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ICO and Shadows of the Colossus Collection Review
by on 2011-10-14 at 20:44 (8907 Views)
Game remakes can be a double edged sword. On one hand, faithful fans of a game or franchise will often pounce on the opportunity to replay an updated older game they have fond memories of. On the other, companies risk alienating their fans by making the fans feel they're more concerned with milking every penny out of a game by releasing new iterations with minor changes every few years. Two games that are very deserving of the recent high definition rerelease they received are the PS2 masterpieces, ICO and Shadow of the Colossus.
ICO and Shadow of the Colossus both occur in a magical fantasy world (presumably the same world). In ICO, players take on the role of Ico, a boy born with cursed horns. As is tradition, his village exiles him to a secluded castle where he is trapped in an ominous jar till the end of time. Before he can be properly preserved, shoddy workmanship strikes and he is able to break the seal on his jar, dooming himself to a life of never being purchased. However, his new freedom as a damaged product allows him to wander around the castle and cause all sorts of mayhem befitting of a strange horned child. His wanderings soon lead him to a mysterious girl, trapped in a cage. Naturally, Ico soon frees and befriends the girl, Yorda. The two of then set out to escape the castle and the ire of Yorda’s mother, the queen of the castle.
However, this is not your typical boy meets girl in cage, boy frees girl, boy and girl frolic away to live happily ever after adventure. ICO is a strange, and eerily successful, cross between a platformer, adventure game, and escort game. The castle that Ico and Yorda traverse is filled with puzzles and obstacles that must be overcome so that they can reach freedom. While Ico is fairly adept at scurrying around the world, Yorda gives the impression of someone who was not allowed to play much as a child -- almost like she trapped in a cage.. all.. her.. nevermind... In any case, a large part of the challenge of ICO comes from not only finding a way through the puzzles, but also creating a path for Yorda to follow. While it might seem that Yorda does not contribute to their escape, upon reaching the end of a puzzle, she utilizes her strange ability to move the statues that block their progress, allowing them to continue. However, not only must Ico help Yorda traverse the castle, he must also protect her from the strange shadow monsters sent by her mother which try to drag her into their swirling black vortexes. While this happens at specific instances, it also conveniently happens whenever you wander just far enough away that you can’t make it back to her. Ico must battle these shadows with an ineffective stick for the majority of the game. As the two of them work their way through the challenges that crop up throughout their journey, you watch a bond form between the two. Sure it is far from typical, but so is ICO.
The second game in this collection is one of my top ten games of all time, Shadow of the Colossus. This game opens with Wander, the protagonist, riding toward a mysterious and isolated structure on his horse, Agro. He carries with him the body of a presumed loved one, Mono. They arrive at the ancient structure and Wander lays Mono’s body on a stone pedestal. He calls out and is greeted by the disembodied voice of Dormin. Dormin tells him that if he can slay the sixteen colossi that inhabit this land, there is a chance he will be able to revive Mono. It all seems fairly simple and straightforward, which is good because that’s about all the explanation players receive. When Shadow of the Colossus came out in 2005, part of what was so impressive was that such a minimalistic story managed to convey such emotion. Neither Wander’s nor Momo’s names are ever given in the actual story. The only other character Wander even interacts with during his quest is his faithful horse Agro. Now, admittedly Agro is an amazing horse. He still stands as the best programed horse in any game, and his mannerisms and camaraderie add another element to the story. But even including him does not change that there are very few characters in this game. At its core, this is the story of the extremes a man will pursue if he lost the woman he loved (presumably).
Not only is the story of Shadow of the Colossus very minimalistic, so is the gameplay. There are two components to this game. Using your magical sword to find the colossi and stabbing the colossi to death with said sword. There are no levels, towns, dungeons, random enemies, or items to collect. Yes, at times obstacles and hindrances must be overcome to reach the different colossi, but Wander has everything he needs to reach the last colossi before he embarks to take down the first. For some, this might be something of a disappointment. Shadow of the Colossus has sixteen bosses which all must be taken down with some variation of the same technique. In most games, sixteen bosses would translate to sixteen levels, sixteen unique weaknesses, and a collection of enemies in between to slow you down. So given that, what is it about Shadow of the Colossus that makes it stand out? Personally, I feel that limiting its focus to just the sixteen colossi allowed the gameplay to excel. Yes, fighting each colossus is essentially a matter of finding its weakness and stabbing it with your sword. However, each one must be approached differently. The challenge comes from trying to figure out how to reach each weakness without getting squashed. While vague memories certainly helped during this replay, I remember spending over an hour on some of the colossi when I originally played this game.
As I stated, this collection is a HD remastering of two phenomenal games. Those who remember the originals on the PS2 will definitely notice the difference. While Shadow of the Colossus was arguably one of the more amazing looking games on the PS2, bringing it to the PS3 has allowed that world to become clearer and more beautiful than ever. The environment especially looks sharper and more detailed than the PS2 allowed. Personally, I played ICO within the past eighteen months and was reminded just how bad the original graphics were. Seeing them transitioned to HD is phenomenal. Still, I’d be lying if I said these games hold up to the graphics standards we hold new games to today. In both games, when looking at the characters especially, it’s apparent that these are both remakes. Yes, they are both leaps ahead of the originals, but perhaps the fact they still fall short is just a testament to the graphical progress that has been made in the past five to ten years. ICO’s age (and to a lesser extent, Shadow of the Colossus’ as well) come through even more at times as you play the game. It was especially shocking dealing with Yorda’s AI and physics at times, but as I said, perhaps that should be taken as a testament to the progress that’s been made over the past ten years.
There are some games that I feel everyone who is a gamer should play. Shadow of the Colossus is definitely one of those games. It exemplifies the idea of a game that is art. I can understand that not as many people have played ICO considering it used to be rather difficult to find, but considering I paid more for each game separately than I did for this collection, I cannot stress what a good purchase The ICO and Shadows of the Colossus Collection for the PS3 is. Both games revolve around puzzles. One is about solving puzzles to escape a castle while the other is about solving puzzles to take down the various colossi. As a result, those who have played them recently might be like me and remember how to solve some of the more complex puzzles which might take away from their experience. Still, if it has been a few years, or you have never played one or both of these games, I strongly recommend you add them to your game library. Combined with the fact that a third game by Team Ico, Last Guardian, is somewhere in the pipeline for 2012, I promise you won’t regret picking this collection up.
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The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it. ~ Moliere
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