Pros: Absolutely fluid storytelling and gameplay. An emotional and compelling journey in a puzzle game.
Cons: Slightly annoying camera work.
The Bottom Line: Games like Ico just don't exist. Equally perfect storytelling, visuals, sound, and gameplay. There's a reason it was nominated for Game of the Year.
Puzzle games are hard to dress up. Even the best puzzle games never get the respect or attention they deserve. And while Ico certainly isn't the kind of game everyone imagines when they hear me say puzzle, it's a game more deserving of a second look than most of what's out there- puzzle or not.
That's an ironic statement when you look at Ico. It's a game of subtlety in every way. From the main character to the puzzles themselves to the graphics and sound- this game throws nothing in your face. Yet all the game elements are woven together so perfectly that the result is rare: art. To put it simply, Ico is a beautiful game.
Like most stories that pass the test of time, Ico's is simple. Ico is a little boy who grew horns on his head. His deformity causes him to be ostracized by his village and abandoned in an enchanted castle to die. While exploring, Ico finds a young girl, Yorda, who is also trapped. As Ico you must figure out how to escape the castle together. This task is made difficult by the decrepit state of the castle and a demon queen who is determined to keep Yorda prisoner.
The game's puzzles appear as part of the castle itself. This isn't your Tetris-style puzzler: ordinary objects like crumbling walkways, rusted out pipes, and water valves, and closed drawbridges are all puzzle elements that Ico must interact with to find a way out of the castle. Puzzles are creative and challenging, but never unfairly so. Paying close attention to detail will always get you through a puzzle. Even the most challenging areas follow this rule- the game's puzzles move smoothly in difficulty, always building on what you have learned in getting where you are. There are times where a leap of faith is required to solve a puzzle, but the gambles are never unreasonable.
Even though this is a puzzle game Ico can die while solving puzzles. The only danger posed is in long falls or losing Yorda to the castle's demons. Ico isn't an action game, but from time to time you'll need to pound some ghostly skull into the cement. If you just wanted a puzzle game only, fear not. The battles are easy and mostly exist to push the story along or accentuate Yorda's weakness and her relationship to the castle.
Fights are kept uncomplicated by a simple control scheme. One button attacks, another rescues Yorda if she does get captured. In fact, the entire control scheme is pretty simple. It has a bit of a Prince of Persia feel to it since movement is kept realistic, but the game is much more forgiving. It's hard to accidentally run off a ledge or seriously mistime a jump. It seems the developers made this part of the control a little loose so as not to focus on precise button mashing, but thoughtful gameplay. That's not to say that the physical part of the game is given away- you will lose a life from time to time, but I never found myself blaming the control scheme.
For the times you do lose, though, each puzzle contains a save point nearby so few tasks have to be repeated after losing and game loads are about the fastest you'll see on the PS2. Surprising, but for a puzzle game it's one of the least frustrating you'll ever play.
In fact, the entire game is very mellow. Graphically Ico is very soft. Colors are usually pastels or just very muted. While the game has a cel-shaded element to it, object boundaries are a little hazy at the same time. Looking at a dove on a walkway you may not be sure exactly where the dove ends and the brick behind it begins. Ico doesn't have any single huge effects, but the entire game is filled with small, realistic elements like this. Ico's cape and Yorda's rags blow in the wind when outside, smoky wisps that escape from the souls as Ico beats them back, realistic water from puddles, to streams, to entire oceans, and even some pretty cool light effects from the eyes of the souls as they move about the castle. The game is filled with subtle touches like this that add up to create an impressive visual richness that even blockbuster titles like MGS have a hard time achieving.
But even in Ico, the eye candy isn't gratuitous. The light effects used for the souls aren't far from the effect used on the doves. The similarity between the two offers up a few moments of uncertainty not knowing whether you saw a dove take off or a soul coming after you as you make your way through the game.
Some of the best use of graphics comes in the animating of Ico and Yorda's face in the cut scene close-ups. Ico's artists were able to evoke some complicated emotional expressions from the engine. The best scenes don't appear until late in the game so only dedicated players will be able to witness these scenes.
Like graphics, sounds in the game are kept low and functional. To accentuate the theme of abandonment, there isn't any glaring background music.
While music isn't very pervasive, it's used effectively. A glimpse of the game's approach on sound is given from the start of the game as Ico's trip to the castle is punctuated with very light acoustic guitar. Other dramatic moments are similarly highlighted with music like this- the effect makes the scene much more emotional than the typical orchestral score most games would use.
Much more than the puzzles themselves, it's the overall emotion of the game's sound, graphics, and story that you'll remember. There's fun to be had for sure, but it's rare that a story is told so expertly through gaming.
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