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jzulli's Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
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| [January 31, 2007 05:31:48 PM]
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I've played another good hour or so of Shadow of the Colossus. I'm quickly moving from Colossus to Colossus. Each enemy gets tougher than the previous one, which is to be expected. The first Colossus was quite easy, but the third one I just beat was much more difficult than the previous one.
One great thing about Colossus is despite the fact that the world is barren, the landscape narrative helps distinguish where you are. There are 12 Colossi and so far, all of them have inhabited very different areas in the world. The first Colossi was enclosed in a rocky enclave, the second in a barren field and the third atop a huge rock, circular altar in the middle of the lake. The journey to reach the third Colossi in itself was complicated and adventurous; you have to swim to the middle of the lake, and then climb atop a rock pillar that is fallen and slowly ascend to the top of the altar. Once you arrive up there, an armored Colossi awaits you.
All of the Colossi have been impressive looking, but this one especially so due to its heavy armor. At first glance, the player may have no idea how to attack this Colossi; there are no obvious weak points or areas to climb up it. However, a voice directs you to pull out your sword and shine it on the beast to find its weak points. After doing this, I found its weak points, but still no way to reach them. Again, a voice spoke to me and mentioned that the beast had very coarse and brittle armor. It dawned on me that the Colossi may break its own armor if it smashes onto the metallic circle in the middle of the circular altar! So I lured the Colossi over to me, and sure enough, he smashed his giant weapon into the ground but missed me and the impact was so massive that it broke his armor and I was able to climb atop of his weapon that lay on the ground for a moment. After that, the gameplay mechanics became similar to the previous Colossi: climb up and attack the weak points until you fell the Colossi.
What is so neat about each Colossi is that ultimately they are all killed the same way, but the challenge lies in mounting them. Each Colossi has a different technique to finally get atop of them.
I really love this game so far. It's my first time playing it and I had only heard a little bit about it in the past. The game's atmosphere and landscape make the player feel so alone, but it feels like this is intentional. I like the feeling of solitude. I like that my only companion in this game is my horse, Agro. The game feels very powerful in this respect, and unfortunately, this is an all-too-uncommon feeling for a video game.
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| [January 31, 2007 05:21:38 PM]
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Shadow of the Colossus is unlike any game I've ever played before. If ever there has been a game worthy of the title of "epic" before, it is this one.
Colossus is deceivingly simple. You turn on the game, watch the opening cutscene and suddenly you're in a temple with only a few clues to what you will be dealing with in the game: a horse, a magical sword that focuses light in the direction you're supposed to be going, and a dead woman atop an alter.
Colossus is a seamless world. It is incredibly innovative because this is not done very often, probably due to hardware limitations. Yet Colossus has no load zones at all.
In my first 30 minutes playing the game, I found my way to the first Colossus. It was quite easy to get there: I just hopped on my horse Agro and put my sword high in the air. I moved the sword around until I found the light's focus point, and I followed that until I arrived at an area that allowed me to do some fancy platforming maneuvers, including jumping from my horse and grabbing on to the wall and climbing up. After I did all of these intuitive actions, I arrived at the first Colossus.
The first Colossus is a colossal beast that walks around and tries to stomp on you. Immediately you recognize that his legs are quite hairy -- perfect for climbing on! -- and you jump onto his legs and climb on up leg. When you reach his upper calf muscle, you unsheath your sword and stab him in his leg. Then you proceed on up the Colossus. This type of gameplay, at least to me, is completely new and unparalleled. The music score compliments the action of the game and the tensions run high, creating a highly immersive and enjoyable experience.
When you finally reach the top of the beast, you pull out your sword and jab him in his skull repeatedly until you fell him. He falls and then you are taken back to the temple where it is explained that you must repeat this all over again with the next of the remaining 11 Colossi.
More on that as I play the game some more.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 31st, 2007 at 17:22:24.
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jzulli's Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Sunday 28 January, 2007
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