Before getting to the list proper, I’d like to mention a few caveats, a disclaimer if you will. I think it is only fair that I only include games that I have actually played on this list. Expectations rarely measure up to actuality, for good or bad. So while I am sure games such as Halo 3: ODST, Borderlands, Left 4 Dead 2, The Beatles Rock Band, Infamous, Resident Evil 5, and Street Fighter 4 are all most excellent, none of them will be appearing on my list. Additionally, if a game didn’t come out this year, it won’t appear on the list even though this is the year in which I first played them. Otherwise you’d be seeing appearances by games such as Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Space, Civilization Revolution, and Battlefield: Bad Company.

You would think these things could go without saying, and you’re probably right. However, you wouldn’t want to deprive me of the fun of writing a disclaimer, would you? I didn’t think so. So without further ado, I bring you my picks for Game of the Year 2009.

Best Playstation 3 Game of 2009
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 2 was the only new release that I played on the PS3 this year (due to buying the system so late in the year), so it kind of won by default. Regardless, I feel pretty good about this choice as Uncharted 2 is an amazing example of an adventure game at its cinematic best. The best thing about Uncharted 2 is the interplay between the extremely well-written characters. Incidental banter goes on even while you are playing, not just in the cutscenes, fleshing out character personalities and quirks in the process.

If you could choose only one game to show off what the PS3 can do, Uncharted 2 is definitely the game you want to pop in. The game is absolutely gorgeous, almost to the point of distraction. Getting killed during a firefight because you were admiring a beautiful waterfall or strange sculpture in the background is a problem every game wishes it could have. In a world full of “great looking” titles that think muddy browns are the ultimate in artistic expression, Uncharted 2 dares to use a vibrant palette of colors heavy in reds and greens.

The greatest looking digital scenery in the world doesn’t mean that much if it doesn’t feel alive. Uncharted 2 excels in this area thanks to the amazing quality of the animation. Character movements are smooth and realistic, vehicles bounce around on bumpy roads the way you expect them to, and guns look impressive and dangerous when you fire them. The sheer amount of quality animation in Uncharted 2 is breathtaking. There is definitely a good reason behind those commercials Sony put out where some guy’s girlfriend thinks this game is a movie. Uncharted 2 is almost as fun to watch as it is to play.

Best Nintendo Wii Game of 2009
Unplayed

Unlike the PS3, the only 2009 Wii game I played this year was a big disappointment. It was so disappointingly average that it kind of soured me on Wii games for the rest of the year, causing an apathy that led to skipping games such as WiiSports Resort, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, Dead Space Extraction, and even New Super Mario Bros Wii. Despite all the evidence pointing towards those games being good at the very least, I just couldn’t bring myself to play any of them. For that reason, this category remains empty thanks to The Conduit.

Best Nintendo DS Game of 2009
Unplayed

Some of my apathy towards the Wii bled over to the DS this year. The first half of the year didn’t really have anything that grabbed my attention. However, E3 2009 caused Scribblenauts to leap onto my radar, and I was really excited to get my hands on the game. Unfortunately, Scribblenauts ended up being a great concept hampered by poor execution, especially in the controls department. It is fun for a while as a novelty but gets extremely frustrating very quickly. As a big Zelda fan, I am really looking forward to playing The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, but it hasn’t quite been released yet, so the DS category remains blank as well.

Best PC Game of 2009
Plants vs Zombies

Some people would probably place a different game into this category, but we’ll get back to that in a second. First we’ll get to my pick for the best PC game of the year, Plants vs Zombies. PopCap has figured out some sort of magic formula for creating addictive casual games. For example, Peggle can be a huge time waster, and Bejewled has been cloned about a billion times by now. Plants vs Zombies is a charming little tower defense game in which you have to defend your yard from a zombie onslaught with a variety of cartoony plants. There are several different modes in addition to the regular tower defense mode and plenty of things to unlock, keeping you playing “just one more round” until well after the sun goes down…and comes back up. On the surface, Plants vs Zombies may not seem like it belongs in a list with a bunch of “hardcore” games, but it is just as much fun and far more addictive than many of its bigger cousins.

