![]() I can describe the gameplay, but words simply do not do the experience justice. The game is essentially a series of sixteen boss battles, and the razor sharp focus of the gameplay allows the player to appreciate every tense moment spent clinging to a shaking beast's fur. While the procedure is the same for each Colossus, the tactics are different every time. You can attack the titan anywhere on its body, but the only way to do a significant amount of damage is to reach the symbol. At the symbol you draw back your sword, and plunge it into the creature's flesh. Once you reach a base camp you pause for a breath before continuing towards your goal: the symbol. Most creatures have some sort of flat surface on them, meaning that scaling these enormous beasts holds similarities to assaulting a mountain. This circle is also used for tasks such as holding your breath or keeping an arrow nocked. Clinging to their fur is draining, and a circle of energy in the corner of your screen represents how much longer you can hold on. While some creatures can simply be leapt onto, there's often some sort of trick to figure out in order to gain access to the thick fur that covers many of the creatures and provides you with a climbing surface. In order to reach the symbol you're going to have to clamber up their body and hold tight to do your work. Each Colossus has a weak point on it somewhere, a magical symbol that indicates it is vulnerable. With the beast on the move, it's up to you to discover how to bring it down. The tools may be simple, but the task is not. Your tools for dispatching your prey are simple: a bow and a sword. No matter what shape they come in, all have a slow and graceful majesty about them that makes doing what you're there to do more than a little uncomfortable. Some come in vaguely humanoid form, while others appear as flying or four legged beasts. On many of them, your tiny form barely reaches their ankle (or whatever they use for that purpose). The sheer magnitude of the creatures you face is awe inspiring. Every Colossus is different, though they all share similar qualities. Once you've found the Colossus, a short cut scene shows the beast stirring and reveals the creature in all its majesty. Reaching the beast is a simple matter of navigating the beautiful landscape and locating the area that the shrine's presence indicated. Focusing the beam of light until it points out a locale on the horizon tells you where the next creature you seek lies. By holding your sword up to the light, a beam appears. ![]() Once you're moving across the field the game allows you a simple way to locate your next quarry. While he maintains a trot relatively well, you'll find if any turning is involved you'll have to continually encourage him. After you've mounted, you essentially just aim the beast in the direction you want to go and then spur him onward. Agro is a swift steed, and sometimes difficult to control. The lands you find yourself in are vast, and to travel quickly from place to place you have the use of your horse Agro. Gameplay centers around the only real activity to be found within the game: finding and killing the sixteen Colossi. A presence exists within the shrine that, preying on the protagonist's desires, charges him with the destruction of sixteen massive beasts that roam the lands nearby. In a desolate landscape he finds a seemingly deserted sanctuary. The woman he loves lies dead or comatose, and he has traveled far from the lands he knows seeking a way to revive her. Formerly Wanda and the Colossus, Shadow is tale of a young man on a mission. So, it was with no small amount of anticipation that I considered the release of Shadow of the Colossus. ![]() The subtle and effective soundtrack, the gracefully wistful quality of the graphics, and the plight of two small souls set against the world was an experience that affected me greatly. My post-college abyss was a deep one, and beating smoke monsters with a stick was one of the activities that kept my mind away from the cruel realities of life outside of academia. It was the summer after I'd graduated from college when I was introduced to Ico.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |