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Reviews » Shadow of the Colossus [PS2]

There are many words to describe this game. Epic. Unique. Unimaginably Pretty. Different. Elegant. Polished. I could really end it there and give it a 10 and be done with it, but no, you'll be getting another several-thousand-words of me gushing over this game.

As with most reviews, it's time to start our history lesson because Shadow of the Colossus is somewhat of a sequel. It isn't a direct sequel, but it's close. The game it's related to is Ico, another game I could spend several thousand words gushing about. Back in 2001 one of Sony's internal dev teams released Ico, a puzzle/adventure game for the PS2. Ico was different, though. It was beautiful. Far beyond what most of us expected the PS2 could churn out. The game took place in a giant abandoned castle, and the goal was for you (Ico) to escape with your new female companion (Yorda). The game was very simple, but somehow deep at the same time. The story was very very sparse, all you knew was that you were left for dead in this castle by men on horseback, possibly as some kind of ritual sacrifice due to the horns growing out of your head, but you can only guess. You spent most of your time in Ico leading Yorda through the castle, protecting her from shadow monsters, and solving puzzles to help you progress through the castle. It gave off that same feeling Myst did, so incredibly pretty but desolate, but still good despite that feeling of desolation.

There was one boss fight in the whole game, very little dialog, subdued but moving music, no coherent dialog (in the NA release, at least), and yet despite this minimalism the developers managed to tell one of the most compelling stories and provide one of the most memorable and satisfying gaming experiences of this generation.

With Shadow of the Colossus they have done it again, and possibly even surpassed the minimalistic masterpiece that was Ico.

Shadow of the Colossus tells a story of desperation, loss, and the lengths to which some will go to restore what has been lost. Your player character in SotC is nameless, only occasionally referred to in interviews and other materials as The Wanderer. He has a horse named Agro, and a nameless dead girlfriend. According to legend the deceased can be brought back from the dead if you posses a legendary sword and take them to this remote and forbidden Shrine of Worship. So that's the plan: take her there, get her back, live happily ever after.

Upon reaching this shrine The Wanderer encounters a booming disembodied voice which identifies itself as the Dormin, an apparent local diety of this realm, who promptly informs you that part of this whole resurrection legend was lost over time: you have a task to complete. Sixteen of them, actually. Out in the world surrounding the Shrine of Worship are 16 colossi, giant guardian beings that need to be slain. The details aren't really given, you're just told that they're out there, and they need to die. You're given a short clue as to where the first one is, told that your sword can lead the way, hop on Agro and take off.

Thus begins a cycle you'll repeat 16 times. Here's how it works. You start each round at the Shrine with Agro and a cryptic description of your next target. Once you walk outside the ancient shrine and get in the light you can put to use your sword's compass ability. If you hold circle you raise your sword into the air to catch the light, turn around to focus it down to a powerful beam and pow, you're pointing directly in the direction of the current colossus. So then you have to go there.

In most games, Getting There is the boring part. Hell, in recent GTA games they brought up a new "trip skip" feature, so you can skip driving to a mission. This is different in Shadow of the Colossus. The world of SotC is huge, lush, and beautiful. It's full of a wide variety of environments. Some are natural: plains, forests, mountains, deserts, caves, lakes, waterfalls, rivers, all kinds of stuff. It's like you've been given the biggest backyard ever to go explore. While there are only 16 colossus locations, there are a seemingly unlimited number of places to go explore. And it's not like they just filled out the areas you'd go through to get to the colossi, the whole world is filled out, and none of it is held back from you to make sure you don't unlock it out of order. Other points of interest are manmade. Scattered about the world are signs of former life and civilization, long since deserted. Ancient ruined cities, destroyed archways, statues and temples all litter the world. Some serve a purpose beyond just being a setting, like the save temples you'll find around the landscape. These towers are where you save between colossus fights, plus they're structures you can climb to get a better view of your surroundings.

Apart from just being interesting, the environment is also amazingly pretty. This isn't a cutesy cartoony game, it's like you've been dropped in the middle of an impressionist painting that stretches off forever in all directions. And somehow, even though we're nearing the close of the PS2's lifespan, it still actually looks good. Beyond good, really, it looks wonderful. Beside being a technological success, the world of Shadow of the Colossus also has a deliberate and painstakingly handcrafted feel to it. The terrain doesn't feel like they just pushed the "randomly generate map" button on their 3d editor, it's like you can tell some thought went into how these plains would be set up, how the rocky paths would wind around corners and so on. Similarily, all of the ruins are really well done. Nothing seems shamelessly duplicated, or if it has, it's been worn down and distressed to simulate age. Nothing is shiny and new like you'd expect from a shiny FPS cooridor, this world looks lived in.

