gimpieman
13-03-2006, 04:11 PM
It’s sad but true - some non-gamers still tend to be a bit snobby about our chosen pastime, looking down their noses at what they see as a “silly” or “childish” activity that should be left to young kids. And to be fair it would be pretty hard to convince anyone otherwise if you just showed them Mario Kart, or the latest gun- and swears-drenched GTA as examples of great games with wide appeal. While both titles are undeniably great fun, a plumber racing against a dinosaur and a mushroom with a face, and a bloke who can cycle round on a bmx in just his pants beating up rednecks with a dildo are perhaps not the best examples to choose when trying to show how games can more than hold their own as a worthy and serious entertainment format. So whenever I’ve had the misfortune to come across some sneering type and felt the need to defend gaming, I’ve always pointed them away from whatever is grabbing the headlines and instead towards titles that stand out as shining examples of how games can be so much more than the stereotypes picked up on by the press: titles such as the aural and visual masterpiece that is Rez, the whimsical part-game part-instrument that is Electroplankton, or the sublime, emotive platformer, Ico. And now there’s a new title I can add to that shortlist – one that shows exactly how powerful and moving a storytelling medium games can be. That game is Shadow of the Colossus.
Created by the same team that made Ico (and indeed this game is billed as the “spiritual successor” to that title – though you might feel there’s a more literal link after you’ve play through to the end...), SotC tells the story of Wanda, a young man who’s lover, Mono, (very simple names) has been sacrificed because she is said to be cursed. Taking her body to an ancient temple, Wanda begins a quest to resurrect her by following the orders of a disembodied spirit alleged to have great powers. A quest that requires him to destroy sixteen colossi – huge, amazing creatures of rock and earth that are essentially living parts of the world they inhabit. And so, despite warnings that he will pay a heavy price for his actions, Wanda sets off on his task on his trusty horse, Agro (did I mention simple names?). You control them from a third-person view as they explore the landscape, searching for the colossi which, when discovered, you have to scale and find the weak-spots of so you can bring them crashing down. Wanda is very agile, but can’t hang on to the colossi (who will be trying their hardest to shake him off) forever – how much grip he has left is shown by an onscreen meter. When that runs down, Wanda will fall – and if he falls too far, or is struck once too often by the colossi, that’ll be the end of his adventure. So the colossi must be approached carefully, scaled quickly, safe spots on them located where you can pause briefly to recover your stamina, and then they must be dispatched ruthlessly if Wanda is to succeed.
The world that Wanda must search through to find the colossi is achingly, breathtakingly beautiful – the ageing PS2 is pushed to its absolute limits to render the gorgeous landscape of open vistas, sunlight-dappled ruined temples, ancient rocks, dense forests, lakes, beaches and waterfalls and of course the mobile mountains that are the colossi themselves; and all this is done with quite amazing detail and at staggering draw distances – you really can see something way off on the horizon and then actually make your way to it, and pop-up is nonexistent. It’s this awesome level of detail and solidness to everything that makes it feel like a living, breathing, real world you’re exploring, even though it is essentially quite empty; apart from Wanda, Agro and the colossi you’ll not come across another creature apart from the occasional bird, fish or lizard. The sumptuous nature of the graphics does come at a price, however: at a few points when fighting the vast colossi, when the PS2 is working the hardest, there can be a few frame rate drops - but these can be forgiven when you consider the monumental task being asked of Sony’s six year-old console. It’s like asking a pensioner to run a sub ten second 100 metres whilst simultaneously solving a Rubik’s cube – you can’t really moan too much when it briefly slows down for an occasional breather (but ofcourse you want him to keep running).
Like the graphics, the animation on Wanda, Agro and of course the Colossi is simply stunning – it’s all too easy to stop and stare at how fluidly and realistically everything moves when you should really be concentrating on bringing down one of the amazing stone giants. And sight is not the only sense well catered for here that’ll be distracting you from the task in hand: the soundtrack by Japanese composer Kow Otani is absolutely magnificent, and would put many a Hollywood film to shame with its epic, stirring nature. But all this finery would be for nothing were it not for the outstanding quality of the gameplay and the storyline.
