Poetry in motion

Author's Rating:

Pros: Music, boss battles, story, graphics, and everything else

Cons: at first the controls

The Bottom Line: 
Just a breath taking game

Author's Review
Every now and then there comes a game that just changes the way people play games, and Shadow of the Colossus is that game. The game will mesmerize people with its gorgeous graphics, expansive world, incredible boss fights and over all feel.


SotC has a rather simple theme and feel to it. The story starts out with a boy, on a horse, taking a girl to a forbidden land to revive her trough a banned ritual. To revive the girl, the boy must kill 16 colossi to do it.


From start to finish all the boy has to kill the massive colossi is a bow, a sword, his wits and his horse Agro. This is a formula to some of the most incredible boss fights ever. All the colossi have their own tactic and each one is killed in a different manner. Most of the fun is just trying to figure out how to get on the beasts in the first place. In the 40 minutes that it takes to kill some of the colossi maybe about two minutes will be stabbing the beast while the rest is just getting on the beast. When you do manage to get on the beast it will have vital points that you need to attack, this adds another layer to the fights. While all the boss fights are incredible some are just jaw droppers, like the ones that have the boy having on for dear life while he’s hanging off the fur of a flying colossus or trying to kill a colossus that has no visible weak spot. Once you do beat the game, there’s still quiet a bit of things to do. For one, there’s a time attack mode that has the player kill colossi in a fraction of the time it took to take them down the first time around. The game will reward the player with new weapons every other colossi and if someone wants to gain the title Giant Killer than they can try out the hard mode.


There is nothing in between the boy and his targets, just vast, empty, beautiful environments. There are no minimal enemies or no NPCs inhabiting the land. It goes against the normal structure of most games and it’s a welcomed change. Some might say “then what’s the point of exploring the vast world?” Words can’t really explain it. It’s just feels wonderful exploring the lands and finding views of the deserts, forests, plains, mountains, lakes, springs, and wastelands of SotC.


And these environments look wonderful, so do the colossi and other character models. Everything from the fur of the colossi, the environments, animals, and animations, even the dirt that is kicked up by the colossi, looks rich in detail. The animation is also top notch, the horse moves and acts just like you would expect it to move, same goes for all the Colossi.


As for the music, it is pure brilliance. All the songs are composed by orchestra. It really helps make the battles that much better, easily the soundtrack of the year, and when the boy is just traveling….Complete silence, which helps amplify the tone of isolation.

While there really isn’t a story to speak of until the very end, the game is wide open for interpretation. In fact the horse seemed to have more personality than most main characters of other games.


Now this game isn’t flawless. There’s still some slowdown while fighting the colossi and the controls could have been better but all this is forgotten after the second or third boss fight. Also the camera can be troublesome, it always seems to make the game look cinematic but at times the camera gets in the way of actually seeing where the character is moving.


SotC is easily one of the most beautiful, original, and marvelous games out there. The game is a piece of art that will amaze anyone who plays it. SotC is easily one of the best games to come out, not this year, but also this entire generation.
For people who are open to new game 10 out of 10
Any other gamer 10 out of 10
For average joe 8 out of 10