Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

You have never played anything quite like 'Shadow of the Colossus' before. It represents the absolute pinnacle of adventure gaming in so many paradoxical ways: The story is enchanting, yet barely anything is revealed. The focus of the game is on combat, yet there are only 16 battles in the entire game. The world you inhabit is remarkable, and yet also empty. Confused? The reason is basically that you cannot do this game justice with a handful of words. To put it as well as possible, the atmosphere the game creates is just as potent as the effect it has upon the person playing it. Facing the seemingly insurmountable task of locating a giant beast, that wanders somewhere in an enormous world, and then slaying it using only a sword and bow, is extremely daunting. But the feeling of elation you experience from defeating each foe is incredible. The actual battles are all utterly brilliant: whether you're gripping for your life on an airborne colossus that's twisting and diving around deep marshland, on carefully stalking an enormous walking giant, or navigating your way along a water-based colossus as it twists and squirms through the chill depths of an ancient lake, you're bound to remember the experiences. The graphics and score are perfect, nothing else to be said. Only that such a brilliant graphical experience would have been done a little more justice with some more powerful hardware: but don't let that put you off, the PS2 may strain at its limits with this title, but the results are both admirable and jaw-dropping. You really must play this game: it's one of those you will never forget, and they are a precious rarity in the mass-marketed urbania that seems to clog the shelves these days. Do yourself a favour and give it a try, you won't regret it.

If you're reading this review to see whether or not this game is any good I'll put it simple. This game is possibly the best Playstation 2 game and has aged tremedously well. The game features you, a dashing young warrior named 'Wander' with your horse named 'Agro' and you're tasked to defeat 16 Colossus in order to resurrect your love whom had perished before the game started. The Colossi are, as the name implies, colossal beings which each having a unique shape, size and tactic necessary in order to defeat them. Trust me when I say I spent 11 hours straight, that is how immersive this game is. It's a simple story but complex game and how many games are like that? You don't gain any mandatory upgrades thus forcing you to rely on your own skills to tkae down the beasts. The game rewards you with satisfaction as taking down the monsters and has high replay value. Easily one of the best Playstation 2 games out and a high ranker for best games of all time. It has a decent plot twist at the end and makes you want to play it all over again. It does what a game is supposed to do well which is to entertain.

This game in my opinion is easily one of the best game for the PS2. Although the game is repetitive, as the review below says each colossus requires a different method to kill it. This creates enough change to keep most people's interest. The story does not hold your hand and leaves much to the imagination which I like. The gameplay is extraordinary. Control of the horse is fairly good though there are some undocumented controls that you'll need. Look around for guides on the web to find them. The sword, when the sun is out points in the direction of the next colossus. It is also your main weapon. Basically each colossus has weak points both major and minor. Major weakpoints are ones you must stab to kill the colossus. Minor ones are places you stab to make the creature do something whether it's falling to their knees or trying to grab you with their hand. The main concern when killing the colossus is the grab/stamina/breath meter. This is a colourful circle which gets smaller as your strength runs out. Don't worry though if you stay still you regain your strength. I won't ruin anything else but just to tell you that once you finish the game make sure you save it as you unlock both time attack mode and hard mode. Time attack mode generally gives you 4-6 minutes to kill a colossus. You don't have to find them again you start from when you first see the colossus. I find this the most enjoyable. I don't like the searching bit as the landscape graphics IMO are not great... nothing compared to God of War. Everything looks blurry until you are fairly close. However the battle graphics and especially the fur on the colossi is excellent. Anyway every time you beat two colossi in TA mode you get an item from different arrows to an invisibility cloak. Hard mode is excellently replayable. The colossi do more damage to you, are harder to kill and aswell as that most of them have extra major weakpoints that you have to get to and stab. And once your finished hard mode you unlock HARD time attack mode. The replayability is awesome. This game really is excellent and most people especially those who have played ICO will love this game.

Maybe I missed something.. The scenery in this game is beautiful.. the colossi are beautiful This is only a sequel to ICO in so far as it happened afterwards.. But as far as I got, it involves little more than repeated butchering.... find it, climb it, find a vulnerable point, and then stab it a lot... I gave up after it dawned on me that it involved little more than repeated butchering of the colossi fantastic as they were.. I just found it tedious, hanging on to the creature for dear life and stabbing away until it died or I fell off. Youtube is full of "I did boss 14 in 35 seconds" bragging videos.. do I really want to do that? If you like repetitive brutal mindless violence.. and for you stabbing slaughter is fun, particularly dressed up in fantastic scenery, atmostpheric graphics and all that... then this it.. or maybe I missed something?..

Loved the game when I was younger, so I bought it off of Amazon again recently. However, the game froze on the 'Sony presents screen' (my PS2 is in working condition and can play all other types of games). So I can't recommend the product, but Amazon promptly refunded the game!

