Platform: PS2 | Developer: Team Ico | Publisher: SCEI | Released: February 17th 2006 | 60Hz: Yes | Prog-scan: Yes | Price paid: £9.99 | Bought at: Gameplay.co.uk

Designed and directed by Fumito Ueda, Shadow of the Colossus is truly a landmark game. It's the sort of thing which most people wouldn't be too fussed about, wouldn't stick with to the end, and generally just wouldn't 'understand'. This is the sort of thing which doesn't sell very well, despite many awards. Like a fine Edvard Munch painting, the majority of people off the street wouldn't really appreciate what's gone into making SotC, the subject matter it deals with, or what the game is trying to communicate. Most people still just play games for a laugh, after all, and that's fine. The shame of it, though, is that titles like this tend not to make the sort of impact they otherwise might, and therefore don't come along very often at all. But, that's the way it's always been. Works of genius get overlooked when they are made, but afterwards are remembered forever. SotC is one of those that isn't going to be forgotten.

What you get out of SotC really depends on what kind of person you are, and on what you're looking for in your computer games. If looked at purely as a game, you might not like this. At all. It's immaculately-made, has sumptuous graphics (LDR lighting, and even motion-blur), amazing animation, great physics, lovely audio, no load-times, and a very large (roughly the size of Tokyo, according to Ueda), beautifully-crafted world. This game's presentation is really top-notch. It's even got what has to be some of the best boss-battles you'll ever come across in your life (a statement which will probably stand for a long time). So it's great when looked at purely as a game, right? Well, yes and no. It's certainly not your average tin of beans, and that's why you might not like it. SotC completely does away with most of the gaming conventions you take for granted (and unconsciously sort of depend on). There is nothing in the way of ammunition. You just have infinite arrows, and the game never once bothers itself with providing any kind of explanation for your unrelenting supply of them. There are no health-packs. You have a health-bar, which depletes when you take damage from colossi, or fall harmful distances, etc. However, you don't have to worry about finding more health, as your bar just slowly regenerates. Same goes for stamina (which depletes while climbing things). In fact, there is nothing in the way of supplies, or the management thereof, to concern yourself with. This in itself might some getting used to.

There are no levels. What do I mean by that? Well, you're probably familiar with games like Zelda, which 'don't' have your classic video game level-structure. Games which don't have level title-screens which pop-up after you've completed a stage, and are starting a new one, etc. These games have 'dungeons', or other such clockwork-obstacles, which generally consist of finding keys, maps, and unlocking doors, eventually leading up to a boss. While you might not realize it, those are levels, they're just thinly-disguised as 'dungeons', or whatever. When I say SotC has no levels, I mean it has nothing in the way of stages, or temples, or any of those generic sort of labyrinthine-hindrances which you must traverse. There's no keys, no switches, and no doors to open. If you're not fighting a colossus, you're making your way to the next one. Indeed, at least half the game consists purely of these treks between colossi, and there are absolutely no enemies to draw your sword at along the way. Orcs do not roam the plains (or the caves, or the lakes, or the woods), and skeletons do not arise from their un-marked graves in the fields and try (in vain) to kill you as you pass, when all you're trying to do is get from A to B. Every living creature other than yourself is not out to get you. There aren't even any NPCs to ask questions of, to buy goods from, or otherwise converse with. There are no towns or settlements of any ilk within the game's borders for you to find. In fact, in a manner of speaking, the large world Wanda finds himself in is, other than the colossi, a whole load of nothingness. This is an absolutely key point of the game, and is the very thing which your impression of it hinges upon. You will either get stuck on this point, or revel in it.

Having directed just two games (Ico, and SotC), Ueda's career as a director has only really just begun. Yet he has already become widely respected, and his works renowned. His games have, thus far, always been conceptually very simple, with a simple theme and direction, and an element of moral/emotional-ambiguity. These are the basic foundations on which he lays his games, and are already becoming his 'hallmarks'. This is the way Ico was made, and SotC follows-suit. SotC is a prequel to Ico. Not that you need to have played Ico to play this, or vice-verca. They take place within the same universe, but do not strictly feature any of the same characters or locales. The link between SotC and Ico is actually pretty tenuous, at most. The reason SotC works is exactly the same reason why Ico worked; fantastic direction. You see, Ueda is, for all-intents-and-purposes, an artist. He may not proclaim such a title for himself (and may even deny it when it is suggested to him), but that's what he is. And like any great artist, Ueda does not paint a load of unnecessary crap onto his canvas. Every little thing he puts there is carefully done so, with fore-thought and intent. Superfluous details would detract from the theme of the piece. You look at Munch's famous 'The Scream'. There is little else in the way of details other than the melancholic figure in the center. Your eyes are drawn to it, and nothing detracts from it. The meaning of the painting is loud and clear, and isn't disrupted by anything. It's the same with Ueda's games. SotC's world is purposefully large and empty. It's not that way through laziness. One of SotC's themes is isolation. You are meant to feel totally alone. This isolation opens up the door to things which otherwise wouldn't be so.

