Ico HD | Review |

lolwhat

I think I threw up a bit in my mouth.
Keep on reviewing.

Sadly, Panzerfaust, your review has made me very interested in purchasing the game. I say sadly, because I didn't want to spend the extra cash nor know when I'll have the time - yet it sounds like a very intriguing game that I knew absolutely nothing about prior to reading your well written review.

Though I am curious, how is the difficulty level of the puzzles? I'm not so into games that have nerve-wracking puzzles. I didn't think the puzzles in God Of War 3 or the Riddlers 'puzzles' in Arkham Asylum were that bad...but I hate spending tons of time on one perplexing conundrum.

Haha sorry to cause you trouble.

I would say the puzzles are more interesting than difficult. There are a few that may stump you simply because you didn't realize you could do something easy (there's bombs in the next room, or that you have the ability to rock back and forth on a chain for a bigger jump), though there are certainly pretty clever ones towards the end. In terms of difficulty I'd say I had a much easier time with Ico than say Portal, or even Portal 2 if you're familiar with those. I'm not very good at puzzles and it never hurts to look at a guide if you're at the point of frustration.

That being said, it's holiday season and the collection has and probably will be on sale a lot. In fact, I believe it's going for $25 at Best Buy right now? It's somewhere on the front page, for sure. And of course you'd be getting Shadow of the Colossus on the disc as well, which I'd say is another must-play, if not more-so.

It's a slow game but also only 5-6 hours long. If you have 30 min or an hour at night to get in a peaceful gaming session for yourself, I'd say go for it.

You have a knack for this panzerfaust. A gift. Your review seems like a pro review from any of the magazines I subscribe to, and in some instances, better written. Keep them coming.

By the way, as you described the experience of navigating the game's scenarios, for some reason, I started hearing Sir David Attenborough's voice in my head, as if it was being narrated by him. Weird, yet bad ass.

Thanks for the reply! Much appreciated! You've certainly convinced me to try it out and, at $25 for two games, it certainly seems like Ico alone would be worth the money - though I have heard great things about Shadow of the Colossus.

A 5-6 hour game sounds perfect for my schedule nowadays as I typically only get a half-hour to play per day, if that. Looks like Best Buy will be getting my $25 this week!

SolidSnake86 - Buy it! It might be one of the best purchases you've made all year and I mean that entirely.

I agree with TheBigMac, this review was great in every aspect. I don't say that because panzerfaust gave it a 10/10 either.. I'm still playing through Ico for the first time, but SotC is seeing my 8th playthrough. :]

Is Yorda hot?

I pretty much disagree on your stance on the game, but that's just me. I've never been one to go backwards in time on my game playing (except for nes, genesis, and snes classics). I somehow didn't get to either Ico or Shadow when they came out and picked up the collection. Definitely not for me, due to the dated controls. I can understand why others did it.

Why I'm really responding though is to tell you that this is a great review. Like the poster above states, it's better than some I've come across in magazines. You should definitely start a blog or send samples to websites/magazines. I think you may have a future in it.

Thanks for the feedback guys, it means a lot.

It's been my first written review in a while and I wanted to go for a simpler style, and overall I like the flow of this better than my choppy material of the past. Hope to revise some my old stuff and continue to pump these out.

Glad this was helpful and thanks for the comments so far.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Sometimes when I have the joystick pushed all the way ICO will just walk instead of run.

ICO is fantastic and this version of it shows that it has aged quite well. The only thing that truly disappointed me was the length. 6 hours is too short for a game like this, at the end it leaves you wanting so much more of it, but for the 6 hours I played it I was amazed by it. The controls and Yorda's AI can get frustrating at times and I got stumped a few times with the puzzles.. but most of the puzzles are pretty seamless which is another thing I like about the game. There was only one instance in the game where the controls made solving a puzzle difficult. I would put ICO in my top 10 favorite puzzle oriented type games.

[quote name='DT778']Is anyone else experiencing this? Sometimes when I have the joystick pushed all the way ICO will just walk instead of run.[/QUOTE]

Nope, I didn't have that problem.

Bumping this since I just played through it. Awesome review. I remember reading it around the time it was posted but I just now barely played the game. I was excited to try this game out since it is highly praised all over the place.

Personally, I did not enjoy it as much as everyone else seems to have. The only reason was because of the lack of dialogue and cinematic. The controls and Yorda AI were also annoying at times. The camera specifically, and trying to get Yorda to climb a ladder were the most annoying to me.

I will admit though, the puzzles in some sections were extremely creative and I haven't really played a game like this before. The fact that the whole game revolves around dragging around a useless AI, like you said, was pretty unique. While at times it was a little annoying, it was executed extremely well.

Overall it's a very solid game and not too bad considering the length of it. Going to get the Platinum on it, and then move on to Shadow of the Colossus.

Thank you for the feedback, and I'd agree with the points you made.

I felt a little mixed immediately after finishing it as well, and you may have some similar criticisms with Shadow of the Colossus. The horse doesn't always do what you want it to, the colossus platforming can be wonky and frustrating at times, the story is ambiguous and hard to nail down, etc... But these games do sit with you, and you may start to look at what you took away from the experience as a whole, while those small moment to moment frustrations fall to the wayside. People who praise these games don't call them perfect, they are indeed flawed. It's just when the credits start to roll, many can't help but feel overwhelmed by what they just experienced.

This is all subjective though, and it's why it was a scary game to review because it's easily divisive between certain gamers. I hope I was able to clarify that in the writing, and some day I'll try to expand or explain the "Love it or Hate it" rating at the bottom in more detail.

Been playing Shadow of the Colossus on PS2. Maybe I should track down the Ico/Shadow double pack.