Poll: Shadow of the Colossus -- Where do you Stand?

[gamernerdtg2]

I'm not one to use modern gamer bias when talking about older gen games. SotC was certainly a classic, but I could not stand the story. They need the 3rd entry of this series to bring it around.

Ico on the other hand...that game is what I would call a masterpiece.

 

[Jumplion]

Shadow of the Collosus is one of my favorite games of all time. It is one of the few games that have actually made me cry full blown tears of non-manly-ness.

I don't really get the complaints of the controls, I thought they worked just fine. The controls are very simplistic, there's a grab button, jump button, and use botton with a few other things in there. Sure, getting onto Agro/Argo was annoying from time to time, but overall I thought the controls were just fine.

Regardless, this game hits close to my heart for me for its story and overall narrative. I could go into a whole in-depth analysis of these subtleties and themes in this game, like how Wander can barely wield a sword (implied to be stolen from his tribe) but can fire a bow and arrow perfectly and on horseback no less, or the themes of holding on and letting go that are weaved directly into the gameplay, but I'm too lazy to go into all of that right now.

If people deride the game's wonky-ish controls and sometimes troublesome camera and stop there to declare "This game is overhyped!" then I feel they're being especially unreasonable and overcritical to the game. Like, that has been the only consistent complaint about the game from its detractors that I've seen, and because of that it's instantly determined to be "overhyped" for some reason.

 

[porous_shield]

The controls and camera took me a good long while to get used to and even when I did I was still grumbling about them when I finished the game. I wish the game was a little more upfront about the controls but I still love the game and I plan on playing it again once I have some time.

I enjoyed riding around and looking for the colossi, however, a friend of mine gave up on the game because he found that aspect boring and kept asking me things like "What else is there to do?" and "All you do is kill these things?" He couldn't get into it at all and I can easily see how the game wouldn't be up most people's alley.

 

[Marik2]

I've never played the game, but I just don't get how it can be so good with nothing to do other than kill 16 bosses?

I'd love to hear from posters what makes it so good, but it just seems like something of an empty game to me?

Halfway into the game and it is really good so far(killed like 7 colossi). The colossi are pretty creative and each have a different way of defeating them and the environments make good scenery.

Yeah it has a simple story of a guy wanting to resurrect his dead wife, but the game is hinting that it may be a bad idea.

 

[Foolery]

The controls always felt floaty to me. Never had much of an issue with the camera. Still a great game, on PS2 and PS3.

 

[Windcaler]

I went and plugged in my PS2 to play the game a bit before I came back here just so no one could scream "nostalgia" as if thats ever been some kind of hypnotic suggestion that makes something better then it actually was, but I digress. Theres a reason SotC is in my top 10 favorite games of all time list and its because its a freaking masterpiece. Its a large, beautiful, yet empty world with just you, your horse, your lover, and a bunch of collossi, It really does feel disconnected from the rest of their society

 

[Jazoni89]

It's one of my all-time favorite PS2 games, and it's a real artistic masterpiece. Though what does sadden me a whole lot about the game is how many colossi were cut from the game, including a spider colossi which you got on it's body by hitting it's legs, or the gargoyle colossi that you had to sneak behind to get on it's back.

The game was originally going to have 24 colossi, and this was confirmed by the developers, and the art book illustrations. These were modeled and created for the game, with around two dozen more in concept only. These several, or so unused Colossi can be seen in beta footage, and pictures.

http://shadowofthecolossus.wikia.com/wiki/Unused_Colossi

What could of been...though some of the ideas for the unused colossi did live on somewhat in the ones that did make it in the game, though i wish some of the smaller colossi got cut in favor of some of these.

Also, something of interest, certain potential locations for these lost colossi have been found in a pre-released version of the game. Including a strange unfinished dam part far beyond the borders of the game.

Spoiler

Such mystery, and such intriguing discoveries, and speculation. Shadow of the Colossus had a interesting development period to say the least.

 

[Tazzman]

I liked the game, didn't get pulled in by the story at all but the collossi and the environments were brillient. Although the time trials and lizards got on my nerves (seriously why the hell would the game expect me to shoot random lizards on the floor)

 

[FootloosePhoenix]

Shadow of the Colossus is amazing and I love it, but I can't appreciate it as much as I used to due to the controls. And that FUCKING THIRTEENTH COLOSSUS. I've called Agro some very unkind things during that battle. I think it would be a flawless experience for me if they were just a little tighter and less "aim yourself this way and pray to whatever gods rule the SotC world that this doesn't turn to shit before your eyes." Funny enough, I didn't even notice that they were funky when I first played the game on PS2, but when I received the HD remake a few Christmases ago...man, that was a bit of a shock to the system. I would say maybe I just suck at video games now, but other people seem to feel similarly.

