Taking a brake away from my own film, with a extension on the deadline now meant I could play a game I had wanted to play in a long long time. I ordered the game back at the very end of December 2006 with a view to playing it over the new year, but unfortunately it took about 10 weeks to get here, but this was ok...the timing on its arrival ended up being a very good time for me to sit down and play it.
Director and lead designer Fumito Ueda and his team have once again amazed me.
Travelling around the large beautiful landscapes on the horse called Agro is just wonderful, they nailed the horse animation and controls...incredible, its amazing how the horse moves, and its refreshing that there is no music during the parts were your exploring and trying to get to the next colossus. The sound of wind and horses hooves hitting different ground, and the rains of the horse jingling and so on is all spot on. And when you do arrive at your destination, beautiful music starts up, and tension is created. This is like the equivalent of perfect pacing in a film.
Every entrance to every colossus has a beautiful stair followed by beautiful ruins and is done in a different way to keep it interesting...and every large space, be it cave or open space where you do battle with a colossi is unique too...not to mention the puzzles which are different each time to destroying them. That had to be one of the best things...it was so fresh each time.
When a completed the game I was further impressed by the ending which had both happy and sad closing story animation. And it is wonderful that Fumito Ueda has indeed created two masterpieces here now, Ico and now Shadow of the Colossus.