The only other living thing Wanda has for company is his horse, Agro. Through spending a lot of time alone with Agro, the beast becomes more than just a mode of transport. You begin to become emotionally-attached to him. If he takes a tumble in a battle, you feel angry. You want to give the colossus an extra stab just for hurting your horse. What helps this, is that Agro is not some crude imitation of a real living creature, Team Ico have actually gone to pains to give him character, and it's hard not to develop a real liking for the old mare. Just like a real horse, Agro doesn't always do exactly what you want him to 100% of the time. Sometimes he's a bit stubborn. Sometimes he requires a a couple of tugs on the reins rather than the usual one. Sometimes when you're dismounted, he wanders off (but if you wander off, he chases you so he doesn't lose you). He won't always comply with death-defying leaps over chasms, sometimes he chickens out at the last minute. It's carefully balanced, and I was never once annoyed by it. It feels very natural. He follows you everywhere, and doesn't just 'magically-appear' when you need a ride. He never leaves your side, unless out of necessity. It's these tiny little details and more which give Agro another little layer to him which other games wouldn't. The isolation of the SotC highlights Agro's character, and nurtures a bond between you and your steed. He's the only creature on this deserted peninsula which gives a damn about you, and by the end, he's a real companion.

In that sense, he's more like a Navi than an Epona. He's invaluable in certain colossi-battles, and takes as much of a beating as you do (though he never dies in battle). If the game were 'busier', Agro's personality would probably be drowned-out by everything else that would be going on. If every five seconds you were being hounded by nasty birds, chased by goblins, attacked by spiders, or otherwise doing battle with any other such irrelevant over-world enemies as these, you'd miss out on Agro's character. You wouldn't have a chance to percieve all the little trappings and nuances of his personality. It'd also diminish the feeling of isolation. You can't truly feel totally alone in a huge uninhabited world if you're constantly being attacked, even when there are no NPCs.

Another part of the game's premise is exploration. That may seem rather obvious, but SotC handles it in a unique way, and it's all thanks to the desolation of the land you find yourself in. Whereas in other games exploring can be as much of a pain as it is a pleasure, due to everything wanting to kill you, in SotC it is a very intimate experience. If you're the kind of person who likes to explore, you'll get a real kick out of SotC's world. It's very big, and you can explore it totally uninterrupted and at your leisure. I've spent hours just sauntering about in this game, soaking-in all the sights, climbing trees, and trying to get to places which seem out-of-reach. Not having things constantly nipping at your every five yards is really a breath of fresh-air. Ueda has been quoted as saying how, because they weren't making any enemies or NPCs, Team Ico could focus on and pour all their efforts into the colossi and the world. It shows. The landscape is really quite beautiful, and practically invites you to explore it. Where other games would hint at a beach below a cliff, SotC lets you go down there, walk on the sand, and watch the waves come in. The woodland areas are not just the slightly rubbish imitations you get in other games. Here they are lovingly-crafted and rendered. There's a proper canopy with shafts of sunlight beaming through, varied trees, playing host to wittering birds. There are different kinds of terrain and environments, and all of them are lovingly-crafted, and just accentuate the whole mood of the game.

The graphics on SotC are really something. Firstly, the style of the presentation is top-notch. It really fits in with Ico, and Ueda's already-trademark almost minimalist style. The geometry and texture work here is great stuff. All of the architecture within the game looks suitably aged and slightly ruined. The valleys and great canyons are carved beautifully and naturally out of the land. Unlike in TP, the canyons here are not sheer polygonally-jagged drops, as if someone has cut the land with a knife.The edges of the valleys in SotC become variedly less grassy and more rocky as you approach the edge, which is often scattered with the kind of big stones, boulders, and debris as you would imagine there to be. Someone has gone to a lot of effort to make sure that this stuff looks realistic, all within the trappings of the game's visual-style, of course. The game uses some pretty advanced graphical effects for a PS2 game. LDR lighting is used to great effect. If you're not familiar with it, it's basically a simulation of the realistic refraction of light, and the contrast of darks and lights. If in a dark cave you see a small opening in the distance, the sunlight pouring through will glare somewhat, and appear extremely bright. Then when you reach it and step outside, it appears much less so, and the cave within appears extremely dark. Sort of how your eyes would react and adjust in those situations. Motion-blur is also heavily on display. While it's the sort of thing you'd associate with being 'realistic', it actually adds to the surreal style of the game, if anything.

