Ico

THE BAD:
Too short!! >_<

SUMMARY:
I've been meaning to play this game for a while now and I rented 2 weeks ago. I fell in love with the game. I do have to agree though, not much of a story esp. cos I don't know what Yorda is saying most of the time but nonetheless, she's a sight for sore eyes. At times I felt as if I grew attached to Yorda just how Ico did in the game. The only drag about this game is its length. Ico can be completed at around 4-6 hours. Yeah, kinda short... okay, too damn short. But it's so much fun to play it over. I'm an only child so I didn't care much about the whole "loneliness" thing... I could relate to it. Don't know about you guys but this game got rather emo for me when both Ico & Yorda were separated at the bridge. The ending was quite a tear-jerker too. Good game and it was well worth the $ that I paid to rent. Now I'm going out to buy it just to have it in my PS2 game collection.

THE BAD:
sadly I was wrong, there is no really cool story to all this. This is a depressing, and dissapointing game that's extremely creepy and disturbing as well. From the start, it's very creepy and lonely, the whole way through this game, there's a disturbing kind of lonely feeling that always makes me feel sick to my stomach, just thinking about it is creepy, but I must write this so in the future people won't make the same mistake I made. The music (when there is any) is always creepy too, it made my blood crawl. The voice acting gives me a lonely, helpless feeling. And the action is always terrifying and creepy, I just wanted to run away all the time! The puzzles are challenging, but not in a fun way, they're simply hard, and at times, confusing. The areas you go through all look great, but are creepy as hell, and confusing as hell too.

SUMMARY:
In totall this is a game only for those who can handle very very disturbing and creepy, and lonely things, as well as enjoy puzzles that aren't any fun to solve, and are sometimes confusing.

THE BAD:
The combat. You carry a stick-pole thing around, and whack the baddies. Thats pretty much it.

Sometimes there are some control issues.

SUMMARY:
Ico is one of the most amazing games I have ever experienced. The graphics are excellent, and the scenary and locations are breathtaking with detail, and sheer complexion. Ico is somewhat a mystery game...VERY quiet, and not really a loud, nerve-racking game. Though at times, it can get your heart pouding. What I liked, is that your always rescuing, and looking after a young girl - a princess named 'Yorda'. You can actually take her by the hand, and lead her around with you. It's also fun making her fall off cliffs, and killing her in different kinds of ways.
The baddies are amazing looking...very different from anything else I've ever seen. They're basically shadows...black shadows, and they have blue glowing eyes, that are very creepy looking. They always go for the princess, trying to capture her for the evil queen. But of course, you, Ico, must whack them to shreads with your wooden stick-staff thingie. Ico is great for adventure/RPG lovers, and I highly recommend it.

THE BAD:
loneliness

SUMMARY:
Ico is a young boy who was born with horns. In the mysterious world Ico is set in, this is the "Sign". At dawn on Ico's twelfth birthday, the faceless horsemen came for Ico.
This is where the story leaves off when the game starts. You see the faceless horsemen taking Ico deep into the forest on their horses. Ico has no idea where he is going or what will happen to him. You then see Ico and the horsemen in a small rowboat, paddling towards a massive ancient fortress. A huge gate rolls down under the water letting them access the fortress. The horsemen take Ico into a huge room with walls lined with stone caskets and take Ico to an empty one. They lock his hands into the built-in handcuffs so he can't try to escape and pull the stone lid closed. Ico is sentenced to spend the rest of eternity locked inside the casket alongside many others. The horsemen leave and a moment later a small earthquake erupts. Ico's casket rattles slightly and the platform beneath it starts to crumble. The casket slips off onto the stairs below and cracks in half, breaking Ico free from it as he falls to the floor below. He is knocked unconscious and has a short dream. He sees himself walking up a wide spiral staircase as a storm rages outside. His clothes flap around in the strong breeze. As he nears the top he notices a cage hanging from the roof above. A black puddle forms on the bottom of the cage and grows bigger quickly. It starts to drip out the sides and splat onto the ground below. Ico notices a silhouette figure emerge from the puddle. Suddenly a black puddle forms on the wall behind him and he is sucked inside. He wakes up to find himself lying on the floor of the casket room, broken stone all around him.