I guess the simplest way of putting it would be that the controls are needlessly frustrating. Maybe the developers intended it to be that way, but I would have preferred it if the difficulty came from the might of the Colossi themselves (and it already does), not Wander being a putz. That said, talking about Shadow of the Colossus has given me a real craving to try playing it again.

 

[Zeh Don]

I've never played the game, but I just don't get how it can be so good with nothing to do other than kill 16 bosses?

I'd love to hear from posters what makes it so good, but it just seems like something of an empty game to me?

I mentioned in my previous post, but that "empty game" is really apart of the experience. The landscape of the game is vast and empty, sure, but it's that way for an intended reason - to create particular feelings and emotions. When it works, it's pretty incredible. After the first Colossi or so, this begins to sink in and it becomes apart of the experience.
It's not everyone's cup of tea though, and some people simply don't like it.

On top of this, each of the Colossi are literally living puzzles. Taking each one down requires study, thought, planning and adaptation. It's not Mario style 3-hit bosses here, we're talking multi-stage giant battles that require you to perform a vast array of strategies in tandem. Some are better than others, but they're all generally pretty good and inventive.

The overall "feeling" of the game is what fans love, but the "game" elements are pretty decent too. I think it's a tad over-rated - there just isn't enough to sink my teeth into for it to really be a classic - but it's a pretty good game.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

I said a bit dated, just because that was the closet to my actual answer. Some of it I loved, like the horse riding. It's awkward and kind of difficult to start off with, but that's because it's supposed to feel like it's a horse with a will of it's own. It feels miles better than anything I've tried in other games where they treat riding a horse as just an upgrade to how fast you can move, occasionally making it harder to turn quickly.

Where it falters a bit is the climbing controls,there's occasions where they act up. While the idea behind the gameplay is great, and the puzzles are implemented very well, the climbing controls just don't work as well. It's irritating when you feel like you can't do anything about a situation besides be flung around helplessly unless you hit that golden spot where you stand a chance. Notably I'm thinking of the bearded colossi where his hand was just about impossible to stab. The only way I could get it was by getting in a short stab immediately after getting on it and then jumping off so he'll reset and I can stab him again. I don't actually remember having this problem in the PS2 edition, so I think that the PS3 release might have changed something that made it more difficult.

More than anything what I would have wanted was a way to control your ability to hold on as the colossi are shaking a little bit better. So it didn't just come down to timing your strikes correctly and landing up in the right spot. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that I'm still a massive fan of the game <<

EDIT: I actually have a slight problem with saying that controls of any game are "dated". That implies that there's been some significant progress in control quality between the Ps2 generation and now. Honestly I can't say that I have noticed any in particular. There's a significant gap between PS1 and PS2, but everything after that feels like it has roughly the same fluidity and quality

 

[beddo]

It is the greatest game of all time. It goes so far beyond current games, telling story through the medium in a way yet to be matched - it has no equal.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

SotC is my favorite game of all time.

If you're hung up on the frame rate, you need to understand the circumstances surrounding the game. This is an eight year old engine. It was pushing then five year old hardware well beyond its limits. It was all a balancing act back then, and things like detailed textures, great effects, and tremendous scale required trade-offs. They dropped the frame rate here and there to achieve a certain level of visual fidelity, and it's totally playable.

If you can't stand the controls, I'll admit they're not as reactive as they could be. But there are lots of neat tricks and mechanics to discover through experimentation, and they all function adequately for what you need to accomplish. There are instances of camera wonkiness, to be sure, but that's endemic to most third person games (especially 8+ years ago). Nothing you can't manage, and rarely if ever directly resulting in player death.

If you're hung up on the minimalist approach to storytelling, or the sparse environments, or the game's laser focus on boss encounters, I guess that's your call. I think 95% of games have idiotically, painfully overt exposition, zero use of negative space, and a hodge-podge of scattered gameplay ideas resulting in nothing special. I'd also submit that SotC boasts a pretty rare synergy between narrative and gameplay - including a very clever subversion of it all at the end.

 

[Syntax Error]

To this day, the Colossus 13 fight had never been topped in my AWESOME list, and it will probably stay there for a LOOOOOONG time. That speaks a lot for the game. Not even the other Colossus fight (God of War 2's opening) came close. Heck, no big monster fights ever comes close!

