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tbaugh's Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
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| [February 13, 2008 02:28:17 AM]
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GAMEPLAY
This time I was only able to take out two colossi. I was actually a bit nervous going in to find the first colossus as I had been told that it was strong and “not fearful.” Additionally, while trying to find the colossus, the atmosphere was very unsettling as I moved through thick fog and trod along steep cliffs to finally find the colossus. It was a giraffe looking one and to beat it, I had to hide in some underground tunnels and sneak up behind it as it peered into tunnel entrances. I did have to use GameFAQs for this colossus as it was pretty confusing as to what I had to do to beat the boss. Of course, that is what the game is all about. In the end, I killed the colossus quickly as I already knew what I had to do and it wasn’t really fun at all!
The second colossus was difficult to find, almost frustratingly so. Until I finally found out where I had to go to progress to actually find the colossus. After finding the colossus, I was at a loss as to what to do and the hints didn’t really seem to help all that much. They weren’t that clear in this instance as they said to stand on a platform at surface level on the lake where the battle was set. But there were several different platforms and at first I was just confused. Eventually it was a pretty easy battle, not really warranting all the build up I had experienced.
DESIGN
I think the design of the game is great. The tone of the narrative and enemies being limited to only 16 in the game give it a great epic feel. This is aided by the game’s beautiful visuals, both in landscape and character/enemy design. Only having a handful of enemies in the game cuts out the meaningless hack and slash of games like Zelda, while making it seem like a much greater story unfolding, if not only because the enemies themselves are giants, but because the battles can take over a half an hour each.
The simplicity of the game’s system of enemies is also reflected in its combat set up. Though the game is focused on fighting these giant creatures, you only really have 3 attacks (slash, stab, and using the bow). There are no combos or spells. This makes the battles focus less on staying alive and just defeating the boss to how specifically do you defeat the boss, making it almost like a puzzle. This is a pretty original concept and so far has been very successful in the game.
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| [February 12, 2008 12:38:17 AM]
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SUMMARY
In the action-adventure game Shadow of the Colossus, the player takes on the role of Wander, a man who must defeat the colossi that roam the world in order to restore the life of a young woman. The game centers around finding the next colossus (of which there are 16) and defeating it until the player has defeated them all, other than that there are no other enemies or NPCs.
GAMEPLAY
I really enjoyed this game’s art direction and visuals. Like Ico, the play of light and pre-defined camera angles (which can still be moved by the player) creates almost a cinematic experience. The visuals of the game were definitely one of its strong points. However, it seemed as if they were a bit too heavy for the PS2 to handle, as I experienced some low framerates which really cut into the experience of cut-scenes and gameplay.
I did find the game to be somewhat frustrating at times. As there are only 16 enemies, it is important that each one be complex and difficult to take down. This makes each enemy almost like a puzzle, as you need to figure out what steps must be taken to take them down. This creates some great gameplay as you are focused on this one complex task, rather than just hack ‘n’ slashing through a dungeon. However, I found great difficulty in the third colossus I faced. The controls are sometimes awkward and it made it difficult to stay atop the colossus as it moved around. The battle with that colossus took at least a half an hour to finally finish, and I thought about giving up a few times, but I didn’t. There wasn’t really a great sense of accomplishment after taking it down, however (especially because you don’t even get an in-game reward after killing each colossus...). I was just glad that the frustration of it all was gone.
So far, my only problems with the game have been its controls, which may just take some getting used to, and the story. As of this point, I don’t know why I must destroy the colossi. I was told by some entity or spirit that if I destroy them, the girl will be brought back to life, but not why the colossi have to be destroyed to do that. Hopefully it will be explained at some point, because as the game centers around killing these giants, there had better be a better explanation than just “do it because I said so.”
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tbaugh's Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Monday 11 February, 2008
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