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RabbiChan's Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
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| [January 26, 2008 01:38:24 AM]
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Entry 2
Gameplay
After playing it a second time, shadow of the colossus made me question why it is known as one of the best games to come out on ps2. The graphics are without a doubt amazing. I like the way you can go almost anywhere you can see on your map. The world is beautiful, if not a little barren.
The story is pretty basic, and never really drew me in. Outside of killing the colossi to save your girlfriend, we are not given very much. I was able to fight the second colossus in my second session, and it didn't dissapoint me. This game would have been much better if it was constant battles against the colossi. I feel like i waste to much of my time running around the large world trying to find the monsters.
Design
This game has some design flaws, but i think it is a well designed game. My biggest complaint about the game is the camera movement, and the horse controls. It seems like the designers probably put a lot of time into designing the world you travel through, which turned out very nicely, and not enough time into making the controls user friendly. One thing that was done well was the camera controls during a colossus battle. While battling a colossus pressing L1 will automatically face your character towards the enemy.
If i were to just critique the game based on the boss battles, i would have a much higher opinion. The way you climb the colossi like a puzzle, and find their weak points was very innovative. I like the way the designers left it to me to find my route up the colossus. I even found i could climb colossi multiple ways.
If the boss battles weren't so fun, i would have no motivation to play this game. The world is giant, but the game does not make use of this space. The dead time while hunting for colossi hurts the flow of the game, and makes me think twice before turning it on. It seems like if there were more enemies to fight in between boss battles the game might be more interesting.
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| [January 25, 2008 10:10:27 PM]
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Summary
Shadow of the Colossus takes place in a world of colossal monsters and divine beings. You play a hero of unknown origins trying to resurrect his dead love. The game begins with a voice at the edge of the world telling you to slay all the colossi across the world in trade for her life. With a colossi-tracking sword and a horse, you hunt and kill colossi scattered across the world in hopes of saving your beloved.
Gameplay
Right off the bat i found this game to be a little frustrating. It opens with a long cutscene of nothing important, and explains very little. Leaving us with no tutorial, the makers of this game probably thought we'd figure out the simple controls on our own. You are given all the basic commands like jump, grab, attack, etc... The main tool we are given for tracking colossi is a sword that pinpoints the sun's light onto a given target. Although this was something i've never seen before i prefer the mini map radar that most games give us.
After following my sword i encountered the first colossus. Before the first boss fight i was a little skeptical about this game. I had been playing for a good 20 minutes and was given no enemies to fight except the camera controls. The fight with the colossus was very interesting. You are about as tall as the colossus' foot, and are left to fight it with a sword that locates its weak points. After dying once i figured out i could climb up its back, and stab it in the head to kill it. Although it was the only fun part of the game, fighting the colossus left me wanting to play more.
Unfortunately i was not clever enough to figure out how to advance in the game, and was content to end my session there. The game had few redeeming qualities. The graphics are very nice, and the world is extremely large and detailed. The music is pleasant and blends with the game well. Perhaps i am just bad at working the camera, but i found it hard to use. The game leaves a lot up to the gamer to figure out which can be nice, but hurt the "flow" of the game for me. All in all it's a fun game, and the colossi battles are enough to keep me playing.
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