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Definitive proof that innovation exists in gaming.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 64 / 66
Date: February 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Every once in a while, a game comes along that redefines innovation and sets a standard for all others to follow. "Legend of Zelda" for the NES defined adventure-style gaming, "Final Fantasy VII" for the PSX brought RPGs to the mainstream, and "Super Mario 64" for the N64 is what all 3D platformers are compared to to this day. Joining this list of games is "ICO" for the PS2. So what does "ICO" redefine in terms of innovation? The experience.

"ICO" at its core is a platformer and puzzle-solver with some basic combat elements, but its deeper aspects make it far more than that. The title character, Ico, must lead a young girl called Yorda out of a rundown castle and protect her from shadow creatures that try to reclaim her. The gameplay is very simplistic and yet contains one of the richest experiences ever found in gaming. The way Ico leads Yorda around is so beautiful, so powerful than it makes the player forget that he's playing a game and is instead living a dream. The dual-shock controller adds to the experience by causing the player to "feel" Ico leading Yorda by the hand. Add in realistic body physics, and the feeling is one that remains etched in a player's memory.

Adding to the unforgettable experience are superb graphics, some of the best the PS2 has seen. While the characters can look a little hazy sometimes, they always look, act, and seem real. The environment itself is a work of art. Unlike games like "Myst", where puzzles are just put there with no purpose other than to be solved, the castle is a living and breathing puzzle that is there for a purpose. Textures, lighting effects, and water effects all add to the magic the gameplay already casts.

Soundwise, there isn't a lot of music in the game except during cutscenes, pause menu, and the ending. But had there been music duing gameplay, it might've actually ruined the experience. A whistling castle with dripping water, crackling fire, and the footsteps of Ico and Yorda is all that's needed here. It simply adds to the experience. Also, the original voices were left in the game, and subtitles have been provided.

With all the good that "ICO" has, is there bad? Unfortunately, yes. The game is sadly quite short. Seasoned players can finish this game in 7-10 hours or even less, and replay value isn't very high for some players. The battles in "ICO" are very easys, usually requiring hack-slash-and-retreat tactics (although, personally, I feel a grandiose fighting system would've been ridiculous). Also, there is a small bug in which the pause menu sometimes pops up and freezes the game. I've only come across this once, but it is there.

But in the end, "ICO" outshines all its faults. From beginning to end (the ending was one of the most satisfying endings I've ever seen in gaming, far more satisfying than the ending of "Final Fantasy VII"), "ICO" is a masterpiece, albeit sadly a short one. Some players will want to buy this game and relive the experience again and again. Others will only want to live it once through a rental. Either way, this game deserves to be played by anyone and everyone.

a great game that holds up over time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 36 / 36
Date: May 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I bought ICO over a year ago, but never completed it. That is, until recently. This weekend I popped it back in to my PS2 and finished it off...and boy, am I glad I did.

ICO is an absolutely wonderful game. It has impeccable art direction, superb gameplay, and a very charming story. I was blown away by the scope and design of the environment. Even today.

The story is simple. ICO is a small boy out to rescue a fair princess in a huge, daunting castle. Finding your way out of the fortress is just half the battle, as you are able to do things and go places the fragile princess is not. You must figure how to get her out, too, while fending off the dark spirits out to steal her back. The game is a moderately-paced fairy tale in the absolute best sense. From opening to closing credits, this game is top notch.

If you like puzzle adventure games, you have to play ICO. It's vast, cinematic, and wonderfully played out. At it's current retail price it's a bargain. The used prices are just too good to pass up.

Really. Do yourself a favor and play this game if you never have. It's an early PS2 title, but it's still one of the best, and probably one of the most genuine games you will ever play.

The best demo I've played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 26
Date: July 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The demo is amazing.. if you look for the "summer jampack" disk which is only 7.99 - then you can experience this (if it sounds like your kind of game). What follows has no spoilers.

It starts with a good setup movie, which explains how the horned boy got locked in the castle (inside an urn).. the movie is rendered with the game engine! (it is not silicon graphics pre-rendered footage).

After the movie setup leaves the camera alone in this huge prison room in the castle, the floor crumbles and your urn spills open tossing you (the boy) onto the ground.

The initial room is *huge* with 36 of these mysterious urns lining the wall. Since one assumes each urn has a (presumably dead) person in it, this is a spooky setup indeed.

The sound of ICO is very striking.. there is no music while playing, but with brilliant footfalls, torches and other sound effects who needs music?

Movement of the boy is almost flawless.. beautifully animated he walks, trots, runs, trips, jumps and a dozen other things with high realism.

