"Love or hate, it depends on your taste."

Shadow of the Colossus is quite an unique game and was extremely well done. It combines amazing scenery of giant grass plains or vast desert with innovative game play, a story that brings up the emotions together with one of the most beautiful music you will ever hear. Mind the cliche, but this game is one colossal success. Despite this, this game is not one that everyone may enjoy simply because of the style of the game play itself and the small amount of puzzles that is in need of solving. Really, many aspects of the game is really dependant on what type of game you enjoy but if you enjoy something different, this game will really earn your appreciation.

Graphics
There are many words in the English vocabulary, but is hard to find one word to describe the landscape graphics in this game. Magnificent, stunning, gorgeous, special, beautiful and superb is only some of the ways to describe this game but none truly describe the graphics. The modeling of the landscape is what made it so good. The developers did not try to make it attractive or sharp with pretty colours, no they made it look good in the sense that is something that you can look at but will not pinpoint an aspect that make it look particularly good. Something you will love if you like scenic type of surroundings. The game itself does not have many buildings, a few temples, shrines rubbles and ruins from a lost city and then you will have the rest as natural surroundings. Another moot point is the fact that the surroundings does not seem to be reused over and over meaning that a lot of the areas have unique feeling to it despite the game area being large and vast.

The Colossus can equally be described as large, but hideous is a better word. They truly look menacing and they really look great in terms of the design. The ugly look upon them is greatly done. The design of the different colossus is different some are similar but they largely are different from each other, both in the looks and area they dwell upon. The character models, there are not many things to talk about because you could count the number of characters with your fingers, but they the design is pretty unique for the main character Wander as well as the Lord at the end.

If there is any parts where you could complain on the graphics department would have to be the detail. The modelling is done extremely finely but the actual detail does really leaves a lot to desire at times, especially in close up. Also the shades and the conversion within the graphics may seem to look sloppy with things appear different close up than long range This type of graphics will not really liked by everyone, as said before, this game concentrates on the beauty and not on attractiveness of the details but does that extremely finely, really push the PS2 capabilities to the limit and there is slowdowns in some instance because of that. This section receives the rating of 9/10

Sound
The game has one of the most beautiful music you will ever hear in any video game. You will be totally engrossed in it as you listen to it as you battle the colossus. There is a different music for each stage of the battle against each colossus. One that portrays beautifully as a gentle, silent giant, another that really spurs you into action as you battle while the one when the colossus is near its end really makes the situation as though is climax. And do not forget about the defeat, the music there is one of the best things you will hear, terrific. There are many things that is difficult to describe in words, and the music of the game is certainly one of these no doubt. The music is extremely nice, is just splendid.

This game does not really have voice acting, the game speaks a language that is cannot be understood, some say is a cross between Latin and Japanese backwards but whatever you think it is, it certainly done decently. It does sound like a foreign language and you really feels the emotion of the character as they speak when you place it in context with the subtitles. There is not many voice acting to scrutinise, but there is certainly no fault with it. The sound effects is quite well done, the cries of the horse, the thumping as it gallops down the large plain of grassland. Overall is very well done, and that could be said for the rest of the sound section as well. Receives 10/10 deservedly.

Story
The story in Shadow of the Colossus is unique and different from other games one may have met. The majority of the story is told at the beginning and at the end while small parts is revealed in between fights against the 16 colossi. The story is about the character Wander, who travels to the forbidden land in search of the miracle that can revive the girl called Mono. What type of connection she has with Wander is a mystery, just like many aspect of the story that makes it so special and leaves a lot to guess. Wander, along with his horse Agro as his only companion came upon Dormin in the temple and will grant his wish should he defeat the 16 colossi with the special sword Wander possessed. The ending is both sad and satisfying. One of the part almost put a tear to my eye as the scene really sad and sudden that will catch you by surprise. The other parts of the ending is also great with action and a dramatic ending. The ending itself is not told by dialogues between characters, is how you "read" it, but this story does give strong ideas of companionship, loyalty and hope as well as redemption. The aspect that really one may not be so popular with some is the story leaves so much guessing and too mysterious(or confusing if you desire) along with the relatively short scenes. The actual type of story itself may not appeal to everyone, but this one certainly caught up to me and I liked it extremely. The rating is 10/10 with huge amount of bias here, but the story is certainly lovable.

