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Can't compare to Ico.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 16
Date: December 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Ah, Ico, the little game that could. Critically acclaimed but with low sales, no real publicity, and cover art that leaves you wondering why they made an extremely detailed graphic game and chose to do a cartoon-ish cover as opposed to a screen shot. I still wince when I look at that hokey cover.

Those of us who did play it, however, played it again and again and again all the while chanting to the Video Gods, "Make a sequel, make a sequel."

Yes, Virginia, there are no Video Gods.

Confusion has reigned in the years since Ico's release. The creators were remarkably close-mouthed about whether there would be a sequel or what their next game in general would be. The general consensus was that due to low sales, unfortunately a sequel was unlikely. Then PS2 magazine shows a small screen shot thrown to them by Ico's creators and say that it's a sequel. Wait, no it's NOT a sequel. Oh, it's a game called Wanda and the Colossus. Who the hell is Wanda???

Seriously, who the hell IS Wanda? It never comes up in the finished game.

So the confusion continues and ala Ico, all of a sudden it's just there. No long build ups, boom, here's the not-sequel to Ico, now named Shadow of the Colossus. What happened to Wanda?

On a guess, Wanda is the dead girl our 'hero' is bringing to some condemned land. All that's missing is one of those red notices they put on condemned buildings. Half of what architecture is there is under water, falling off mountains, etc. The food delicacy, only real food, of this land is lizard tails. I kid you not. So dead Wanda is placed upon an alter by a guy who basically wants to violate the laws of nature and have her brought back to life. Considering the opening shots are of a seemingly long journey to this place, you can't help questioning the fact that Wanda isn't bloating, smelling, turning green, or drawing insects.

Apparently in this land, if you randomly place a dead girl on an altar, you get a big, booming voice essentially saying, "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." Has nobody read Faust? How about Pet Cemetary? How about the movie? "Sometimes dead is better..." Not that you'll ever get a chance to find out if it was worth it all.

So our boy stupid here jumps right on the bandwagon and goes off to kill 16 Colossus. When you get to them, you wonder why. They just want to be left alone. You have to repeatedly aggravate them to get at their sensitive spots. There are a few who, having tossed our 'hero' off, try to return to their nice snuggy spot. This means you sometimes have to aggravate them more than once. And they're kind of cute in an old teddy-bear sort of way, too. I found myself hoping that there was going to be a nice explanation for these random acts of violence at the end.

Well, I got an explanation, and it wasn't nice. Like I said, don't make deals with the devil. This is on the top of my most annoying and unsatisfying, 'don't throw your PS2 across the room' endings.

But, WAIT! There's more, if you act now you can play this game four more time to have thrown in absolutely free, a white version of Agro the horse! Seriously, I kid you not. This game is not only insanely repetitive - find colossus, kill colossus, transport back to altar, find colossus, kill colossus... - but it's short too. I guess the programmers were getting bored with coming up with different colossus and just stopped. To make up for this, they give you the options to have timed battles with the Colossus and replay the game at a harder level.

And I'll stop now before I totally give away the ending. Technically speaking, this game is visually pleasing, Agro the horse is particularly well-animated. It's a vast environment, true, but a great deal of it is going through winding canyons and across barren stretches of land. There are definite camera issues, particularly involving get Agro. Also, the designers, rather than using the same controls that they did on Ico decided to switch everything around for jollies. Those of us who've been replaying Ico have to overcome hardwired muscle-memory. The question of how Ico was a total machine stamina-wise has been changed. Now you definitely have short stamina, but for some inexplicable reason, you never run out of arrows.

At the core, this is just an extremely dumbed down version of Ico, only you don't really care about the characters except for Agro. You get nothing from Wanda the dead. No idea about idiot boy's thoughts or life. Agro is the breakout critter here, faithful to a fault. You find yourself wanting to yell at him, "Run, Agro, run!" in a Forest Gump-y way, because this guy does NOT deserve Agro, and Agro shouldn't have to be sullied by a planned genocide at first glance, something worse at later.

Great Graphics do not make a Great Game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 12
Date: March 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was disappointed in this game. While the grapics are good, that doesn't make it a good game. In fact, the game gets tedious very quickly. You wander around waving your stupid sword to find the next colossus and then journey over to where you think it is supposed to be. Once you get there, you have to crawl and climb over it's hairy rump to stab it to death. Each colossus has a specific way to kill it so there is a bit of a puzzle approach to the game. Other than battling the colossus in this area and then that area, there is absolutely NOTHING to do. You run around or ride your horse, blah blah. Boring. The voice work is sub-par and the story line is lame and stretched to say the least. Fans of RPG games may like it but if you prefer action games, this isn't it. I honestly don't know why this game got such great reviews because it gets really old really fast. Rent it before you buy.

No puzzles, rather tedious

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 12
Date: December 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

16 monsters to fight and a sword that shows you not only how to find them, but where to hit them to kill them. That's all there is to the game play of this title. The graphic are stunning in many cases, and the 16 colossus monsters are works of art, but the game play itself is tedious. You run around the countryside following the directions of your sword to find a colossus, then use the sword to find it's weak spots. Then you just need to figure out how to climb up on it, which is about the only puzzle of the game. Once on a monster, you spend most of your time hanging on and using the joystick to tell your character which way you'd like them to move, and then waiting to see if he'll be able to move or if he'll run out of strength from hanging on and fall off instead. Repeat for the remaining 15 colussi. The second colossus can't even kill you -- I let the main character stand in the middle of the battlefield for 20 minutes; every minute or so the colossus would stomp me and I'd loose health, but I'd recover it by the time he came around again.

