Shadow of the Colossus

Just got through beating Shadow of the Colossus and I must say that it is a spectacular game. It works on so many levels and it is one of the best games available on the PS2 platform. With the current-gen systems chugging along with their HD graphics you may be asking yourself why I'd go back and play this last-gen game. Well a great game is a great game no matter when it was released or how it looks compared to current games. I had heard so much hype about this game and I saw it for $5 at Target one day so I snatched it up. I think they may have had it at that price in error because I've never seen even crappy discount games going for that cheap.

The game is different than your typical sword fighting game. Instead of there being several mini enemies as you progress through a stage, there are only 16 enemies in the ENTIRE game. That's no typo, 16. The thing is that these enemies are colossi and they sometimes take up the entire screen. You pretty much start out as a dude who needs to kill 16 colossi to bring his girl back to life. It's as simple as that. The simplicity of the game is another thing that makes it so appealing. It's just you, your faithful horse, your sword, and bow. That's it. You travel to various locations in the game world and take down these huge beasts. It gets pretty intimidating each time you encounter a colossi and it all plays out kind of like a puzzle game. You need to locate their weakness and find a way to attack it. Repeat 16 times and you got yourself a classic. Even the story elements are very simple and you never get much plot other than at the very end of the game. This is one you're going to want to watch until the end of the credits too and the ending is one of the best I've seen in a video game.

The only complaint I would have about this game would be that sometimes the controls can get to be pretty wonky and so does the camera. It's not a big deal but sometimes it gets in the way of what you want to do. I would highly recommend that anyone who appreciates good games pick this one up. It elevates gaming to an art form and the simple story speaks to how sometimes man can destroy their surroundings with no regard to the consequences while at the same time telling the story of a man who will stop at nothing to be reunited with his love.