PlayStation Hardware & Games

Forget everything you know about fantasy adventures.

Video: 3
Sound: 2
Gameplay: 5

Cynics would say that, in the video-game world, there is nothing new under the sun, that every genre has been explored ad infinitum, that the only frontiers are graphics capability or perhaps some new celebrity endorsement.

Those people haven't played Shadow of the Colossus.

This single-player, third-person action/adventure is essentially a long string of boss battles, but, oh, what bosses, and finding each of them is a major commitment in itself. We are tasked with destroying 16 different colossi (that's the plural of colossus for those of you who flunked Latin): Beat them all, and you may gain the secret to bringing a loved one back to life. A magic sword, keen eyes, attention to force feedback, and lots and lots of patience will bring you toe to toe with your foes (those of them who have toes, anyway), and then a completely new trial begins, as you need to figure out the weakness of a colossus and how to exploit it. Make no mistake, Colossus is not for the casual gamer. It gives players a lot of credit—that they have the smarts, the skills, and the persistence to ride, run, swim, climb, slash, and shoot (arrows) their way to victory again and again.

While you do have quests before you, they are not so pressing that you can't find the time to ride your trusty horse around the expansive, gorgeous landscape of this mythic land. The production design is breathtaking, a real selling point. Therefore its a shame that the graphics do not always pay it the proper respect. Players will really feel the PlayStation 2 straining to keep up, as background items suddenly pop into the frame or the face of a distant mountain is slowly, noticeably drawn right before our eyes as we approach, compromising the desired fantasy mood. It's all here: light and shadow, dust and other minutiae. But the depiction, such as the grass at our feet or the texture of a nearby rock wall can look not so hot, with a distracting twitchiness in wide shots that have lots of fine detail. However, I can't stress enough how much of an improvement there was when I switched to progressive scan and 16:9 mode. You need to select both of these features in the options menu, but, for some reason, the packaging doesn't mention them! Audio is a simple stereo mix that never does all it can with the wind, localized sounds, noises of horses prancing around us off screen, or the big, lumbering enemies. The controls, including those for the camera, take some getting used to, but so much else is new here, why shouldn't this be true for the sticks and buttons?

The best thing about this game might be that nothing is easy, or obvious, but the truly fresh, seemingly endless challenges are their own reward for us dedicated souls.