Game Review: Shadow of the Colossus and Ico Collection

I'll give you the TL:DNR right up front: Let it never be said that video games can't be art.

Finally, after months of waiting and not nearly as many dollars as I'd be willing to pay for it, the Shadow of the Colossus and Ico Collection has been released. And even as someone who has religiously played it before, I'm. Blown. Away.

In case you don't know, the gist of Shadow of the Colossus is as follows: you are Wander. You bring the body of the (recently sacrificed) girl important to you to the forbidden land to try to resurrect her through the power of a long-banished god. (Girlfriend? Sister? The relationship is obviously deep, but vague.) This god tells you that he will do as you wish... if you help him/her by killing the 16 monsters through the land that lock away the god's stolen power- the power needed to do it. Kill the monster, save the princess, so stereotypical, I know.

But it's not.

These monsters are literal Colossi. They loom at always intimidating sizes, dwarfing you by hundreds to thousands of feet. Some swim, some fly, some burrow, and every time you must overcome their sheer size by using the environment, their own behavior and if/when they notice you, and your beloved horse. Another thing, there are no weapons to collect- you basically get what amounts to a butter knife of a sword and your bow and arrows. Certainly not least on the list of things to mention, there is nothing else in this massive world to defeat save for the Colossi. This gets.. unnerving.

Small spoiler ahead: And the last thing, which changed my entire perspective on the game, takes a while to fully realize but is always a presence of sorts. The Colossi, in all their infinite power and immense size, never really fight back. They for the most part will ignore you, and simply try to rid themselves of you- they don't shoot to kill, so to speak. This gets to me in a deep sense- you are killing a gentle giant, something massive and peaceful and for what? Can you really call that worthwhile? And the music is epic and beautiful and haunting and makes this even stronger- it perfectly enough is silent in general overworld exploring, intimidating when you spot a Colossi, epic and intense in the fight itself... and then haunting. Sad. After the Colossi is dead, the music seems akin to something at a funeral or in a real tearjerking death scene of a movie. I won't lie, I might have got a little something in my eye. Every time.

Ico came out previous to SoC, but would be considered a sequel of sorts... I think. Like the Zelda franchise, it's not really given a point of comparison, at least chronologically. I was never able to play through Ico, to be honest- once I heard about it, it was rare as all get out and my Gamestop had me in their phonebook in case someone traded a copy in. No such luck, till now.

The music is even better than I remembered and amazingly so. The male and female combined voice of the god, Dormin, is even more unsettling and entrancing than last go around. The epic, realistic-for-ps2 and gorgeous graphics are cleaner and more beautiful than many ps3 games I've seen. The special features are nothing short of mind-boggling and draw you in and make a die hard fan of anyone.

The only complaint I, or anyone else has really ever had about this game is the camera. It can be glitchy, but I was always able to swing it right where it needed to be. Some people complain about your horse's controls, but as a rider and owner of horses myself, I think the controls are realistic and have an amazingly perfect learning curve that's proportional to real horseback riding.

Noticing a trend here? Like the fact that beautiful is the most common adjective right now? It's not unwarranted.

This isn't a game you play. This is a game you experience.