ICO
Score: 100% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment America Developer: Sony Interactive Entertainment America Media: CD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure
Graphics & Sound: ICO is, without a doubt, one of the most gorgeous games I've seen on the PS2, if not the most beautiful. This doesn't come from a polygon count of either the environment or the characters--undoubtedly, Final Fantasy X sports more in both categories--but from the sheer artistry of the title, the way that the world of ICO is so like the real world. There are hundreds of examples throughout the game; when you walk along a ledge high on top of the castle and the sun peeks through a gap in an adjoining tower, only to quickly disappear, making the screen stutter deep orange, you'll probably have to run back and forth again just to watch the effect over. And the water . . . ye gods, the water is amazing. Perhaps most importantly for the realism factor, the world doesn't have the sterile look of most 3D games; a constant haze and fog overlay makes everything a little blurry, leaving little trails, giving that extra touch. If the core graphics weren't enough, the characters are even better. Ico himself is animated superbly, and Yorda is just as impressive. Pull her around in a few circles and you'll see her tripping over her own feet in an attempt to catch up. The shadow beasts that you fight throughout the game are also gorgeously evil, something most enemies in games don't even manage. ('Ooo. Another zombie. I suppose I should be scared.') The sound in ICO is also absolutely superb. For the most part, the game does away with music, only using it at proper dramatic moments--attacks, plot points, and so on--and when you save. The rest of the time you simply hear the ambient sounds of the castle, be it cascading water from the many waterfalls or wind when you're in the towers. Did I mention that the clothes blow realistically as well? Ico speaks a very Japanese-style language, whereas Yorda's sounds more European; his lines are translated via subtitles, but Yorda's are not (unless you can read proto-hieroglyphics), lending even more realism to the 'otherworldly girl' aspects of the female lead. When it comes to presentation, you just don't get any better than ICO.
Gameplay: And it's damned difficult to get any better gameplay, either. Yes, you'll probably beat it in well under ten hours, but ICO is one of the most satisfying gameplay experiences you'll ever have. Not once did I feel that I was being sidetracked for an hour or two because the developers were trying to wring a few more minutes out of the game design, and every puzzle in the game seems logical (a few of them only in retrospect, after much gnashing of teeth). This is a world where you don't have to fetch the stupid item and run all the way across a stupid map to give it to some moron; the challenge is in the environment, and in making sure Yorda makes it out with you. The concept of the game is simple enough. You are Ico, a young boy with horns who is ritually 'sacrificed' (read: buried alive) in a castle because of his freakish nature when he turns 12. A small earthquake occurs, and his sarcophagus breaks free, letting him out. Soon after, he encounters Yorda, an ethereally beautiful young girl inside a cage. After freeing her and fighting off the first group of shadow creatures, he takes it upon himself to get her out as well. And so the quest begins--an attempted escape from the castle, Yorda in tow. Ico himself moves much like any platformer action hero. He can make long jumps, climb things, shimmy across bars, and the like. Yorda, on the other hand, can't jump very far and can't climb at all. If you leave the 'zone' that she's in for very long at all, she gets attacked by the shadow beasts, and if she ever gets taken by them it's Game Over, so you have to make sure to take her with you wherever you go. This often requires some very careful manipulation of the environment, moving things and pulling switches that manage to create a path for her. It may sound a little contrived, but in the game itself it never feels like that. Switches usually control winches with dangling chains, instead of some other magic device. And it's fairly obvious that the bad guy--or woman, in this case--is trying to make it as difficult as possible for Ico and Yorda to escape. There is both a lot more and nothing more to say about the gameplay. It ranges all across the castle, and the game's interconnectedness is downright amazing. You'll revisit just about every area of the castle once or twice, giving you a real sense of location that most games don't come close to managing. The game is relatively short--I beat it in seven hours or so, and most people probably won't take more than ten--but it's some of the most enjoyable hours I've ever spent gaming, and I'm debating whether or not I should run through it one more time just for the hell of it. It's that good.
Difficulty: Some of the puzzles in the game are a bit tricky, but any of them are solvable if you take enough time to think about them. The game is engineered this way, I believe, and it works well; after playing around with the environment for a bit, you're sure to hit on the answer that you need. Combat occurs infrequently, but there are times when it's downright hectic, and you're usually a major underdog in combat; it's not uncommon to see six or seven shadow creatures attacking you at once. Fortunately, if you die or if Yorda is captured you're usually not more than five or so minutes away from the last time the game saved state, or the last time you saved.
Game Mechanics: Controlling Ico is amazingly simple, using either the left stick or the digital pad. The buttons are also simple as well--jump, attack, use, and so on. You can call Yorda with the R1 button, and once she's close the same button takes her hand, so you can drag her along with you. The core mechanics of the game are solid, and while there are a few nagging camera issues (the camera is tracked, which is a brilliant idea, but sometimes jumps, especially onto chains, are a little tough to gauge) there's nothing that's going to make you lose more than a few minutes of game time. Pretty much every time you die you'll feel that you screwed up instead of the game cheating. I had to think long and hard about giving ICO a perfect score. It does have its slight control issues, and some people may be offended by the length. But in the end ICO is the most brilliant experience I've had on my PS2, and perhaps the most brilliant adventure game I've ever played. Every PS2 owner worth their salt should have this game in their library, and adventure fans doubly so. Being immersed in the world of Ico and Yorda is like nothing else, and when you surface at the end you'll probably find yourself thinking about the game more than any other you've played. And that's a fantastically good sign. Put short, ICO is simply amazing.
-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications AKA Phil Bordelon
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