Best XBox 360 Game of 2009
Batman: Arkham Asylum & Dragon Age: Origins

The Xbox 360 took a much bigger overall share of my play time this year. The number of good games I played on the system made narrowing things down to one game rather difficult. Should I choose the game that surprised me the most? Should I choose the game I spent the most time with? What to do?

In the end, I cheated and picked two: Batman: Arkham Asylum and Dragon Age: Origins. While Assassin’s Creed II improves over the original in just about every way and Modern Warfare 2 is an excellent escalation of Infinity Ward’s first foray into modern day gun fights, I decided to give the edge to original titles. Red Faction Guerrilla almost made the cut as it easily dominated my playing time this summer. However, I settled on Batman: Arkham Asylum and Dragon Age: Origins for the same reason. Both games do an excellent job of creating an engrossing world and completely sucking you into it through story, characters, and gameplay.

Arkham Asylum is easily the best Batman game ever made, but you know it is special because it would be a really good game even if it didn’t star the Dark Knight. Rocksteady Studios made great use of the license in a way that turns a really good game into a great one. Sure, it’s a lot of fun to beat up henchmen no matter who you are, but doing it as the ruthlessly efficient Batman is even better. Arkham Asylum feels like a real place you are inhabiting and exploring rather than a set of video game levels. Also, enough can’t be said about including elements of Batman the Animated Series in this game. Arkham Asylum sometimes feels like a slightly darker version of that show, due in no small part to the writing of Paul Dini and the voices of Mark Hamill (The Joker), Kevin Conroy (Batman), and Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn).

While Arkham Asylum brings the world of Batman to life, Dragon Age: Origins brings a completely original fantasy setting to life with incredible detail, inhabiting the RPG with interesting characters and difficult choices. Some people would list this in the PC category, and I am sure that it plays very well with a mouse and keyboard. Personally, I have spent well over 70 hours playing the game on the 360 so far, loving every single moment along the way. While Dragon Age isn’t the biggest visual powerhouse, it is still very impressive from an artistic design standpoint if not polygon count. Each place you discover feels like it has a history to it, and every area feels distinct due in large part to the different designs found in the architecture, objects, and creatures that you find.

The biggest strengths of the game, however, lie in the amount of flexibility in how you play your character and the impact of your choices on the world you are playing in. There are six completely unique origin stories to play through that influence and flavor the game differently as you play through it. The thing that impresses me the most about Dragon Age is that it manages to make the game equally fun to play, no matter what type of character you are playing as. Playing as a Warrior is just as much fun as playing as a Rogue or a Mage, even though each play style is quite different. Each character type has a lot of room for customization such as what types of magic you decide to use or if your warrior uses large two-handed weapons, a sword and shield combo, or dual weapons.

Excellent voice acting and a wealth of text-based “codex” entries about all the people and places you visit are just more evidence that Bioware certainly hasn’t lost their magic touch when it comes to creating fascinating RPG worlds to explore.

—

Overall Game of 2009
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

So of all the games released this year, which one stands out? Which one has that little something extra that takes it over the top? (As if you couldn’t guess by those pretty pictures on the left.) While all of the games I’ve mentioned are excellent, Uncharted 2 gets the edge for its sharply written character dialogue and eye-popping graphics. Naughty Dog has raised the bar for what we can expect from video game characters. I hope the studio can eclipse themselves again in Nathan Drake’s inevitable next adventure. Uncharted 3 can’t get here soon enough!

Microsoft’s briefing was full of glitz, glamour, and lots of games. Nintendo’s conference was full of boring lectures, sales data, a few good announcements, and possibly take-home tests. Sony was a bit of a combination of the two, falling a bit short of the quality of the Microsoft show, but they were far more successful than what Nintendo was able to put together. Sony didn’t cut out all the sales charts like Microsoft did, but they didn’t skimp on showing great looking games either.