SotC is one of those rare games that doesn’t stop when you turn off your console and walk away. It gets under your skin and stays with you, and that makes the overall experience so much more than just what happens onscreen. And just like any good story, when you are playing it you will find yourself being utterly absorbed in it. Despite the minimalist take on the regular mechanics of gaming, meaning power-ups, extra weapons and lives and the like are all absent (a trait shared with its predecessor, Ico), SotC is a hugely playable experience – this is one of those rare experiences where less truly is more, and it simply has nothing in it that doesn’t need to be there. Even the emptiness of the vast landscape actually adds to the experience rather than detracts from it; you empathise with the loneliness of Wanda’s quest to bring back his loved one all the more. And anyone doubting whether the game has enough action to appease hardcore gamers need not worry: riding your horse at full pelt towards a sheer drop only to hurl yourself off over the cliff with the momentum and at the last second grab onto a passing colossus in midair is more than enough to get the heart beating faster. Minimalist, yes, but short on thrills and adrenaline-pumping moments this game is most assuredly not.
In a few months time the PS3 will be gearing up for release, and inevitably the production of games for the PS2 will begin to wind down and the AAA titles will begin to dry up. Therefore this might turn out to be the PS2’s last real hurrah – and if it is, then what a title to bow out on. Shadow of the Colossus could well be the PS2’s, if not this generation as a whole’s, finest hour. I appreciate that this review is absolutely drenched in superlatives, but with the possible exception of Ico, there is nothing, nothing else out there anything quite like it. Technically it is by no means perfect – there is the odd graphical stutter, and occasionally the camera will throw up some odd angles. It is ultimately not the longest game ever either, despite a hard mode, time-attack options and just the simple desire to explore and discover everything adding replay value. And will everyone love it? No – you’ll never please all the people all the time etc. Indeed, you could just see the game as a sequence of increasingly tough and ingenious boss fights, and that would be a fairly accurate description on some levels. But trust me; you would be doing yourself a disservice if you wrote off SotC on any of those grounds: this is a situation where the whole is very much more than the sum of its parts.
The true colossus here is the game itself – it just raises the bar for everything that follows to a stratospheric level. If you consider yourself any sort of gamer, you owe it to yourself to have played this. If you consider yourself any sort of moral being, I guarantee you’ll feel more than a little uneasy about whether you’re actually doing the right thing as you destroy the monstrous, but also beautiful, colossi. And, most likely, you’ll also be genuinely moved by the story’s final bittersweet conclusion.
Stunning to look at. Stirring to listen to. Engrossing and emotive to play like almost nothing else. Magnificent.
Created by the same team that made Ico (and indeed this game is billed as the “spiritual successor” to that title – though you might feel there’s a more literal link after you’ve play through to the end...), SotC tells the story of Wanda, a young man who’s lover, Mono, (very simple names) has been sacrificed because she is said to be cursed. Taking her body to an ancient temple, Wanda begins a quest to resurrect her by following the orders of a disembodied spirit alleged to have great powers. A quest that requires him to destroy sixteen colossi – huge, amazing creatures of rock and earth that are essentially living parts of the world they inhabit. And so, despite warnings that he will pay a heavy price for his actions, Wanda sets off on his task on his trusty horse, Agro (did I mention simple names?). You control them from a third-person view as they explore the landscape, searching for the colossi which, when discovered, you have to scale and find the weak-spots of so you can bring them crashing down. Wanda is very agile, but can’t hang on to the colossi (who will be trying their hardest to shake him off) forever – how much grip he has left is shown by an onscreen meter. When that runs down, Wanda will fall – and if he falls too far, or is struck once too often by the colossi, that’ll be the end of his adventure. So the colossi must be approached carefully, scaled quickly, safe spots on them located where you can pause briefly to recover your stamina, and then they must be dispatched ruthlessly if Wanda is to succeed.
