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sorarojas's Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
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| [January 26, 2008 03:24:12 AM]
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Gameplay
As I continued to play the game, I began to notice that Wander’s began to take on a sickly appearance. This worsened, I noticed, after each time I killed a colossus. Also, Mono’s appearance began to improve as time went on. When I noticed this I remembered the conversation with Dormin, where he had mentioned that Wander may have to pay a terrible price to bring Mono back. This is interesting because it shows that his actions are taking their toll on him and the results of the decisions he makes are gradually introduced rather than sprung up on you when the game is over.
Also, the colossi have gotten harder to beat than the first one I encountered with a couple of them being infuriatingly difficult. The 5th colossus is particularly infuriating in the fact that you are forced to fight a flying colossus. This one encounter took many tries just to get on the colossus in the first place and then resulted in Wander being thrown off, often only seconds later. Aside from this sporadic difficulty, the “battles” result in gratification, mainly because a 5-6 foot person somehow managed to take down several walking mountains using only a sword…and the occasional arrow or two.
Design
Seeing as the world of this game is all one large level, it could e said that there isn’t a lot of level variation though the one level itself varies based on the character’s location. On the other hand, it could also be said that the colossi themselves are the levels of the game, thereby making it true that the levels are both similar and varied. Obviously they are similar because they are all colossi, but the variation comes in the form they take and the paths along the bodies that lead to their vital points.
The game creates conflict not through the use of traditional fighting but through the process of leading up to the strikes needed to take down the creatures (apparently it only takes about 3). Another conflict which is entirely optional is the ability to shoot the lizards with your arrows, with a select few actually giving you stat boosts.
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| [January 26, 2008 01:00:19 AM]
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Summary
In this game, you control Wander who must kill 16 colossi with the help of a magic sword and his horse, Agro, in order to bring a girl back to life.
Gameplay
When I first started to play the game, I was amazed with what I saw. The scenery was amazing and seemed almost real. I felt this same sense of awe when I encountered the first colossus, a giant creature of stone and fur that was rendered beautifully (well as beautifully as walking earth can get). Riding Agro also seemed very realistic when moving, having him turn in an arc while running.
The game has very few characters which seems to be a good thing in the case of this game, with the only ones being Wander, Agro, Mono (the girl), and the disembodied Dormin so far, and lets the player focus on finding and defeating the colossi. It allows the player to appreciate the games environment without having some useless NPC ruining things.
Defeating first colossus was a gratifying experience though it was relatively easy to do. Using the creature’s fur, I was able to scale the beast to certain vital points on its body marked with a glowing symbol of some sort and drain its energy using Wander’s sword. Because of the realism of the beast, I was gratified (as mentioned before) but at the same time I felt almost saddened at the sight of this once magnificent giant being reduced to rubble and ruins.
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