The animation in this game is also top-drawer. Wanda is given a sort of boyish quality the way he flops about, and Agro is very well done. You even notice the muscles on your horse flex as he's trotting about. The animation on the colossi is amazing. They hulk about realistically, with their fur and armature shaking around as they do so. It has been noted by the developers that the physics-engine they came up with was so accurate, that faster colossi had to be made smaller. These guys move very naturally according to their size and shape, and the detail lavished on them is amazing. Their hair, for instance, is superbly done. It actually looks like real hair. CGI motion-pictures have only recently learned how to do realistic-looking hair. These things, the motion-blur and the LDR lighting, coupled with the washed out sepia-tones of the textures, all come together to give SotC a real presentational-edge. Unfortunately, these effects really push the old PS2. The framerate can become quite dogged occasionally, and frequently fluctuates at the best of times. It's a bit of a shame, but considering what's going on, what with all the advanced physics and animations present during colossi battles and so forth, was rather inevitable. Thankfully it never distracts from the experience in any significant way, and you become totally used to it in no time at all.

Another graphical symptom of the hardware limitations Team Ico had to work with, is some occasionally rather aggressive geometry mip-mapping. It's not uncommon while out and about in SotC's vast world to witness bits of cliff-face, or boulder, or architecture become suddenly more complex and detailed as you draw near (Halo 2 cut-scene style). The aliasing is really noticable sometimes, too. Again, this is unfortunate, but rather unavoidable. It's not a major gripe, and you get used to it. These things are really just side-effects of how hard Team Ico have pushed the PS2 with this game. You can't really knock the game for them, and it doesn't really detract from the wondrous artistry on display. Ueda's team haven't let it bother them, and it won't bother you. It's part of the genius of the game, that the overall style and presentation can glaze over these little cracks, and makes what you would moan quite sorely about in other games sort of part of it's charm. Just like and great masterpiece which you could name, the aged canvas which it is painted upon doesn't significantly detract from what has been created. SotC is also blessed with full 50Hz optimization, was well as a proper 60Hz mode, and a progressive-scan mode (which can be enabled in either 50Hz or 60Hz settings). It would have been an utter shame for the game's meticulous presentation to be ruined at the last hurdle by shoddy PAL localization. Ueda's team have made sure that hasn't happened.

So then, the colossi. I don't want to ruin anything for you, so I'll try and avoid any spoilerous details. There are sixteen of them, they come in different shapes and sizes, and they are all amazing in so many different ways. Firstly, you can tell a lot of effort went into them. The way they look, the way they move, and generally their entire presentation is flawless. They are intricately-designed, some having defined-musculature, others having shell-like structures, all having ruined-armour, mossy-looking hair (the kind of fur you see on sloths), sullen-eyes, and generally looking appropriately-aged. They are all unique, inhabiting different environments, attacking you in different ways. Most are land-lovers, and others are are water creatures, whilst others still are air-born.

It isn't a simple matter of loading the game up and fighting the colossi, however. You have to find them first. This is done in a sort of novel little way. Your sword, when lifted aloof in sunlight, emits a beam of light which directs you to the next colossus. That's all you've got to go on, and while it's never rocket science, I found it nice that the game didn't patronize my intelligence by neatly marking my next port-of-call on the map or anything. It's only a minor difference I suppose, but I liked being left to my own devices. Often I meandered off-course, or hunted lizards, and such. I was allowed to go at my own pace, and take it easy, if I so wished. There was never a constant annoying reminder that I should be doing this or that, I was just left to it, and appreciatively-so. It's worth noting that while on these frequent and sometimes lengthy journeys, there is never any music. This may sound like a bad thing, or a lacking of some kind, but it's not. Again, this goes towards to feeling of loneliness. If there where a full orchestra at your side the whole time, I doubt this feeling would have been conveyed very well. There is music in the game, it's just only at very particular moments. These being at the fellings of colossi, or in certain cut-scenes. The music is very beautifully orchestrated, and is just as meticulously and specifically made as the presentation is. The unique minimalistic use of music is actually something of a revelation. Because you aren't bombarded by it constantly, when there is music, you really notice it and it really does accentuate any given moment, and put across a very specific emotion. Really does hit the right chord.

