the gameplay, the bread and butter of any game. First of all, this game is not going to please everyone. There are only sixteen things to kill, nothing else. You kill a colossus, arrive back at the temple, get your next location, ride to it, and kill, repeat. But finding the colossi can be quite a task in itself. They start off easy enough to find, the first one is right in front of you, then it gets harder and harder to find them. Sometimes it'll take you twenty minutes to actually find a colossus. Now, taking downt he colossi is also an ordeal, this is where most of your pleasure will take place. Every colossi have weakpoints where you damage them. Some on their head, some on their belly, some on their tail, etc. The colossi come in different shapes and sizes, some live in the water, some fly, some walk on two's some walk on four's, some are 100 times your size, some are your size, some are slow, some are fast, etc. You have to figure out how to get to their weakspot using all of your recources which aren't that much (a sword, a bow, a horse). And this is where the fun is.
See white speck? That's you. Better get to work
You only have one companion throughout your journey, your horse by the name of Agro, you'll be using him to get to the colossi and sometimes to get on the colossi. Agro was by far my favorite character throughout the story, though there was only one other character. At the beginning he's just a tool, but you use him throughout the game and by the end he's like a brother, he's stuck with you through the thick and the thin.
And after saying that, I think it's time to go into more detail on why I loved the story so much. Let me tell you about one experience I had while playing Shadow. My father came down to tell me it was time for dinner and saw I was playing the game. He says "is this the new game?"
"Yes" I reply as I deliver the final stab the the fifth colossus
"Hey, why'd you kill him? He didn't do anything, he was just swimming around minding his own business. You must feel like s**t" he says seeing the colossus's last whimper and sinking into the ocean.
That's the kind of emotional appeal this has to it. You're killing these majestic creatures that have done nothing to you, only a few actually have the power to kill you. After killing each one, I do feel like s**t, these creatures were beautiful and some were sleeping when I arrived at their location.
The graphics are also a high point in the game, the world is so beautiful even though no one is living in it and the lighting/bleach effect that the sun has on the ground the walls is a sight to behold. Not to mention the character and shadow animations. The sound is also beautifully done. Keeping the mysterious feel to the story and still having that Indiana Jones feel to it when you start on a colossus.
The only two gripes I have with the game is that the controls can be a bit floaty and also since the colossus are so huge, the camera isn't at its best a lot of times. But, if you're open-minded enough and want to try something completely different, then I suggest pick it up. But keep in mind, this game is a piece of art and like all works of art, not everyone will appreciate it like I have
9.75
 Gilliganiganiganigoo · Fri Nov 25, 2005 @ 07:26pm · 3 Comments |
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