This game has to be one of the best I've ever played, it's combination of amazing artwork/atmospheric lighting and a whole new way to face 'boss' encounters makes it somewhat revolutionary. In essence the 'boss' encounters are traditional platform play, the revolutionary aspect comes with the strategy needed to do this on an ever moving target who's trying to shake you off. No 'trash' mobs or mindless killing, just 16 colossi each with different weaknesses to discover and exploit. From fights that take place in the water and can be as much about trying not to drown as anything else, to encounters that involve enticing flying creatures to swoop down so you can then get carried off to carry on the battle in mid-flight.
The first image shows the place that acts as a hub for your adventures, It is where the first interactive scene starts and where you return to after killing each colossus. And also is the resting place what you can only assume to be your 'love', who is your characters motivation for killing/freeing the colossi. Although this is a bit of a gray area as the introduction scene just shows you ferrying her unconscious form to this spot and a benevolent form seemingly coming from a hole in the domed ceiling telling you to kill the colossi to free her. So without any real knowledge of why, you set off to do the bidding of a being whose agenda you are totally unaware of.
Using a combination of strategies you have to reach the the top of the above colossus' head, whilst he tries to stomp you and hit you with his sword in equal measure. I did feel quite a lot of pity for these guys as the game went on, I almost felt like I was slaughtering over sized teddy-bears who whilst not being entirely benevolent, seemed to bit a bit to stupid to really be perceived as evil, but as you travel the landscape you notice a marked lack of any other inhabitants, save for the occasional bird or lizard, I began to see them as more an unwitting bain to life, leading a cursed almost automaton existence simply attacking anything that moves. In that sense I did almost feel as if I was doing something good, as it turns out you don't really seem to have done anything that black and white.Once you kill the final colossus the last black shadow surrounds your unconscious body/corpse this happens every time you kill one by the way and you become possessed by what appears to be the true colossus, a kind of shadow demon. As this is happening a band of men have arrived at the starting chamber and our more than a little angry that someone has taken 'the sword' and has been using it kill the colossi, maybe implying that their 'Brotherhood' were responsible for the creation of the colossi in the first place, they try to kill your character and in doing so release the true demon they flee the temple barring your escape and in doing so suck the 'shadow demon juju' out of you and trap you and your newly awakened girlfriend in the valley (the map the game takes place within). You are then revealed to have changed into a baby with horns.
'Ico' a game released by the same game company in 2001 features a boy with horns who is trying to escape from a castle which he has been trapped in. I'm looking forward to playing it and finding out if Colossus is indeed the prequel to that. The scene at the end seems to show life returning to the valley whilst at the same time being condemned by the leader of the Brotherhood as now being uninhabitable. So the game itself even after completion leaves the idea of what is right and wrong a little ambiguous, much like the real world.
On a technical note there were some small annoyances, such as the way in which the horse either walked, cantered or galloped. As well as the ever moving cinematic third person view style that seemed to hinder the game-play and ability to accurately control your character at times. But thats about it, otherwise I found it to be a beautifully realized game that showed a better way to make a game, I only hope that more people will take this torch and continue to run with it.
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1 comment:
There are definitely some core elements of this game that I would like to bring into my own prototype, in as much as that is possible given the time and technical constraints. That being said there are also a few points where I thought the game failed to deliver, notably the lack of narrative and therein any explanation of your character's motivation.
In general I thought the aesthetics of the artwork was incredible when it came to the colossi and the landscapes, architecture and the horse (apart from it being the only horse I know of to lack the ability to trot). However your character itself whose name I don't think is ever mentioned isn't up to the same standard in my opinion, maybe this could be a an issue of scale?
One of the other aspects that I thought was done really well was the lighting, which lent a really atmospheric aspect to the game something which I feel really adds to the dramatic feel of the game as well to the visual aesthetic. The cinematic viewpoint that adapts to the movement of the character also gives you the sense of feeling that you are the invisible third person in a scene much like a film, but this can be a hinderence to some of the elements of the game play. However, something I would like to at least experiment with in relation to my own work as I think it helps to immerse the player in the world of the character, as well as showing off the world in a more aesthetically pleasing way.
Looking at last years courses work I noticed that there was a general problem in trying to make your main character run in a believable way, this was also a problem the 'Shadow of the Colossus' (SotC) seemed to face to, although the walk/sneak was a lot more convincing. This is something I'd like to find out more about. As it seems to me that if you can model a horse to walk, canter and gallop with incredible realism then why not a human to run. Maybe it's down to the nature of the movement itself, both with the horses trot and the humans 'jog', does it in some way need to be seen to be believed or is it just a lot harder to get a realistic representation of these movements, remembering of course that games are by and large commercial endevours driven by deadlines and other time vs profit issues maybe this wasn't seen to be an area of great importance, when balanced out with game-play and various other visual aspects of the game.
The whole 'grey area' of what is right or wrong is something that relates to a part of my game prototype, in other words I want to make a game that narrative and gameplay reacts to each individuals style of play. Therefore if you go into it killing everything in sight then the non-player characters (npc's) will develop a level of hostility towards you, wheres if you take a more passive approach then for the most part at least you will remain unmolested.
I guess it could be defined as a digital version of an old 'choose your own adventure' style of book where you would read a passage and then be given say three different options of how to proceed, the danger of this was that you would end up with fingers in as many pages as possible so that if you died you could go back and make a different choice. Of course the died and resurrecting is something that is very common in video games, but with this game you style of play will not be forgotten and the npc's won't default back to passive. I was also thinking that there could be different groups of npc's that would have different views on you, for example some could inherently be your allies whilst others your sworn enemies and some could be swayed either way by your action or inaction toward them. I guess I'm just trying to get away from the whole gaming concept that you must kill everything in sight in order to complete the experience or to gain the highest score.
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