Anyway, as you progress through the world, you might have to do some mild puzzle solving. Usually it's just based around navigating, things like "how to not get lost in the woods", "how to properly scale this cliff" and "how to not get swept over a giant waterfall". These sections tend to be good places to practice your climbing skills, as they'll come in handy later. At the core of the game engine is the climbing system. There are two main kinds of grippable areas: edge and surface. Edges are . . well . . edges. It could be a cliffside or the edge of a box. Similarly, it could be a crack or a lateral protrusion along a wall, which you can hang from. Climbable surfaces are the other kind of grippable area. These surfaces might be a mossy cliffside or the fuzzy bits of a colossus' back. These differ from edges in that once you've gripped on with R1, you can climb around in all directions if you're balanced. On edges you can only move laterally along the edge or climb up to the top surface.

While gripped, you have dyno abilities [I learned this word on the internet! Dyno is a term used in rock-climbing for a movement that requires building momentum and letting go of the rock face to gain access to a higher position], so you can keep holding down R1 and hold triangle to build momentum. Let go and you'll jump up. Do the same thing holding down on the left analog stick and you'll jump off in the normal direction to the plane you're on. Hold left or right and you'll hop to the side. At all times while you're hanging onto something your grip will slowly wear down. Grip is represented by one of the three HUD items, a large pink shrinking circle. If there's any pink left, you'll stay stuck on. If it wears down completely, you'll fall. You'll replenish grip whenever you're on a level plane, running around or whatever. If you're stationary, it'll replenish faster. Crouching and it'll go even faster than that. You'll lose grip in chunks rather than the normal trickle if you perform some manner of dyno or if you get shaken around by the surface you're on.

Which brings us to our next point. Eventually in your travels you'll come to a colossus. This is what the game is all about, really. These colossi are huge territorial beasts, a mix between some kind of animal form and ancient sculpture. Often times it's hard to tell which came first: was this a giant monster later clad in ornately sculpted stone armor or was it a statue that came to life and was made partially flesh? In any case, they're huge, and as previously stated you have to take them down. Since there's only 16 and I really don't want to ruin any of them specifically for you, I'll be really general here.

The first thing you have to do when you reach a colossus is assess the situation. What does the colossus seem to be doing? Is it just wandering around? Is it attacking you? If so, how? Now start figuring out how you're going to mount this beast. Does it have any obvious paths up, like furry legs? If it doesn't, you're going to have to do something. You may have to trick the colossus into doing something in a certain way, or get on top by making use of the surrounding environment. It might have an intermediary weak point that you have to exploit before getting on board. No matter how you get on, once you get up there, start looking for a weak point. There are two kinds of weak points: 'wounds' and 'targets'. Wounds look like a turquoise glowing scar, and stabbing them will not do immense damage to the colossus, but will make it react in a specific way that will help you along. Targets are what you're really looking for, they're huge glowing seals. Once you find one of these, stab it repeatedly untill it dies or the seal disappears. The head is generally a pretty good place to look, but you can't count on that being a weak spot. For later colossi, you'll have to take out multiple targets before it dies.

These fights can only be described as epic. Beyond that, they are some of the most unbelievably satisfying boss fights I have ever experienced in any game ever. Sure, other games have had fights where you are absolutely tiny compared to your opponent, and some have required you to climb your opponent to defeat it, but nothing has come anywhere near close to the experience provided by Shadow of the Colossus. The entire process is so incredible, tricking and scaling these huge majestic creatures, seeking out their weak points, struggling as they try so hard to buck and shake you off. The battles despite being so immense and complex still seem so personal, since it's not an issue of your player character fighting off hundreds of duplicated enemies and then fighting a forgettable boss by spamming your ultimate super power attack. It's just you and the colossus. Well, and Agro too, but the conflict really comes down to you riding on the back of this enormous opponent, and felling it with precise and well-calculated strikes.

Once you kill a colossus you are whisked back to the Shrine of Worship, where you are once again addressed by the Dormin and the cycle begins again. After each level, your grip and health meters are extended slightly. They can both be increased independently throughout the game, though. All throughout the world there are small woodland creatures, one of which is a gecko. Some geckos, usually ones around save temples, have white tails. By killing them and picking up the tail, you can increase your grip meter. Similarly, there are fruit-bearing trees in some of the forested areas, and the fruit from these trees increases your health meter. Apart from that, in the standard game there are no powerups. No new weapons, just your sword and bow. No new skills, just what you start with.

So, is that it? Just 16 boss fights? Is this another short beatable-in-one-sitting game like Ico? Well, no, actually. Apparently the dev team at Sony learned to pack the game to the gills with extra stuff to do. Once you beat the game the first time you unlock NewGame+, Normal-Mode Time Attack, and Hard Mode. Beating Hard Mode unlocks Hard NewGame+ and Hard-Mode Time Attack. Both time attack modes have bonuses to unlock, too. For each two colossi you take down in time attack, the Dormin will bestow you with an item. I won't go into much depth about these, but some of them are really awesome. And rightfully so, because time attack mode is hard. One of the things worth keeping in mind is that with any of these colossus battles you can stop at any time, find somewhere to hide, regain your strength, and then go try for another round. In time attack mode, everything you do has to be purposeful and carefully timed. The rewards you unlock are all worth it, and can be used in the NewGame+ for that difficulty mode, which is the game all over again but you retain your items and grip/health upgrades. Hard mode also brings some actual challenges to the table. Rather than a standard hard mode of "everything does more damage", the colossus battles are actually legitimately harder. The AI is tuned up and smarter, attack reload times are faster, and colossus targets are both more numerous and in different places.