Sony’s briefing began with a sense of humor about all the leaks they had beforehand, saying they want to be the industry leader even with news leaks. After a little bit of sales data, Naughty Dog came onstage to show off a demo of Uncharted 2: Drake’s Fortune. The game looks amazing, especially in the quality of character animation. After that, MAG (Massive Action Game) was demoed, showing gameplay for the first time. It looks somewhat impressive, but I’m still not convinced that it will be a compelling experience.

Next up was the official unveiling of the PSP Go. The design is quite a bit different than the current PSP-3000, and it will be co-existing with the current model rather than replacing it. The PSP Go will be in stores the beginning of October with a $249.99 price tag. Coming at the same time as the PSP Go will be a Gran Turismo game for the handheld system. Hideo Kojima decided to show up at Sony’s conference this year (after appearing at Microsoft’s yesterday). This time, he revealed a Metal Gear title for the PSP, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The game appears to take place early on in the Metal Gear story, according to the insanely long trailer that had several different endings. Seriously, the thing just kept on going.

The next section of Sony’s show dragged on for a bit with a few montages and talk about Playstation Home. The crowd had a bit of fun with the presenters when they mockingly cheered for a Hannah Montana game. On the upside, there was a quick mention of a new Rockstar game exclusive to PS3 that is coming called Agent, but little detail was shared.

Luckily Sony got back on track with a live demo of Assassin’s Creed 2. The game looks more colorful than the original, probably due to the Italian setting during the Renaissance. The game’s new lead character, Ezio, is shown climbing buildings and leaping between rooftops much like in the first Assassin’s Creed. However there were several additions and twists to the formula that were shown as well, not the least of which is using Da Vinci’s flying machine to soar over the city. Ezio also has two different hidden blades, allowing him to covertly take out two guards at once, and he can also steal weapons from enemies as he fights them. The demo ended with Ezio leaping into the river to swim away, something that would have meant instant death in the first game. Assassin’s Creed 2 looks very good, and I can’t wait until it hits shelves this November.

Sony then showed off an English-language trailer for Final Fantasy XIII, followed by the surprise announcement of Final Fantasy XIV Online coming in 2010, exclusive to PS3. Everything seemed to be on track for Sony thus far, but then Sony revealed their take on a new motion controller, grinding the briefing to a halt.

The new controller featured was just a prototype, so the final look will most likely be quite a bit different than what was shown today. The new controller basically looks like a ping pong ball on the end of a wand. It works in conjunction with the EyeToy camera to detect position and rotation in 3D space. They showed off several simplistic tech demos of the thing, but it came off looking rather cheap and gimmicky, despite working fairly well. It is supposedly coming in the spring of 2010 despite appearing like it isn’t very far along. Compared to the technology behind Microsoft’s Project Natal camera, Sony’s motion controller doesn’t seem to be quite as innovative.

Luckily Sony had more games up their sleeve after the motion controller was revealed. Mod Nation Racers is another title in the vein of LittleBigPlanet. The game is a kart racer with tons of customization options. Particularly impressive was the demonstration of the simple to use, yet robust track editor included in the game. After that was a trailer for the new Team Ico game, The Last Guardian, looking a lot like Shadow of the Colossus in its art design. Next, Grand Turismo 5 showed up in trailer form, looking rather pretty, but very light on gameplay.

And Sony ended the show right there…….okay not really. They showed off a ton of gameplay from the first few minutes of God of War 3. The game looks to play a lot like the previous games in the series, except it is a lot prettier in the graphics department. The level of detail in the environments and character models was very impressive, and I’m sure it will sell a ton of copies when it releases in March 2010.

All in all, Sony had a really good show, despite the lackluster motion controller tech demos. They showed off a lot of games and an attractive new design for the PSP, certainly a lot more content than what Nintendo had.

Mirror’s Edge is set in a world of totalitarian rule, conspiracies, and underground organizations. The game’s protagonist, Faith, is a Runner, someone who uses the rooftops to travel “between the gloss and the reality”, delivering clandestine messages for clients who wish to remain under the radar. Early in the game, Faith’s sister on the police force (known as “Blues” in the Mirror’s Edge universe) is framed for murdering a promising candidate for mayor. Faith sets out to clear her sister’s name and track down the real killer, hassled by the Blues at every turn. Along the way, she discovers that the truth is much bigger than what she initially suspects.

