Battle with the Colossus

I’m going to talk about shadow of the colossus, its a fairly old game,but it’s got a HD remake coming out later this year (along with its spiritual sequel ICO) so I thought we should take a look at the original.

Shadow of the colossus (or SotC to shorten the title down) was made by team Ico way back in 2005 as a sequel to their first game, ICO. On the first game you play as Wander a man who has traveled to a forbidden land to ask the god who lives there, Dorim; if he/she can bring his true love, Mono, back from the dead. In return , Dorim sets you the task of slaying 16 colossi that roam the forbidden land.

Finding the colossi is harder than it sounds, you raise your sword to the sky and follow the ray of light, but that only leads you so far. Then it becomes a game of run around like mad person and hope that something sets off the pre-battle cutscene . All that searching is worth it the second you first catch a glimpse of a colossi. Each battle has it’s own unique strategy to deal with these amazing creatures , but don’t worry if you have trouble figuring out what it is because Dorim will give you a hint if  they think that you’re taking to much time. Once you’ve climbed onto the colossi its then time to find its weak point, a glowing sigil, whilst holding onto the creature’s body as it tries to shake you off. Stab the sigil with your sword a few times and the beast falls to the floor defeated, but its not over yet. Now it’s time to play outrun the creepy soul corrupting tentacles that are coming your way (unfortunately you can’t outrun them, but its fun to try :P).

Outside of the colossi battles you spend most of your time wandering the vast landscape or if you don’t want to walk there’s always your loyal horse Agro; and  I use the term loyal very loosely. Agro is Wander’s only mode of transport , besides running, and trust me, with a horse like agro you’ll be running a lot. Controlling Agro is like steering a trolley with a broken wheel, repeatedly hitting the ‘X’ button will make the horse go from a gentle trot to a gallop. He isn’t stupid though; if you get too close to a cliff or even a slight ditch in the earth agro come to a grinding halt. Also, when you cross a bridge, get off the horse or you may end up plummeting towards the water below. During colossi battles is where Agro is at his most annoying. On the few occasions I called to him, in need of a quicker escape, he just wandered away in the opposite direction.

I could go on all day abut how beautiful my music is or how the art style looks as if its something out of a painting, but those sort of things are best seen with your own eyes and your own ears.

See? Now wasn’t that like 100 times better than me describing it to you?

Ok, I don’t think there’s much else I can get into regarding this game without entering the dreaded spoiler zone, so let me finish this review with a few final words. If you have a PS2 sitting at home gathering dust in a corner somewhere, take it out , give it a good clean. Then get ahold of a copy of Shadow of the Colossus and immerse yourself in a wonderful game that is, in my honest opinion, still better than many modern adventure/RPG titles to come out in the last 3-4 years. But if your an owner of a PS3, I recommend keeping ahold of that money and get the shiny HD remastered team Ico Collection which contains both Shadow of the Colossus and ICO in one neat package. Here’s the trailer if I’ve managed to pique your curiosity.

I promise it will be worth the wait.

~HeadphoneGirlZ