Hello there, my name is Jason and I am an artist. If there is anything in the world that I enjoy doing is taking photographs of anything and everything! That and gaming. I’m a big time gamer who wants nothing more than to bring my two passions together and bring to you, my audience, The Art of Gaming!
What is The Art of Gaming? Well to break it down for you, my readers, I will be taking a game and tearing it down to the nitty-gritty. I will then proceed to pick up the little pieces and show you what what makes that game so special. My goal here is to convince you guys to either pick up and dust off an old video game or even take a look at a new one of a different genre! I will try to have pictures depicting the game’s genius!
As I’ve mentioned this game in my review of Dragon’s Dogma, I will be writing about one of the most, in my opinion, best video games of yesteryear. The game that I mentioned is the astonishingly amazing game; Shadow of The Colossus (SoTC)! So let’s get on with the show!
Wander will defy everything to get his love back.
First of all we’ll start off with the story of SoTC, it is pretty vague when you start the game but the general concept is that you are the protagonist, Wander. His sole intent is to save a young girl named Mono who has been sacrificed by the people of his town for reasons unknown. But it’s okay, having stolen a sacred sword and trespassed onto some holy land, Wander intends on making a deal with a demonic presence called Dormin to bring Mono’s soul back from the afterlife and restore it to her lifeless body but at what cost? 16 humongous colossi to defeat in order to give Dormin the strength to perform the ability of bringing people back from the dead.
The story is a beautiful piece of work, it has all the pieces needed to be a masterpiece; a hero whose will to save his love knows no bounds, a damsel in distress, a demonic power, a crazy sacrificing party and 16 giants to take down on mano a mano. Those are the main characteristic values for a good story but have an added plot twist that changes one of these characters throughout the story for the better or worse and you have a storyline that consists of that pulling feeling when you play a fantastic game. Now I will say no more on the issue of the storyline as I don’t want to be a spoiler for those wanting to play it which they can on Playstation 3 as you can purchase the HD collection of Ico and Shadow of The Colossus or if you have the time and money, go and find it for Playstation 2 but keep in mind it is still pretty expensive.
Size matters, obviously.
Now, onto the subject of gameplay. The creators of this game thought that it would be a challenge to diverse a vast open world to hunt down and take on 50+ foot of colossi with nothing but a bow, a sword and the help of Wander’s noble steed, Agro. And they were right. This game pits you up against foe that you have to literally climb and hack at in certain weak spots to bring the giant beasts crashing to the ground. If you really think that is simple then keep in mind that in order to defeat the multitude of giants you must call them towards you, find a place you can actually cling onto them and then proceed to stab them whilst the giant beings shake themselves about, throwing you from left to right as you cling on for dear life. It’s a challenge alright but the gameplay mechanics are glorious and quite original as in my life I have never really seen a game that plays in this manner besides Dragon’s Dogma that has been released 7 years later.
Amazing detail for its generation!
The graphics for its generation are pretty good, the vast landscape that you traverse and the colossi are beautifully rendered in the original version. As for the HD version I am sure that they’ve excelled even further but unfortunately I have not had the chance to play it yet. The textures of the colossi fur and other details are incredibly defined and even though the colours are quite pale in tone the detail it includes with it creates a gritty scene and it fits perfectly with the dark brooding tale of this bittersweet story.
Now I want to talk about the final feature that makes this game so intense and that is the sound. There are many songs in this but those that play are deep, riveting scores that make you feel that you, yourself are in the game. A particular favorite is the intense battle song as you climb the colossi and battle it to the death it is amazing. Especially for the fact that I had felt a huge feeling of accomplishment come over me when I heard the screech of a one of the giants as it fell to the ground having defeated it.
This colossi looks pretty hungry..
What makes this art? The overall fact that this piece of work has had a huge amount of time and dedication put into it and it has been fantastically put together is one of the many reasons but as for those reasons above they are the core reasons why this is, in my opinion, a piece of art. One piece of art that I will in fact put in my gallery, The Art of Gaming, and I hope that I have influenced you into taking a closer look at the game for yourself. I have yet to find anyone who has been disappointed in this game so believe me when I say this; you will have a blast with this little gem!
What game would you like to see featured in my next “The Art of Gaming”? Let me know in the comments section.
Coming soon – The art of…?