 Review By: Cameron Morris |
Developer: | SCEI |
| Publisher: | SCEA | |
| Genre: | Action Adventure | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Memory Card | |
| Buy Now: |   |
The sound, in a way, is even better than the graphics: there are few sound effects and even fewer voice samples, but those that are there come across both clearly and convincingly. The clang of your sword on different materials, the twang of your bowstring hurtling an arrow through the air, the braying and neighing of your horse...all sound rather excellent. The dialogue in the game is appropriately muted, and nothing is ever said that doesn't need to be said. All of the voice actors are convincing in their roles, and none ever come across as cheesy or over-the-top. Of course, it helps that everyone is speaking a made-up language that one could easily confuse with Japanese, but it all sounds very good anyway.
The music in the game is amazingly powerful, especially because for the majority of it you don't hear any. Yes, you heard that right: for the largest part of this game, the only sound you'll hear is the beating of your horse's hooves, maybe some running water, and the occasional screech of a hawk. Believe it or not, this is to the game's advantage rather than its detriment, because without that ambient music the power of the game's atmosphere is driven across more plainly. One can feel the isolation that the main character feels, and instead of being freaked out or merely annoyed, one find that the atmosphere can be drunk in like long sips of cool water. This lack of music also makes the music that is present much more affecting once it begins to play: each colossus battle is accented by an appropriately harmonic or energetic theme, each of which is absolutely amazing to listen to. Certain cutscenes have music, too, and though I don't imagine the OST for this game will be particularly long, the stunning quality of each individual song easily makes this the best soundtrack I've heard all year, rivaled only by that found in God of War. Needless to say, certain songs make a scene that's already awe-inspiring or mysterious or tear jerking considerably more so.
The mechanics which one uses to actually play the game are unwieldy at first, not the hyper-responsive controls one usually expects in a 3-D game involving adventure and action like this one, but after a while they become second nature. He game's controls are simplistic enough: you jump with the triangle button, you attack with square, you use your sword's light-reflecting aspect with circle, you call/spur on your horse with X, you hang onto ledges with R1, and you switch weapons with the D-pad. Outside of moving with the left analog stick and controlling the camera with the right, that's all you do, and it's a rare case where you have to do more than one thing at a time. The movements of the character are easy to time and control once you've spent some time using them, and by the time you kill your second colossus they should present no problem whatsoever.
This is a good time to mention the other thing that most people will complain about in the game: the camera. Due to the very size of some of your enemies and the fact that they don't remain stationary, the camera will sometimes be moved into a place that isn't particularly advantageous to your killing of said colossus. This is easily fixed, however, by using the right thumb stick to move the camera into a more appropriate position. The problem is pretty annoying when it comes up, but it can be fixed in the space of about a second and it's actually fairly rare: outside of battles the camera moves with you and your horse, swinging into panoramic views of the landscape at your discretion, and inside of battles the camera usually gives as functional and as cinematic a view of the action as you can imagine. It's true that the thing can be out of whack from time to time, but taken on the whole the camera is generally good and doesn't detract from the play experience in any way.
I suppose I should talk about the different battles with the colossi themselves: that is, after all, why I immediately grabbed the game myself. Each one is essentially like an extremely well reasoned, moving environmental puzzle, guised as an epic battle with a giant monster that can easily squash you like a bug. The battles are actually stunningly simplistic in that they chiefly consist of climbing a colossus, finding its weak points, and stabbing it there until it dies. That's only the simplest way to describe it, though; I can't elaborate on the specifics of any battle without spoiling a rather large part of the game, but trust me when I say that the real meat of every battle is actually in finding out how to get on the colossus at all. The first colossus is very simple, and can be completed in about twenty minutes if you go in without any clue about what you're doing, but the longest time I had to take beating a single colossus was well over an hour and a half. Each fight can take a very long time to complete because the enemy doesn't always telegraph what its weakness is, and you obviously can't just wail on it in the hopes that it will die. The battles are masterful, not just because they're so impressive visually but also because they blatantly ignore the conventions of boss fights as most games present them. The key to beating the bosses in Shadow of the Colossus isn't force, or quick reflexes, or anything like that; it's thinking. And that is why any of the colossi - any single one of them - is better than pretty much any other boss battle in the history of videogames. Since these battles comprise well over half the game, it makes for an intensely satisfying experience. The battles in which you use your horse are particularly great because they are also intensely cinematic.