Also, this game has links to the game "ICO" in terms of the storyline as well.

Game Play
Is quite a unique game play this game has. As said before, this game battles 16 Colossi and 16 Colossi only. There are no additional enemies. When fighting these colossus, that description of David and Goliath is extremely appropriate. To defeat them, charging into them and stab won't kill them, but rather you have to find their weak spots first. But before you can do that, you have to figure out how to get on them first which itself is the most difficult aspect of the battle. Armed with only a sword, bow, the horse Agro and some cunning you have to figure out ways to defeat the Colossus. Each Colossi differs in difficulty and method to defeat them.

For every colossus, you start out at the temple, then you have to actually find it(surprisingly hard to find for something so big) by tracking the light beam reflected by your sword, in shade areas this cannot work as the light of beam require the sun. This itself is a puzzle really, some are pretty obvious, others will really stump you. Upon fighting, the next step is finding weakness and getting on it, once you defeat it, you get transported back to the temple and this cycle continues till you reached the last Colossus.

The game's control is quite simple and easy to understand and interface is extremely simple. There is a health bar and a stamina meter, the former is self-explanatory while the latter is the key to each battle. There is only limited time where you can hold on to objects and as you hold the Colossus will sway and shake to get you off, so timing when to let go and go back to an area where is safe to stand is part of the battle and thinking. The controls on Agro is reasonably difficult to master, but is quite realistic in terms of how horses move, such as walk, canter and gallop. The weak points are quite obvious most of the time, is usually on the head but sometimes it comes up with surprises. Very often, there are steps to get on a colossus, you may have to get make it stumble first or make it come down at you. The same idea is repeated, but varies making each colossus quite unique.

The game is not hard, if you have trouble, the game will give out some hints on how to defeat the colossus, the first hint is quite subtle, but points you to the right direction where the other is very direct, but all too often these spoil the fun as it makes it quite easy to figure out.

Overall, the game play itself is quite well done but not all will like it. Firstly, the game has no additional enemies which makes the game straight forward and sometimes boring which also lead to the absence of side missions, the only thing other than battling all the colossi is really exploring the vast landscape. The actual thinking of how to approach each colossus is not everyone's cup of tea, not everyone will enjoy the figuring out part. There is also the frustration, most of the colossus is fairly difficult to get on to, if you fell off you have to start all over. The searching of each colossus may also get on to your nerves, there are no action apart from riding the horse and really put you off the mood as you just completed a colossus in an "epic" battle then you have revert back to normality. If you can put up with this, the game play can be extremely fun, what really matters if what type of game you like. Myself will say this game is part puzzle/problem solving and part action/adventure. Rating for game play is 10/10, but this of course is due to the fact I quite enjoy this type of game.

Game Length/Replayability
This game is moderate in length and varies depending on the player. The average person should complete the game within 10-15 hours provided you do not use any sort of guide as much of the time spent is on problem solving. After you finish the game once, you unlock hard mode which is basically the same, some Colossi has an extra weak point to be taken care of first and the enemy generally hit much harder. There is also the time attack mode which involves defeating one colossus at a time before the time limit is up and it will unlock additional features and abilities. You could also build up stamina to climb the temple where you start the game. Overall, there are plenty to do despite the lack of normal enemies, receives 8/10 here.

Final Score: 10/10
Despite my obvious love for the game, I must insist this game is not for everyone, the story, graphics and game play can easily be hugely disliked for various reasons, most probably due to the type of game they liked. If you enjoy a wide variety of games, this one is might suit you quite well, but the best option is to rent the game first. The game is not flawless, but certainly it was made very well.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/06