Hey! Who put me in an E-Surance commercial?!

The story sounds much more interesting on paper than it comes across while playing the game. Most of the cutscenes are presented in a Flash animation style that fails to live up to the quality of the rest of the game’s visuals. These sequences pull you out of the action when the rest of the game seems focused on keeping you firmly inside Faith’s running shoes. The few scenes that unfold using the in-game engine are much more effective at helping you experience things from Faith’s point of view, making me wish the entire story was presented in this fashion.

The rest of the game looks absolutely gorgeous. Faith lives in a city that looks like something Apple would create if the company got into urban development. Glossy white surfaces are prevalent, accented by splashes of bright, saturated color. While this somewhat simplified visual style gives Mirror’s Edge a unique look, it is also functional in helping you navigate the environment. The “Runner Vision” system causes certain items such as ladders or pipes to become red as Faith nears them, identifying proper routes across the rooftops. Early on, Runner Vision is very abundant, showing you exactly where to go. However, the system backs away a few levels into the story becoming more of a confirmation that you are going the right way rather than outright showing you where to go. However, getting lost is rarely a problem as levels are usually fairly linear. There are usually only one or two correct ways to get to your destination.

On the surface, Mirror’s Edge appears to be a first-person shooter, but it has much more in common with a platformer. Throughout the game, you are running from one end of a level to the other with plenty of drop-offs, enemies, and other obstacles getting in your way. A majority of the time, Faith is required to navigate from one platform to another, oftentimes while being chased. However, sometimes getting up close and personal with your enemies is necessary.

Kick to the face? Yes, please!

Faith has the option to pick up dropped weapons, but the game actively encourages you to use non-lethal means to achieve your objectives. To this end, you have several options that allow you to disarm and incapacitate your enemies. When Faith gets close to someone, they will attempt to hit her with their weapon. For a split second, their gun will flash red, indicating when to attempt a disarming maneuver. A successful disarm results in impressive animations where Faith grabs the weapon and uses it to knock out her adversary. Different weapons result in different take-downs. For example, Faith disarms a shotgun-wielding enemy by kicking their gun into the air, catching it, and cracking them upside the head with it. The window for disarming enemies is pretty small, but Faith can also slow down time momentarily, provided that the ability is fully charged, giving you a bit more time to react properly.

Taking on multiple adversaries without a weapon is a big no-no and will quickly get you killed. However, sometimes you don’t have a choice, and you need to take out enemies quickly. Walking up to them and throwing a lot of punches will eventually get the job done, if you don’t get shot to death beforehand. It is much more effective to run up to an enemy and attack them from the air or from the ground. In general, the more momentum you have going, the more effective your attack will be. A few areas even lend themselves towards literally getting the drop on someone by jumping down from above and landing a well-placed kick to the head. The places where you are able to combine acrobatics with combat are much more enjoyable than taking on enemies in more open areas. For instance, running along a wall and jumping off to kick a guard, spinning them around in the process, never gets old.

Wheee!!

While Faith has many avenues available to her for engaging enemies, sometimes the best option is to run away. Running is what she does best, after all, and this is where Mirror’s Edge absolutely shines. The game does an excellent job of simulating movement to the point that it is a joy to navigate the environment, and it becomes a hassle when you have to slow down just to take out a couple of guys in your way. Unlike most games shown from a first person perspective, Mirror’s Edge does not merely feel like a floating camera. Faith’s arms and legs are visible when she is pulling off spectacular maneuvers, and the camera bobs and weaves to her every movement. The game even goes as far as flipping your view over when Faith performs a forward roll. At first, the immersive style can be a little disorienting, but the simple control scheme goes a long way towards making you feel comfortable in Faith’s shoes.

All of Faith’s acrobatic moves are divided into two simple categories: up and down. Upward moves are assigned to the top shoulder button on one side of your controller, and downward moves are triggered by the bottom shoulder button on the same side. The shoulder buttons opposite these trigger Faith’s melee attacks and a 180 degree spin. Placing all of the major functions completely on the shoulder buttons helps give Mirror’s Edge a unique feel while playing. There aren’t many games that allow you to almost ignore the face buttons. Using different combos of shoulder buttons allows you to perform different moves, creating a surprisingly deep system of movement.

