Shadow of the Colossus

THE GOOD:

Amazing visuals. The graphics are absolutely stunning and beautiful.

The incredibly huge colossi that are easily some of the best boss fights you'll ever come across in a video game that offers such an unique and epic gameplay style.

The beautiful landscape to explore. It's a joy to explore the land as you search for the next colossi.

Amazing score. Some of the best music I've heard in the game. It's just awesome when you hear this epic music as you fight these larger-than-life creatures.

Agro the horse. The horse is just a blast to ride around on. You'll able to shoot arrows from the horse, stand up while riding, and take a giant leap off the horse onto something else. The horse also features smart A.I.

Great camera angles. You'll able to move the camera all around you and zoom in and out on certain things.

A cool set of unlockables to obtain.

A simplistic, yet beautiful storyline.

Great character...

Graphics: To start off with the graphics, I have seen many immersive worlds in titles past but this one really stands out as something to behold. Probably the most notable aspect of this "fantasy" world is its amazing realism. Our main character, simply known as Wanderer by most, traverses a world that you could feasibly concede to existing yet you are still blown away by it nonetheless. And while no doubt breathtaking, the graphics visibly push the PS2 to its limits and often times the framerate can show a significant drop.

Sound: Aside from the occasional folkish hymn-like music in the game there isn't much for sound, but it's really like addition by subtraction if anything. The only sound effects aside from battle are limited to the hoof-beats of your faithful stead, Argo, over the sounds of a creek running or the wind blowing. It's like playing with a clear mind, something you don't find in a lot of games.

Control: You do get used to the controls and once...

THE GOOD:
+ Graphics(Great for a PS2 game)
+ Story(A true Epic)
+ Gameplay(Magnificent)
+ Game world(Utter bliss)
+ Difficulty(Perfect, the right balance of difficulty and excellent learning curve)
+ Design
+ Items
+ Original
+ Music and Sound

THE BAD:
- Few graphic pop ups and hiccups
- Long trips
- 16 bosses to fight, only bosses(this is a positive as well)
- It ends
- Not enough dialogue
- No real replay value other than beating Hard Mode and Time Attack to gain new items.

SUMMARY:
Overall the game is just pure bliss, plain and simple. The good outweighing the bad and the bad just not bad enough to put this game down.

First off, the Graphics. Anyone that has a PS2 realizes the system tends to lack decent graphics in games, but in Shadow of the Colossus this isn't the case. Graphically the game is superior to several games and the feel of it just mixes too well. When...

THE GOOD:
Graphics
Sound
Bosses
Original

THE BAD:
Story
Length

SUMMARY:
Shadow of the Colossus is an original game, where an unnamed hero embarks on a quest to defeat 16 colossi to return the soul to a dead woman. The unnamed hero with his horse, sword and bow must traverse a massive environment to find the colossus that he is currently looking for.

Though the game is great, I fo und myself constantly wondering "Why is this guy risking his life just to bring back someone who's already dead?" Though a negative, this did not take away from my enjoying the game, but the story is generic until the end of the game.

Also, The game was short. I was able to beat it in one day. I wished for more colossi to face. If you didn't have to explore the land, it might only take a few hours to beat the game.

Beyond the two negatives, there are many positives about this game. The graphics are beautiful, the music is magnificent,...

Wow. Yep wow is the first word that springs to mind when playing Shadow Of The Colossus (SOTC).
Sony's attempt to offer it's customers a more original game pays off yet again as they definitely hit the nail on the head with this gem.
Colossus means huge, massive, very very big and the foes in this game are exactly that.
SOTC is from the makers of ICO and that is evident from the very start.

You play a nameless teenager in a desperate struggle to resurrect his sweetheart. (possibly the same duo you played with in ICO except now they're older) His journey to bring his love back to life leads him to a temple at which he lays her to rest atop a cold hard stone alter. Voices from the temple explain to him that she will be brought back to life if he could kill 16 colossi.
And so it begins.

From the very start a massive landscape is open for exploration. No need to unlock anything, it's all there from the very start. A huge land may sound boring,...

