| The Franchise |
10-17-05 10:37 AM |
RATED 9.5/10 by 1up.com
One glance at Shadow of the Colossus and it's clear that you're looking at a game designed by the same people who brought you the rapturous, yet simplistic delights of Ico. The high, arching architecture, the sun-blotted landscapes, the languid visual aesthetic that sets it apart from any other game made in the West or East; it's all there. Go a little deeper and you'll find even more parallels, however deliberate they may or may not be, from the opening horseback stroll through the woods, to the sarcophogus that line the Temple At the End of the World, to the shadow creatures that emerge from the ground at the start of every chapter. Fans of Ico should feel right at home here, as Shadow is packed with visual odes to the past. But beneath the textures and polygons lies the heart of a very different beast.
Anyone expecting Ico part II is in for a big surprise. While Ico was a solemn, solitary sort of game, where the environment was your biggest challenge (despite the occasional shadow horde that would harass you), it came with a placid, do-it-yourself pace that kept the pressure self-imposed. Shadow, on the other hand, is a conceptual 180-degree turn that still stays true to the development team's minimal design stance, but introduces two significant elements that sharply distinguish it from Ico: In your face conflict, and pointedly-evolved game mechanics. While Ico threw the occasional pack of horned shadow teams after you every so often, it was never a war of attrition, as there was never any real benefit to killing enemies beyond mere survival. In Shadow, it's all about conquering your foes. That's not to say the main hero is a killing machine, as you're never tasked to banish hundreds of foes before the eventual boss battle. Your only enemies in Shadow are the bosses -- sixteen of them to be precise.
That's the beauty of director Fumito Ueda's games, in that both Shadow and Ico get straight to the point. Besides the omnipresent voices of the Dormin, the godlike presence that sends you sallying forth to slay the giant colossi, Shadow features zero non-playable characters, save for the dormant Wanda who lies on the altar table. Your only other ally in the game is your horse, Agro, a swarthy black stallion who helps you in your battles against the colossi. With no clichéd townsfolk to distract you with static details, with no real inventory to speak of, and to be frank, with very little to distract you from your job at hand, Shadow is one of the purest gaming experiences you could ever imagine. The unique, organic manner in which you must locate and conquer each colossus reinforces this. While Shadow's progressive path through the colossi (kill one, get a cutscene and a save point) feels more structured than Ico's also-linear, but less directed quest, it still feels like an adventure. It's because the colossi are so spread out, requiring you to find each one with the help of Agro's breathtaking speed. The amount of control you have over Agro (or with, rather) provides a good portion of the excitement. Whether you're simply digging your heels into his side for an extra burst of speed, clamping down on his mane to pick up the pace, standing on his back while firing arrows at an overhead colossi, or tugging back on the reins to get him to stop, e-brake style, there's arguably more "gameplay" in Agro than in the eponymous Ico's entire arsenal. In case you think that sounds complex, it's actually very intuitive, no more difficult than taking Epona for a spin in Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. But once you've achieved what you set out to do, which is find the colossi, Shadow unveils an entirely separate control scheme for you.
In a subtle parallel, both Ico and Shadow make you solve puzzles; that's the gist of both games. But the way in which each game presents the environmentally-based challenges is worlds apart. In Ico, the challenges were there, dormant until deciphered. In Shadow you have no such luxury, as the challenge is living, breathing, and downright monstrous. Once again revealing the developer's penchant for towering heights of unbelievable scale, Shadow of the Colossus not only makes you scramble vertically upside the biggest creatures ever seen in a video game, it also sends you plummeting fathoms deep under the water, and clinging for dear life, soaring through the sky like a stunt-double in The NeverEnding Story. While the process of raising your sword like a divining rod to the sky to first locate the next colossus, and riding around the stark, gorgeous environments may seem like a mere appetizer to the main event, it's actually enjoyable enough in its own right to make you look forward to finding the next boss. As the environments change from desert to forest to lagoon, one's anticipation heightens at what sort of strategy you'll need to emerge victorious in the next confrontation. It's a surprisingly effective prelude to each of the game's 16 stages.
