The start of a Revolution, It will change the way you play and think about video games.
Noticeably the environment is beautiful and rich, with the graphics being top notch its clear developers spent time looking at different landscapes and terrains, managing to fit them all into one huge peninsula. The characters and especially the colossi also look fantastic, the game has the best graphics created on the PS2 and this is just be another addition to its already large amount of praise. The peninsula is surrounded by high mountains being sealed off with a giant bridge being the only way of entrance. Terrains scattered around the environment are deserts, forests, lakes, salt pans, valleys and fields. To reach certain colossi it takes a detour around these terrains. Solitude a major theme found in both Shadow and ICO is associated with the environment. It overwhelms you with feelings of loneliness, sadness and despair in comparison to other games a majority of whom tend to scatter their environments with living and breathing creatures, various structures and foliage in doing so bring their worlds alive. However the complete lack of any of these in Shadow forces you to visualise what the world was like before to how it is now raising questions about this peculiar wasteland that can be interpreted as a prison of some sort for the colossi that inhabit it.
From the brief introduction in which you see a young warrior on a horse travelling through cliffs and forests to a peninsula known as the forbidden land only connected to the rest of the world through a steep and narrow bridge. It becomes clear that the player assumes the role of the warrior who is known as Wander. It is further revealed that Wander has come to a faraway temple (one of the games few manmade structures) in the hopes of restoring the health of a girl whom he has brought with him. A voice of a god like entity in the walls of the temple instructs Wander that in order for the girl to be saved sixteen giants known as the colossi that roam various terrains around the temple must be hunt down and killed. Thus the player assumes the role of Wander and sets out on his quest regardless of the player knowing what relationship the girl has with our hero, is she a wife or sister? Is she is merely injured or in fact dead? Not to mention the questions surrounding the colossi and how exactly can they restore your loved one. The entity makes it clear that regardless of whether you slay all the colossi that there is a chance of the girl not being restored, which places doubt but regardless our hero is clearly not affected by this and continues on his quest which helps establish an even greater sense of purpose of your actions as a player. As you want to restore her to health and find out who she was, what happened to her and what connection she shares with Wander, this all aside from completing the game.
Wanders arsenal consists of a sword that with reflection of light beams can direct the player to colossi, a bow and his beloved horse Agro. Pacing in the game is different from your normal action adventure game as it can vary between being very fast and intense to very slow and calm. The gameplay is an example as it broken into two parts. You are given a brief hint of the colossi you need to find by the entity as you leave the temple in search of it. After the finding the beast you engage and kill it. As its body lies on the ground Wander absorbs its essence, and you find yourself waking up in a dreamlike haze back in the temple and have to continue this process throughout the remainder of the game. Controls can be a pain at times and take time getting used to as they don't feel very precise or responsive. Mechanics such as jumping, climbing and horse riding are an example and take time perfecting but are inevitably mastered easily. Horse animations are done fantastically as Agro responds to Wander when he whistles and behaves like a real horse whether mounted on or off. Such examples are when Agro draws to a halt when running at the edge of a cliff and his tendency to sometimes ignore the player when he is being called. Wander if the player pays attentions slowly changes in appearances with his skin becoming paler and black veins appearing after slaying each colossi which is just an example of the amount of detail developers included.
Aside from hunting the real challenge is finding each individual colossi's weak spot which is a single glyph that can be located anywhere the on the colossi's body. This makes the game challenging as the colossi aren't just about to let you climb up and stab away at their tender regions they'll thrash and buck wildly trying to remove you. This almost makes it a puzzle adventure type of game as you use your weapons and environment as an advantage over each of your enemies. Battles with the colossi are the most frantic and intense sequences of the game with beautifully powerful orchestral scores in the background. The colossi are the real stars of the show as they look stunning and all of them are unique as they come in different sizes and shapes, so no battles are the same; however they all share a common feature of having fur and stone protruding around their bodies which makes it possible to climb them. Normal enemies found in games at the largest can be compared to houses whereas colossi are skyscrapers, this is incorporated to their animations as the closer they get to you the more the ground shakes and they pierce the air with roars of anger. These epic battles create a sense of moral ambiguity as most colossi aren't aggressive with only a small minority attacking Wander on sight. Most of them just regard him with curiosity and indifference when he approaches them, the game makes you feel sympathy for the colossi as you are slaying them for your own selfish desire even if the storyline isn't developed, at the end you do realise who the bad guy is.
During the course of the game as you travel all over the forbidden land no music plays whatsoever and all that can be heard is the wind blowing and water sound effects. But when you engage a colossi the music conveys the mood of the situation whether the colossi is peacefully ignoring you or on a destructive rampage. The moment you climb on a colossi or anger it you'll hear a great swell in the music that perfectly enhances the tension and excitement of the battle. The colossi being the only enemy in the game make fantastic boss characters and will be well remembered for their uniqueness.
Unavoidable and unique in almost everyway Shadow of the Colossus will always be remembered as a true classic and masterpieces regardless of its minor setbacks which are totally ignored in comparison to the milestones it has achieved. Its short length will be overlooked and just be another reason to go back replay all those epic boss battles that will give you an intense and thrilling experience repeatedly.