ICO

"Great game...with minor flaws"

Intro-
This game is truly remarkable. Worthy of praise is Ico. I havent played any other game like it. It trully stands alone as one of the many great games for the Playstation 2.

Good things about ICO-
Very great game with great gameplay and gorgeous graphics and visuals. When a cut-scene comes along, it is very beautiful and stunning. What story there is, is great.

Bad things about ICO-
Becomes repetative. Sound is lacking in this game. Story is not very deep. This game is very, very short and can be beaten within a day. Not a lot of action.

Gameplay-
The gameplay is great. Within the first few 20 minutes or so, you immediatly love the game and simply dont want to put it down. The mind boggling puzzles can sometimes confuse you too much, but you still love the game. At times the game can be too hard. And at other times you just blaze through the levels like they were nothing at all. Controls are very simple. The controls will never become a problem because they are very easy and wont become confusing. But the controls can cause a problem sometimes. At times, ICO wont grab onto a ledge when he is sopposed to or he will let go of Yorda's hand. Yorda can cause a big problem. Most of the time she will become a great problem and possibly a threat. Besides all this, the gameplay is like no other game's. But as most puzzle games do, ICO becomes very repetative. You will find yourself doing the same things over, and over again. This will become a great hassle, but the reward is great. Action isnt big in ICO either. There are a lot of battles between you and shadow people, but they become dull. A very slow paced game but it has some of the best gameplay.
Score: 10/10
Summary: Great gameplay, but has some problems in it that arent too bad and can be overlooked easily.

Story-
ICO's story simply draws you in. When you see a cut-scene and leaves you hanging in a certain situation, then you are just begging for more. But because of the lack of cut-scenes and dialoge, you dont really get a good understanding what is going on at sometimes. At first, you may not think that the story is very great because ICO doesnt tell you much about its background for a while. But as you progress through the story, it becomes much, much better. as the story gets better, it almost compels you to play more and unveil more secrets. The more you know about the game, the more you want to know also. Although there are many bad things about the gameplay, the story cleans it all up.
Score: 8/10
Summary: Great story that has almost nothing wrong with it but that it doesnt state enough about it.

Graphics-
Simply beautiful. Cut-scenes are like little movies. The visuals are stunning in every way. Nothing looks poor or hand drawn and scribbled together. Every thing looks very good and its as if everything was painted. The graphics are some what cartoony, but still are great in there own way.
Score: 10/10
Summary: Great graphics but a little on the cartoony side.

Sound-
Sound is really lacking in ICO but when there is sound, it is music to th ears. There is almost no sound in this adventure because it is a slow paced game, but the music that is placed in cut-scenes is great. MOst of the game is very silent. The only time that you will hear sound, outside of a cut-scene is when a certain action is performed. Other than that, anything from jumping to running is very quiet. Most of the sound is ICO calling Yorda over to follow him, which will get very annoying after many hours of play.
Score: 7/10
Summary: Great sound during cut-scenes and othe things (continue and title screen) but during the gameplay, it is very silent. Almost no sound effects.

Play time/ replay-
Play time, unfortunitly is very short in ICO.The game goes by very fast. It will take about 6 - 6 1/2 hours to complete the game also, completing the only side quest in the game. The replay value of this game is very low. Especially with the American version of the game, there is nothing to do or to unlock in the second run through the game.
Score: 1/10
Summary: Very short game. A little bit too short.
Conclusion-
Ico is a very good game and is highly recommended by me to get. This game is definatly one to buy. Although if you like to save money, you would probably be able to reny ICO and beat it before you have to return it. But because ICO is an older game, you may have trouble finding it. Highly recommended by me to anyone who loves a good adventure game. For anyone that is an action person,this game isnt for you.
Overal Score: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/03