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Thursday 21 February, 2008
GAMEPLAY
The second session with Shadow of the Colossus both resolved some issues and brought up some new ones. I have become more accustomed to the controls through further gameplay, and while the camera controls and I still refuse to talk to each other, I have somewhat come to terms with the situation. Instead of relying on direct visual contact to track the colossi at the expense of sight of myself, I simply track them by sound, periphery glances, and memory (as they have tended to be rather slow so far).
The battles with the colossi are, not surprisingly, the highlights of this game. The frequency of near-slips of your grip and of being flailed around like a toy create the impression that you are almost always under the threat of being dislodged, and when it does happen it tends to do so in a spectacular manner. The portions of the battles against the colossi when you are ascending them and striking blows are near-perfectly executed, generally thrilling and interesting all the way through (with the bonus of looking completely awesome to onlookers when you make a daring leap off of one part of the colossus onto another while it roils and heaves beneath you).
Unfortunately, the manner in which you need to grab your first foothold on their bodies is not always readily apparent, nearing the point of obscurity in some situations. Half the time I have to wait until a blunt and immersion-breaking message is delivered to me by a literal god floating in the sky, which it then proceeds to repeat constantly through my many attempts to decipher and execute the unusual hints. Most of the tactics require that you visually grasp and identify aspects of the environment and actions by the colossus, a task which is hindered by the fact that sometimes these things are not actually visible to the player unless they actively know to investigate it. In several situations the advice delivered to me by the game actually put me in a situation where I was not able to see the action I was supposed to react to.
The game has more than a few brilliantly designed but poorly executed aspects. One of the colossi, for example, shoots lightning bolts from its mouth at regular intervals, which then proceed to electrify the impact area for a prolonged time, during which if the player wanders into them, they will receive damage. Problem is, not only are the effects that signify the area is electrified very missable, but there is absolutely no feedback that you are taking damage when you are standing in such an area.
The art design in Shadow of the Colossus is absolutely brilliant, with a muted palette, effective use of bloom lighting, and wonderfully detailed texture work on characters and geometry. The colossi and architecture in the game have a distinctly Aztec feel to them, with a heavy focus on repeating geometric patterns and orthogonal line work. The environment makes good use of vertical space, with leaping canyon walls and diving basins, waterfalls tracing the path down and accentuating the dizzying heights. Lighting also is utilized well, with shifts between bright and dark areas emphasizing the geometry. Artistically, this game is a masterpiece, and by and large, the game is brilliant, innovative, beautiful, and a blast to play, but simply lacks polish in portions.
DESIGN
Said lack of polish is found in the areas traditionally associated with shortcomings. Minor gameplay oversights, such as the obscuring of view of significant geometry during colossus battles, argumentative camera controls, and jerky player movement could all probably have been ironed out through additional playtesting, as these are readily apparently and easy for people to give feedback on. The game is oddly hindered by perhaps too much artistic direction; for example, the lead designer apparently insisted that the horse not always respond to player commands because real horses do not always do so, either. Unfortunately, it is not communicated to the player that this is what is happening, and the person is left with the impression that the horse simply controls poorly. Another example is the character animations. The player character flails about awkwardly, stumbling upon landing from jumps (if not sprawling completely). While this certainly adds to the drama and feels very fluid, it tends to give the player the feeling that they are stumbling around on the verge of falling throughout the entire game.
The movement of the boss battles into the space of level design was a brilliant and innovative move that works very well. The player ends up performing actions while ascending the colossi that are more similar to those typically associated with environmental puzzles than with boss encounters, such as climbing, leaping, locating specific places, and avoiding getting displaced to an undesirable location. The actions typically associated with boss encounters are less prevalent, with the player mostly fighting to avoid being dislodged, timing their stabs, and avoiding blows. Many traditional boss activities, such as dodging patterned attacks, are absent in favor of more environmentally-focused activities.
The lack of structured activities to be performed outside of the hunts for the colossi is also notable. There are no items to collect in the game, and generally exploration will yield nothing but vistas. The player character also has a distinct lack of gear, wielding only a blade and a bow. This puts an emphasis on the player's wits instead of their gear for the purpose of downing a colossus. The simple (if not always perfectly responsive) controls also free up the player to simply think about the game in an environmental puzzle sense instead of demanding their attention for complex actions. The intention of the design of this game is clear. It strives to push the boundaries of games and move into new territories in storytelling and drama. Shadow of the Colossus is a brilliant game slightly hindered by artistic ambition.
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