SHADOW OF COLOSSUS

[unkown]

When you play SoC, u will notice two things; 1, the graphics are, in my opinion, the best looking graphics to hit the ps2 thus far. When I mean thus far, I mean every single ps2 game that has come out since the launch of the ps2. That’s saying a ‘lot. The second thing u will notice is the free roaming and MASSIVE environments. The landscape stretches for miles upon miles and u can actually see the mountains and trees in the distance. (remember, this is the PS2 we're talking about) The scenery will occastionally pop up as you get closer.
Now ill get to the story line. The opening scenes show a young man with a sword on a horse carrying a young maiden. As the scenes progress, we come to a temple where the young man places the maiden on a stone bed. We soon learn that the young woman is actually dead and that the young man brought her to the temple to try to get back her soul. However, in order to do this, he must kill the 16 colossus. After he kills the last one, he is given the power to bring the dead back to life.... that’s all ill say for the story line.
If theres one thing that might turn gamers away from this game, it is the open ended storyline. You bring the dead girl to the temple, go and kill 16 colossi and come back with a very cool new power. There are no side quests, potions or the ability to customize and upgrade your character. The only things to do are walk /ride around and kill the colossi. So, those of you who like leveling up and designing your character and going on tons and tons of missions, this may not be the game for you. Others might also be turned off by the combat scheme. Players are only equipped with a bow-and-arrow, sword and a black steed as your mode of transportation. The bow fires the arrows and the sword has one slash attack. Players do not find other weapons later in the game. Your horse, however, is soooo much fun to ride. Your animal companion is also immortal (cannot die) and always giving players a means of transportation. Its A.I. is also smart. However, I’m not saying that these draw backs (minus what i said about the horse) are a bad thing. The beauty of SoC is in its simplicity and mysterious storyline. From the beginning, little is known about the characters and their situation. The characters names arent even given, not just in the beginning though, players never find out the names of the young warrior and maiden. We don’t why the maiden is dead or whether or not the young man will even be able to bring her back to life. The player’s quest and his/her outcome are uncertain. However, since the characters backgrounds all shaded in mystery, you begin to want to know what has happened to these two mysterious figures. You slowly become attached. You end up wanting to complete the journey and see what will happen. That is what makes SoC so alluring.
Like I mentioned in the beginning, the graphics are THE best I’ve seen on the PS2 to date. The character models and your horse are very nice to look at and their movements and expressions are very smooth and fluid. I can’t say enough on how fluid and realistic the characters movements are. I don’t know if they used motion capturing or not, but A LOT of work obviously went into bringing the characters to life. The colors are vibrant, the lighting is exceptional, the attention to detail is unmatched and the scenery is mesmerizing. The size of the landscapes is also unmatched for any ps2 game and the frame rate is excellent. The load times are short and players are free to go wherever they choose. SoC also gets rid of the pesky problem of loading between areas. Players can roam through one area to the next without pesky loading screens. The only time you see a load screen is when u load a saved game.
The games mythical creatures, known as the colossi’s, are pure eye candy. Hell, the whole game is pure eye candy. These gigantic creatures will have u staring at the screen in disbelief. You really get a great sense of how big they are compared to you and the surrounding landscapes. Each colossus is unique and each has its own way of dealing with u. However, all colossi’s are killed the same way. You climb onto the colossus and find strange blue symbols located in various spots. You then take your sword and repeatedly stab the blue symbols until the colossi is no more. The parts that make it different are deciding how to climb up on a colossi and how much damage each can take.
The music in SoC is some of the best I have ever heard in a video game. The music that accompanies the opening scenes is particuarly great. The music also sets up the games mood and overall feeling quite nicely. When riding your horse, u get this great sense of calm but at the same time uncertainty. SoC musical pieces truly bring out your deepest emotions.
My only complaints about this game are that there is no button that can be pressed to re-center the camera. Secondly, when climbing up a colossus, controlling your character and trying to get him into position can sometimes be quite aggravating.
The fun isnt over once u beat the game. Players unlock trial attack mode with two levels of difficulty, normal and hard. Once u resart your journey, u unlock items for every two collossi's u kill. A total of 16 items can be unlocked.
Despite some player control issues, SoC is a magnificent game that is short, sweet and to the point. Definitely one of the greatest games ever. If u see this on the shelf’s, do your self a huge favor and buy this game. 9.8/10
Oh, one last thing. When u finally beat the 16th colossi, put your controller down and do not pick it up until the word "end" comes up on your T.V. U might accidently press a button and miss one of the greatest endings in a video game.

