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This is truly art in motion

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Many games come and go but few pass by that will impact you like ICO. This game is cinematic gold from start to finish. Despite a rather ugly cover that does no justice to the beauty of this game all gamers young and old must play this one through. From the surreal visiuals to the subtle audio to the almost flawless play mechanics this game brings more orginality, personality and fun than most games seen in the past couple years. If but one major drawback is that the game is short (about 10 hours) yet you don't feel cheated because even the ending to this game is perfect.

Great Game But

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Man is it ever short. I rented it one day and had it beat the next. I'm glad I didn't buy it because of it's short play and lack of any real replay value. I went with Silent Hill 2 which has 5 endings and different difficulty settings. ICO is a beautiful game and much much fun to play. The puzzles are very simple though, but this game is really just about a quick thrill and great graphics which is achieves greatly. The shortness and easy puzzles keep me from giving it 5 stars. Definately a weekend rental.

Nothing less than a masterpiece of video gaming

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

As far as games go, I really feel that lately gaming has been in a slump. It has been more than a year since I have purchased a game, computer or PS2, and have been truly enthralled.
Ico has changed all that. By incorporating a beautiful tale, into a game that has incredible graphics, and near perfect gameplay Ico has accomplished something great. Ico makes you actually feel like you are living out some sort of childhood dream. Now some would probably say that this is just a game... well yes it is, but Ico is more. Think about the greatest book you have ever read. Now think about how emotional you would get when the characters were in danger or conflicted... now imagine that you are controlling the main character, and its your job to ensure the heroin's safety. Now imagine that the heroin actually reacts to you... its unbeleivable, but Ico accomplishes this.
Previous reviews have mentioned that Ico is short, well if you are looking for FF.. it is not. Its more like an interactive movie.
Ico is by far one of the most brilliant games ever made.
I agree that it is hard to justify spending the amount of money required for a game that might keep you busy for a week, but I say that if you want to see more games of this quality, and from a company that is obviously interested in providing top notch products I say spend the money.

Finally! Success for Sony!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Oh boy! Another mediocre game for the PlayStation 2 made by the worst first-party publisher ever. Needless to say, when I first heard about Ico, I was expecting another failure from Sony. But this was not your ordinary gaming fare: a puzzle game that was something beyond just another disguised Tetris, a gaming experience more along the lines of The Lost Vikings -- something that hasn't been done all that often. So I decided to give it a try, and I'm glad I did.

You play the role of a 12-year-old boy unsurprisingly called Ico. Ico, like many of the past children who lived in his village, was born cursed with horns jutting from his head. He is looked upon as bad luck, and therefore, to rid him from their sight, the villagers take him to an ancient, crumbling castle where he is left to die imprisoned inside a type of tomb. Yet a twist of fate causes Ico's uncomfortable confinement to collapse and break, freeing him from his impending slow torture. As Ico next proceeds to find some way out of the huge castle, matters become more complex at the discovery of a beautiful and mysterious princess who, too, is imprisoned, though to Ico it is unknown why. Now not only must he strive to free himself from the deep hollows of the castle, but he must also escort the princess, Yorda, to the best of his ability. So this fairytale story to Ico begins.

Immediately when you begin playing Ico, you'll notice the amazing attention to detail in the stone wall textures of the castle. The first time you jump into a pond you will see the awesome waves that Ico makes, and you'll see how the waters realistically reflect their surroundings. When you gaze up at the windmill, your jaw will drop in amazement at its lifelike rotating blades. When you go outside the castle confines and pan the camera around, you'll be stricken with awe at the massive sense of scope as you gaze for miles and are able to spot the areas that you have already visited. And by the time you finally see a waterfall, you may think yourself thoroughly desensitized to the game's startling realism, that is until you see the stunning rainbow arcing across your screen. In short, Ico has the best graphics I've seen in any game ever made.

The sounds are amazing as well. You'll hear Ico's footsteps resound accordingly as he walks upon stone, metal, or water; the clinking of chains as Ico grabs hold of them; and the creaking of the windmill as it turns its blades. There's a large emphasis on sound in Ico, and therefore, there is little music, but when Ico does decide to entertain us with its melodies, they are enjoyable. There's even a score that is memorable to me, which is rare to come across outside one of Square's games.

