PS2 Game Review: ICO

After being under tight wraps for nearly two years, Sony¹s first party efforts have created ICO, an original and innovative game which takes old concepts from classic platform adventure games and refreshes them with new and interesting gameplay concepts. Fans of Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider will be interested in ICO's new approach to the genre which involves two characters cooperating in solving puzzles together. Ico is a young boy from a village which has a superstition that horned children bring ill fortune to every generation. Because of his horns he is taken to an ancient castle and thrown into a stone casket to die. The casket is not stable, however, and it tips over and breaks open, freeing Ico from his tomb. As Ico wanders through the castle he meets a mysterious young girl, Yorda, trapped inside of a cage. After freeing her, he takes it upon himself to protect her and to help her escape from the castle. The boy and girl are not alone, however; shadowy creatures are stalking them and seem bent on capturing Yorda and taking her to a dark pit. Armed only with a stick and no battle skills, Ico must drive off the shadow creatures whenever they appear and help Yorda through the puzzles as they escape the castle together.

ICO’s gameplay is similar to Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider. Combat is not the primary focus of the game; rather, a series of puzzles must be solved in order to progress. Unlike Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider, it is hard to die in ICO, meaning that the game has generous room for mistakes, but not so much that it is too easy. The puzzles in ICO are logical and make sense most of the time, and don't usually involve the tedious key/item hunts that plague most puzzle/adventure games. Examples include pushing crates, swinging from chains, leaping across gaps, bombing structures, operating machinery and grabbing onto moving platforms. Yorda is not nearly as agile as Ico, so he must help her climb steep ledges or create alternate paths for her to follow. Ico can hold Yorda's hand to guide her or he can call for her to follow him; otherwise she wanders about on her own for a while. The combat is interesting because you are not a super-powerful warrior with a huge lightning sword; instead, you are a young kid armed with only a stick, yet you must protect Yorda from the shadow creatures. Ico is fairly clumsy in battle, and although he cannot be killed by the creatures, he can be stunned and knocked back in enough time for the creatures to grab Yorda and run off with her. If that happens, he must chase down the creature carrying her and bash it with the stick until it drops her. If the demons begin pulling Yorda down into the dark pit, Ico must grab her hand and help her escape.

The graphics in ICO are rendered according to the way the human eye interprets light, giving them an ultra-realistic look unlike any before it. High resolution textures decorate the castle with stunning outdoor sequences and magnificent vistas. Interior areas have glowing torches, shafts of light coming through windows and natural shadows cast by the characters and objects. The painstaking attention to detail is astounding in the later areas of the game. At times you will wish to simply stand still and rotate the camera around to marvel at the surroundings, whether they be photo-realistic trees blowing in the wind, amazing rippling water or the detailed horizon of faraway towers. The animations of Ico and the girl are very realistic and flow together naturally, and the shadow demons give off interesting smoke effects. Graphically, ICO is a work of art and shows the true strength of the PS2. ICO has little music, but it is filled with ambient sound effects to enhance the immersion of the atmosphere. Music is applied when appropriate to supplement the cutscenes. Ico and Yorda speak different languages and cannot understand each other, but thanks to the quality voice acting, you can sense an emotional link between the boy and girl.

Fans of frenetic, heart-pounding action games need not apply to ICO, for it is a soothing, relaxing game that relies on logic and understanding rather than quick button pressing. The graphics are beautiful, the atmosphere is immersive and the characters are well designed. Sony’s old reputation of developing poor games is quickly eroding with the releases of Twisted Metal: Black, Gran Turismo 3 and now ICO. Nintendo and Sega take note, for ICO is a title that either company would be pleased to have in its lineup.

Screenshots