It's great. Although I don't think it's great for the same reason that some people do. I'm sure there are people who share my opinion too, but there are some aspects of it that are perhaps slightly overrated.
I really love the game for its gameplay and atmosphere. Climbing on enemies was really exciting. The way the controls worked, and the way you moved was really interesting. It really made you feel like you were tiny, and these creatures really were alive and it really sold their size too. Working out how to defeat them was another aspect that made them feel like real, living entities. It didn't feel like you were watching their patterns and looking for an opening, but rather just watching their behaviour in their habitat. They react to you in a believable way too, that also emphasises their size and realism.
Part of that also adds to the atmosphere, but there's so much other stuff that does that too. The music for one thing definitely does a great job of setting the tone. The world design and lighting do it too. It makes it feel like an incredibly lonely experience, but it's almost spiritual in a way too. It feels ethereal; dream-like. The sheer size of it also makes you feel tiny and insignificant, much like the Colossi themselves. The vagueness if it adds to the lonely and ghostly feel as well. The way that you're never really sure who Wander or his girlfriend are. We don't even know if she's his girlfriend. She could be anyone, we don't know. When I played it I somehow got the impression that maybe Wander was the one responsible for her death, but it's never told to you. Dormin also adds to the mysterious feel. We have no idea who he really is, except that he's extremely powerful, and is for some reason helping you. He seems distant too. Like he's on a completely different plane of existence. Maybe he's manipulating you for his own ends, you don't know.
But this kind of stuff leads me to one thing that I think isn't as great as some people say; the story. There isn't really one. You kill the Colossi, and get increasingly long and vivid hallucinations after each one. Then at the end some crazy shit happens, which doesn't really explain a whole lot. I wasn't particularly moved, I was mostly left confused. Granted, that was a long time ago and maybe if I played it through again (I really need to get round to that) it'll make more sense, but even if I did get more out of it, I still don't think it's worth the praise that some people give to it. I guess you could argue that it's meant to be open for interpretation, but I feel like that excuse is too liberally applied to a lot of works that are designed to vague because they're pretentious. I don't think the game is pretentious, because it does such a great job in all other aspects, but I just feel like maybe this aspect isn't as good as people sometimes make it out to be.
That's also why I think making a movie out of this game is an apocalyptically bad idea! This game is not about narrative! It's about atmosphere. It's an experience you envelop yourself in. It's not a story you can turn in to a traditional story arc! Maybe you could get some kind of strange art film out of it, but there's no way you can turn it in to a Hollywood style story which general audiences will eat up. But judging by previous attempts to turn games in to films, that's exactly what they will try to do. Badly too. But even if they did try to make an art film out of it, then you can get that same experience, but much better, if you just play the game.
I really love the game for its gameplay and atmosphere. Climbing on enemies was really exciting. The way the controls worked, and the way you moved was really interesting. It really made you feel like you were tiny, and these creatures really were alive and it really sold their size too. Working out how to defeat them was another aspect that made them feel like real, living entities. It didn't feel like you were watching their patterns and looking for an opening, but rather just watching their behaviour in their habitat. They react to you in a believable way too, that also emphasises their size and realism.
Part of that also adds to the atmosphere, but there's so much other stuff that does that too. The music for one thing definitely does a great job of setting the tone. The world design and lighting do it too. It makes it feel like an incredibly lonely experience, but it's almost spiritual in a way too. It feels ethereal; dream-like. The sheer size of it also makes you feel tiny and insignificant, much like the Colossi themselves. The vagueness if it adds to the lonely and ghostly feel as well. The way that you're never really sure who Wander or his girlfriend are. We don't even know if she's his girlfriend. She could be anyone, we don't know. When I played it I somehow got the impression that maybe Wander was the one responsible for her death, but it's never told to you. Dormin also adds to the mysterious feel. We have no idea who he really is, except that he's extremely powerful, and is for some reason helping you. He seems distant too. Like he's on a completely different plane of existence. Maybe he's manipulating you for his own ends, you don't know.
But this kind of stuff leads me to one thing that I think isn't as great as some people say; the story. There isn't really one. You kill the Colossi, and get increasingly long and vivid hallucinations after each one. Then at the end some crazy shit happens, which doesn't really explain a whole lot. I wasn't particularly moved, I was mostly left confused. Granted, that was a long time ago and maybe if I played it through again (I really need to get round to that) it'll make more sense, but even if I did get more out of it, I still don't think it's worth the praise that some people give to it. I guess you could argue that it's meant to be open for interpretation, but I feel like that excuse is too liberally applied to a lot of works that are designed to vague because they're pretentious. I don't think the game is pretentious, because it does such a great job in all other aspects, but I just feel like maybe this aspect isn't as good as people sometimes make it out to be.
That's also why I think making a movie out of this game is an apocalyptically bad idea! This game is not about narrative! It's about atmosphere. It's an experience you envelop yourself in. It's not a story you can turn in to a traditional story arc! Maybe you could get some kind of strange art film out of it, but there's no way you can turn it in to a Hollywood style story which general audiences will eat up. But judging by previous attempts to turn games in to films, that's exactly what they will try to do. Badly too. But even if they did try to make an art film out of it, then you can get that same experience, but much better, if you just play the game.