Ico review

Ico is not a normal game; there is no HUD, has minimal dialogue, and it just makes the game much more of an experience and much less of a typical game. After playing this game, i didn't realize how much the emotional attachment i had with the characters. Through all the interactions the two characters have throughout, the two grow on you. It truly is mesmerizing, i did not know i cared about the two til' the very end though....


Graphics:

Ico is a first generation ps2 title, that being said its 9 years old. The graphics may seem dated, but for the time they were awesome, especially since this game was originally coming out for PS1. If you ever play the game, make sure you actually look around the areas since they really are beautiful.


Story:

Ico is a little horned boy who is taken to a large castle by the villagers. The villagers sacrifice people who have horns because it is a supposed omen, and ico suffers the same fate. They lock him up in a tomb and leave, but shortly after Ico has a nightmare about him roaming around the castle but a shadow grabs him then pulls him through the wall. He then wakes up and he finds a loose rock in the tomb and he was able to push himself out of it. He then roams around the castle and ends up finding a princess in a cell, and he releases her. After a little dialogue, a shadowy figure grabs her.... Due to the little dialogue through the game, the main plot doesn't come up til the end, but other than that it's a boy meets girl kind of story and the objective is to escape the castle....

Game Play:

Ico is a simple but effective platformer with simple puzzle mechanics. However what makes it such a good game is the fact that there is no HUD, and nothing there to over complicate things. There is no health bar, there is no map, there is no currency, there is no inventory. This makes the game much more engaging, since it makes it feel like you really are close to Ico....

The battle system in the game is the only bad thing i have to say about the game, it's not bad, but rather quite frustrating. The reason i think that is due to the fact i was kind of rushing through the game, and did not take the time to watch the patterns of the shadows and such.

The puzzles all deal with the environment and are quite simple, but there were a few where i was actually quite stumped, but then again it was because i was not paying attention to the environment.

The only downside is how short the game is, although if it was longer it would have been drawn out and ultimately not as good. It is a meager 5 hour game, but i am sure that you could beat it much sooner. There was a side quest skipped which acquired a much stronger weapon but i didn't bother.

Conclusion:

Ico is probably one of my favorite games, and is definitely worth a play through even if you are not a hard core gamer. It will surely captivate your heart. Fumto Ueda the game designer, truly is able to create games that end up being more art than a video game.

4.5/5 ; 90%