// Shadow of the Colossus

For those of you who know me it will come as no great surprise that I have decided to pass judgement on Shadow of the Colossus first. It’s one of my all-time favourite games of all time, so prepare yourselves for a totally unbiased review…

You see, ever since I was a small boy I’ve always dreamt about climbing up the downy fur of huge rock beasts before slaying them with an enchanted sword whilst dressed in a poncho.

Ok, so that’s all a lie. The point is, however, that there was something about this game that instantly captured my imagination and that has stayed with me since first playing it back in February 2006. This was the second game released by Team ICO on the Playstation 2 and is the spiritual successor to ICO, another arty wonder, and in my opinion it bests its predecessor in every way.

The game follows Wander and his pet pony Agro as they journey into the ‘Forbidden Land’ with the desperate hope of resurrecting Wander’s late love, Mono. Armed only with a bow and arrow, a magical glowing sword and bones made of elastic, our protagonist makes a pact with Dormin (a dubious deity) to destroy the 16 Colossi roaming the land and restore the maiden Mono to life.

It all sounds very run of the mill and clichéd at this point; kill the bosses using your mystical weapon and save the princess, but there is something much deeper and altogether more foreboding about the whole experience than your average adventure game. Even the intro cut-scene moves at such a solemnly slow pace that I’m sure it had many gamers hammering the X button to skip it and dive into the action. It's worth exercising patience though, as this game is a sight (and sound?) to behold.

Now, graphics have moved on a lot since 2006 and even the 2011 Playstation 3 HD remake looks worn and tired, but from an artistic perspective (which this blog is all about) resolution and frame rate can go hang so long as there is something striking or otherwise innovative about it.

With that in mind, the game looks great. The scenery is magical in a subtle way; there are no upside down waterfalls or sparkling rainbows, but you still get the sense of a looming and heavy force hanging over the whole of the forbidden land. The game is divided into two halves. 50% of your experience is navigating the (terrible) map and locating the Colossi, whilst the remainder has you fighting them. Both are equally breath-taking and awe inspiring in their own way. I’m going to deal with the orienteering aspect first.

The visuals speak for themselves

Using a beam of light reflected off your sword you are guided roughly towards your next Colossus. These journeys between bosses can last as long as 10 minutes. That sounds boring, but the splendour of the land drives you on. The diversity of the environments you encounter is quite broad, and whilst the map is huge you can cover a lot of ground with your trusty steed. You will gallop through grassland, canter through caves and trot through… erm… deserts? The sights are believable and striking (even if they are geographically somewhat spatially inaccurate).

Birds fly overhead and little lizards skitter about over the rocky cliffs but other than yourself, your horse and the 16 massive colossi roaming the land, you are totally and utterly alone. There are no mini battles, no random encounters, no side quests and no weapon shops. The vastness of the world Team ICO created is further augmented by the amazing musical score and sound effects composed by the exceptionally talented Kow Otani. The audio really adds to this isolated and occasionally oppressive aesthetic, and even when you’re riding slowing through dense peaceful forest with light filtering through the canopy to the floor below, you can never shake that feeling of loneliness.

Its genius really, because of the constant remoteness you quickly build an attachment to your horse Agro, who is both beautifully animated and tangibly realistic. If you stray too close to an edge Argo will refuse and the few gaps that can be jumped are done so with lifelike caution and calculation. Agro even sounds real and there are long portions of the game where the only noises you hear are that of his hoof falls and Wander’s encouraging ‘giddy-ups’. Agro will come when you call him and he's ferociously courageous during the game’s 16 boss encounters.

Which brings me on to the Colossi themselves.

Poor thing, hes just sleepy

These behemoths are the true stars of the show. The already fantastic audio steps up a notch during these boss encounters and the music shifts and changes depending upon your progress and/or proximity to the titans, really adding to the emersion of the whole affair. The Colossi look as if the ground itself has awoken, roots, moss and all, and whilst some of the giants appear enraged by this rude awakening, others just seem to want to go back to sleep. Some are enormous and lumbering whilst a couple are just larger than a bull. A handful of these monsters can even fly, despite their impossible size and others are entirely water based. All of them move with genuine purpose and are animated uniquely… or almost uniquely, there are a couple of re-skins later in the game, however the way each must be tackled is different.

The battles can almost be thought of as puzzles, and during a first play through, a player can expect to spend much of their time locating weak spots and learning the attack / defence patterns of the various colossi before ultimately climbing aboard and attempting the epic feat of slaying them for his own selfish ends.

And they are selfish ends. The Colossi are essentially the innocent victims in this game. They have done nothing wrong and are acting purely out of self-defence. Make no mistake, Wander may be driven by love and be pining after his dear Mono, he is even willing to risk everything to get her back, but he is still the bad guy here. These Colossi are as ancient as time itself and built for a very specific and desperately important purpose (which I will not spoil in this review) and yet Wander is willing to destroy them all to allow his girl to cheat death.

Infamous Colossus 13. My flat out favorite

You really get the feeling that you’re doing something morally wrong as each Colossus comes tumbling down. The forlorn music and the strange black mist that accompany each beast’s demise add to the growing sensation that perhaps you should have stayed well away from this land. It’s a credit to the game’s creators to have you mourning the loss of each Colossus.

I’m not going to ruin the game’s ending, but needless to say it’s the icing on the cake for me, forever cementing this game into my own personal top ten computer game experiences.

But is it art?

Visually inspiring, emotionally stirring, subtle and minimalistic gameplay with a haunting soundtrack that stays with you for years to come…

Verdict: ART