Once you've arrived at your destination, each successive colossus is where the real additions to Shadow's game mechanics become apparent. The addition of a lock-on camera on L1 (in addition to a center-camera button on L2) helps keep the main character locked-on to the boss, which while viewed typically from a challenging worms-eye perspective, provides a thrilling sense of scale to each battle. Like Ico, Shadow places a great priority on jumping and grabbing puzzles, which are made exponentially more challenging due to the fact that Shadow's "levels" thrash, buck, and flail in ways Ico's stony environs never did. Shadow also introduces something Ico lacked (albeit deliberately), and that's a heads-up display. It's expectedly minimal, though, keeping the player aware of three key things: your health, your stamina, and what item you've equipped (a sword, a bow, or your bare hands). These are especially important, because the stamina gauge will tell you how long you can hold on to the thrashing colossus until you lose your grip (sort of important when you're clinging for dear life 200 feet in the air), what weapon you've equipped determines your strategy against the monster, and naturally, how long you've got until you die. Shadow is forgiving, however, as all things can be replenished. If you're halfway up a boss, and your HP is low, or your stamina is tapped, if you can find a platform (usually jutting out of the creature's body) you can crouch to regain both resources. Pressing triangle causes your hero to jump, but unlike Ico, grabbing hold of whatever ledge or moss or fur you're trying to latch onto requires you to press a different button, in this case R1. If you're used to Ico, it takes a little adjusting to, especially in nerve-wracking situations, of which there are many, that usually take place at vertigo-inducing heights. Lastly, besides pressing X to call Agro (a whistle or a shout emits, depending on your proximity to horse), your weapons of sword or bow and arrow -- and you have infinite arrows -- are all managed by simply pressing square.
Once you've gotten to grips with the expanded repertoire of moves, it's time to figure out how to climb onto, and kill each colossus. To describe any of the challenges would be to give them away, but suffice to say each of the game's 16 bosses requires a distinctly different strategy to overcome. That's the entirety of the game, right there, and it's one of the most exciting things you'll ever have the privilege of enjoying. The challenge of rooting out each bosses weak point (sometimes more more obscured than others) is the thrill, and wondering how to get to them, or how to even get close to the colossi, combined with running around on the ground trying to avoid being smashed to bits, or riding on horseback chasing after speedy bosses is concentrated excitement that makes the thought of returning to a world of coin-collecting and box-pushing even more miserable. Sure, once you've figured out what makes each boss tick, successive replays become even more efficient, but at least Shadow, unlike Ico, offers a host of unlockable Easter eggs that will have gamers playing through the game over and over.
Like Ico, Shadow is clearly painted from the same visual palette, but the details are more forthcoming. Ico was originally developed for the PS1 before moving to the PS2, and compared to the richness of Shadow's visuals, it shows. While the framerate could be a little smoother, it's stable, and never gets in the way of the action, and that's impressive considering the size of what's coming after you. Although much of the graphic content feels like a PS2 game, closer inspection reveals stunning architectural artistry (even in things as minor as a platform jutting out of a colossus' body), particle effects (watch as one boss' shoulders crumble with every violent swing), animations, and even fur. And not enough can be said for the actual boss design. While the main character is clearly built from the same indigenous pelts and tunics as Ico, he's better animated and a more versatile character in whole, and his horse Agro contains his own unique, muscular aura. The orchestration is restrained, but when it does emerge, usually to accent a moment, it is breathless in its classicism. Soundtracks like this rarely ever grace a game.
But what makes Shadow truly special is not so easily defined by the success or failure of its gameplay, or the sum total of its aesthetics; it's in what it provides emotionally. While the first few colossi fall easily, at least in terms of conscience, it's not long before you find yourself feeling slightly off-balance in regards to why you're actually doing this. Sure, the pragmatic response is "Because I bought the game," but as each successive monster falls, a certain gravity takes hold of you as you make your way through the game. This is not a game in which ones machismo is easily riled. Yes, they're giant creatures, but unlike David and Goliath, these towering behemoths didn't do anything to warrant extermination, which is precisely what you're doing. You're even warned by the Dormin at Shadow's outset that your actions may come at heavy price. As you cross the finish line and learn for yourself the true and genuinely shocking nature of what you have done (vaguely told in the most ambiguous, but blood-pumping terms), you're left with a similar, bittersweet ache as the one which touched you at the end of Ico, only this time it's a little less kind. And to be perfectly frank, Shadow of the Colossus is a braver experience for it.
Not one to rest on their laurels, or content with what they achieved with Ico, Fumito Ueda's development team have come roaring back with the game that may yet define them. While it's not an easy task to follow up the all-around brilliance of Ico, follow they have, and then some. Rich with a more urgent experience and just the right balance of control and balance, Shadow of the Colossus is the true definition of an adventure game. This game will remind you of why you play video games in the first place. No game makes you soar as high, sink as low, or feel as small as Shadow does, and that equals sheer adrenaline. Not the kind generated by zombies lurking around corners, or being run down by gangstas in a drive-by, but the sort of well-rounded emotional package that could exist only in a world like this. This is virtual reality, this is the great escape, this is a game that takes you somewhere you've never been before, Ico or no Ico. It's a game that dares you to exhilarate while hammering you with consequence. In short, Shadow of the Colossus breaks storytelling barriers none of us knew existed. It's the rare game for which the often overused words "ground-breaking" were truly reserved for, and it's enough to make you regret every stupid coin you ever collected. There's more to gaming than rote clichés and borrowed ideas, and Shadow of the Colossus is kind enough to remind us of what could be. You really couldn't ask for better than that. Besides merely being one of gaming's great moments, this is the experience of the year.
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