Poll: Shadow of the Collosus: Amazing or Overrated
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I don't know what you're talking about I saw no abysmal artsy bullshit take the place of performance... they had to reduce the frame rate and use different effects like motion blur to lighten the load on the PS2 hardware and fit the colossi on screen even the huge expansive environment with no loading screens would have made the system self destruct...EvanJO said:
OT: IMO opinion one of the best games of last generation if not the best... great sense of atmosphere and grandeur, improved by the minimalistic approach to gameplay that brought it down to the bare basics of only having boss battles, intense and well designed boss battles at that, and a bittersweet well told and realized story...
I voted amazing after some thought. The only way I could call this game overrated is if I compared it relative to other just as deserving games that are ignored. It's the why I'm annoyed by people constantly advocating "greatest hits" games.
Probably a good mixture of both. I'm going to be honest and say that I didn't get very far in it at all, but what I did play of it was definitely immersive and entertaining, though I definitely wouldn't call it the greatest game I've ever played.
Honestly, I can say that I've never played another game like it, but that doesn't necessarily make it better.
EDIT: And you know, before I lose all my indie cred here, I'm a big fan of original games. I love Viewtiful Joe and I loved VVVVV and World of Goo and Bit.Trip BEAT and Flower and all that kind of stuff. I love artsy games. It's just that Shadow of the Colossus didn't really do it for me as much as I expected it to, especially since I came into with the presumption that it would be one of the greatest games of all time.
Honestly, I can say that I've never played another game like it, but that doesn't necessarily make it better.
EDIT: And you know, before I lose all my indie cred here, I'm a big fan of original games. I love Viewtiful Joe and I loved VVVVV and World of Goo and Bit.Trip BEAT and Flower and all that kind of stuff. I love artsy games. It's just that Shadow of the Colossus didn't really do it for me as much as I expected it to, especially since I came into with the presumption that it would be one of the greatest games of all time.
I liked it, but it definitely gets put up on a ridiculously high pedestal. What I didn't like was that outside the colossi, the world was utterly dead and I definitely would have enjoyed something outside of beating the colossi.
I know a lot of people will argue how it's necessary but I can't agree.
I only managed to beat 5 or 6 of the collosi and I never played Ico, so I'll be picking up the HD collection for sure. Games like these absolutely deserve any support they can get.
I know a lot of people will argue how it's necessary but I can't agree.
I only managed to beat 5 or 6 of the collosi and I never played Ico, so I'll be picking up the HD collection for sure. Games like these absolutely deserve any support they can get.
Both, honestly.
I resent it for creating this sort of unwritten "thing" I've noticed that to be "Art" you have to be "Minimalistic and Bittersweet."
That said, I absolutely still love the game.
I resent it for creating this sort of unwritten "thing" I've noticed that to be "Art" you have to be "Minimalistic and Bittersweet."
That said, I absolutely still love the game.
To be honest, I think if they could they would, for what they did do it was pretty impressive and I agree the area around was pretty dead, but if there is a degree of adventure and problem solving to get to the collosi like say, Uncharted, it would make the experience all the more entertaining.UmJammerSully said:
I personally loved the game, I think the credit it receives is just deserved as it attempted to do something different, it didn't comply with the boring FPS gimmicks, or the boring platformer gimmicks, or the boring God of war QTEs and button bashing gimmicks, it did something new, something out of the box and for that I have to praise it. I praise it more so because it was underated at the time when games like Halo were thrown confetti at and classified as the greatest thing since sliced bread but is within a genre that really hasn't changed much :/
Whenever someone calls SoTC overrated, I simply ask them, well why does God of war deserve so much credit? Or Call of Duty? Or a Fifa game? But SoTC doesn't?
Monster hunter is the same, bad camera, fidgity controls and lots of annoying loading, but is hands down one of my favourite games, why? Because it isn't taking a 'safe route' and sticking with a boring genre that only changes slightly between each milked to hell franchise.
Massive amounts of scenery porn and puzzle gameplay may turn off a lot of players, but I for one absolutely loved the experience. One of my favorite games of the PS2, if not one of my favorite games ever, and it looked and played absolutely beautifully. Hell, I still like it better than most PS3 games.
Nope. It's honestly that good. We don't get very many games like that. Now, maybe it's not as good as games could be, but, in comparison, it shows what a little bit of creative thinking can make. Games don't all have to be the same thing endlessly copying each other just because its in other games.
I'd say that shadow of the colossus was the best puzzle platformer ever, which invariably isn't saying much (honestly I can't even think of another, but if I could, shadow would be better). Moving on though, I wouldn't put it anywhere near the top of the scales as far as general games go, allow me to summerize:
Graphics: you could see what was happening
Story: Basic though suitable
Unlockables: There but kinda pointless
Action: Much cooler feeling platforming
Replay: Lack of one, playthrough once and be done with the thing
Pace: Slow, seriously the distance between colossi was absurd, and trying to collect the fruits in between *shudders*
Greatest Asset: The feel of the game, it made it seem like you were fighting instead of platforming, very well done here
Greatest Flaw: The amount of actual playing time, simple you spend to much time running around, not enough fighting, the game itself is rather quick, most of your play time is spent figuring out what odd situation will let you jump on the back of the colossi.