In order to be successful in pulling off proper moves, you must keep up Faith’s momentum. For example, hurdling a medium-sized obstacle will give Faith a small boost while sliding under it will slow you down. It doesn’t take very long to get the hang of things, and keeping Faith at full speed becomes second nature. Part of maintaining your rhythm and momentum is learning to recognize different features of the environment and how to best take advantage of them.

See a couple of small boxes stacked next to each other? Use them to get a large boost in height when you jump off them. Need to climb to a platform above you that is too high to jump straight up? Run up the opposite wall, spin around, and jump to it with ease. Falling from a ledge slightly too high up? Trigger a forward roll just before you hit the ground to break your fall.

Neo said it best: Whoa.

Despite having plenty of moves available for almost any situation, you will find yourself missing plenty of jumps and falling to your death. Luckily Mirror’s Edge has a very good checkpoint system, so you will rarely have to replay large sections of the game over again. When you are running full tilt across rooftops, making death-defying leaps, or hitching a ride on a subway train, Mirror’s Edge is at it’s exhilarating best. The times when you are forced to stop and take out enemies are where the game can get somewhat frustrating, especially if you are attempting to play through the game without using any weapons. The game is made much easier when you actually use the guns taken from your enemies, even though they are only good for a few shots before becoming useless. There are no boxes of ammo lying around, so once the clip goes empty, you’ll have to acquire another weapon if you want to continue shooting. Holding a weapon also restricts Faith’s speed and her ability to climb, adding a little extra incentive to get rid of a weapon quickly.

Apart from the main story, there are several other modes to play through. Each story level has three hidden messenger bags to collect, and speed runs for every segment become available after your first play-through. Additionally, there are several videos, music, and pieces of concept artwork to unlock, but the meat of the extra content is found in the time trial mode. The time trials feature several courses running through bite-sized chunks of the different levels in the game. Depending on how fast you complete a course, you will earn a rating of one, two, or three stars. It is very likely that you will fail to meet the base time your first few times through a course until you discover the optimum route, something that isn’t always obvious from the get-go. To help with this, you can download and race against a ghost of any of the one hundred fastest times from the online leaderboards. Doing so will reveal the fancy moves and routes through a course that others have used, provided you can stay close enough to their ghost to see what it is doing. The good thing about the time trials is that you don’t have to worry about any enemies bringing your momentum to a screeching halt, but a lot of the courses can be fairly difficult to finish with even a one-star qualifying time, so expect to spend a lot of time trying to shave few seconds off your best time.

This should be easy...

Mirror’s Edge is difficult to pin down. It does so many things right that should add up to something great. In particular, the freedom of movement in Mirror’s Edge is unparalleled by any other first person game out there. Despite several aspects of the game bogging it down from being the free-flowing experience it should be, the game is still a lot of fun to play and well worth checking out.

Final Grade: B-

The new Prince, who is really just a glorified thief instead of actual royalty, finds himself lost in a desert searching for his gold-laden donkey. He soon runs into a princess named Elika and becomes entangled in her plight. Long ago the god of light, Ormazd, was forced to trap the god of darkness, Ahriman, and his corrupting influence inside a sacred tree. Thousands of years later, Ormazd is long gone, and Ahriman is trying to escape from his prison.

Freddy ain't got nothing on me!

The Prince follows Elika to the temple in the middle of the desert that houses the sacred tree. However, when they get there, Elika’s father chops the glowing tree in half with his sword, releasing Ahriman’s corruption and darkness upon the land. The dark god is still trapped inside the tree, but his prison is weakening. Elika and the Prince set out to cleanse the land of corruption in order to keep that catastrophe from happening.

To pull off this monumental task, the Prince and Elika must find several “fertile grounds” and purge the corruption from each area by unleashing Elika’s magic. Once all of the fertile grounds have been cleansed of evil, their combined power will allow the pair to go back to the temple and reseal Ahriman inside his prison.