Once you've found a colossi, you have to fight it. You do this by attacking it's weak-points. You attack these by taking advantage of the colossus's attack-patterns, and often environmental-features. Sound familiar? It should. However, it's a good thing, as it's always done in interesting ways. Where in other games the boss-battle has become rather stale, SotC makes it great again. It's like a whole game's worth of the best Zelda boss battles, times ten. Each and every one is an exhilarating experience. The battles are fierce, and ingenious. Because of their size, you have to climb on the colossi to strike at their vulnerable parts, which when you draw your sword, are marked by glowing sigils. Because of their nature, some of them are tough to work out at first (how exactly does one climb aboard giant flying prey?). Some of the stuff you get up to over the course of fighting the different colossi as incredible. You'll be scaling up gargantuan arms, legs, clinging to giant wings, tails, and beards, all the while working mercilessly towards toppling your massive foe. The colossi themselves usually take a wee while to kill. Took me a good half hour to do some of them in , and the last one took me nearly an hour. This is first-time-through, of course. Once you've sussed them out, beating them a second time is easy (but still quite fun). There's nothing like running up a colossi's arm and onto it's head, stabbing it in the cranium, while clinging onto it's hair as it frantically writhes around, trying to shake you off.

What makes all this action really amazing, is how it's so organic and fluid. There's a remarkable battle-engine at work here. So remarkable is it, that you don't even notice it. In an age when many developers still can't even manage good collision-detection, some of the stuff going on here is remarkable. I'm no computer expert by any means, but I do know that implementing a physics-engine which allows for the player-character to fluidly and realistically cling to a giant creature, climb about it's whole body, as the creature shakes around trying to dislodge you, with Wanda reacting realistically to everything the colossus does, must have been a huge undertaking to get right. It has to be seen, really. The controls in SotC are very simple, and by the time you've toppled your first big guy, you'll be pretty comfortable with them. R1 is your universal grab/climb/hold on button. This is probably your most used button. You hop towards a ledge (or a bit of colossi hair) and hold R1 to snatch onto it. Whilst holding R!, you then make Wanda climb about using, as you might expect, the left analogue stick. You use square you attack with whatever weapon you have selected. You scroll through your weapons (you only have two, a sword and a bow) with the D-pad. Oh and you mount/dismount Agro with triangle, and hold your sword aloft with circle. That's pretty much it. It's very intuitive.

A minor niggle is that sometimes when you go to mount Agro, Wanda jumps instead. Can be annoying in a tight situation, but luckily you can 'mount' Agro by jumping at him and holding R1. So if your in a pickle and Wanda jumps instead of climbing aboard, just press the old grab button and Wanda will scrabble onto Agro's back, anyway. So while that's a minor frustration (and about the only flaw in the entire game), it's pretty-much a non-issue once you get to terms with alternative ways of mounting your horse. You can even jump from high structures and land straight on your steed, Indiana Jones-style! It's quite hard though, and I wouldn't recommend trying to be that flash during a battle (though I have tried, countless times). Some of the battles in SotC are epic in scale, and you'll inevitably have your favourite colossus by the time you are through. The one I liked the most was the thirteenth (though they're all brilliant). A great flying beast in the desert, running along his back while he soars through the sky is like something out of The NeverEnding Story. Only better, because he's even bigger than Falkor the Luckdragon ever was, and you get to stab him until he dies from it. It's jolly good fun. Grabbing this colossi's attention, galloping up to him to jump on his wings while he's flying low, and then climbing/running all over him is another example of how great and seamless the physics are. It's not the kind of in-your-face "I am an advanced physics engine" masturbatory for-the-sake-of-itself nonsense you get in other games. Here it's subtle, and put to vital use. SotC wouldn't have been possible without it.

This may be a large game, but it doesn't take long to beat it. I clocked just over nine hours on my first play through. Some of the best gaming hours I've had in a long time, but only nine of them, all the same. The game does have some replay-value, depending on whether you've had your fill of it, or not. Your reward for beating the game once is unlocking a 'Hard' mode, and a 'Time-Attack' mode. The former essentially just increases the complexity of each colossi, by giving them extra sigils you must attack to kill them. The latter is basically a boss-battle mode. You can take on any colossus you want, at any time, without having to travel to where it is. You pray to the (press O in front of) idol of the colossi you want to fight in the shrine. The twist in 'Time-Attack' mode is that, obviously, you have a time-limit. They aren't really that harsh, but push you to beat the colossi faster than you otherwise might. It would have been nice to be able to take them on at your leisure, but only a few of the time-limits I actually found limiting, anyway. You get rewarded with a secret item for every two colossi you beat in 'Time-Attack'. Stuff such as explosive arrows, strength masks, magical cloaks, etc. If you beat 'Hard' mode, you earn 'Hard Time-Attack' mode. Which is basically the same as before, but with the harder colossi. You also unlock different items than on the regular one.