The resolution of the view inside the castle is high (unlike the comment left by another poster), although the rough hewn stones that form the walls and floor, slightly shifting camera, and misty corners to the rooms can give a negative impression to some.. but if you take time with the 2nd analog stick to move the view up and around, looking at the high roof and the detail you will be amazed.. having a quality TV with S-video or better connections helps a lot as well.

Moving through the demo you are required to solve some very simple puzzles and bring down the cage holding the mysterious girl, who is animated with a soft glowing quality that is quite wonderful..

It is only when one reaches the outside of the castle (with girl in hand) that the power and resolution of the ICO graphics engine reveal itself.. the view distance is astounding, with moving clouds in a bright super-white sky, and shifting sea far below.. the grass is almost floro green in the sun, but dark in shadow. A spectacular windmill rotates (with creaking sounds) over a pool of clear water .. the water reflects the windmill and also bounces wavering suns rays onto the wall above it..

If you leap into the pool, the waves spread from your impact, changing the reflections correctly and in real time .. its quite quite stunning, and the best in-game water possibly ever seen.

Shifting the view around one can appreciate the vastness of the castle surrounds, and get an idea of the adventure that awaits the boy and his strange friend in the full game.. there remains only one more puzzle to solve (how to help the girl across the bridge).

Ending the demo reveals an amazing cinema (once again, all in-game clips) that shows night, rain, waterfalls, explosions, trees with leaves waving in the wind, more switches and puzzles and demons. The 1 minute music track that goes with this cinema is also spot on.

Playing the ICO demo (which can be done in little over 10 minutes) over and over again I've spotted more things each time and cannot wait for the full game..

Some (kids) will undoubtably think ICO is "boring" or does not involve blood or guns and so is not for them.. but I'm convinced ICO is going to be one of the top 5 games on all platforms for the year 2001, and will be a game for adults who still have a child inside, and can still lose themselves in a fairytale world.. especially one as beautifully rendered as this.

Get lost!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: June 21, 2001
Author: Amazon User

No honestly, you will get lost in this game. Not the kind of lost because you don't have a map, but lost in Ico's amazing world. I played this game at the 2001 E3 and was blown away. I found myself returning to the game every day of the show just to play the demo over and over again. The game is almost like a dream that is open for exploration....there is no time limit, no health bar, no maps...it's quite peaceful. Granted there are puzzles and some monsters but your character can easily destroy them with his wooden stick, your mission, however, consists of escorting a captured princess out of an abandoned castle. While this may sound like some classic video game plot (and it does) it is done in such a fresh new way that you don't really care. The area in the demo was amazingly detailed, from water that ripples when your character jumps in to the sounds of a slowly turning windmill (I can't wait to see all the locations in the final game). Character control and animation is also astounding, just the way your character tugs at the arm of the princess to guide her around is sweet. Heck, this game is so detailed and emersive that characters speak their own language -created just for this game! Word has it that Ico was originaly planned as a PSone game...so this game has been in the works for a loooooong time. Trust me, when this game comes out in August the wait will have been worth it. If you own a PS2, you owe it to yourself to get lost in ICO!!

The Computer Game Art Masterpiece.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: April 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Once upon a time.... there was boy with horns on his head called Ico and because he was different, everybody in the local village had him sent away to be locked up in a castle by the mysterious shadow queen and her minions. Cue a sudden earthquake that shatters the jar Ico was bound inside letting him loose inside a castle maze full of cages, swinging chains (press O when you are on one), staircases, levers, openings, windows, pipes, elevators, rock faces, tunnels, sewers, blocks, trains, cranes, bombs, fires, gates, graveyards, vents, ropes, windmills, cogs, waterways, towers and of course the shadow demons who are trying to kidnap the little glowing white girl you have found who can mysterious open special doors by standing before them if you grab her by the hand and manage to lead her through the maze after you have worked out the various brainteasers that allow you both to navigate it (she can't climb chains, crawl across walls or manage large drops). This is the kind of game that puzzle-lovers and those who like a good challenge should immediately pick up and insert as quickly as possible into that PS2 DVD drive. It requires your thinking cap to be on... for all of it.

