"Some mountains are scaled, others are slain, and some are reviewed."

The One Mountain, err...Minute Review

Shadow of the Colossus is a very difficult game to review. It contains very abstract ideas that will throw most gamers off. Indeed, some aspects of the game are completely contrary to traditional game design. It throws you into a young boy's quest to save a girl whom we know nothing about other than that she was sacrificed by her village, with his only companion being his horse. The game essentially consists of 16 boss fights, but they are some of the biggest and best boss fights I have ever seen. The sheer size of the titular colossi is such that when you take one of them down, you will feel like you've conquered a mountain, and in many ways you have. The game is incredibly cinematic, indeed it feels truly epic, with both a rousing orchestral score and a fantastic artistic style. Though the framerate can be erratic sometimes, the game is visually stunning and climbing on the backs of the various colossi looks and feels like a Hollywood epic. The game is not without its flaws. Your horse can be somewhat difficult to control at times, and the camera seems to have a habit of trying to recenter itself in awkward positions as your trying to climb around a colossus. The game is also fairly short if you blaze through killing the 16 colossi, however the ending is incredibly satisfying. You can also replay the game on hard mode, which adds some depth to some of the battles, as well as time trials which earns you unlockable items. Some gamers will question just why you are running around a huge landscape with nothing to inhabit it except these 16 stone giants (which is explained in the ending somewhat), and in the end it may not even matter, but if you're the type to "stop and smell the roses", then this game is for you. Even if you're not, you should still give this game a try. This is a game that simply has to be experienced.

Scaling Mountains

Shadow of the Colossus opens with our protagonist Wander crossing a huge bridge on his horse across open plains that leads to a large temple in the middle of the map. We learn from the narrator of the opening that this is a forbidden land and that Wander is trespassing here against the laws of his people. The land is said to have the power to revive the dead, and this is the reason he has come here. He has brought with him a young girl who was sacrificed by her village because she supposedly had a cursed destiny, but he wants to bring her back regardless. Who she is and what her relationship is to Wander, we don't know. He brings her to the Temple of Worship and is told by the booming voice of a mysterious entity named Dormin that it may be possible to revive her, but to do so he must destroy the 16 statues that reside in the temple. However, the statues cannot be destroyed by any mortal hand. They are linked to the life force of the 16 titular colossi who inhabit the land and only by defeating the colossi will the statues be destroyed. He points you towards the first colossus as a test, and with that our quest begins.

The game could be called an adventure game similar to the Zelda series. After all, you ride a horse and explore a huge landscape with plains, valleys, mountains and lakes. However, this land is almost completely devoid of life with the exception of the colossi. You can find some fruit trees to get fruit from, and you'll run across the occasional tiny lizard which you can kill effortlessly to collect its tail. The fruit and tails from white tailed lizards increase your health bar and stamina meter respectively. Except for these gameplay related elements, the land itself contains no enemies to kill or creatures to interact with. The main reasoning here is that they would simply detract from the battles with the colossi (also the game's creator wanted his team focused solely on the colossus fights so they would be of the highest calibre possible). The other reason is to emphasize the feeling of solitude in the game. You are literally alone in this world with nothing but your horse for companionship. Even your main method of finding your way, the legendary sword that Wander carries with him, doesn't give you precise directions. It simply points you in the direction of the next colossus. Because of this, the feeling that you are truly alone in your quest and exploring the world comes through loud and clear.

Slaying Mountains

So how do you slay a walking mountain? Admittedly, when you see the first colossus lumber across the screen in front of you, your jaw might drop. Your goal in each fight basically amounts to two steps. Step one: scale the beast. Step two: find his vital spots and stab them repeatedly until he dies. Vital spots are usually on areas such as the head or back, depending on the shape of the colossus. Some are humanoid, so aiming for the head is a good bet, but others resemble animals such as a horse, a giant crab, a bird or an eel. The first few colossi don't really attack you that much, so it's fairly easy to climb up them. However, the later battles require careful observation of the colossus' movements and use of the environment to actually get on them in the first place. Figuring out how to get on them is actually half the battle.

Once you're on them, you usually need to use various ridges and patches of fur to actually scale them. You can run along any flat parts of them, but they will try to shake you off repeatedly. In order to avoid being thrown off, you need to grip a ridge on their armor or a patch of fur. Watching your character being tossed around like a rag doll by these beasts is actually pretty exciting, and these guys are big. Really big. Like biggest-boss-you've-ever-seen big. When you take one of them down, it feels like you just scaled Mount Everest, and this is the main draw of the game.