Hint: Don't fight the direction the horse wants to go, it knows where it's going.

boring

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 28
Date: December 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The controls suck especially the camera angels, I got bored with this after an hour. One of the worst games I ever bought.

Uhhh..... am I missing something?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 13
Date: July 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I read all the reviews on amazon and thought, "Wow! This must be a great game!" so went to Hollywood Video, I rented the game, and I started playing. Beautiful graphics, boring game. I didn't finish this game. I didn't even complete the first level. You know why? It's because when I saw the Colossus, I didn't want to kill it. It was a beautiful creature. It was a gentle giant. Docile. It didn't do anything to me, and it looked like it wanted to be left alone. So why would I want to go up to a Slow, somewhat peaceful creature and violently stab it in the leg until it falls down, climb ontop of it's head and Stab it's brains out until it dies? I think that's a little bit cruel! And the camera is VERY hard to control when you're on the horse. When the horse starts to walk/run, the camera just decides to go down, where you are looking up at the horse as it's running, making it hard to see what's in front of you. And you have to continuously spur the horse to keep it from stopping. One thing that disturbs me is the way the main character who is supposed to be a man looks like a girl in the face! That's creepy! So don't even bother to buy this game. Although if you like games that have horrible gameplay where it feels bad to kill the enemy and wonderful graphics, then this is the game for you!

Wow.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: March 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is amazing. The atmosphere is insane. I was hooked until I beat it.

Beautiful and well planned game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is a very original idea for a game. It offers something new and exciting to the gaming world. However, i dont think it will be remembered much in a few years. There probably wont be a sequel, and it seems only games with sequels are remembered. Could you imagine if Metal Gear Solid never had any sequels?

Anyways, the star system to rate this game is not very accurate. i gave it 4 stars for fun, but i would give it a 90 based on fun. There was too much that got in my way of having fun with the game. The game in very dreary and quiet. Its peaceful in a way, much like Ocarina of Time, but nothing comes in the way of the colossus you are searching for and your start point. I think it would have been cool to fight some other things between fighting the colossus'. Maybe some wolf or bear battles or something, who knows? But sometimes the game just got a bit boring trying to get to the colossus'. i really loved the bow and arrow, and i think something could have been done with side missions or some hunting for food, or defending yourself on horseback from other animals or creatures.

Running, jumping, riding the horse, and just mainly the control wasnt all that great to me. I dont know how many times i fell off the platform trying to get to the third and biggest colossus. I would fall off that plateform and have to swimp to the ramp, which seemed to take 10 minutes each time.

I have a tube tv, 27 inch toshiba that i play my ps2 on. This game had amazing graphics, and i cant imagine if i had a HD tv and the best cables to hook this up. I cant imagine games being better looking than this game. The colossus' were so well done and they moved so well. I really hated killing these things! I just wanted to watch them walk peacefully through their surroundings. I really wish their was more of a motive for me to kill these things! They are, for the most part, very peaceful, not bothering a soul. The first colossus was just walking through a canyon when i came up to him, and i had to shoot an arrow at him for the battle to start. I want to have a good reason for killing something in video games, not peaceful giants that are just so awesome to look at!

Anyways, this was a great game. Very well done and it should be remembered as a piece of art. I hope that this game isnt forgotten. I have to respect the fact that they are currently not planning a sequel to a game that got reviews in the 95-100%. Most of the time games that get scores like that have to bank in on a sequel.

Awe inspiring, a game which awakens connections which were unknown before

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The storyline in Shadow of the Colossus is short. However, of the little story there is, the quality is superb. This game wastes no time with pointless scenes or tangent side quests. There is only one goal in the game, and the way the character is portrayed displays the emotional aspect of the situation. It is truly a unique game, awakening responses and reactions that were previously undetected.

Simply astounding

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

There's a reason that you bought a PS2, and it's because of games like this. Shadow of the Colossus is simply one of the most amazing and astounding games to ever be released for the system. The first thing you'll notice is the game's astonishing visuals, which are the best to ever be seen on the PS2. The landscapes are beautifuly rendered and the environments are lush and organic. Oh yeah, then there's the colossi. Throughout the game, your mission is to vanquish 16 different mythical, and gigantic, beasts that hold the key to saving your seemingly lost love. And when I say gigantic, I mean gigantic; the colossi are the biggest bosses you'll EVER see in a video game, including some that are as tall as a skyscraper. The storyline appears simple at first, but as the game unfolds, it becomes something much more, and saying more would be saying too much. At it's heart, Shadow of the Colossus does follow the typical aspects of an action/adventure game, but the frantic and awe-inspiring battles with the massive bosses make this game a sight to behold. The controls can be a bit touchy, but once you get used to them you'll be fine, while there are some technical issues with the otherwise incredible graphics, but nothing that deters away from the overall epic feel of the game. There's not enough that words can do for Shadow of the Colossus, only that this game will be remembered as one of the best PS2 games to ever grace the system, and it's an absolute must own for any and every PS2 owner.

Piece of art

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

What else can be said???? This game is one of the best best games of this year. Go buy it

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