EDIT:
I'll expand on why I think this encounter encapsulates everything that makes SotC great (minor spoilers).

For this encounter, you will be using EVERYTHING in your disposal. Granted, this isn't he only encounter like this (the sand cave is similar), but it will require you to, among other things, JUMP from your horse to the Colossus. That you have to chase down. After shooting arrows on its belly enough times. Also remember that the arrows in this game is neither instant hit nor homing, so you HAVE to carefully align those shots.

Then we get to the implications of this "fight". The area you fight in is a vast expanse of desert. If you go to this map prior to this encounter, there's nothing (as with all the other Colossi). When you are ordered by the Dormin to do so, the Colossus will burst out of the ground and into the sky. I put punctuations in the word fight above, because the Colossus doesn't fight back. The only way it can hurt you is when it burrows back to the ground AFTER you stab it enough times in its weak spot. Now who's the villain?

Also, for a game consisting of less than 30 characters (including the Colossi, with only one explicitly named in-game before the credits), the environments do a real great job of portraying life. See, even though the world is a desolate place devoid of other people (and the only entrance to it is a long bridge that gets destroyed in the epilogue), you can really feel that there was a thriving civilization in this place in the past, that for some reason, isn't here now.

 

[st0pnsw0p]

I played it for the first time about a month ago and I think it's great. The camera can be a bit wonky and the framerate is a bit distracting if you're someone who notices that sort of thing (like me), but those are pretty minor flaws. The controls take a bit of getting used to, but they're certainly not "flawed"; they fit in perfectly with the rest of the game. Even Agro's controls, which took the most getting used to for me, aren't a problem once you get used to them, and in the fights where you need to use Agro, they actually work out really well.

 

[The_Scrivener]

Half of these posts use the word "masterpiece" and then gripe on the controls anyway. Is it possible for a book to be a masterpiece when there are misspelled words every few pages? Is it possible for a film to be a masterpiece when the screen cuts to black accidentally every 20 minutes?

A masterpiece video game should NEVER have a situation where the player dies not because of the realism of the controls, but of their complete inability to execute an action based on the rules already established elsewhere in the game.

The game is beautiful. The game a brilliant idea and I find it romantic and enchanting in premise.

But I refuse to call it a masterpiece in any regard because sometimes, the kid won't get on the god damn horse. Stop jumping straight up like a god damn moron and get the hell on the god damn horse. This isn't a nitpick. This is the game having moments, important moments in intense battles, where the player is completely disengaged because the god damn kid won't get on the god damn horse.

Remember in GTA4 when Nico gets in the car even if you're sort of near the gas tank or he's facing at an awkward angle? That's called capturing player intent and SotC does it so horribly at times and it has nothing to do with realism or capturing mortality in the hero and everything to do with not polishing simple commands that can make the difference between a player feeling like they accomplished something exhilarating and a player failing through no fault of their own.

Triangle. Triangle. Triangle. Get on. The goddamn. Horse.

 

[JagermanXcell]

I still think this game is near-pefect if not close.

I love the aesthetics, the story, the gameplay, and the ending. As for the controls a lot of people say they're way to difficult and very shody, and thats very true. I think I spent like 4 hours in that game trying to master some of the climbing and horse riding tricks. Plus the difficult to master controls kind of make sense in that game, cause in real life climbing onto a hairy mecha sized giant isn't exactly a walk through a field of flowers. The struggle I get from the controls when it comes to the bosses is where I get a lot of the satisfaction from the gameplay.

Except for Agro, I swear I have more trouble getting on her then I do with Hard Mode.

But much like Dark Souls' controls/combat, once you get it all down, you feel like God of the Omniverse.

 

[FinalHeart95]

Somewhere in between "Glorious" and "Dated." I played the PS3 version with a friend and we had lots of fun. The game as a whole was really creative, the colossi felt as enormous as they looked, and the fact that Wander moved with an actual weight was interesting.
That said, the grip, even on just normal difficulty, was ridiculously fickle. If the colossus moved a couple of inches, Wander would go into full wet spaghetti mode and flop around like crazy. I get that a good portion of the difficulty comes from the grip, but it was just to the point of frustration.
Also, I remember one colossus literally didn't let you get back up, so if you got ran over you got to watch as Wander was helplessly destroyed. That's just annoying.
Other than those and a couple of really minor things, I loved the game!