Shadow Of The Collossus Review (PS2) By danny12 Published: 08/31/06 PrintEmail
Story: We begin with the image of a young man and his horse casually walking along a path on a rainy day. The man and his horse eventually arrive at a huge hall with 16 huge statues dominating the huge hall. The young man walks to an alter and places a young girl who we learn is dead. The young man then looks to the sky and a loud voice asks him why he is here? The man replys he is looking to ressurect the young girl and heard that these people can do it. They say they WILL ressurect her IF he kills 16 huge beings called the Collosi which images are represented in the statues, however there could be dire consequences......... So using only his trusty horse, his bow and his special sword he sets out on his quest.
Gameplay: At first when i heard there were only 16 bosses and no other enemies to fight i was very surprised and was wondering how would they be able to pull this off? I was even more surprised when they DID pull if off well and it turned out to be a very enjoyable game. The layout is simple. Use the special ability of your sword by holding down circle which shines a big ray of light and you must follow this light to the collossi. This light however was annoying at many points in the game as it often led into the wrong directions. The collosi themselves are what makes this game so special. The collossis are the only enemies in the game and therefore they had to be very special. And special is what they are as around 13 of the 16 collossis are actual screen fillers. The whole screen is used to display the full size of the colossi. The way to kill these beasts is first of all to shine the sword onto them to see the weak spots. Then you must find a way to climb onto the beast. Once on your grip meter will slowly fall as the beast try's to shake you off. When you reach the point where you can damage it *probably the head* you must equip your sword and charge an attack by holding down Square and then letting go. This will stab the weak point causing the collosi to get mad. They will shake madly trying to get you off. Once the collosi recieve enough damage a cutscence begins showing the demise of the colossi. This is very powerful indeed as the collosi are actually peaceful creatures and only attack because you have invaded there home. In fact lots of the collossi need to be shot with arrows before they even notice you. This is what makes the game very special indeed. Graphics: As the game has no enemies and only 16 collossi the developers have had a lot of time to spare on the graphics and they have done a very impressive job with them. The 16 diffrent collossi look amazing at a distance and even up close the fur you cling onto when climbing looks incredibly real with all the hairs swinging side to side whenever you climb. The ocean, forests, mountains, rivers, stones, grass, your own horse etc........... all look amazingly real. In fact other than GUN the horse physics may be the best ever seen on a PS2 game to date. Also the draw distance is the best ever seen on a PS2 game. After a ten minute ride away from the castle where you respawn after every colossi battle all you have to do is turn around and you can still see the castle in all its glory. The most impressive aspect of the graphics is the desert battles with the collossi. When the collosi comes out of the ground the grounds shakes with so much force your horse almost falls over. The sand particles also look so real that you are blinded when the collosi appears. This is gaming graphics at its highest.
Replayability: Now you would think because there are only 16 battles in this game that there isn't much to do afterwards. WRONG. Once the game is complete you unlock hard mode then after you unlock time attack mode then hard time attack mode and also reminisce mode. All these combined can make the game last for a long time after you complete the main story mode.
Faults: Incredibly there is only 1 fault throughout the entire game. This fault however is one which has plagued many games for decades. This is the camera. The camera itself dosn't do a bad job whenever you arn't fighitng but when a collosi battle begins then the camera starts to get really annoying. So annoying in fact that it may cause you to die a couple of times and its not even you fault. However at least the game allows you to control the camera with the right analoge stick.
My Opinion: I find games like this very slow and boring. It's not because it's not good it's because i have a low patience. However this game was diffrent. This game taught me to look at games like this diffrently.
Final Score: The leading game of it's genre this deserves a place in everyones gaming collection.