Now the overrating seems to come primarily from Zero Punctuation who said that shadow of colossus was one of his favorite games. I believe that this is really a distortion of view, that as he was exploring video games, he tended to like the slower paced puzzle games more than fast pace action games he enjoys today.
Graphics: you could see what was happening
Story: Basic though suitable
Unlockables: There but kinda pointless
Action: Much cooler feeling platforming
Replay: Lack of one, playthrough once and be done with the thing
Pace: Slow, seriously the distance between colossi was absurd, and trying to collect the fruits in between *shudders*
Greatest Asset: The feel of the game, it made it seem like you were fighting instead of platforming, very well done here
Greatest Flaw: The amount of actual playing time, simple you spend to much time running around, not enough fighting, the game itself is rather quick, most of your play time is spent figuring out what odd situation will let you jump on the back of the colossi.
Now the overrating seems to come primarily from Zero Punctuation who said that shadow of colossus was one of his favorite games. I believe that this is really a distortion of view, that as he was exploring video games, he tended to like the slower paced puzzle games more than fast pace action games he enjoys today.
First of all, I would like to express some irritation with this holier-than-thou attitude that gamers are either into highbrow artsy games like Okami and SotC or they're simpletons who play FPSs like CoD. Guess what? I've been playing video games since 1988, and there are SO many games outside of this tiny bubble. System Shock 2, DGeneration, Super Metroid, Deus Ex, Mechwarrior 2, Metal Gear Solid 1,2 and 3, Fatal Frame, Portal and Final Fantasy Tactics are all amazing games with excellent use of atmosphere. They had storylines that propelled the player to want to continue the game. They gave the player choices. Ico is a damn fine game, and one of the best platformers on PS2, along with Klonoa 2, the Prince of Persia series, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, Haven Call of the King, Ape Escape 2 and of course the Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Dexter series. Ico took the escort game play mechanic and made it fresh. SotC looked like it was going to be fresh, but after I beat about 5 colossi I just got frustrated with how repetitive the gameplay was. Why am I stabbing these poor walking statues? I didn't want to, they seemed like they were minding their own business. And why is it so easy to kill them? The puzzle element was just nonexistent. Just climb, hold, stab and repeat. On top of that, the storyline was too minimal for me to have any emotional attachment. Add awful controls and a camera that is capable of giving you motion sickness and you don't have a must-play PS2 title in the least.
It's amazing, but I think you have to be open to it being amazing. If you come to it wanting the game to turn you around in your opinion, or to tear apart it's reputation, then it's pretty much open season. It's lovely and delicate but in a way without much forceful enjoyment. It's there to be enjoyed, but it's doesn't make you enjoy it
You should try the PS3 version, frame rates are much better there. Plus it comes along with ICO, so there's that.EvanJO said:
OT: Shadow of the Colossus is one of, if not my most favorite game. I still remember the day I watched footage from the game on a DVD that came out of a Playstation magazine. I was awestruck by how big the Colossi were, so I decided to rent the game for a little bit when it came out. Unfortunately, I didn't finish it at the time.
A few years later, I bought the game for cheap and played through the whole thing. I freaking loved it all.
A couple more years later, the ICO HD collection came out and I got it almost day 1. It was mostly so I could play ICO as I've never played the game before hand, but a remastered version of one of my favorite games was a huge bonus.
Goddamit, I still need to get that game eventually. But it costs so much online. >_<Abandon4093 said:
I'm a big fan so I'll have to go for "Amazing" out of the two. There isn't much like it so it has a special place in my collection just for that.
I don't think it'll be put much better than this, so I'll just quote it again for emphasis. I think the same can be said for Ico.BrotherRool said:
Oh dear, another thread has been necro-posted in.
From...somewhere on the latter half of page 1, it looks like.
Anyway, it's a bit of both.
It's a truly amazing experience, but extremely overblown by fans.
But with that said, keep shouting nothing but praise for it. Because despite it being overrated, it's still not overrated/popular enough. Bit of a paradox, really. Just like the "story". Simultaneously super shallow while being super deep.
I guess playing SotC is a bit like biting into a Starbust.
From...somewhere on the latter half of page 1, it looks like.
Anyway, it's a bit of both.
It's a truly amazing experience, but extremely overblown by fans.
But with that said, keep shouting nothing but praise for it. Because despite it being overrated, it's still not overrated/popular enough. Bit of a paradox, really. Just like the "story". Simultaneously super shallow while being super deep.
I guess playing SotC is a bit like biting into a Starbust.
I've played the same PS2 copy several times - more recently last February - and I don't recall a single frame rate issue. And it'd still be the amazing game it is, with or without them.