The gameplay in Ico is more or less centered entirely around solving puzzles that bring you closer to escaping the castle. No, you don't go around solving riddles or figuring out math problems, and you definitely don't use illogical items like bones and socks in illogical manners like in some other games (the King's Quests); instead you perform physical puzzles: find a chain and climb on up...then swing yourself through an open window to land on a ledge...where you can activate a lever...that lowers a bridge...to allow the princess to cross the hazardous height safely. The beauty of Ico is that all the puzzles make sense. That doesn't mean that they are going to be easy, but they aren't going to be frustratingly hard either. As long as you look closely at your surroundings, you should be able to figure the puzzles out -- "hey! if I could cut this rope..." or "can I jump over to that ledge?" or "that building doesn't look very stable; hmmm..." The princess Yorda can't do all the things or go all the places that the more nimble Ico can, and she needs Ico's help in traversing throughout the castle. But that's all right because Ico can literally drag the princess around; he can hold on to her hand and pull her up to ledges she can't reach, and he can grab her from the opposite side as she tries another one of her petty jumps over a large gap. Yorda also gives Ico a sense of urgency as he performs his tasks, because leaving her for too great a length of time invites the fearful shadow monsters. If Ico is unable to fend off the shadows well enough, they will run off with the princess, and you will have to hunt her down before they pull her into their portal. This is an awesome additional aspect to the game, for it adds a little action and tension to an otherwise puzzle-filled game.

Ico's the best game to come out all year! Its only real problem is that it's too short (only 7-10 hours the first time through), but Ico delivers an experience worth living. In fact, I just finished and am reliving the adventure again. This is the kind of effort I would like to see Sony put into all their games, and if they can't, then I would like them to can all their other projects and just make sequel after sequel of Ico. Finally, after several years of mediocrity, the company has shown promise of becoming a truly great first-party developer (too bad we'll now have to go through the same ordeal with Microsoft). My least hope is that the reading of this review will provoke others to buy the game, perhaps giving Sony enough sales to encourage them to make more games like this in the future.

If you love saving the princess, this one's for you...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game is full of stunning visuals and it's not overly difficult. There are a couple of times when I stopped and I had to rub my brain cells together to figure out some puzzles.. But over all, once you start, you can't stop until you've won.
The different moves Ico pulls off to get to where he's going, is great. A lot of times with games like this one, the main character can only jump and climb ladders, but not here!
I can't find enough words to express how much fun and how amazed I was playing this game.

Some people might disagree that it has high replay value, but I like playing it again and again.. (especially the water parts)
But you will have a hard time finding a game that satisfies your gaming needs the way Ico does. The only gripe I have is a tiny one, the camera was making me angry a lot, I found myself turning my head to try and see the other angles..hehehehhe.. Like racing games, but that's no big deal.

Ico is one of those must have games... You must have it!

Quite an excellent game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I bought ICO because it was the first game since the PS2 launched that was being talked about on just about every web site I visited. Although the idea of leading a beautiful princess out of an evil dying castle is very intuitive, the one thing that makes this game worth owning is the graphics. Simply amazing, you'll never be bored traveling along the castles parapets, as every scene is a masterpiece to partake in. The animations of Ico and all the other characters are fabulous, with arms and legs moving seamlessly without any breaks in the polygons that make them up. The puzzles found within the game aren't mind boggling, but you can't give this game to your 5 year old and expect them to breeze through them. The sounds are nicely done, and when there is music it is melodious and pretty. The gameplay flows very well, with ICO responding quickly and easily to your button presses, and I never became upset once with calling the princess over. If you want to impress people with the PS2s graphical capabilities, definetly add this game to your collection. If you crave action, look elswhere but keep this in mind next time you are at the video store on a rainy day. Buy or rent, play this game at some point in your gaming career!

Ico

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Until I first saw it in action on *Extended Play, I was not sure what to think of Ico. My first impressions were that this would be just another castle-puzzle game, with the same redundant and tedious game-play that most other games in the genre possess. I could never have imagined how wrong I was. Screenshots are not near enough of a showcase for this, beautiful game. It is the proverbial "poster child" for the current debate over whether or not videogames should be considered an art form, and even as a singular game, answers that question with a resounding "Yes". At the same time, it offers an amazing blend of fairytale story telling and delicate adventure/puzzle elements into one, unforgettable experience. The opening cinematic is enough to catch the attention of even the most callous anti-puzzle gamers, and that isn't even the beginning...

