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for jaded gamers

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: November 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

so many action games, so little time. you have to buy it. it'll be one your best-kept memories of 2005...

More of a demo than a game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: December 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Apparently a lot of people really like 'boss fights'. If you're one of them, this game will probably blow you away. Personally, I hate the stale old cliché of the 'end of level boss', and this game doesn't really have anything else to offer.

The graphics are artistically interesting, but the frame rate drop is horrendous at times. The landscape is a vast wilderness--beautifully rendered, but ultimately inherently empty and dull.

The fights themselves can be frustrating. If they were inserted into an actual game they would be great, but after finishing the first my immediate thought was dread that I had a dozen more like that ahead. I view 'boss fights' as the chore you have to perform to get to the next interesting bit of game, and in this case unfortunately there's no interesting bit of game in between them.

Are you f...ing kidding me?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 24
Date: June 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Boy, the other reviews of this game sound great. Epic battles, art in a game, etc. Only problem is, I think those reviewers made it all up. I think there's a huge joke surrounding this game, and that I'm the butt of it. I think that everyone who plays this game is so pissed off that they did that they decide to give it a good rating to entice others to suffer with them.

Alright, here's the deal. I'm a smart person. I followed the directions (the one sentence of guidance you get in the game). I tried. But guess what? I played for an entire hour, and never found a single one of these supposed bosses! Or anything else for that matter.

Now, it mentions something about using your sword in sunlit areas to see where the light reflects. I assume that gives an indication of where the bosses are, since that's the ONLY thing to do in the game. Well guess what? The sun reflects in any f...ing direction you want it to! You hold up your sword, and you move around, and the reflection moves with you. Imagine that! So that didn't help.

Then I kept wondering around, thinking that surely, after all this time, I'll stumble upon something. There were a couple of huge caverns with NOTHING in them. There was a beautiful arch spanning miles, leading NOWHERE. There were gorgeous rolling plains, scenic tall hills, breathtaking natural springs, but among it all, there was a noticeable lack of ANYTHING to do!

Seriously, I spent an HOUR wandering around. Sure, the scenery was nice CG art. Sure, it made me want to go camping. But when you spend an hour in front of a video game, you expect to accomplish something. NOTHING. There are supposedly these great boss fights just waiting out there for you. But after an hour of playing, NOTHING.

No doubt another reviewer will come along and chastise me for not looking up a walk-through on the internet. Well, I don't mind using walk-throughs. I frequently do, when I have completed a game and want to make sure I got everything. But guess what? If you have to resort to a walk-through in order to do ANYTHING in the game, I'd say that the game is a little flawed.

I'm a happy person. I live a good life, and I don't get upset easily. But when I spend some money on a game, devote an hour of my time to it, and hear raving comments from a bunch of people, I expect something. ANYTHING. ANY F...ING THING.

An hour later, I am reconsidering my video game habits. Why did I spend that hour doing NOTHING? I could have read. I could have studied. I could have slept. All those are productive activities. You actually get something from them. This game might conceivably be nice to freeze on your TV screen when you're doing something else so you can occasionally look at it and appreciate the view. But it's certainly not helpful if you want to do ANYTHING. Seriously, an hour.

So, before the next reviewer comes along and bashes me for not having enough patience to appreciate something great, for being a generation X-er with no attention span, for giving up too easily on something that everyone is raving about, let me suggest this:

Spend an hour on the internet searching for images of natural landscapes. Download all the images you can, and when the hour is almost up, play a slide-show of all that you've accumulated. Done? That's what I experienced. I spent an hour looking at nice-looking graphics. And guess what? There are plenty of other games out there with great graphics that have SOMETHING to do in them. I mean ANYTHING. I mean a single person to talk to, I mean a single creature to fight, and god forbid, a single boss battle.

Please, for the love of all that is good, do not get this game. Want to know what I did when the hour was up? (By the way, it was tough for me to quit playing, because after an hour, you figure surely something will happen soon, ANYTHING, and you did just spend money on it, so surely you'll give it another chance, right?) You know what happens when you put a CD in the microwave? Well, I put this game in there. I didn't bother reselling it for $5. All I did was watch the fireworks (which was more exciting in 10 seconds that what I got out of an hour of this game) and then use my precious time to warn others not to repeat my folly. I mean, how else does Man progress?

