Player Engagement and Shadow of the Colossus

Name: Shadow of the Colossus
Genre: Third-Person Adventure
Rating: T
Developed by: SEC Studios Japan
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Shadow of the Colossus is a third-person adventure game created as a spiritual successor to ICO on the PS2. This game was released in 2005 for the PS2 and again as a new remastered version in 2011 for the PS3. This game proved to be a great success by winning many awards for its game play, art direction and soundtrack. This game engaged players in the game play and also in the art, soundtrack and the story which is something few games manage to do, let alone do it as well as this game has. 

Game Play

The main point of the game centered around finding and killing all 16 Colossi to restore the life of Mono, a mysterious girl that the player knows little about until the end of the game. As the game first starts and the player is set loose to find the first Colossus they realize that they only have a bow, a sword and a horse named Argo. Only the first two can be used in every fight seeing as how the player must sometimes abandon Argo to climb to the top of a mountain to where the Colossus, is or swim through a lake, or even take to the skies. The main thing about the game that always kept players on their toes was that each Colossus was a completely unique creature that had to be interacted with in a new way each time to defeat it. Some of the things that changed from one battle to the next were where the Colossus's weak spots were, how large they were, if the environment around could be helpful, or if the player could get near it easily. But that was part of the challenge, half of the fight was figuring out how to hurt it; the other half was having the skill or patience to pull it off. Figuring this out was puzzle-like in a sense. Even getting to the Colossus itself could be a challenge as well with all of the routes to it never being quite as direct as they look from the start of the journey.

Visuals and Score

The visuals are breathtaking from the landscapes to the architecture to the characters, and especially the Colossi themselves. The art takes you within the world of the Colossus and makes it feel like you are there. Though much of the land you're in is made up of barren wasteland- whether it is rock, sand, or simply dried earth- there are also some smaller segments of living and thriving plant life, like dense woods or waterfalls, for example, giving a glimpse of what the land once was. It all melds together in such a way that you may never realize that a couple minutes ago you were in a forest and now you are on a cliff face. In this way the transitions always feel natural and not forced upon the player. 

The score of the game is just as well done as the visuals with the soundtrack always conveying the feeling of the main character. If the player is climbing a mountain there are thunderous drums or if you are in an open area the music conveys the vast sweeping feel of the area. The music also changes the narrative arc throughout the game with it starting upbeat at the start of the game then later changing casting Wander in a darker light at the end.