This is where the game starts and you take control of Ico. There are no icons, health bars or maps on-screen, which gives the game a realistic feel. After exiting the casket room, climbing a couple of chains and making your way up the staircase Ico dreamt of, you meet the silhouette figure who was also in the dream. Although this time, the figure is not a silhouette and there aren't any black puddles. The figure in the cage is a girl named Yorda, who is now a main character in the story. After getting her out of the cage Ico tries to talk to her but she speaks a different language than him, which you can't even understand in the subtitles. This makes her story of why she is in the fortress quite mysterious. Suddenly one of the black puddles form and a black, shadowy monster climbs out of it from the ground. It grabs Yorda and tries to drag her back underground. This is where you find your first weapon - a burning stick which has fallen from the wall. You first battle begins and you get a taste of the fighting. After this battle Yorda trusts Ico and they both help each other solve the various puzzles in the game to escape from the fortress.
Holding the R1 button lets you hold Yorda's hand so you can drag her around wherever you want to go. If you stop and then immediately start running again while holding her hand, you can really feel her arm jerk with Ico's quick movements in the vibration of the controller. If you're far away from Yorda, pressing the R1 button makes Ico call out to her and she will try her best to come to you. Sometimes she will need your help to climb up high ledges and other things. In this case Ico gets on his knees, grabs Yorda's arm and pulls her up. Just about every area has a puzzle and some require you to think about Yorda as well. She is sometimes needed to solve puzzles, such as standing on a pressure switch so that you can get through. Ico is willing to jump down from high places and climb things whereas Yorda is not. Because of this, you need to find a way to get her to the area you are in, such as finding a lever that creates stairs. Most of the puzzles don't require finding keys or items to unlock a door or solving some kind of code; usually you just need to find a way out of an area or find a way to get into the next area. Occasionally it's hard to find out where to go next or solve a certain puzzle, so you'll need to resort to a walkthrough a few times. The story may seem a bit empty at first but as you progress further into the game it unfolds and you learn Yorda's story of why she's in the fortress.
In various areas you will fight monsters. These monsters come out of the ground as said before from black, puddle-like warp gates. Their mission is to take Yorda back underground to the Queen. If they grab her they will try to pull her through the warp gate. If she is halfway through you can still pull her back out by holding her hand. The fighting is fun and is a nice break from the lonely exploring. It is done it real-time, which means you can hack away at the monsters as much as you want. The monsters will knock Ico to the ground occasionally, which gives them a bit of time to grab Yorda. All the monsters are the same colour and form (black and shadow-like) but as you get further in the game you encounter flying monsters as well as those on-foot. These flying monsters are a bit harder to kill because they're good at dodging Ico's swings and will often fly into the air and land right next to Yorda, giving them a good chance to snatch her.
You won't be battling very often and the two main characters rarely interact, which makes the game feel lonely sometimes. The fact that both characters speak an unknown language and their speech is represented by subtitles doesn't really let you get as attached to any of the characters like you would in other games.
While playing the camera sits quite far away from your character. Luckily pressing the R2 button will make the camera zoom in, just in case you need a closer look at your surroundings. You can also use the right control stick to look around the area although the camera strays away from Ico which means you won't be able to see what you're doing while using this function.

Ico has some of the best graphics I've seen in a game. Ico walks, runs, jumps and climbs realistically and his clothes flap in the wind while you're outside. Everything is very detailed and the lighting is great. While outside you can really notice the feel of the sun as it shines over everything and casts shadows. The whole game has a misty, foggy look, which represents the ancient fortress well. Almost all the areas in the game are absolutely huge and there are no loading times between areas. The frame rate doesn't drop at all staying smooth throughout the game, even with multiple enemies on-screen.