Chances are, if you're interested in this game, you have played Ico and you liked it. If this is the case, and you are looking forward to a similar experience, you won't really be disappointed. Just like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus is a very unique game. The graphic style (ethereal light surrounding you, vast plains, loneliness of the main character lost in the emptiness) is very close to the one used in Ico, and as such it will feel very familiar if you have played Ico. The scenery is beautiful and the overall feeling is one of calm and awe towards the magnificent nature that surrounds you. While in Ico, you had Yorda by your side, in SotC, you're completely on your own. Apart from your horse, there is no other presence you can rely on. It doesn't mean you are TOTALLY alone... 16 massive colossi roam the land, and it is your task to defeat them, one by one, if you want a chance to raise your female friend from the dead. And this is the core of the game. You have to ride your horse to find the next colossus, find its weak spot and defeat it. Apart from that, there arent many other things to do in the game, which might lead to think that it's a bit simplistic. Well, yes and no... Yes because the land you travel across is desperately empty. Beautiful and sometimes awe-inspiring, yes, but SO empty... A few lizards, some hawks and a few doves are the only things you'll encounter - apart from the colossi - and a couple of altars scattered here and there will give you the oppotunity to save. Apart from that, well, nothing. You don't HAVE to explore seeing how, apart from the above, there IS nothing to discover. However, it's not all that simple. Reaching your next target can be a real pain. Yes, you can use the light reflected on your sword to guide you, but you'll frequently find yourself blocked by a cliff or a montain, meaning you'll have to find an alternative route to the same destination. And that, trust me, can take an awful lot of time. You'll mostly rely on your horse during those parts, and he's really well animated. However there are times when I have the feeling he could do with a bit more brain cells, but maybe that's just me. The colossi themselves are gigantic. They are extremely well animated and the way in which they move looks very realistic (at least that's what I expect a colossus would move like if it existed). It's really thrilling to jump onto a colossus' leg, then cling onto its fur and make your way up its back while the giant creature is trying its best to make you lose your grip and fall to the floor. The main character being thrown around by the colossus' moves and trying to somehow hold on to it looks really good. Even though it can take a while to figure out where the weak spot is, you can use your sword, again, to get useful hints. However I think the cameras are TERRIBLE in the game. You can move them manually but even if you do so, they also reposition themselves after a while, and not always where you need them to. It can be extremely frustrating to end up being crushed by a giant foot just because you had no idea the colossus was so close to you in the first place. You can choose to focus the camera on the colossus (but in this case you can't see ahead of your character, which is not very good when you are trying to run away), or you can focus the camera on the character (in which case you end up too often in a situation in which you only have a partial vision of the field ahead of you and behind you - not very good either). The worst thing is when you are clinging onto a colossus' fur, and the creature is trying to get rid of you by "shaking" itself: obviously your character is flying around, and the camera tries to follow him all the time while it obviously can't keep up. The result is an awful mess, and I've ended up, many times, looking at a close up of the colossus' fur because my character was on the other side and the camera couldn't follow it properly, so I had no idea where exactly I was and I had to wait for the camera to SLOWLY find a correct position while my stamina gauge was decreasing rapidly. Very, very frustrating indeed. All in all, SofC is, like I said, a very unique experience. It's not your average game and I don't expect it'll be played and enjoyed by your average gamer. The colossi are really good looking and the fights are epic. However, the sheer frustration caused by the camera angles, the controls that take a bit of time to get used to, and the amount of time required in order to find a way to your next target decrease the grade to a 3/5.

Me and my younger brothers used to absolutely love this game so i bought it for the nostalgia factor. It is still an amazing game and easily holds up to any current gen game. The basic premise may not immediately excite (there is nothing to do but ride around a huge seemingly empty landscape on your horse, trying to find and kill the 16 collosi) but it is one of the best adventures you will ever have with a joypad. Getting to them is half the battle with a well designed land to work your way through. The collosi are all equally well designed and can be a real challenge (yes i'm talking to you number 9!) to work out the way to beat them, from small fast bull-like colossi, to big slow humanoid giants, water, land and air based, they truly have all sorts, and all stand out, none seem to have been quickly put together to pad out the numbers. I especially like colossi 13, riding through a desert trying to shoot it down was truly epic. Just buy the game, do it, do it now! Right, i'm off for some more slaying, "AGRO!"

I have pre-ordered this game, not that my girlfriend will thank me. And, although the other reviews are inspiring, it's the whole scenario... Finding the Biggest baddest brutes in existence and finding a way to topple them from their peaks of Greatness. I'm into challenges, and this game i have no doubt, will give me value for money. The only other title i care for at the moment would be Twilight Princess for the Gamecube. I'll be waiting a while for that, as it comes out here in MAY... Roll on February 17th is all i can say. Keep your Need for Speed, Mercanaries and Killer7, they have the lifespan of a gnat. this is for REAL GAMERS

per chi ha amato ICO,questo nuovo titolo degli stessi sviluppatori sarà un'esperienza indimenticabile. nonstante sia un gioco datato,mantiene un livello di coinvolgimento altissimo.

Todo bien, aunque ponga que es la versión en inglés y la portada esté en inglés el juego lo puedes poner en español. 5/5

Se nota que el producto es antiguo y lo que es la caja, tiene esa pérdida de color casi oxidado el cartón. Con un canto en pequeñez deteriorado. No obstante, el disco está bien. Y el manual está nuevo. Es una reliquia de videojuego 🎮. Y es una alegría haberlo obtenido. Buen empaquetado de Amazon y buena la relación calidad precio. Gracias.