A note from the Editor: We actually don’t have Editors here at Monkey Games. We don’t hand out assignments, either, so every once in a while we hit a situation where two of us write a review for the same game. Last night I spent a considerable amount of time laying the groundwork for this article below, and, unbeknownst to me, Chris was writing an article on the same game at the same time. So pardon the duplication of content. Chris - I’m not talking over you, but with you. This game is excellent. But enough crap — Bitta’s review:
The 3-3 Patriots had a bye this Sunday so I invited our football-crew over to play some console games to fill in the void. Beauchamp was kind enough to bring his copy of Shadow of the Colossus, a title he recently rented from gamefly. After a brief demo that completely floored us, we all immediately agreed that we didn’t want to play any other game that day. To be fair, after about two hours we fooled ourselves into thinking we needed a break from the game, so we fired up Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks and had a little stint at that. But even the great game that is MK:SM was easily eclipsed by our enjoyment of the Colossus, and we soon left MK for dead.
I missed the game’s opening cinematic so I don’t quite know the game’s exact story line, but after playing for a few hours the plot became relatively obvious. You act as God’s hand, or a god’s hand anyway, for cleansing the world of these giant colossi, for good or for evil. At the beginning of each level you stand in a temple as ‘He’ speaks to you from on high, commanding you to track down and slay the next giant in the series of the game’s behemoths. You’re given only a few tools including your horse (an amazing example of real time animation), a bow, and a sword which, when lifted into sunlight, casts a beam that guides you to the next giant’s hiding place. It also seems that your sword is the one and only weapon you useful for hurting the colossi (more on this later). Once you get the general idea of where you’re headed, you set out on a discovery trek through the game’s fantastic 3D landscape. On any given journey you pass over vast bridges, ride along a cliff’s edge, and continue on through forests in your search for the next giant. It’s remarkable how open and free this portion of the game feels. There are absolutely no minor monsters to act as fodder - it’s just you and your horse traveling the countryside. I know that this may sound quite… boring.. but the game is gorgeous, and it’s established early-on that you’re a bad ass (see below) so there’s no need to add further combat gameplay here. Instead you’re presented with a vast wilderness that compliments the quiet confidence of your main character. Also, the horse and rider animation is spot-on in this mode, and the general lack of UI adds to the truly remarkable cinematic quality of the game.
When you do eventually locate a colossus (they’re not wandering so their hiding areas aren’t too hard to find) you’re presented a cutscene that depicts the extreme size and girth of the opponent you’re soon to face. Some of these guys are huge, Statue of Liberty huge, or at least bigger than anything I’ve ever seen animated in gaming. And this is where the combat gameplay kicks in.
The battles unfold in a deceivingly simple formula that hasn’t changed since the boss battles of Megaman, although to be fair the execution here is entirely different. The major flow of battle is this: 1. Determine the giant’s weaknesses. 2. Dodge attacks in order to get yourself in the correct position to exploit said weaknesses 3. Bring the b**ch down. Don’t let the simplistic list fool you, and don’t believe the progression through this list becomes mundane after a few battles. The three steps are acts in a large battle. Where as a traditional side scrolling boss-battle from yesteryear might take 2-3 minutes, the tactics of these fights vary wildly, evolve through the various stages of the fight, and can take upwards of 30 minutes.
You see, each level doesn’t end in a boss battle, it is a boss battle. The main character you control is ohhh, say, about this: . tall, were as the giants range in relative sizes from this: 0 to this: {} That’s . vs {}, a disparity of scale that obviously negates any advantageous effects of double jumping or spread shot. And so the game doesn’t incorporate any of these standard arcadey maneuvers. Instead the title takes a pure approach to combat — It’s just you, your sword, and your grip to save you.
In most cases you bait the giant into attacking with it’s massive sword, feet, etc. The impact of these swings and stomps will crater in the earth, rumble the ground, and send your character and debris flying through the air. Dusting yourself off you have only a short amount of time to take advantage of the situation — you must turn around and run back at the monster - latch onto whatever body part you can, and hold on for dear life. Just as soon as you get your foothold you’re lifted high in the air by the giant’s recoil (the game has scale down to a T) , and it’s from here you must climb up the monster’s back, or whatever it has, as it tosses you around like a tiny rag doll.
Often it’s these initial scenes that’ll leave you gasping in awe at the game’s execution of graphical design, animation, sense of scale, physics, music, camera effects… everything. It all comes together perfectly to establish the immediate peril of the David and Goliath situation. This is one of those titles that’s just as fun to watch as it is to play. Your character swings and climbs for dear life as he grasps to fur and skin, and if you’re only spectating then you’re not entirely sure if the person in control latched on in time. It becomes this epic “holy crap that was close” ballet when the creature’s swaying body becomes an interactive background as you climb and leap across swinging arms, torsos, etc. How could this not be cool?
The monsters won’t win any Nobel Prizes, but they’re not dumb, either (well not most of them anyway), and they’ll try to shake and toss you off their backs before you reach their weak points. R1 controls when your character holds on for dear life, but his grip will last only so long as his stamina does. Intense shakes of the appendage your attached to bleeds stamina fast, so you have to take every advantage to rest on even footing while you can. Some of the monsters can see you coming, and when this happens their eyes change color as if focusing on you, and their body will shake frantically in attempt to knock you off. The path you chose to climb becomes a sub game in itself ( a good game is always made up of several smaller games), and sometimes it takes quite a bit of sleuthing to determine which body part you should hold onto when Bessy enters her frantic spasms, and which body part to avoid altogether. Thankfully a wrong move will simply land you on the ground with half health (or so, depending on height). Since your health recovers over time you’ll soon be ready to start the climb again. If you do end up dying then you begin the battle anew (you skip the horse journey part), but this isn’t much of a penalty since most of time in battle is spent determining the order of things and where to travel on the monster’s body, and not whittling down the health meter. The end goal - of course - is the monster’s weak point (denoted by a glowing rune on the head, flanks, etc) into which you shove you sword. Timing here is important, you must play the balance of a long wind-up swing versus the chance you’ll be shaken off the back. It takes numerous stabs to bring the monster down, between which you’ll bleed stamina as each shot sends the monster into a frantic shake fest. If you’re not careful you’ll run out of stamina, lose your grip, and be sent tumbling earthward. Also, the target rune switches positions after a certain damage threshold is achieved, so it’s not like the battle ends once you locate the first rune. Instead it evolves into various stages, and forces you to make your way to more exposed and difficult to reach body parts.
But only half of this allure of this game is the gameplay. The rest is sitting back and enjoying the game’s cinematic style. The camera shakes in varying degrees of intensity to ensure you don’t forget the size of what you’re up against. The fidelity of the character animation is also quite amazing as the hero reacts to the physics of the violent jolts of the creature beneath his feet. Finally, you get a distinct sense of movement from each of the lumbering beasts. Some seem bred for war, while others seem completely docile, and though all the giants do bleed black blood (in vicious streams), sometimes you can’t help but think that a few of these critters could be completely innocent. Certain battles leave you questioning ‘if you’re slaying these beasts for the greater good, or if you’re being duped into killing these as a pawn for some else’s greater plan.
In the end this is a game that must be played by any owner of a PS2. Even those not interested in adventure games should spin it up. The cinematic of this title could easily capture the attention of anyone who is skeptical of video gaming in general, and its simplicity could convert those who believe that gaming is all about shooting cops or simplistic finger mashing reflexes.
And a special mention for the game’s dynamic soundtrack - it’s very well done, and might go unnoticed beneath all that screen shaking action. The only problem with the game is.. well, nothing. A 10/10.
Zero Punctuation: Guitar Hero III