Apart from the fact that is one of the best 3rd person puzzle games ever made, the quality of the 3D art on display is beyond belief. Most of the game is jaw dropping awe inspiring. When it was released as a demo in late 2001 (a year after the PS2 came out) it made quite an impact on those who played it with its bleached out overexposed Manga cartoon look and the stunning free camera mode which is used by moving the right thumb pad with zooming ability, left everyone flabbergasted. The problem was that the game was in Japanese with subtitles and so distribution was sadly poor in the West with very few shops bothering to stock the game when it came out. It is even hard to track down on the internet. Thus if getting Ico is difficult then sadly most of the PS2 owning world is never going to play one of the best games of all time. For those who got it, you will remember how gorgeous every single moment of this game was, from the opening sequence being led into the castle to the golden beach ending. Take any still shot of any section of the game and you can easily hang it as a painting on your wall. Imagine a game that looks totally stunning with a fun game play element that requires a bit of an IQ level. The only drawback was the girl you need to drag about the place. Sometimes her AI is bit like a very low IQ... but we are only cribbing compared to the utter experience of playing a marvel like Ico. It is four years old and still has the ability to put things like the XBOX 360 to shame. It is not surprising that in 2005 the makers of Ico brought out the breathtaking "Shadow of the Colossus" that looks like you are playing it on a PS4 or an XBOX 1080. In short, PLAY IT and then get "Shadow of the Colossus" right away after it. What are you waiting for? DO IT!

Can a video game be art?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: October 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

When most non-gamers think of computer games, they think of black screens full of crab-like aliens and monotonous beeping noises. Even for gamers, the heritage of computer games makes us focus on graphics on the technical side--polygon count, frame rate, slowdown, character modelling, textures, etc. We do not, generally, pause and reflect on the aesthetic side of gaming. To be honest, many games don't do much aesthetically, anyway, in their aim to be more fun than beautiful.

Ico changes all that. First off, the game is a lot of fun. It is more of a mind teaser than a button masher, so if you get your kicks shooting things, go buy something else. But when I say "mind teaser," please do not think of the aggravation of Myst, which was just too hard (and arbitrary) to be fun. Ico is about the exploration of environments, and then the thoughtful manipulation of the environment to enable two characters, with different abilities, to collaborate and escape from a haunted castle. Exploration means rope climbing (and swinging), jumping, switch pulling, wall scaling, evil spirit whacking, bridge walking, torch lighting, totem dragging fun.

And these environments are worth exploring. Standing on a parapet looking down hundreds of feet across bridges, floors, towers, arches, rivers, and mystical machines is an exhilirating feeling. The walls and trees create shadow effects that will blind you at times and at others make you feel cool. Waterfalls, chandaliers, draw bridges, and gates powered by sunlight make you content at times to stand and stare. Could this be a video game?

Ico is art. As a piece of art, take your time and explore it. Don't use a clue book--you are wasting your money. The puzzles aren't that hard, and it's the exploration that makes this game. And if the game has one knock, it is that it is too short--about 10 hours to complete.

But in those moments when you are standing high up on a bluff, looking down at the structures from your previous adventures, it will all be worth it.

About a boy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: June 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

ICO is one of the most subtle, well-put together games that you'll ever play. At first I thought that this was going to be a boring, same-old, same-old, type of adventure but I was wrong. ICO is a puzzle game that behaves like an adventure/RPG. Your character is a young boy called Ico and he gets trapped in this huge castle. It's up to you to now escape. On the way to freedom Ico discovers a young girl trapped in a cage. Now the true adventure begins. ICO is loaded with puzzles and strategies.

ICO is an excellent puzzle/adventure. The graphics are excellent, like a subtle painting. The character movements are smooth and life-like. The subtle romantic undertones between Ico and Yorda (the girl) add to the experience. The sound is also very well done. The subtle effects like birds chirping and water falling is awesome. The interaction between Ico and Yorda is also excellent.

I was very surprised that I enjoyed this game as much as I did. It's really awesome in every way. It took me about 15 hours to finish. It seems short but ICO was filled to the maximum capacity. It's complete. If you're looking for something different in the gaming world ICO is your best bet.

Graphics - 5/5
Sound - 5/5
Gameplay - 5/5
Value - 5/5

Sometimes the greatest works are the least known

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: January 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

ICO
This is one of my very favorite games. It's simpler and yet deeper than most any other game, understated but strong, subtlely intense. It's an island out there amongst the games with an orgy of colors and sparkles and super-overstimulating complicated menus and loud characters. Ico is quietly complex, and with its few words it expresses greater emotion than it would otherwise. Words are more a function of logical thought, while emotions are not so easy to define and can be limited or watered-down by words. Also, Ico leaves more of the experience to the player than most other games. You can imagine that one character is feeling one way while another player thinks something different - like a book, there's a certain amount of interpretation. Each experience differs. Some people get really attached to Yorda, and take special unnecessary pains to not be rough with her, leading her around carefully, feeling frustrated or upset if she's in need, while other people attempt to push her of the cliff ledges and whack her with the stick. It's true that you could act similarly in any game, but here it's decidedly different. While in one game the characters always look the same, like the little action stick figures they are, the characters in this game are real people. They move realistically, act realistically. It's more like role-playing and being immersed in a world, place and time, less like using a person-thing as a vehicle to get to the next challenge of a game. Too many games conform to the latter. In Ico, you're convinced you're that scared little kid in a big castle with this girl to protect, and meters, gauges, menus, numbers and little peices of [stuff] you have to collect to advance aren't there to destroy the realism. There's not a whole lot of music, because the atmosphere is already so intense that music would be sensory overload and destroy the delicious realistic, lonely feeling.Summary: This isn't a game, if you get my meaning, it's more like a world you are in. You are obligated to save that girl and get out of that castle.

