Most people when confronted with a video games that has more of the story in the instruction manual than the actual game would shy away. I thrived. This beautifully achieved title caused quite a stir when it was released, and that murmur of appriciation soon became screamed into full-on lore and cult-classic standards. When people look back on this era of video games they'll see all types. Great action titles, funny comedy titles, gory horror titles, and the independant films that move people.
Ico handles everything differently. Story, gameplay, even dialogue.
The beautiful story introduces you to a boy named Ico, who on his 12th birthday was brought to a mysterious castle to be sacrificed. He manages to escpe and finds a girls in a cage. The rest of the game is Ico escorting his new friend, Yorda, through the castle to find a way out. That's basically the whole stories. There is no narrative. There are no flash backs, no long-winded explainations or startling revelations that usually coincide with stroy telling. And that's easily understandable, because Ico is not a story that is being told. It is a story that is being experianced.
The only downfall is that the game is painfully short, and replayability is for crap because of lack of difficulty settings, branching storyline, or multiplayer.
Another bad thing is that I've recently found that all other versions of this game, versions released everywhere but the US, have great features such as a two-player mode, hidden weapon, extended ending, and even a way to translate Yorda's ancient language. I don't take well to the developers making such a bare version for the Us and US alone.
All in all, I rate based on the experiance and fun, and in that department, Ico gets a 10 out of 10.
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