Seriously, to the other reviewers, stop lying. Stop misleading everyone. If you actually found a boss, ANY boss, congratulations. But I think you're lying about it. F... this game, F... the people who made it for not including better in-game guidance and SOMETHING to do, and F... the people who gave it a great review who secretly hate the fact that they wasted their time as I have done.

C'est la vie.

A unique, mesmerizing experience.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: December 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Shadow of the Colossus is something different. Like Hollywood's summer blockbusters, most current games try to wow you with flash and special effects from the start. In contrast, the austere vista that serves as SotC's title screen foreshadows the shockingly minimalist approach to gameplay taken by the game's designers. While this flies in the face of popular trends, I found this reductionist view surprisingly refreshing and engrossing.

The objective of SotC is to find and defeat 16 Colossi - gargantuan behemoths of stone and fur that shake the earth and block out the sky. Your character, accompanied by his trusty steed, is armed only with a sword and bow. Though you have a magically endless supply of arrows , they inflict about as much damage to these Colossi as a BB-gun might to Sherman tank. Consequently, the game boils down to 16 re-enactments of David vs. Goliath. And in each confrontation, David's only chance at survival is to find the weakness in the Philistine's imposing visage. Like in the Zelda series, each boss fight is both a test of puzzle-solving and manual dexterity. The Zelda bosses were the highlights of each game. SotC's genius is that it consists solely of such moments.

But beyond the game design and mechanics, what makes SotC an unforgettable experience is the artistry that pervades every aspect. SotC is the rare piece of entertainment (be it film, text, or especially game) that can truly be called artistic. From the beautiful but barren landscape to the breathtaking recreation of sunlight to the menacing majesty of the Colossi to the hopeful but poignant musical score, it is clear that this game was a labor of love. The storyline, like the gameplay, is simple but also has great depth. Many "artistic" films trip over the line between profound and perplexing. I won't spoil anything here, but the storyline in SotC is detailed enough to reveal a vast mythology, but also leaves key elements to interpretation. Just like after reading an incredible novel or watching an evocative movie, you'll want to talk about this game with someone when you're done (please leave some comments!).

All this is not to say that Shadow of the Colossus is not without flaws. Visually speaking, though beautiful, the game does become choppy rather frequently. And like most games from a 3rd person perspective, the viewpoint frequently drifts to an obscured perspective and must be correctly manually. Additionally, in comparison to faster-paced action games, the controls are a little sluggish and awkward. Some of the awkwardness seems to be by design in order to convey the difficulties in navigating certain environments. But be forewarned that you may sense some frustration over a lack of responsiveness.

These flaws, which are significant, do degrade the overall gaming experience. But despite these imperfections, Shadow of the Colossus is a true masterpiece. It is original, moving, and thoroughly engrossing and is without doubt one of my best entertainment experiences this year.

A Class of its Own

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

#1 Although aesthetically pleasing the beautiful world is abnonxiously difficult to map and boring to ride through time after time, times 16.

#2 Hunting for Lizards and shooting down fruit seem to be the only reason for the bow and arrow, and even though it is fun for a while it wears down on the action/adventure players nerves.

#3 The Boss battles are tough enough without having to fight off minions although it will be interesting to see in the sequel when you have to fight two Colossi at the same time. So no, they do not need any small evil creatures roaming the game.

#4 No replay value. If you have a particular Colossi that you enjoyed fighting and would like to do it again, the time trial is the best way to do that; It allows you to go directly to the spot and fight again, but putting the game on hard mode...enjoy re-roaming the world to find what you thought you remembered was there.

#5 Yes, you can beat the game in one day, so rent it, unless your nostalgic and have to play it again two years from now when you see the sequel finally come out on Playstation 3.

#6 Storyline is entirely too vague unless you have some simblance of the Ico world, so don't be fooled into thinking you know what's going on, unless your familiar with Ico, you don't have a clue.

#7 The ending (trying not to spoil this) is somewhat disturbing on several levels, (okay I'm gonna have to spoil it somewhat) unless you enjoy being madly in love with a beautiful princess only to have her turn into your adoptive mother. Gee, I wonder what how she's gonna teach him about the birds and bees when he grows up, like I said...disturbing on many levels.

#8 There can be no depth to the storyline without people to talk to, but there can be no people because, it takes place in a sacred land cut off from civilization to house evil spirits and beings and to keep them from reaching civilization, so there goes the social skills, good thing you have a dead body and a horse to talk to through most of the game. so with that said, it was a great game, I just wouldn't waste money till one million other people do and it falls to the best picks list for 20 bucks.