The secret items make playing through the game additional times much easier. Fully-kitted up, Wanda becomes basically god-like, and can fell a colossus in a one or two stabs. Also, you retain the stamina and health you had from your last game, and so holding on whilst colossi are trying to shake you off during additional playings is not really an issue, and makes the battles much less dramatic, and less fun. You can choose not to use your secret gear though, but you still have tons of health and stamina. If you want to be really hardcore, you can play the game through roughly three times (depending on how many white-tailed lizards you eat) to amass a mighty stamina-gauge, which will enable you to scale the wall of the temple shrine and reach the roof, and walk in a secret garden. It's pretty cool, but has poisonous fruit, for some reason (echoes of the Garden of Eden, perhaps?). All in all, I dare say most people won't be playing this game more than the once through. The special items are fun for a little while, but don't really add much. Even if you do play it through again, you only get the 'true' experience of SotC the first time you play it. Which, is not something you can really blame the game for, it's just the way it's made.

In the end, I could moan at the game for not being very long, but I'm not sure I would have wanted it to be any longer. Designing these sixteen colossi must have been a huge task. If they did any more, they might not have been so great. As it is, each and every one of them is absolutely brilliant. I could bitch about the frame-rate and the aliasing, but it's not even the game's fault, so it wouldn't be very fair to do so. That'd be like having a go at an old Gameboy game for being black & white. You just wouldn't do it. I could criticize the empty world, but it's meant to be that way. It amplifies the feeling of solace, and the game never feels as if it's 'missing' anything. In fact, sort of feels like Ueda has cut-out all the crap other games insert needlessly. Ueda's team haven't let the modesty of the hardware dictate the vision of what they wanted to do. Thanks heavens they didn't. In many ways, I would have never thought this game possible on PS2.

Ultimately, like I said to start with, it comes down to what you're after in your games. If you just want a bit of harmless fun, this isn't the best game to be buying. In fact, there are many more which should be your list before this one. However, if you're after something a bit different, something a bit artsy, which makes you think and feel as well as enjoy, you shouldn't miss out on this. If that sounds like you, then you will definitely connect with this game on that kind of level. You'll find it to be a unique experience, which tickles certain taste-buds in very specific ways, whilst intentionally not catering to others at all. You'll just dig what Ueda's made with SotC. If that doesn't sound like you, you'll just think it's some great boss-battles interspersed with lots of boring horse-riding. This game is an acquired-taste, and if all you want is a McDonalds, then you won't find what you're after in SotC. This is a superbly directed game, which does everything it sets out to do. It doesn't patronize you with half the stuff you come to expect and hate, it doesn't pander to the needs of the mass-market at all. This is a niche-game, and unashamedly so. It's not particularly bothered whether you like it or not. It's not trying to win you over. It's sole-purpose is to create a sense of isolation and solace, nurture a bond between the player and Agro, give you a beautiful uninhabited wilderness to explore at your whim, and set the stage for undoubtedly some of the most exhilarating battles you've ever had. Some of the things you have to do are strokes of genius. It's not just a simple case of stabbing these beasts to death.

The game's storyline is there, but is very vague, and often only suggested at. You are left to draw your own conclusions, and aren't led by the hand down the page of some script-writer's pompous musings. The game creates a beautiful, but often quite sad atmosphere. The colossi's origins are never very apparent (until the end), and you often feel quite guilty at felling one. You feel like a gnat or tick, selfishly sucking the life out of these giant beasts just to revive a princess, who's death is patently not their fault or of their doing. The way mournful music sweeps at the moment a colossus finally succumbs to your blade really amplifies the feeling of guilt at what you've done. This is a truly beautiful, one-of-a-kind game. It doesn't last long, but it doesn't have to, either. The experience of playing it won't leave you for a long time. I can't recommend it enough to those who think they may appreciate it. It's a beautifully free-flowing, one-of-a-kind experience which is not to be missed. To those who think they wouldn't; shame on you and all your family, you uncultured bastards.