In general, whether or not you like the gameplay depends on what you're looking for. If you want a game where you're constantly battling through legions of minor enemies, or constantly solving environmental puzzles while battling through legions of minor enemies so you can reach the boss at the end of a chapter, this is not going to be your cup of tea. If you want a mostly relaxed experience with the greatest boss battles in gaming, ones that make you think around a problem and test your gaming skills in different ways, then you're going to have a lot of fun with this. Some people are bound to cry foul, saying that without anything save exploring between boss fights, this isn't a game at all, but if one will just play the game then something can be realized: without all of that filler, and reducing the experience to its most essential parts, this is the purest game out today.
It would not be fair to go through this entire review without mentioning your trusty steed, named Agro. As your only mode of transportation and the only companion you'll have throughout the adventure, you'll be spending a lot of time with Agro, and though at first he may seem like just another horse, he eventually comes into his own as an understated character whose personality grows from his actions and his loyalty. There are no great cutscenes where he does something like charge through a horde of ravaging enemies for you to escape on, but what he's willing to do will amaze you, and the battles that he participates in are transformed into incredible cinematic set pieces thanks to his presence is nothing else.
In many ways, Agro is an incredible part of the game: you grow to care about him over the course of your adventure, and the more you play the more little things about him you notice. By tapping X you can cause him to accelerate quickly, by holding X you can make him maintain his top speed without tapping on the button like a madman, and using the left control stick you can steer him. That's the extent of the control you have, but it's an intensely interesting thing because he doesn't control like most other steeds in gaming. Instead of being able to turn on a dime or controlling with perfect precision like a car, riding on Agro actually feels like riding a horse. He will veer off course if you are approaching a cliff, he will leap off of ridges low enough for him to make a safe landing, and across twisting, narrow pathways he will actually steer himself without you touching the control stick at all. Going over one walkway he will not go faster than the main character can tiptoe, as if he's worried that you or he might fall. He will swerve around trees without being urged, and can easily find his way around objects to find you when you call him. If you stop to save your game next to a tiny brook, he will trot over and begin to drink from it. If you aim an arrow in his general direction and he sees you, he'll bolt to get out of your way. He has a lot of different, subtle aspects to him that I couldn't possibly cover in this space, but all of it comes together to make him seem like a living, breathing animal. Despite that he's just a horse, Agro is actually one of the most competently made characters in a videogame I have ever seen, bar none, and by the end of the game you cannot help identifying with him on some level.
The greatest power in the game lies in the parts that you experience rather than what you play. The entire world is rich in detail and atmosphere, and the sense of isolation is oppressive and tangible. There's a very real moral ambiguity inherent in the killing of each colossus, and as the story unfolds you will realize that things go much deeper than you originally surmised. The story in the game is fantastic because it's telling is so subtle and yet so profound: most of it has to be inferred, and what is there is not preachy, stupid, or full of embarrassing dialogue about high morality. It is elegant, it is simple, and it all culminates in what may be the best videogame ending of the last ten years. The emotion present is real, and the wonderful part of it is that everything is just waiting for you to discover it.
Bottom Line:
I have heard this game called a lot of things: artistic, amazing, fun, oppressive, pretentious, boring, depressing, and uplifting. It's a finely crafted piece of software, built with love and rich in artistic excellence, and regardless of how you react to the game it will affect you in one way or another. It's refreshing to see a game that honestly and truly sets people's minds ablaze, whether they love it or hate it, simply because it's made to be something very specific without trying to appeal to any established audience in particular. It's a courageous experiment, and its only fault is that it pushes the hardware too hard.
In general people are afraid to throw themselves behind this game in an absolute way: it's hard to, after all, because no two people are going to react to a piece of art in the same way, and this is art in the truest sense of the word. However, I personally find it to be one of the most incredible gaming experiences I've ever had, and it is easily one of the best I've had during this console generation. But what I say doesn't matter: if you have the slightest interest in this game, go out and buy it. The game presents an experience, and an idea, and both of those are very powerful things. I cannot recommend this enough. Get it.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
|
|
9.8 |
Posted: 2005-11-02 20:19:30 PST