The world that Wanda must search through to find the colossi is achingly, breathtakingly beautiful – the ageing PS2 is pushed to its absolute limits to render the gorgeous landscape of open vistas, sunlight-dappled ruined temples, ancient rocks, dense forests, lakes, beaches and waterfalls and of course the mobile mountains that are the colossi themselves; and all this is done with quite amazing detail and at staggering draw distances – you really can see something way off on the horizon and then actually make your way to it, and pop-up is nonexistent. It’s this awesome level of detail and solidness to everything that makes it feel like a living, breathing, real world you’re exploring, even though it is essentially quite empty; apart from Wanda, Agro and the colossi you’ll not come across another creature apart from the occasional bird, fish or lizard. The sumptuous nature of the graphics does come at a price, however: at a few points when fighting the vast colossi, when the PS2 is working the hardest, there can be a few frame rate drops - but these can be forgiven when you consider the monumental task being asked of Sony’s six year-old console. It’s like asking a pensioner to run a sub ten second 100 metres whilst simultaneously solving a Rubik’s cube – you can’t really moan too much when it briefly slows down for an occasional breather (but ofcourse you want him to keep running).
Like the graphics, the animation on Wanda, Agro and of course the Colossi is simply stunning – it’s all too easy to stop and stare at how fluidly and realistically everything moves when you should really be concentrating on bringing down one of the amazing stone giants. And sight is not the only sense well catered for here that’ll be distracting you from the task in hand: the soundtrack by Japanese composer Kow Otani is absolutely magnificent, and would put many a Hollywood film to shame with its epic, stirring nature. But all this finery would be for nothing were it not for the outstanding quality of the gameplay and the storyline.
SotC is one of those rare games that doesn’t stop when you turn off your console and walk away. It gets under your skin and stays with you, and that makes the overall experience so much more than just what happens onscreen. And just like any good story, when you are playing it you will find yourself being utterly absorbed in it. Despite the minimalist take on the regular mechanics of gaming, meaning power-ups, extra weapons and lives and the like are all absent (a trait shared with its predecessor, Ico), SotC is a hugely playable experience – this is one of those rare experiences where less truly is more, and it simply has nothing in it that doesn’t need to be there. Even the emptiness of the vast landscape actually adds to the experience rather than detracts from it; you empathise with the loneliness of Wanda’s quest to bring back his loved one all the more. And anyone doubting whether the game has enough action to appease hardcore gamers need not worry: riding your horse at full pelt towards a sheer drop only to hurl yourself off over the cliff with the momentum and at the last second grab onto a passing colossus in midair is more than enough to get the heart beating faster. Minimalist, yes, but short on thrills and adrenaline-pumping moments this game is most assuredly not.
In a few months time the PS3 will be gearing up for release, and inevitably the production of games for the PS2 will begin to wind down and the AAA titles will begin to dry up. Therefore this might turn out to be the PS2’s last real hurrah – and if it is, then what a title to bow out on. Shadow of the Colossus could well be the PS2’s, if not this generation as a whole’s, finest hour. I appreciate that this review is absolutely drenched in superlatives, but with the possible exception of Ico, there is nothing, nothing else out there anything quite like it. Technically it is by no means perfect – there is the odd graphical stutter, and occasionally the camera will throw up some odd angles. It is ultimately not the longest game ever either, despite a hard mode, time-attack options and just the simple desire to explore and discover everything adding replay value. And will everyone love it? No – you’ll never please all the people all the time etc. Indeed, you could just see the game as a sequence of increasingly tough and ingenious boss fights, and that would be a fairly accurate description on some levels. But trust me; you would be doing yourself a disservice if you wrote off SotC on any of those grounds: this is a situation where the whole is very much more than the sum of its parts.
The true colossus here is the game itself – it just raises the bar for everything that follows to a stratospheric level. If you consider yourself any sort of gamer, you owe it to yourself to have played this. If you consider yourself any sort of moral being, I guarantee you’ll feel more than a little uneasy about whether you’re actually doing the right thing as you destroy the monstrous, but also beautiful, colossi. And, most likely, you’ll also be genuinely moved by the story’s final bittersweet conclusion.
Stunning to look at. Stirring to listen to. Engrossing and emotive to play like almost nothing else. Magnificent.