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Platform: PlayStation
2
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Shadow
of the Colossus
Hands-On
It
isn’t very often that a demo comes along that really gets me excited
for the release of its respective finished game.
The only other games to really do it for me have been Metal Gear
Solid, Quake 3, and Final Fantasy VIII, but the early build of Shadow of
Colossus that I was able to take for a spin has me extremely eager to
see everything the kids at SCEI have poured into this adventure.
The
moment the lengthy opening movie starts for the game, players are greeted
by some amazing visuals, as they watch the game’s hero ride his horse
through a mountain pass, eventually making his way to a large, secluded
valley. Everything is a bit
dreary with unrelenting overcast and rain, helping to set the lonely
tone of the game.
Once
the movie is over players will find themselves in a mysterious ruined
temple. At this point, the
demo quickly explains some of the basics of how to control the hero, as well as using
his horse.
Looking straight ahead, one can see that there is a girl laying
asleep on a large stone altar towards the focal point of the temple, and
it is this girl whom players must find a way to awaken over the course
of the game.
While it may seem that one has simply been plunked down in the game world, it’s surprisingly easy to figure out what one must do next in order to proceed, if a tad on the mystic side. After mounting my horse, I headed outside of the temple, onto the steps leading to a massive field full of rolling, grass covered hills, with huge cliffs towering above off in the distance. If players are ever unsure of where to go next in their adventure, they need simply hold down the circle button on their Dual Shock. This will cause the hero to hold his sword up to the sun. While doing so players can adjust the angle at which he is reflecting the sunlight. Once the light is brought to a highly focused beam, this means that it is in the |
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direction
in which the light is shining that players can find their next
objective.
When I did this, it pointed me off to the cliffs at the edge of
the field I was looking at.
Making my way to the cliffs, it fast became obvious that the use of the horse is far more than a gimmick. If players didn’t have a trusty steed in Shadow of the Colossus, it would take forever to get anywhere because this game is huge. Moving the horse is simple enough, steering with the left analogue stick, and pulling back on said stick to stop the beast. Getting the horse to move is done by pressing the X button, where one tap will get players |
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into
a trot, a second tap starts a slow gallop, and a final tap will have
players going at full speed. Players can also fire off their bow and arrows while on
horseback. There wasn't any practical use for this in the demo,
but in a movie scene at the end it showed a boss fight where the hero
was riding along side a colossus firing arrows into it. When riding along, everything feels a little more cinematic
than your average action adventure game because of how the camera works.
Instead of snapping tight to the rear of a player, the camera
floats a little more slowly, allowing players to soak in just how grand
the landscape of the game is. Even
when the camera settles behind the player, it doesn’t keep the hero at
the center of the screen, instead staying a little to the left or right,
allowing the scenery to be enjoyed far more.
This emphasis on the environment acts as an excellent tool in
driving home the sense of being on a grand adventure.
After
riding for a couple of minutes, I found myself approaching the cliffs
that the sunlight had directed me to.
As I drew closer, I could see that there was a small area where
the rocks opened up, with what looked like pillars on either side.
At this point the game briefly shifted to letterbox mode,
highlighting that I had found an important area, and was on the right track.
With that I dismounted, and took a closer look at the rocky wall
in front of me. Eventually
I found an area covered with moss and vines, which the hero could climb.
Positioning myself close to this patch of foliage, I hit the jump
button, throwing the hero at the wall, and upon making contact hit the
R1 button so that he would grab tight and start to climb.
While working my way up the wall, I noticed that the hero slowly
starts to get tired while grabbing onto something and climbing, so
players can’t just sit there indefinitely.
One must keep on pushing forward, and think quickly or they may
grow too tired and fall while attempting to climb.
As I continued to make my way up the wall, there were a number of
other platformer-like obstacles, like jumping over small areas where the
path ahead had collapsed, additional climbing, as well as jumping across
pits while climbing. In
some ways, this mountaineering reminded me of the platforming found in
classic action adventure games like Out of This World, and Flashback.
Upon reaching the top of the wall, the rocky cliffs opened up to a relatively small gorge, at which point the game once again switched to letterbox. It was at this point that I learned that I had found my first colossus, a massive humanoid with the head of a bear, carrying a gigantic mace. He looked unbelievably big during this scene, but it wasn’t until I got up close to the thing that I could truly appreciate the sheer size of the beast I had to slay. Each stomp of the creature’s foot would send huge dust clouds into the air, and once one is standing right next to the thing they’ll realize that the hero barely comes up to the its ankle. In order to kill the thing, players need to run up behind it, hop up on the lower part of its leg, and stab its calf a few times in order to force the creature onto one knee. Of course, this is a lot easier said than done because the beast is constantly walking around, and will often rigorously shake its leg in an attempt to throw players off.
However,
once one gets the colossus on its knee, the next step is to climb
further up its leg, and to its waist.
It’s here that players can see that the creature has armor on
its back with three platforms that the hero can stand on.
These are actually a much needed relief, because by the time he
gets up there, he’ll probably be quite tired from all of the climbing,
and need to regain his energy to climb further up the goliath.
The fun part here is that the ride will still be quite bumpy
because eventually the colossus will get back to its feet and try to
shake players off once again. Once
the hero was ready to continue, I set off up the giant’s furry back,
and eventually found myself on its shoulders. By
now the colossus will be extremely annoyed by the tiny human climbing
around on it, and be trying its best to shake you off.
Here you’ll need to hold on for dear life, because the ride is
going to get real intense, real fast, requiring players to keep a close
eye on the hero’s energy meter, because with him trying so hard to
hold on its not out of the question for him to get too tired, and lose
his grip, causing him to fall to the ground.
Once
the colossus had let up from trying to shake me loose for a moment, I
had the hero stand on the thing’s shoulders for a short time, as this
would allow him to regain his energy should he need to grab the colossus
again. While standing
there, I could see that the creature had a large, glowing set of runes
on the top of his head. It
was at this time that it became blindingly obvious that I should
probably start stabbing it with the hero’s sword.
Grabbing tight to the beast once again, I climbed on top of the
runes and stabbed away. Players
can quickly tap the attack button to do weaker attacks, or hold the
button longer, which causes the hero to wind up for a much more powerful
strike. With this, the
colossus’ health bar began to drop quickly, and it furiously attempted
to shake me off in a last ditch effort to live.
However, I eventually slew the beast, and in another letterboxed
scene the creature collapsed to the ground, sending dust and debris
flying everywhere. As I
started to walk away from its corpse, dozens of shadowy tentacles poured
out of the slain colossus, and into the hero, causing the hero to
collapse, and with that the demo ended, and some scenes of what will be
in the completed game were shown.
If
this initial battle with a colossus is a hint of what Shadow of the
Colossus’ combat has to offer, players could be in for a real treat
with this title. There just
hasn’t been a game to come along that has thrown such hulking beasts
at players, and the whole time during the fight one constantly has a
sense of grandeur from fighting something so huge.
It feels special, and wholly unique playing a game where players
not only get to fight some of the biggest enemies ever scene in the
medium, but also figuring out how on Earth they’re supposed to climb
up the thing and find its weak point.
Between
the massive colossus, and the epic scope of the world in this demo, it
is leaving me extremely anxious for the completed game to hurry up and
come out. Everything about
what I’ve seen in this demo gives strong indications that Shadow of
the Colossus will be something very unique, and I’m dying to see just
what the rest of these lumbering colossi look like.
Mr. Nash September
24, 2005 |
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