More Gaming Goodness

As things settle back into work, more work, and still more work (But now with a Wife instead of a Fiance) I find myself sitting down and playing one of the most beauitful games I’ve ever experienced. I actually ran into it at my favorite gaming store while showing Aerin around, and strongly resisted the urge to let her lend me money to buy it. Then later in the evening when I met the Wife, I told her ‘IT’S HERE!” and she flipped out and we ended up buying it anyway.

It’s called Shadow of the Colossus.

If you’re any kind of serious gamer, you’ve been hearing about this game for months. The magazines have been raving about it, anyone that got a chance to play it at E3, or the Tokyo Game Show went nuts, and now it’s available to the public at large, and I have to say, THE GAME LIVES UP TO THE HYPE.

First off, I have to reccommend this to the Jaded Gamers. You know who you are. You buy every game knowing you’re going to beat it in a matter of a handful of hours, you’ve seen–and trashed–every boss and final boss you’ve ever encountered, you’ve figured out attack patterns on shooters, you’ve got your combos down in fighting games and you are getting to the point where you are bored senseless with games and wondering if there’s anything you HAVEN’T seen anymore. Well you haven’t seen THIS game.

I don’t know whether I’d call it full on by the word or not, but so far, THIS game comes the closest to approaching Art as any I’ve ever seen. There is almost a luminous, palpable quality to the ambience of the game world, the art direction itself is empty, monolithic and beautiful, with spare landscapes punctuated by the ruins of massive construction from some ancient civilization. But the way the shadows play out, the mist clearing in the distance as you approach, even the quality of sunlight changing as the clouds pass and the wind picks up, all of this puts you into this dead, quiet world in a way few games have ever achieved.

The goal is simple and stated right at the beginning of the game. A girl who is important to you is dead. You place her on the altar in a massive, ancient, cathedral like space and a booming voice tells you that if you wish to restore her to life, you must defeat 16 giant beasts that are half organic, half giant statue. And that’s the game. It’s all about 16 titanic boss fights, each one more spectacular than the last.

It seems simplistic, but the atmosphere, music, sound, animation and intensity of the playing “Jack The Giant Killer” bring this game to a whole new level of sucking you in and making you forget the world. It’s really difficult to describe the experience of playing Shadow of the Colossus, except to say that if you ever wanted to see what it was like to live in a fairy tale of sorts, this would be it. This thing bleeds talent, passion and originality at every turn, and if you’re sick to death of another rehash of a GTA/FPS/RPG/Stealth game and want to see something NEW, then this is IT. If you’re a veteran gamer, this will make you feel like you’ve seen a video game for the first time again.

And if you’re not a veteran gamer, you’ll look at it and go “Neat!” and probably want to play it…