The game itself more or less centers around a young boy named Ico, who has been taken away to an enormous, seemingly deserted castle as a sacrifice for his village, as every horned boy in their history has. Here, he escapes by a rather fortunate accident, and soon discovers a young, blind girl named Yorna. From that point on, you control Ico, helping him traverse the many hazards and obstacles found throughout the castle. The gameplay mechanics are simple. You gradually explore deeper and deeper into the castle by way of puzzle solving, lever pulling, and block pushing, but the game never loses its charm, because it contains only about 7-10 hrs. of gameplay time. While this may not seem long enough of a game to constitute any kind of truly satisfying, rewarding gameplay, it was done with the players' interests in mind. The developer, SCEA, felt that if the game was any longer, it would have become too redundant and monotonous, thus losing its overall appeal, and the gamers' interests.

The game's environments seal up the visual package and provide an impressive stage for the activities throughout. Rather than creating a world with direct and obvious geometric structures, the developer has created a believably realistic and an all-together truthful, down-to-earth environment. Instead of neatly arranged parallel bars and ledges, there are instead stair cases, cracked and broken walls, and even windows that are available for shimmying and dangling across. The lighting is exquisite, with a light haze used throughout, adding a sense of heaviness without taking away from the overall lighter mood. The detail in structure and texture is also exacted and detailed, flowing from one room to the next, without hesitation, as the games' load times are almost nonexistent. Less than half-a-second.

Far from being tedious, these simple mechanics spotlight what are perhaps the game's most beautifully crafted elements: its deep, touching, and poignant actions. When you call out to Yorna, a small, sweet animation, that of Ico taking Yorda's hand, takes over, warmly capturing the love of two young children. Moreover, when you reach a save point, Ico and Yorda will slowly nod off on each other's shoulders, hand in hand. Ico will indeed, through emotion and sentiment, pull you heart strings, whether you like it or not.

Even more impressive than the graphics, is the sound. It immerses the player in such a believable environment, with chirping birds, soft wind, that most times, you do not even realize that the sound is from the game. Its lush, atmospheric sound effects and inconspicuous score, inspires the games environment and surroundings in ways seldom are.

Overall, Ico is a wonderful game that both expresses an art form, and creates emotion between the gamer and game. It is somewhat of a sleeper hit, and like most sleepers, will probably not be remembered as one of the greats, but I strongly recommend this one nonetheless.

Graphics: 5
Sound: 5
Control: 4.5
Fun Factor: 4.5

* (TechTv, Fridays at 9:30 P.M East. 6:30 P.M. West)

This game is off the hook!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I've played every game from "frogs and flies" on the old ATARI to "Metal gear Soild 2" for the Playstation 2 and I always thought there was "something missing" in games. Words can't explain how magnificent this game turned out. The storyline is well written and not too indepth, the lighting and graphics are of something I've never seen before. But forget all that, this game is downright FUN! ICO could be enjoyed from anyone from 13 to 40 years old...really! This Games is pure art!

Enchanting

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This new release is by far worth the 50.00. Ico is a very unique adventure game, with mindburning puzzles just when you think you're getting far.
However, finding detours for the Princess may take some time. (She unfortunately cannot climb chains, pipes, etc)
You'll find that the graphics are very nicely done, even to the every detail of..the spirits who attempt to retrieve the Princess.
Ico will keep you on the edge of your seat as you run along holding the Princess' hand, fighting off spirits, and opening trap doors. This is definitely a great buy for your money.

One of the Best PS2 Titles

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I first played this game on a demo disk, and was a little skeptical. I had not heard any news on this game at that time, and didn't know what to expect. The first thing I noticed about this game was that the rooms were huge, and very detailed. I also noticed the camera was a little odd for an action game. I soon came to find out that this wasn't really an action game, but a puzzle solving game. This pleased me, for I loved all three Myst games and many others of the Genre. I immediatly bought this game when it was released, and am very glad that I did. The graphics are simply amazing. The castle is huge and very detailed. You can literally look from one side of it to the other. The lighting is excellent and really sets the mood for the game. I love the way you can actually be blinded by the sun. The detail in this game is stricking. The castle is populated by birds, and they leave feathers floating in the wind when they fly. The animations of the characters is perfect. I also must say that Yorda's AI isn't too bad, considering that you don't control her. I have even watched her chase after the birds. One of the best parts of this game is the sound. Each one is realistic and sounds very clear. This is definitly a game to use surround sound on. One complaint is that it is very short. I completed it in about 5 hours. This doesn't suprise me, though, for you only go through one castle, and they had to keep it within size limits. At least the environments are rather varied and beautiful to look at. This game truly belongs in everyone's library.

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