Prince of Persia’s story is fairly simple but well-told. There are several cutscenes during the game that explain what is going on, but the tale especially comes to life if you take advantage of the “on demand” dialogue system. At any point during the game, you can hit a button to talk to Elika. She will describe the history of the land, convey points of interest from the area you are in, or reveal information on your enemies. Sometimes the dialogue has nothing to do with what you are doing, and the Prince and Elika will get into a sparring match. It is all completely optional, but it goes a long way towards developing the two characters and their relationship.

Standing in the Prince’s way are four of Ahriman’s henchmen, each with certain strengths and weaknesses that you need to exploit in order to defeat them. Rather than throwing you into battles with multiple enemies at a time, Prince of Persia focuses on head to head duels. You are able to trigger several different attacks with simple button presses, combining them into impressive combos that cause more damage than a single attack. You can use the Prince’s sword, gauntlet, and Elika’s magical powers to attack your foes as well as taking advantage of your acrobatics to lengthen combos. You will have several encounters with each of the henchmen throughout the game.

Cool kids use an underhanded grip.

Making your way to all the fertile grounds requires some fancy moves on the Prince’s part. Running and jumping through the environment has always been the strength of the Prince of Persia games, and this one is no different. You are able to run along and up walls, climb cliffs using special rings mounted to the wall, jump between giant columns, and use your gauntlet to slowly slide down vertical surfaces. Elika can even help you to leap across longer distances by giving you a magical boost, effectively giving you a double jump.

Elika will rescue you any time you are about to fall to your death by pulling you back to the last stable surface you were on. This is a clever way to handle a checkpoint system, and it effectively keeps you in the action and prevents things from getting too frustrating. Moving through an area can become very rhythmic once you get used to how the Prince moves and start to recognize the visual clues in the environment that tell you where to go. You will have the most success when pressing the right button at the right time.

Each time you cleanse one of the fertile grounds, glowing orbs called “light seeds” are scattered throughout the area. Collecting these seeds causes Elika’s power to grow, eventually unlocking four different special powers. These powers help you reach previously unreachable places in specific areas. Each power is tied to a specially-colored plate. Triggering Elika’s magic on one of these plates will allow you to soar through the air or run long distances up walls. You can unlock these powers in any order that you choose, somewhat giving you the ability to pick your path through the game.

After you unlock the last of Elika’s powers, you will find that there are still a few hundred light seeds left lying around. Collecting these can be a lot of fun, especially because doing so takes you to many different nooks and crannies that you might not have bothered to find otherwise. Collecting every single orb isn’t necessary, but it is great to have if you like to compulsively collect things in video games.

I'll take the Express to the ground floor please.

Prince of Persia has a slick art style that the developer describes as illustrative cel-shading. I would describe it as more of a living watercolor painting. Regardless of what you call it, the art style is beautiful and unique. There are many places in the game where I paused for several moments to admire the scenery. Everything looks very good in its corrupted state. However, after an area has been cleansed, the colors become really vibrant and the world seems to pop off the screen. I found many of these places to be rather breathtaking.

The Prince’s new adventure is a worthy one. Unfortunately it comes to an end far too quickly. Prince of Persia isn’t very long, even if you take the time to track down every single light seed before finishing the game. It can be a good thing to leave your audience wanting more, but not when it detracts from the experience at hand. When the journey was over, it felt like it had only just begun.

Final Grade: B+

The two enter the temple to find a large hall at the bottom, lined with massive statues on either side. At the far end of the hall, the man dismounts and carries a large, blanket-covered bundle to an altar at the top of some steps. He whips off the blanket to reveal the body of a young woman. At that moment, a voiceover explains about a forbidden land where “it is said that if one should wish it, one can bring back the souls of the dead.”