[Spite]

The game looks seriously good... but I honestly think I'm in danger with forgetting it, with the flood of squiglyspooch tinglingly good games out this month. I mean HONESTLY:

Quake 4
F.E.A.R.
Soul Calubur 3
Black & White 2
Dawn of War:Winter Assault
Rag Doll Kung FU

Are they TRYING to make me a complete social recluse for the next month or two?!

P.S. sorry for gettin off topic.. I just dont have much more praise for the game that hasnt already been covered by unkown. Buy it. Buy it now. Sell your grandmothers bones to the black market if you have to, just get it now, if you can tear yourself away from one of the above (inferior) games you may have already purchased.

[Eck0sound]

I've been waiting for this game to come out forever...now that you've rated it ...I must buy it.
_________________

[Spooki]

SoC was my most anticipated game of the year, and now it is my second-most-played game of all time. It is, to put it simply, amazement given form.

[Blakkaiser]

SoC is a great game. The simple but compelling storyline and amazing visuals are something to be admired.

[reciproheat]

Fighting and winning against the colossi = yay

Searching out where they're hiding =

It's just like fishing- but the fish is a giant monster that wants to kill you.

[kamikaze999]

I think God Of War n Resident Evil 4 look better thn SoC.The framerate isn't tht impressive either, though it doesn't hinder gameplay. Those r the only complaints i can lvl at this unique masterpiece of a game. Its so creative n fresh n fun. No stupid gimmicks, n the simplistic gameplay makes it more fun......

Btw, u can kill ur horse. Ride him onto the bridge above the place u fight the 2nd Colossi n jump down to the lake. You might die though, if the game hasn't loaded the water physics of the lake. But if u survive, come onto shore n summon ur horse. He will jump down from sumwhere high n promptly die. Note: U'll recognize him as a tiny dot falling some distance away. And u wun get a game over if ur horse dies

P.S: I hav only succeeded in killing my horse in 5 attempts, so patience is needed

[siden87]

Yup, I've just played SoC and like what others said, the graphic is superb! Even so, I'm still confuse with the mission, because that place are too huge to be explored...and the usage of ray of light, I'm still don't understand the usage of it...

[mr_quackers]

Yeah awesome game. Great graphics etc. Fun exciting. ROFL@Horse killing. (Too bad he didn't die that other time) The Ray of light isn't really supposed to be the greatest things. Just supposed to give you a vague location of the where the colossi are. That's part of the fun. Although I agree finding them can be a pain and you may think you are lost, but you are probably going in the right direction just missed a turn somewhere. Or it is more obvious than you think, heh. I would have to comment on the first post though. After you kill the 16th Colossus don't put down your controller because one of the best parts is at the end.

Another comment about the first post. The horse controls are annoying. The horse AI is dumb and annoying. It constantly runs you into places where it will stop you because it can't walk over this or it can't jump off that. There are certain places, like in the dessert, that you can take your horse jumping off of sand dunes and etc. but it's not that great since those places are limited. The only thing I thought was fitting about the horse was probably it's name. Agro. That was splendid.

[Soujiroh]

My favorite game this year by far. It has sweet graphics and also good game play

[Mal]

The search menu did'nt find this topic T_T. Ok.

I think there is not much left to be said about this game since everyone has said pretty much everything that is good about it lol.
Kow Otani really had out done himself with the pieces. I just loved how everytime you face a Collosi a new different piece is played and trully blend in with the gameplay.

Sorry again for that topic.

[subiworld]

I like the new concept of SOC but I still think ICQ is better.

[0ni-]

yeah i agree, soc is a great game..im so pissed off that i lost my saved record...i was on like the 14th collossus
_________________
If a quiz is quizzical, what is a test?

[subzero]

I lve the game very much!! it feels like we're playing online game the field are wide expand and the scenary are really great...

but in comparison I like monster hunter than shadow of collosus...coz we can't ugrade oer weapon and armor

but still I would say this is a very good game indeed

n_n
_________________
[img:100:178:a114987e05]http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/2462/gif6dm.gif[/img:a114987e05]
THOSE WHO WITH FRIENDSHIP...

[FaithZ]