Now, as far as length, it's better than Ico but still not great. I spent 8 hours on my first run through normal mode. My attempts at normal mode time attack added another 4 hours to this time, so my current total game length is 12 hours. I haven't had time to get into hard mode yet, but I'll probably wait to go back to it later. I also didn't spend time exploring every tiny corner of the landscape, I spent a lot of time wandering around, but the world is big, there's still plenty of places I haven't been. So as an overall estimate, I'm going to give 10-20 hours of play time. Depending on when you bail, this is either "short" or "really short". But there's quite a bit of unlockables and replayability in there, so I'm not sure a short normal mode is that much of a detractor, especially since the game is so incredibly satisfying despite its short length.

Shadow of the Colossus has a couple problems. First is a user-side problem: the game is hard. With most of the colossus battles, especially the later ones, the methods for taking them down are generally very hard to figure out. For pretty much every colossus, please be ready to spend 10-15 minutes observing the giant bastard and figuring out how to take it down. Be ready to attempt some really stupid stuff during the puzzle-solving process, and don't be surprised if it works. I luckily experienced my puzzle-solving epiphany early-on, where I spent a smooth 20 minutes running around on one colossus, trying my hardest to figure out how to board him, and then it hit me. I suddenly had a moment of clarity where I realized the large piece of the puzzle I was ignoring. After that, my head was in the Right Place. I know how frustrating it can be for some people to deal with puzzles like these, so I figured it'd be best to give a fair warning. Key-hunts have spoiled you. Welcome back to Real Puzzles.

Secondly, the game does suffer from some framerate problems. This isn't horrible, it's still very very good, but it's there. Usually it comes up when something huge is going on, like if a colossus is in the process of heaving a giant sword at you and into the ground. There's shaking and damage and exploding terrain, and oh no it gets just barely choppy. I've heard it also gets slightly choppy in 16:9 progressive scan mode, but that's understandable, since it's having to render so much more at a higher resolution, and it's probably being output to an hdtv, so these problems are just more noticable. Again, it isn't bad, but it's there. Similarily, the bane of all 3D platformers is present: a wonky camera. Once again, it isn't the worst camera I've ever seen, but it can be distracting since it likes to slide into "cinematic" angle, especially when you're riding around on Agro. This can be somewhat hard to get used to, in 3D platformer most people are used to your player character always being in the center, and the camera is behind their head. It's often like this in Shadow of the Colossus, but sometimes it slides way wide to the left or right. It won't alter your angle or direction or anything, and it looks nice and all, but it can really bug some people. The manual camera also seems to have a weird default, but I found it easy enough to fix by swapping the horizontal axis.

Beyond those three tiny little problems, the game is perfect in my opinion. I can't imagine any changes that could have definitely made it better. Some people have suggested that the element that's missing is a big complex world full of people, with tons of NPCs and customizable equipment, but I disagree. Furthermore, I'm going to defer to the opinion of Fumito Ueda, the game's visionary director: One of the worst things you can possibly do to kill the immersion of a game is to populate it with cookie-cutter NPCs that have two lines of dialog that get repeated indefinitely. Specifically, I saw this recently in Fable, and I hated it. Such things don't fit here.

Shadow of the Colossus is, simply put, a masterpiece. It is a clear game of the year candidate for 2005, and personally, I was so enthralled by it that this little gem has worked its way into my list of all-time top-ten favourite games ever. I don't know where it ranks in that top ten, because I refuse to rank them (as they're such a diverse bunch) but know that it's Up There. And it takes the previous slot held by Ico, as I feel it surpasses Ico in every way possible. Not to say Ico has somehow magically become worse, it's just that there's only so many slots in my top 10, and Shadow of the Colossus manages to do everything Ico did but perfected even more and expanded upon in every direction. This is another one of those games that makes a PS2 worth owning, without question. So run, don't walk, to your local game retailer of choice and get this game.

Shadow of the Colossus - PS2

Presentation

This is one of those games that should make people really start considering that games might just be an acceptable artform. Half a point was docked for the occasionally wonky camera and framerate issues. I can't wait to see what this dev team churns out in the next generation.

Gameplay

Features the absolute best climbing system I've ever used and the most epic boss fights I have ever encountered. Both shouldn't be missed.

Replayability

There are only 16 fights in the game. There are four versions of each, normal, hard, normal time attack, hard time attack. That brings it up to 64 fights total. If you can't stretch this to ~30 hours, you're not trying, thus making it your problem.

Value

Between this and both Katamari Damacy games, I just don't get why there are so many amazing must-buy games for the PS2 that retail for less than the standard $50. This game is $40. Game of the year candidate for $40. How can you pass this up?

Overall

This game is amazing. Go. Now. Stop reading, start playing.