"ICO does almost everything perfectly and yet it still manages to be better than the sum of its parts."

The story goes that Ico is a boy born with two horns on his head. The village of his birth was immediately struck with fear and superstition, which was fulfilled when plagues and famine struck the village during the years after the boy's birth. On Ico's twelfth birthday he was taken away by the faceless horsemen, as tradition decreed he, a boy with horns, should be. He is taken on a long ride, eventually arriving at a giant fortress where he is trapped in one of many stone caskets. However Ico manages to break the stone casket by accident and proceeds to free a girl that has been consumed by loneliness, Yorda, from her cage. Only together can they escape their prison.

Ico is at heart a puzzle-adventure game. You move from room to room throughout the various structures on the island solving puzzles that will help you get to the next room. These are mostly environmental puzzles such as “How do I create a bridge to get across this chasm” or “How can I get down to that window”. Most of these puzzles stem from the fact that there are two people under your control; Ico is the one you directly control. He is stronger and more agile, and thus can get almost anywhere on his own. Yorda is controlled via shouting at her to follow you. She can't fight, and cannot jump or climb ropes. This makes it hard for her to get across rooms. However she is needed in order to open various magical doors. This means the majority of your puzzles are focused on what to do in order to get Yorda from X to Y.

However one of the key things to remember about Yorda is that she can't fight. This means that, should enemies appear, you must rush to her side and stop them from reaching her. Should they grab her (due to either your bad fighting skills or lack of time to get back to her), they will take her away to a portal in the ground which she will proceed to be dragged into. You then have about five seconds to get next to the portal and hold down R1 to grab her hand and pull her out.

Graphically this game is beautiful. The grass glows from the sunlight bouncing off of it. The rocks are textured wonderfully. Machinery looks old and rusty, characters flow in their movement, shadowing is done with wonderful realism. Everything about this game is beautiful.

Character design is great, not least because of the symbolism. Yorda glows at all times of a bright, almost ghostly, white. This is amazing as it makes Yorda seem like she's not human, and makes her visible even in darkness. This looks artistically amazing and fascinating. However this design choice is even better when you consider the design of the enemies. All enemies are shadows that spawn from pools of shadow on the floor. This idea is great as the dark is trying to engulf the single beam of light that remains for Ico, and he is the only person who can save this light.

However character design isn't the only great design element in ICO. The level design is also amazing. The puzzles are laid out well and take some thinking. The whole room is used in the puzzles, and often a couple rooms will link together for a solution. There are objects in the room that will make you think of different solutions, though ultimately there is only one solution, and often it feels rewarding when you finally figure it out. The draw distances are fantastic and allow you to see the world outside of the castle, all of which is well designed.

The music only occurs during a few situations, such as during an emotional cutscene, or when enemies are attacking. Also when the music does pop up it is not a tune, and is not memorable. Instead it is a few long notes that help manipulate the player. For example when enemies are around you hear long, distorted, grim notes that make you fear the nearby enemies far more than you would without the notes.

The relatively small amount of music allows for some amazing atmosphere building via soundeffects. As you walk outside you'll hear wind, birds, water, your footsteps and many other things that really help create some fantastic atmosphere, not least because of the high sound quality and very realistic sounds the game puts out.

The voice acting is also amazingly well done. The voices sound very real, put across emotion well, and the characters speak in a foreign language for the entirety of the game meaning that the voice acting never feels out of place or corny.

There's something really unique and magical about this game. Not exactly addictive, but definitely compelling. You don't feel a need to play through it, but you want to play through it and experience the magic. This means that you almost definitely will end up playing through it again just to experience the magic once more.

If you haven't played Ico before then I urge you to go out and find a copy. It's a hard game to get hold of, but is so artistic, compelling and fun that it is well worth the search

Story = 10/10
Gameplay = 9/10
Design = 10/10
Graphics = 10/10
Music & Sound = 10/10
Replayability = 9/10
Length = 5-7 hours

Final Score = 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/29/07

Game Release: Ico (EU, 03/22/02)