ICO - Very Creative and Fresh

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: October 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I finished the game a week ago and have to say, I miss playing it. I even got a little misty-eyed at the end (make sure you sit through all the credits). If you don't use a walk-thru, you'll find it plenty challenging. Most strategy games are "Every Man for Himself" or "Kill or Be Killed." This is such a nice break from all that. The designers simulated a friendship and trust between your character and Korda's that their relationship seems almost real. The scenes are beautiful, you sometimes have to stop just look around and listen. If you rest in a grassy area, you may hear a bird fluttering by and watch it land near Korda's feet, and she may run off to capture it. The graphics are amazing, something like Riven but not so static. The special effects: sunlight, shadows, smoke, fire, and the sounds are the best I've come across. I recommend this game to both children and adults. The spirits may be too scary for children under 10, but for older kids it is challenging and engaging (even for us much older kids). I watched a 10 year old boy playing the game at a department store while his mother was shopping for CDs. I stood behind him and found myself saying, "you need to stretch out your hand to help her up." His mother saw the game and walked over, she was immediately engaged in the scenery and obviously pleased to see Ico rescue Korda and take her by the hand; she asked, "what game IS that?" I would be surprised if anyone says, after playing Ico, that they dislike this game.

It's not a game. It's digital art ; a painter's envy.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: September 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I used to be a dedicated gaming enthusiast years and years ago in the final fantasy 7 PS1 days. Just when I thought in my mid-twenties that I had totally and forever lost any real significant interest in video games, I get laid off from work.Hmmm. I begin pondering how to use some spare time; nothing like a bit of video game playing to pass the time and ease the frustration of job rejections. So I borrowed a friend's PS2 and rented Ico. I'm not really sure what nudged me in the direction of this game. Maybe it's the fact that I remember years ago when it first came out how much of an impact it's lush graphics had on me and I only played a demo version of it at Wal-mart for 15 minutes. I remember thinking to myself one day I got to really check this game out.To say that Ico has restored and quickened my interest after so long is an understatement and an ultimate testimoney to this game's power. This is the first time I've ever reviewed a game and it is rather befitting that Ico should be the one to make me write it.

Obviously who ever reads this has a general idea what this game is about so I won't elaborate into detail about territory that has alreday been covered in depth by so many people. The bottom line is this. Rescue a frail girl from a mysterious castle by controlling a horned boy named Ico through puzzles and obstacles all the while fighting shadow creatures that appear from time to time. There! I think that about covers it.

The graphics are just extraordinary. Colors are so vibrant. I've never seen sunshine on a game so golden and crisp and trust me thats saying something since my old tube TV has seen better days. The game play is very good although it cannot compare with other strong games solely intended for an action format. The movements while being very lifelike and fluid border on the surreal as the frail girl Yorda is dragged along by Ico. Colors are often used as a washy haze which another reviwer from a different site described as having a bleached type look. It's fantastic!

There could be some better use of the scrolling/viewing ability in the game ,but it's not a hinderance whatsover in the grand scheme of it all. If you are looking for riveting fast moving action based graphics and gameplay you won't find it in this game. If you play it, you will however find something you probbaly haven't found in any other game though..

The most noteworthy aspect of Ico I'd like to share with people is the intense emotional impact this "game" has and how well the designers so eloquently convey it in this work of art. I've only been playing this game for a day [4-5] hours and am totally blown away by it. This game is very much the epitome of experiencing what so many other game designs in the same genre fail to deliver and that is emotonal communication. Like great movies, great art, and great music, this game trully transcends a fundamental human message and discovering that message yourself is a deep and rich reward. It's very inspiring. I know,I know. I'm starting to sound all sappy ,but I just can't help it. I honestly think this game can make someone a better person after playing it. Can video games do that you ask? This isn't a game my friend...It's ART!

I'm very glad I went back and experienced Ico...

You will be glad after you have experienced it too!

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