In being essentially just 16 boss fights, the game is relatively short. However, these are 16 of some of the best boss fights you'll ever see. You'll definitely have your favourites (for me it's numbers 5 and 13), but this is one game where the cool factor definitely increases as the game progresses. The first time you fight one of these guys, you'll think it's amazing, but you haven't seen anything yet. The developers totally nailed the feeling of the immense size of these bosses. When they put their huge, lumbering foot down next to you and send you flying, it feels like a building just collapsed next to you.

Mountains As Art

Graphically speaking, Shadow of the Colossus is very impressive. In fact, about the only bad thing about it visually is that the framerate is somewhat erratic at times. For the most part it's pretty smooth, although it's average framerate is lower that most other games. It's probably in the area of 15-20 FPS on average (for comparison, the battle scenes in Final Fantasy VII on the PSX where about 15 FPS), but fortunately this isn't a game that requires lightning reflexes and minuscule reaction times, and as such it doesn't detract from the enjoyment too much. On the plus side, the world itself is totally seamless in that once you've initially loaded, you can explore freely wherever you want with no loading times whatsoever and massive draw distance using LOD (level of detail) techniques, much like the Grand Theft Auto 3 series of games. Technically speaking, the game pushes the PS2 to the absolute limits and it shows.

From an artistic standpoint however, the game is absolutely brilliant. They make heavy use of bloom lighting along with slight motion blur to give the game an undeniably cinematic look and feel to it. "Cinematic" is a word tossed around a lot these days with regards to video games, but this game is one of the best examples of this feel that I've ever seen. Adding to the impressive presentation are some absolutely incredible animations. The colossi move progressively slower as they grow larger in size, just like you'd expect, and this really helps in capturing that feeling of immense size that is so important. Wander himself is not as quick and nimble as perhaps a hero like Link from the Zelda series would be. Rather, he is a more realistic representation of a hero and, while his controls are not "sluggish" by any means, they take a minute to get used to.

His equestrian companion, however, is probably the most realistic animal I've ever seen modelled in a virtual world. The animation of the horse Agro is so incredible that it actually serves to give him personality. That having been said, the horse also controls very realistically, which means somewhat like a tank. It takes several kicks (and seconds) to get going to full speed, and he has a somewhat annoying property that if you start to turn while riding full sprint, he will automatically slow down. This brings up the issue of realism versus playability. While this property is accurate of a real horse, this is still a game and the primary focus should be on fun. In my opinion, that is a feature that should have been sacrificed in the name of enjoyment. As it stands, you basically have to continually mash the X button to kick the horse to ensure he keeps moving fast enough to keep up with the colossi while negotiating turns. This is not a deal breaker by any means, but it is something that I found annoying in places where the horse was required. That said, Agro is still an integral and immensely enjoyable part of the experience. By the time you reach the end of the game, you will have positively bonded with the character.

If a mountain falls and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Not to be overlooked in the artistic category, the sound also plays an important role in the feel of the game. The voice acting for what little there is to be said is very good, even though they aren't speaking English. Like ICO before it, this game uses a fictitious language for the characters to speak. The sound effects are all right on, such as the galloping of Agro's hooves, as well as the notching and firing of Wander's arrows. Where you'll really get the most out of that new sound system you bought, however, is the colossi. From the low rumblings as you approach them to the humongous crashes as they try to flatten you, everything sounds fantastic.

Adding to the epic nature of the game is the great soundtrack accompanying your adventure. While exploring the land, you'll have naught but the howl of the wind to listen to, but once you approach and eventually engage the colossi in battle, the music becomes exciting and evokes climactic cinema battles like Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, and so on. Like it's predessesor, Shadow of the Colossus has a fantastic orchestral soundtrack that adds to the cinematic nature of the game greatly.

The Final Word

Shadow of the Colossus is a game that should be experienced by anyone even remotely interested in it. It is a technical marvel that pushes the PS2 to the limit of what it is capable of. While it is not perfect, it delivers an incredible experience with 16 of the best battles I've ever seen in a video game. In many ways, the game is a work of art. What you get out of it is largely proportional to what you put into it. This factor limits me from awarding it a perfect score, but just barely. If I wasn't restricted to rounding, I would put it at about 9.3 or 9.4 but as it stands, I just can't quite round it to a perfect 10. If you're the type to stop and absorb your surroundings, you will enjoy the massive world to explore. If not, you'll likely just be riding to get to the next boss fight. Either way, you will positively relish the encounters with the colossi. This is a game that should be played, because you have never experienced anything like this in a game before.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/07