Not so much a game as a work of art

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is simply amazing, it throws you into the middle of a story giving you barely enough to satisfy you and the story continues to build to a suprising (though a little strange) ending. You spend your time seeking out the colossi, but you can also just explore. The only things I didn't like was the shortness of the game, and the camera.

Immerse yourself in another world.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: December 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Shadow of the Colossus is the spiritual successor to Sony's 2001 adventure, ICO. Like that game, Shadow of the Colossus is also beautiful, atmospheric, desolate and utterly immersive.

The premise is simple and the backstory is minimal, allowing you ample room to wonder and imagine: a man named Wanda and his horse Agro have traveled to a distant land in order to bring back his love from the dead. With the help of a legendary sword, he confronts the gods of that land and asks for their assistance. They agree to help him, but the young man must first defeat and release the souls of the sixteen colossi who inhabit and guard the mythical country.

To accomplish this task, the young man will make use of nothing but the sword, a bow, his body, his horse, and his environment. That said, what you are able to do with this simple set of tools and what you will witness as a result is amazing. I don't want to spoil the game by saying too much, but I have to say that each time I felled a colossus I was in awe; there is something deep and meaningful about the sight of an ancient titan crumbling to the ground, defeated.

Everything about this game contributes to a distinct atmosphere of solemnity, solitude, and wonder. The music is excellent, the mechanics and nature of the gameplay is intelligent and fun, the environments are stark and beautiful, and the hero, his horse and the colossi all have very subtle yet strong characterizations.

This game (or work of art) is a defining example of what videogames are all about these days. The various individual aspects of a game like gameplay, art work, and story are becoming vehicles for creating and experiencing another world. Buy this game and play it. You won't regret it.

WOW

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

this is a terrific game. i have not yet finished it but i am about halfway done. i would recomend it to anyone who loves action adventure games. its nice because the maps dont keep changing and there are hidden secrets. ive had time to run around a lot and the landscape is breathtaking. i was amazed when i first started it. it was origonaly a birthday present for my brother but hes letting me play it as he beat it while at college. ive had it for about 4 weeks now and i play it as often as i can when im not doing schoolwork. the colossi are very cute... i get a little teary when they fall... but i know i have to kill them so its all good^^

BAD BAD BAD

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 11
Date: September 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Like someone else said "My review is not aimed at belittling those who enjoy this game ", but please, Controls are ridiculously anoying, the waste of time between traveling, kills game time, if i wanted nice lanscapes, i would go on a road trip, the battles are the same thing every time, climb and stab, the only thing that changes is how you get their attention, so after 12 kills game is pretty boring, if i wanted to ride a horse and have fun i would buy GUN.

Very good but not as good as critics say.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: January 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game has the "Wow!" factor to the roof. Maybe that's why it's getting these inflated review scores. It's difficult to review this game because its good attributes are *really* good, but also the bad ones are, well, really bad.

The Good:
The story is like a poem: short, elegant and beautiful.
The game is more like a work of art. The world is vast and beautiful.
Its graphics are superb (ignoring the low frame rate at some points).
The music is second to none.
It provides the best cinematic effect I've seen in a game.

The Bad:
The story is like a poem: *SHORT*, overly simple and stingy on details. Some people are in denial about the story. Yes it's delicate but it doesn't matter how you look at it, it's really short, really simple and really vague.
Low frame rates at times, but fortunately it doesn't bother when you're fighting the colossus.
By far the worst thing about the game is the camera. All throughout the game I had to fight against the horrible camera positioning more than the colossus themselves. The only time when the camera does work is when you're on top of a colossus (and then it works almost flawlessly). Everywhere else the camera is your worst enemy.
The controls are counter intuitive. Depending on where you are and what you're doing they can be relative to the camera or relative to the main character and this confuses the hell out me. You have to guess whether the move you're about to perform will be executed relative to you or the camera.

Some people complain that the game is too simple, with only 16 epic colossal battles and nothing more to do in the world. IMO that's the way the game is meant to be played, period. Where is it written that a game needs monsters here, there and everywhere? Part of the game is stopping to take a good look at the awe inspiring and beautiful scenery the world provides. If you find it boring then this game isn't for you because sooner or later the battles will get old.

On a scale of 10 I'd give it a 7 because the game is definitely above average but by no means it's as perfect as most people believe it to be. Another issue is that I wouldn't recommend this game to just anyone because although I liked it, not too many people would appreciate it.

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