Shadow Of The Colossus

Can't think of anything else to post about so I thought I might write a little bit about what was probably my favouite game of last year, Shadow Of The Colossus.

One of my main reasons for playing games is that they allow you to forget about the outside world and take you to to a place where anything is possible and you do things and go places that you could only dream about doing in the real world, this game does exactly that. It is probably the most beautiful game I have ever played.




Confronting a colossus is an amazing experience. I dont think any other form of media can let you experience anything quite like this. The size of the colossi is obviously their most noteable characteristic, they are massive... but we've seen huge bosses in games before. It's the design that makes them so striking, they are absolutely beautiful to look at. If I could choose a game where my name would appear in the closing credits this would be it. Working as an artist on this game would be perfect for me.

The key to this games brilliance is also in its simplicity; there are no items to collect, no skills to learn, all you have to worry about is finding the colossi and defeating them, and thats all you want to do. The only problem I had with this game was the final colossus encounter. It was horrible; the collossus looked evil rather than beautiful, it was just ugly, the arena was dark, it was raining, all in all it was a pretty miserable (and bloody frustrating) experience.

I personally think the developers should have gone in the opposite direction to this for the final colossus encounter. Throughout the game you have been destroying these magnificent creatures for the sake of one girl, and at the end of the game it would have been far more interesting if you were confronted by somehting so beatiful, and so passive that you feel guilty for destroying it just to save the life of a girl who you as a player have no emotional connection with at all. I wouls have liked a long treck up a mountain to get to it, and once you get to the peak you see a beatiful valley below where the snow has melted and there is grass and trees. The colossus itself would be huge of course, and look a bit like a mammoth perhaps, all furry and white with a big trunk and it would run as soon as you came near it.