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Wednesday 20 February, 2008
Shadow of the Colossus Gamelog Entry 2
Gameplay
For the second round of gameplay, I switched off with a friend after each colossus was defeated. The game has a fun social aspect despite being single player as the other person can focus on examining the colossus for its weaknesses. When you're playing, it's much harder to do when your avoiding the colossus' giant feet or desperately jumping around the colossus in an attempt to scale it.
As we progressed through the game, the challenges became more difficult. For one, it quickly became essential to use your environment in order to defeat your opponent. For the second boss, I found it too intense to stay on level ground and try to hit his hoof with an arrow, but by going on a hill he couldn't scale, life became much easier. I felt a sense of accomplishment by using my environment strategically and commend the developers for adding this strategy element to the game. It also adds to the game's replayability because you can fight the colossi again after the game is completed; you could spend hours trying to find all the different ways to kill them as easily or as perilously as you choose.
The variety of the colossi also added to the difficulty of the game, as you had to study their anatomy each time to assess how to get onto the beast and scale it to reach their weakpoints. Some have hair, some swing large weapons you can climb, etc. As a result, although you only fight sixteen colossi for the game, it never becomes redundant and feels like a reward as you defeat one colossus and gain the ability to tackle the next one.
Design
The decision to downplay health in the game was an interesting choice because it put more emphasis on the puzzle aspects of the game. Because your health rejuvenates over time and getting stomped on once or even falling from the top of the colossus isn't fatal, the game takes on a more cinematic quality as you can focus more on the epic scale of task at hand rather than just trying to survive.
Another interesting design decision lies in the lack of monsters aside from the colossus. Again, this choice gives the game a more cinematic quality as you can enjoy the gorgeous countryside that you traverse to get to each colossus.
To deal with the intense strain the game's graphics put on the playstation two, the graphics blur a little when you move rapidly or if a lot is going on onscreen. While this could be a liability in some situations, it makes the action feel more dramatic and ultimately is a benefit to gameplay.
Admittedly, there are lizards and birds you can kill in the game, but they aren't hostile and drop permanent health boosts and even additional weapons to aid you in your quest. This prolongs the game's inevitable exhaustion point as you can spend additional time trying to find all the extra power ups spread throughout the game world.
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