Okay, I know Team ICO week is nearly over and this is only the second time I’ve written about Shadow of the Colossus. But hey, I’m doing better than Ethos is with Ico, seeing as how he never even managed to get a copy of the game. But as much as I like belittling Ethos, that’s not why I’m here today.

The last time I talked about Shadow of the Colossus, I used its musical soundtrack as a springboard to discuss the immense emotional power the game contains. The raw emotion that the game conveys is something that, quite simply, can only be done through the videogame medium – hence why I consider Shadow of the Colossus one of the single greatest arguments for games as art.

It amazes me how good Shadow of the Colossus still looks today. The game was never a technical marvel, even upon its release in 2005, but it’s incredibly distinctive visual style still stands out. The entire game almost looks like a faded, age-worn painting, which lends to the archaic element of the atmosphere – as the player, you feel like Wander’s story took place eons upon eons ago, in a land lost to time.

The land itself is one of the largest continuous worlds ever designed for a videogame. I can’t think of any other games in which I’ve spent so much time standing on the edge of a cliff or a hilltop and just rotating the camera, taking in every visual detail. There are no towns to be found in this world; only rolling hills, rocky cliffs, and ancient shrines that are beautiful even in ruins. The size and beauty of the world, in combination with utter silence aside from whirling winds, creates an incredible aura of loneliness. This loneliness is the main component of the game’s atmosphere, and it’s the best I’ve ever experienced. Titles such as the original Metroid Prime come close, but fail to match what’s been done here.

If nothing else, Shadow of the Colossus is a fantastic example of how graphics can mean both everything and nothing at the same time. As I stated earlier, the game is no technical marvel – character models aren’t overly detailed, textures can be blurry (which almost adds to the beauty of the world, but still) and the framerate tends to stutter from time to time. However, the stylistic design is so powerful that these flaws mean nothing. Developers would do well to learn that while hyper-realistic character models and flawless textures are more than welcome, without an impacting visual style, they don’t mean all that much in the end.

Look for one final post discussing Sony’s modern classic later this weekend. And if you’re good, I might crack open my copy of Ico just for old times’ sake…

Tags: Shadow of the Colossus, Team ICO

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 29th, 2009 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Team ICO Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.