Ico came out during the younger days of the PS2 and got a lot of critical praise, as well as very little public interest. Here's why I think now that time has passed by you should take a look at this underappreciated game now that it is much cheaper as well as overlooked by many.
First off the storyline goes like this. You play the role of Ico, a boy who was unfortunate enough to be born a genetic freak with horns on his head. The locals, of course, think Ico is the cause of all their problems and send him to the castle where they apparently leave the other horned boys that have been born throughout the years for sacrifice (must be something in the water). A mishap happens and Ico is freed from his sacrificial container. From there Ico brandishes a 2"x 4" in hopes of escaping the castle. Ico in a short time meets up with his "dumb" blonde Yorda. Who is also imprisoned and speaks in a foreign language that isn't understandable by Ico or us (probably why they get along so well). Ico finds out that this mysterious girl Yorda has some rather nifty little powers, like moving otherwise unmovable doors, but the Queen that inhabits this castle isn't willing to let Yorda be taken away (she really couldn't care less about insignificant little pest Ico).
The gameplay in Ico consists of this, solving puzzles, finding your way around areas, a little fighting and then Ico and Yorda getting cozy on the couch (which is how you save the game). The great thing about the puzzles in this game is that the puzzles seem pretty intuitive. Instead of always trying to find keys shaped like chess pieces or flipping switches (there are some switches) you usually are trying to figure out how to get yourself and Yorda from one place to another. The puzzles are supposed to be difficult however I didn't really have any major problems with them once I knew all of Ico's moves. The two things that really made me confused were solved by the discovering of these two little tidbits of information.
1. Those things outside the doors that look like jars are bombs.
2. Ico can swing back and forth on chains.
If I had read the manual I could have saved myself a couple of hours on those two. The biggest trick in the game is the fact that it's easy to get Ico from one area to the next, but it is not easy to get Yorda from one place to another. As Ico you can run, jump, climb chains and ladders, carry items, light bombs, scale walls with razor thin ledges, push/pull blocks, as well as kick phantom thingy behind. Yorda can um... stand there, look ghostly, climb ladders, be pulled up to some heights, make jumps that Ico has to save her on, and stand idly by as she gets nabbed by phantoms.
The fact that you’re pretty well attached at the hip with Yorda means that you can't stray from her for very long, or for a very long distance. If you do she's likely to be attacked by black phantom things that will pick her up and try to pull her down into their black vortex, if that happens it's game over. Luckily Ico is there to protect her, he can pull her out of the vortex if she's not completely gone and beat the phantoms into submission with his stick (or sword later in the game). The battles aren't overly difficult at any point in the game, which helps to keep the focus on puzzle solving.
The controls in Ico I found to be very responsive. This game isn't Devil May Cry for example, you only do a little fighting, which isn't very important to the game, and so you don't have a ton of attack buttons. The controls are laid out so well that thinking about them right now I can't even think of any problems I ever had with them, they simply do everything you need them to do. The camera occasionally moved around at an unwanted time or into an unwanted angle, but I don't remember it ever once costing me the game.
The sounds in Ico are pretty sparse, but good at everything they do. You mostly hear the sandal-footed footsteps of Ico on whatever surface he may be on as well as the bare-footed steps of Yorda. The dialog in Ico is all spoken in two different made-up languages so I'll just say the voice acting was uhhhh... believable.
The graphics in this game are one thing that really shines not so much for their sheer splendor, but for their atmosphere. The characters are a little stylized, but work well for their job. The phantoms are merely black blobs with black haze around them and white eyes. The castle itself isn't intricately detailed even; it's all in the light and color used. Yorda has an almost ghostly glow to her even in the darkest of areas (this girl has never even seen the sun she's so pale). When you are inside the castle, it looks like you are inside an old castle. The lighting is just spot on and all the colors are subdued. When you go outside the sun just hits the grass and the walls and every color just becomes super-saturated, just gorgeous. The enemies are really a cheap trick, but are ingenious at the same time. They may just be black blobs with black haze and white eyes, but are they ever creepy and menacing.
There are a couple of things that prevent this game from getting my highest rating though. First off the game is only around 8 hours long for the average gamer plus they have very little incentive to play through again (the only incentive being to see it all again). The game seems to be a little bit on the simple side as well, the battles are easy enough for children, but the puzzles and some scenes are far to hard and troublesome for little children. Any enemy with the exception of the final and only boss can’t kill Ico. The only way Ico can die is if he falls from a great height and dies, he does not accumulate damage over time. So the idea is to protect Yorda at all costs, and that proves pretty simple.
If you can find this game cheap like I did ($8 used = $1 per hour of pleasure) then I highly recommend it. I wouldn't recommend it for any more than $20 considering how short it is with no replay value. If you want a good puzzle game then look no further.
If you're looking for a good action game, keep looking.
If you're looking for a good sports game, then why are you reading this review?
This auction is for: Sony PlayStation 2 "ICO" Comes with: Case, game disc, and instructions. Game Condition: The game is brand new, still factory seal...More at eBay
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