THE GOOD:
*Puzzle-oriented gameplay
*Massive world to explore
*16 Colossi with no repeated strategy (save for the "stabby" part)
*Beautiful orchestra music that reacts to situations
*Powerful Ending
*You might be saying "DIE LIZARD!" at some point
*incredibly diverse A.I.
*incredible particle effects (like dust and water)

THE BAD:
*a bit short
*only boss fights (nothing else save looking for lizards and fruit)
*entire game is in japanese (read lots of subtitles)
*While the controls are relatively smooth, they can get frusterating
*not for everyone

SUMMARY:
Few games innovate their genres. Many games have you repeatedly plowing through waves of goons and blowing away a boss with a gun. Shadow of the Colossus, on the other hand, is a nice breath of fresh air. You play as The Wanderer, a boy with only intentions of resurrecting his dead love, and is given an offer by a Dark God to...

THE GOOD:
- Brilliant Graphics. Or, failing that, Great lighting effects that make everything look brilliant. Honestly, you could just stop and stare at some of the imagery in this game: it verges on beautiful, if that's possible in a game.
- An extremely original idea. There are a total of 16 enemies in the game. Sounds boring? Guess again.
- Massive, versatile, interesting, expansive, beautiful setting. Entirely non-linear, you can do whatever the hell you want, whenever the hell you want to do it. Destroying the Colossi is only half the story: exploring the huge area open to you is just as entertaining.
- Encourages use of the mind, not just the fingers. In order to destroy each Colossus, you'll have to find him, through use of the locater on your sword. And then you'll have to figure out how to kill something that's several hundred times larger than you are. And possibly flying, swimming, or burrowing underground. Yes, it's pretty hard.
-...

THE GOOD:
The visuals
The Colossi
Difficulty isn't too hard
Very realistic
Solid Story
The music

THE BAD:
Short
Framerate at an all-time slowdown.
Controls aren't 100% responsive
The camera
Tedious

SUMMARY:
This game is one of those games that are very, very good with a few minor problems. But it has one thing that makes this game so good it hurts.

Realism

Not too many games have this now that they are going towards mutation, Keyblades and all this power shit going around games these days. Shadow of the Colossus does not have those 3 just mentioned. No, it's real. Well, not that real. Since when was the last time some giant stone animals attacked us? Another non-realistic thing is the fact that the voice can revive the dead. Like, what the hell? No one can do that in real life. The last non-real thing is the fact that if you get smushed by one of the Colossi, you get badly...

THE GOOD:
+ Stunning environments of unprecedented scale and detail.

+ Awe-inspiring visuals.

+ Excellently composed orchestral score.

+ Exceptional atmosphere and environmental immersion.

+ Whimsical story.

+ Highly realistic character animations.

+ Clever puzzle elements that make each fight unique from the rest.

THE BAD:
- Problematic framerate that constantly chugs in a futile attempt to keep up.

- Camera works against you at times.

- Sluggish controls.

- Short length.

SUMMARY:
What transpires when you toss common gaming conventions to the wind and create an entirely unique adventure game that blows the doors off the adventure gaming genre?

Magic.

Shadow of the Colossus does just this, and the adventure genre has a new standard of epic magnitude. Where most action/adventure titles struggle to define themselves...

Although this is only the second game by the same development studio responsible for the cult hit ICO, the team has gathered enough experience to understand why their first masterpiece, which sadly went unnoticed by many gamers, did not get the attention it deserved. Using that knowledge they came up with the story of the wanderer and sixteen mythical guardians, a game that oozes quality from everywhere. Been in development for over four years, Shadow of the Colossus does justice to the PlayStation 2 – utilizing all what the black magic box has to offer. Describable only as an action puzzler, Shadow delivers from all fronts – and fans worldwide are already crying for a sequel.

"A sword and a bow. With them a lone wanderer has to achieve what no other man ever did."

This is a fable of a wanderer, his lost maiden and a faithful steed. When the maiden is sacrificed because of her marked fate, the man goes against all that is regarded as consecrated and sets...