Ico Collection- Shadow of the Colossus (PS3/PS2): A Colossal Return

Considering what a huge advocate of the PS2 I was, it was a wonder I never played Ico. Even more so, considering the size of my PS2 library its a bigger wonder I have never played Shadow of the Colossus. So as a two parter retro review I will be playing the HD remakes of these two titles in the recently released Ico Collection. For the record, playing this disc is what fried my PS3 just before Dark Souls came out. The game I started with first was...

ICO COLLECTION- SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS: (PS3/PS2)

Our game starts off with a scene of a lone man named Wander riding on a horse through various terrains to travel to an alter in an secluded underground shrine in a forbidden land. Upon arrival he undrapes something he brought with him, which is reviled to be the body of a dead girl by the name of Mono. He carefully places the body upon the alter, Wander is attacked by a group of shadowy forms, which he easily dispatches with a shining sword. After making quick work of them, a loud celestial voice(s) booms from the ceiling expressing surprise that he has the weapon. Wander learns that he is speaking to Dormin and tells that he's heard he has to power to resurrect those who have died. He pleads with this entity to restore Mono to life, to which Dormin responds that he can do this for Wander but to be wary of what he asks. The cost of such a favor could be very high, more than he might be willing to pay. But as so many tragic heroes before him he claims to not care and says that no price is too high. He is told to travel the countryside and destroy 16 different colossi that he can find by holding his legendary weapon in the light and in return for doing this he will revive the girl. So with his trusty steed at his side, Wander heads off to defeat the Colossi.

Sometimes, you just gotta make em say I Do.

Right out of the gate, let's get this out of the way. It says Ico HD Collection. Not Remake. So much like the God of War Collection, these are just a pair of PS2 games with a bit of the high definition glean on them. Some of the animations and designs show their age, but ultimately the characters are well designed and the environments have a gorgeous serene appeal to them. Although the horse you ride in the game is the biggest eff'n horse in the history of existence and Wander has more of a frolic rather than run, the graphics and overall design looks great and was not something I noticed after I actually started playing.

Defining the style of game Shadow of the Colossus is somewhat tricky, because it blends together some elements to make up its final product. I would hesitate to call it an action game because I relegate that to more of the spectacle fighters or beat em ups and the action in this one doesn't fit in that traditional concept. I think more accurately it is an adventure game with a strong focus on puzzle platforming. Each stage is essentially broken up into two aspects. At the start of each stage, Dormin informs you of what colossus you are out to kill and roughly where they are found. You take off on your doofus horse and travel the countryside to find the colossus. This isn't exactly a puzzle, but sometimes the locations of the beasts are not immediately apparent. You can hold up your sword in the light to shine beams of light, and the closer to the correct direction you are, the more focused the beams become. There is pretty much zero fighting in these sequences, and no music either. Just the sound of the wind blowing around, some chirps of the birds overhead, and the hoof beats of your steed beneath you. It actually has a pretty calming effect, so instead of raising tension before the monster, its leveling you out so you can approach with a clear head.

During the course of the adventure you will visit nearly every kind of terrain type,
 each providing a different aspect to the battle

Which is good, because each battle with a colossus is a puzzle in and of itself. Each of them pretty different from the rest of them each with their own individual nuances and weaknesses. You can shine your sword on them to discover where their weak points are, and although you have a bow, you almost always have to climb upon the beast and attack with the sword. They start off simple enough, with the beasts having a fairly noticeable point to grab and climb by their feet, but as you progress some of the monsters are constantly in flight, or barely come above water or sand, forcing you to figure out how to antagonize them enough to come after you and expose a weakness. Once you start climbing the grip gauge mechanic starts moving, showing you exactly how much strength you have to hang on. It diminishes gradually as you scale their hide but as your advance upward the colossus will begin to flail around to try to fling you off. If you try to move while they are doing so the grip gauge depletes even faster. If your grip runs out or you let your finger slip off the grip button, you'll be sent flying off their back straight to the ground and will be forced to try again. The whole concept really does a fantastic job of increasing your tension as your eye constantly is checking that lower corner of the screen, making sure you have just enough grip to land that last stab, praying you have just enough to hang on to the end. I would try to hold off until they would stop flailing to try to let go of the grip and ride their shoulders to recharge the grip for as long as possible, sometimes it worked, sometimes I would groan having to scale back up again (colossus #15 was a particular pain in my ass for this because it was difficult to get to the top of his head, and the prick wouldn't stop flailing long enough for me to plunge my sword in. The fight took almost 3 fucking hours). As you scale around you will have highlighted crests to signify their weaknesses and instead of just hitting the button to stab, it starts to charge its power, so you can gamble holding on a bit longer to do that much more damage.

