Ever wanted to climb a mountain? How about kill it? Well now you have a chance. In Shadow of the Colossus, you play as a nameless youth who is attempting to resurrect a woman who apparently has lost her life as a sacrifice. To do so, the youth takes her to a forbidden valley where he attempts to make a deal with a forgotten god who controls souls. He admits that he can revive the girl, but says that in addition to a terrible cost, the youth must destroy the living incarnations of giant idols that fill the temple where the god communicates with the youth.
The game it's self is a piece of artwork, moving across the giant's valley is like moving through a painting filled with mountain and crumbled ruins. The game play involves you moving from the temple to one of the colossus inhabiting the valley, killing them, and then returning to the temple to move onto the next. There are no minor enemies on the way to each colossus, just the giant's themselves. This may seem boring but finding the giants is kind of a fight in it's self. You follow the light generated by your sword to each goal, but sometimes a lack of sunlight or a winding path could have the light pointing clear into a mountain or just not point at anything at all. This does not make the game impossible; it just makes finding some of the giants a challenge. The giants themselves are a trip, as each one is huge, some bigger then others. You use your sword to find their weak spots and then climb up on the beasts to attack the spots with your sword, which can be a hassle since the giants will try to toss you off and you have a grip meter which will empty quickly if you don't stop for a rest now and then.
There are a few problems with the game. For one, the shifting camera angles, while good for dramatic cinematic effect, have the annoying habit of making your character jump in the wrong direction. Also, the game is short, beatable within a day as there are well over a dozen giants, but each one can be beaten within 10 minutes easily. The game offers a hard mode, and a time attack mode, which lets you win new items to use in your fight, but you will just be fighting the same giants over again. Still, just the sheer size and scope of each colossus is amazing and you may drag on each fight just to get a good look at the lumbering monsters. The music is epic, the giants are epic, and everything looks big and amazing.
Overall, the game is light on substance, but big on impression. You may beat the game in a day or two, but you will be showing it off to friends for years, and may just play through again to take in the epic battles once more. If you can handle the reduced price, love the visual work on a game, and don't mind a quick game, then this is worth a buy. Think of it as an interactive work of art.
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