Several dark, shadowy figures rise from the floor only to be dispelled when the man draws his sword. A disembodied voice speaks to the man, expressing surprise that he possesses the ancient sword. The voice reveals itself to be called Dormin, and the man asks if it can bring back the soul of the woman who “was sacrificed for she had a cursed fate.” Dormin declares that “it may not be impossible”, but “the price you pay may be heavy indeed”. Dormin then tasks the man with defeating sixteen Colossi represented by the idols along the walls of the temple. Raising the ancient sword into the light will gather a beam of light pointing in the direction of the first Colossus the man is to defeat.

A Horse and His Boy

Shadow of the Colossus uses a very minimal approach to storytelling. After this introduction, there are no more story details revealed until near the end of the game. You are left wondering about the exact nature of the Colossi you are sent to destroy, who or what Dormin is, and for that matter, the name of the character you are playing as. Some of these questions are answered by the end of the game, but you are never told your character’s name or the name of the woman he is trying to save.

From the moment the game begins, you feel a deep sense of loneliness and melancholy, due in large part to the haunting score. There are other games, such as those in the Metroid series, that use a sense of isolation to help set the mood, but Shadow of the Colossus takes solitude to the next level. Your only companion is your horse, Agro, and apart from the occasional bird or lizard, the only creatures that you will find in the vast landscapes of the game are the Colossi themselves. There are no other characters to interact with, and there are no regular enemies to fight along the way.

You have a bow and arrows to go along with your sword, but that is all the equipment you will have for the entire game. There are no hidden weapons or new special abilities waiting to be discovered. This helps to accentuate the feeling of being alone as you won’t be getting help from anyone. It’s just you and your wits taking on giant monsters with a little help from your horse along the way.

Colossi get very cranky when woken from a nap.

It may sound like Shadow of the Colossus is a boring, empty game, but that is not the case. There is a surprising amount of variety in the environments throughout the world, and nothing seems carbon copied. Every section of the world feels entirely unique. There are a ton of ruins and ancient structures to discover, some of which are off the beaten path and seemingly exist only to flesh out the world. There are some places that you won’t see if you just blindly track down each Colossus, never exploring anywhere else.

The game does a great job of portraying scale and distance. You will have to travel a long way to track down most of the Colossi, some of which take a little effort to discover. Once you find one, it will take some time to learn the weak points of the enormous beast in order to take it down. The game never gets stale, and once you think you’ve figured out the pattern of what these creatures are and how to defeat them, the next battle will throw you a curve ball. Each Colossus looks and acts unique, and the methods required to defeat each one are progressively more satisfying.

In general, you must find a way to climb onto a Colossus, discover its weak point(s), and hang on long enough to stab them with your sword before you are shaken off. Sometimes you will be on your own for a battle, and sometimes you will require the help of your horse to defeat the creatures. Finding the way onto a Colossus is not always obvious, and can take quite a bit of time to figure out. Once you decipher the proper way take one down, it is usually a fairly straight-forward procedure, but not necessarily an easy one to pull off. Each battle feels very epic with the score providing a lot of energy to the encounters. After a Colossus is defeated, your character absorbs the dark energy that is released, sending him back to the temple to start the search for his next foe.

Who knew? All those times watching Raiders of the Lost Ark finally came in handy.

Shadow of the Colossus is a beautiful game for the eyes and ears. The visual design of the environments, buildings, and the Colossi is unique and all but flawless. Everything has a worn look to it, like it has existed for hundreds of years. There is a staggering amount of scope and detail, especially for a PS2 game, and the moody lighting adds a little bit of magic and atmosphere to the surroundings.

Like the story, the sound design uses a minimalist approach, only providing sound when it is most needed. There are many times that you will only hear the sound of Agro’s hoof beats and a slight hint of music, but once a battle starts, the score kicks in and the rumbling footsteps of the Colossus amp up the tension. The music to each battle evolves with the action, becoming much more energetic and intense when you are hanging on for dear life.

As good as it is, Shadow of the Colossus has a couple issues that hold it back from being a perfect game. You will often find yourself wrestling with the camera just as much as the colossal creature you are fighting, and controlling your horse is a little tricky and could be a bit more responsive at times. Despite that, Shadow of the Colossus is a game well worth playing because it is a unique experience that you won’t find anywhere else.

Final Grade: A-