Sad thing is, this isn't even one of the bigger ones.

Jump on the item they are swinging around the most.... Makes total sense.

What makes this string of battles so incredible is nature of the colossus you are fighting. Colossus #5 (The Avian) is a very large bird colossus, circling over a lake. As you swim you will find three broken stone pillars in at the surface of the lake that you can climb on. Standing on them will cause the bird to swoop at you, if you time it right, you can leap onto its back and grab on. Then some impressive camera work pans around to show the bird taking flight higher, and begins to spin and twist to try to shake you off as you scale to its wings and tail. watching the world flip and turn beneath you coupled with epic classical score behind it all builds to this incredible movie effect. Each fight is very original to itself and is memorable in its own way. This is fantastic because I've felt video games have been going away from boss fights to just make you fight waves of regular baddies, or just fight a enemy that just requires them charging into a wall and then punching them. It made me happy because I don't have to deal with the game aspect and just get boss fights.

The controls are functional, I suppose. Everything in the control in this game seems a bit loose. When I am scaling and trying to jump from ledge to ledge it sometimes takes 2 or 3 tries to get the asshole to jump the direction I want him to. The grip gauge never seems to last long enough for me, you can increase it by killing white tailed lizards as you travel the map in this game is enormous, and finding them is very needle in haystack like. Ultimately, the most of my biggest complaints come from having to ride that fucking horse. I don't remember his name, but for the sake of this review he should be called Boxer, because his stupid ass should be sent to the glue factory, (yes, an Animal Farm reference, Eff you). This stupid animal you have to call for like 3 or 4 times before he actually turns around. Every time I would try to mount him I would jump like 5 or 6 times in place trying to trigger the climb up animation. When riding him even mashing my X button he would never seem to pick the pace more than a casual trot. Yanking on the reigns one direction or another would eventually make him turn like 10 gallops after I missed my turn. Multiple times he'd glitch to stop from going over a cliff but then refuse to back up or let me jump off. And the worst of all in a particularly precise battle, he would hit a rock small enough to step over and would come to a complete stop. Since I'm using my bow facing the other direction, I would have to wait the like 4 minutes it would take the turn the dumbass around so I can try again. Or more or more accurately I would be mowed down by the colossus and lose a big chunk of health. That stupid animal was more frustrating than the fights.

That aside, I think the aspect that really made this game feel great was the way it told a story without dialogue or cut-scenes to characterize everything. The whole thing has this very independent movie feel to it. You start the game with the normal "save the princess" mentality but as you fight you start to feel that these Colossus aren't exactly evil or even bad.. Most of them are just minding their own business, doing nothing. Not even harming the area around them. Then as you fight them it doesn't feel like they are attacking you as much as they are defending themselves. Even their death sequences have that effect. When you strike the deathblow everything slows down to slow motion as you watch the Colossus collapse in a heap as a very sad sounding melody plays instead of some victory music. As each one dies a black poison escapes their body and possesses itself within Wander. As you play on, He becomes more and more scarred, worn, and almost undead looking. With each fight I felt more sympathetic to the Colossi, and that Wander's goal had become selfish rather than noble. The only real dialog heavy cutscene comes at the end of the game where all the truths are revealed. It was incredible well done.

It took me a while to get back to this game after it fried my PS3, but I am glad that I did. It definitely lived up to the hype and I'm looking forward to getting into the time trial modes when I get a chance. But first? Ico.