Another great feature in Ico is the superb sound. The developers have thought about the sound so well! For example, if you're in an area inside the fortress that has windows, you can hear a slight breeze outside. Then when you step out a door to an outside area of the fortress the sound of the wind gets louder and stronger. You can also hear various birds calling in the distance and other ambient sounds. While running you hear the tap of Ico's sandals and you can hear him struggle as he pulls Yorda up a ledge. The little music that there is sounds quite good as well and doesn't get annoying. The only times you hear music are in cut-scenes, while battling and during important events. The music throughout the game is calm and kind of hard to notice - even the battle music.

Overall Ico boasts great graphics, sound and gameplay, although it feels lonely most of the time with the rare character interaction and battles. Adventure and puzzle fans will love it, but if you're into more action packed adventures such as Ratchet & Clank, this might not be for you.

THE BAD:
Saves are too far apart, though this isn't actually all that bad.

SUMMARY:
When playing most games, fights mean very little to me. I either win or I die. If I die, I must go back to the save point, and that's it.
For sime reason, playing ICO is completely different. In ICO you are never fighting for yourself, you are only fighting to protect the girl. Thus, you wheel around her, trying to keep between her and the spirits. You tug her hand to pull her away from the void. You struggle to get up off your back as quickly as possible in order to free her from the clutches of a shadow.
Often you must leave the girl behind before figuring out a path that she can follow. It pains me every time to enter a new space when she is not with me. I want to rush back to make sure that she is all right. And Heaven forbid a door closes between us, locking her in and me out.
All in all, you care far more for the characters in this game than in any other. There is very little complicated character building, they never spend hours talking about their pasts. You care for them in a way that you don't care for Final Fantasy characters. You just want to make sure that the keep safe and stick together.

THE BAD:
the spirts get annoying

SUMMARY:
The game is a true action adventure. The music and graphics are the best I have seen on any system. Simply put, you don't play the game, you experience it. Some may think it is cheesy, but they also enjoy ramming their heads into walls. It is a steal at under $20. I paid $50 the day it came out, I would of payed more!!

THE BAD:
The only partially bad thing is the combat - it is a button masher, but it isn't really that bad!

SUMMARY:
Ico is a visual feast. Everything down to the last detail is immaculately presented. The water and eveything looks just beautiful. The game is loaded with innovative and challenging puzzles, but is just a little bit short. It doesn't take very long to solve this game, especially if you are a veteran of puzzle type games.
Don't let this aspect of the game dissuade you from purchasing it though. The creepiness of the atmosphere and the shadow monsters is only outdone by Shadow Hill, but that isn't the effect the designers were going for. This is a whole world filled with beautiful landscapes that you are free to explore, sometimes even alter. The game is stunning.
The story is one of the best I have ever seen in a game, compelling, heartbreaking and heartwarming. You will want to beat this game to save the poor little kids who are faced with tremendous odds. They are both imprisioned in the castle, forced to share a similar fate. They immediately bond and Ico the bold, little sucker, makes it his mission to resue the girl. How cool is that - and the shadow creatures - whew nasty!
I felt the puzzles were very innovative, many were easy to figure out, but the few that were tough were extremely tough, yet not impossible, and that is the mark of a good game in my opinion.
I am writing a review of this game, because I bought it very early, but I have seen it on sale for cheap! I would advise anyone that if this game is under $20, it is a steal and a bargain. This game is a worthwhile addition to your collection, and even if you don't replay it right away, you will revisit it someday.

THE BAD:
-too short

SUMMARY:
this is a wonderous game filled with beautiful things to look at. it has some of the best graphics in a ps2 game that i have seen. the environments are amazing and great to stare at. you will find that you will want to play through a couple times just to see the sites again. but sadly it is a rather short game.

you should rent it or buy it. if you rent it you will finish it probally that night/day. if you buy it you can expiernce it over and over again. its your choice