Team ICO‘s “Shadow of the Colossus” is the Magic Hat No. 9 of video games.
Most people spend a lot of their youth playing the Budweisers and Coors’ of the world with a Sam Adams every now and then. They’re not bad; they’re good, popular games.
One day, though, at a friend’s house, someone sees a Magic Hat, tries it and says, “Oh. My. God. This game is delicious.”
On the greater scale of things, Magic Hat isn’t the greatest beer ever created – there are better ones for specific tastes. But it always seems to be the one that introduces people to a broader spectrum of options, many of which are better than what they’ve tried.
This is “Shadow of the Colossus.”
In many ways, “Colossus” isn’t a mainstream video game. It’s not very long in terms of actual gameplay, the story is quite brief, the controls and camera aren’t perfect and the style of the game is quite minimalist. It’s not a game you invite your friends over to play. One doesn’t buy a 30 rack of “Shadow of the Colossus.” You actually enjoy it.
Conceptually, “Colossus” is an action-adventure game, similar to a Legend of Zelda game that features a sword and bow-wielding protagonist and his horse facing a number of challenges. However, instead of dungeons, towns, side quests or an engrossing story, it has the Colossi –16 of them, in fact.
The premise is simple: A boy brings a girl on his horse (Agro) to a secluded temple in an effort to bring the girl out of a vaguely-described deep sleep. A disembodied voice tells you that, if you kill the 16 colossi roaming the land, it will revive the girl. The remainder of the game is simply you, the colossi and the world.
While it may sound boring to some, the simplicity is beautiful. There are no random enemies, no annoying grinding for leveling up and no side quests. “Shadow of the Colossus” is all killer, no filler.
Unlike Zelda, which made you go through the Water Temple and jump through hoops to get through the things you really wanted, “Colossus” all goes down smooth. It’s dense with flavor like a filet mignon, you don’t wolf it down. One has to take the time to appreciate the grandness of it all. And how grand it is.
The box art of the game is indicative its structure: a towering colossus dwarfing your character. The colossi are the stars of the show and most everything is shoved out of the way. It’s what “Transformers” would be like if Shia LaeBeouf and the other humans never showed up.
Each Colossi in itself is as much a puzzle as it is a boss fight, forcing the player to figure out how to do three things. 1. Not get killed by it. 2. How to latch onto a part of its body without getting flung off. 3. Stab it to death at its weak points.
This is accomplished through a deep use of the game’s limited provided resources. Sometimes the player just hops on to the Colossi and other times they have to use the horse or bow and arrow. The more satisfying fights, though, include the environment in the puzzle. One asks you to bait a Colossus to strike the ground before sprinting up its arm before it notices.
Could the game be stretched out to, let’s say, 25 Colossi to make the game longer? Sure. But it goes against the minimalist approach taken by Team ICO. Each of the 16 Colossi is unique, requires a different approach to kill and leaves an impression. Whether it’s the simple first colossus, the various airborne colossi, water-based one or the behemothic end-game Colossi, each has a memorable look, feel, strategy and atmosphere.
It’s in that atmosphere that the game brings it to another level. The game’s setting, a vaguely forbidden valley, is filled with forests, deserts, ruins, plains and water environments that truly stretch the Playstation 2 to its limits. The graphics are certainly above “Resident Evil 4” levels, but not quite “Final Fantasy XII.”
The game shows off simple environments at the outset, but slowly begins to show off truly impressive settings that are the perfect addition to inject into a fight against a colossus. Team ICO perfectly utilizes these environments to enhance each encounter, creating feelings of claustrophobia in one encounter and instill fear of heights in another.
Like everything else in the game, the story is minimalist. The game gives you everything you need to care about the events unfolding onscreen. What doesn’t need to be said remains unsaid. Instead, the game uses its imagery to tell stories and instill proper moods, all leading up to a memorable ending for a plot that can be summed up in one paragraph.
The game took about 10 and a half hours to play and that was taken at a steady pace over a few days with minimal exploring. One could probably spend a few hours just looking at cool stuff.
In all, it’s comparable to watching a season of “The Wire” or any other solid TV show. Yes, you could technically do it all in one sitting, but it’s really not worth it. It’s best taking it an episode (Colossus) or two at a time.
“Shadow of the Colossus” is not a mainstream game. The player doesn’t have to cram through it to get to the good parts, like how a person drinks a bunch of Natural Ices to get drunk. Try sipping a game for once. It tastes good.
Shadow of the Colossus one-player-only is available for Playstation 2. It is usually available on Amazon.com for $20, but is at a reduced price of $7.23 at the time of publication.
Nick O’Malley can be reached at [email protected].