I want to preface the following LTTP with this:
...
I got into this gen in 2018 with a PS4 Pro; God Of War, Spider-Man, and Red Dead Redemption 2 finally tipped me over the edge.
And then there was Shadow of the Colossus, too.
I missed out on it when I had a PS2 and have always wanted to play this. A game where all you do is fight HUGE bosses? Yes please. The remake looked fantastic and I was super fucking keen to finally to play what is considered one of the absolute GOATs in gaming.
And it starts off so cool - you're a stranger Wander...ing into a strange, desolate land, carrying your fridged wife to an altar in the hopes of saving her. Some ominous voices tell you it's hard, but not impossible. Just go and slaughter a bunch of colossi and then maybe we'll see what we can do.
And off you are.
And wow - what a world. This game looks beautiful.
If you've lived under a rock like I have, the game's loop is this:
You use your literal lightsaber (pictured below) to tell you the way and then you ride through this empty open world to kill your next colossus. You do this 16 times.
And that first colossus - oof. So cool. Absolutely unforgettable experience. In fact, all 16 colossi are incredibly distinct, and creative, to the point where I can still remember how and where I fought them. Good job Team Ico.
But oh my god this game just isn't fun. Like ugh. See I don't game a lot, as such I'm always very cautious with what I buy and play. Consequently there aren't a lot of games where I felt like I wasn't particularly enjoying myself. Of the more recent ones I really was disappointed by L.A. Noire's story and writing for example. I also got a bit bored by Uncharted 3's excessive and poor shooting mechanics (fuck those shotgun-wielding sponges)...and that's about it?
At no point that I can recall was I close to actually just stop playing a game but SOTC is...just so goddamn tedious.
I sometimes feel that Era gets a bit elitist about controls: I actually enjoyed The Witcher 3's combat, I didn't mind RDR2's "sluggy controls," and apart from GTAIV's cars, there isn't a game where I got seriously annoyed by the controls.
Until now.
Fuck Agro. What a stupid fucking horse. Seriously. I understand that I'm not controlling him, but I'm controlling Wander, controlling him, but who made this shit up. It's the most inconsistent, least fun, and weirdest to control (Triangle, for real?) horse I've ever had the pleasure to control. What was probably meant to be an emotional moment, was diminished because I was actually kinda glad that Agro died. Good job Team Ico.
And then there's Wander himself who's just as unreliable.
Climbing is unpredictable.
Swimming is as slow as the engine allows and just boring (and yet there is a high amount of water-based colossi).
The time for you to get up is shorter than the cooldown time of boss attacks (and becomes increasingly longer the lower your health), making you stuck in an endless loop of getting hit.
And then, since the gameplay is so limited, the fights themselves get kinda stale after the novelty has worn off.
It was fucking DOPE the first few times around, but then it just becomes repetitive: find the weaknesses, climb up, stab a bunch of times, repeat. It's actually annoying, because the gameplay mechanics are just so poor.
Like this guy here:
You want me to ride and steer Agro in a confined space BACKWARDS while trying to aim at some tiny eyes on a Dune worm? Fuck you SOTC. And this one was even among the less bullshit ones; the final boss, and the one in the lake with the teeth on top were so much dumber.
It's not "difficult," it's just annoying and tedious. I have played difficult games (obligatory "Dark Souls is one of my favourite games!"). This isn't one of them.
This game just isn't fun. Not in the slightest. Sorry. The story was kinda enjoyable and while the moral was noble ("Man is the real enemy"), but I personally thought the execution, especially wrt the ending was dumb. Matter of tase, I get it. Fine.
However I seriously don't understand how this game is held in such high esteem. It's not even a cult classic, or some controversial hidden gem, no, it's one of the actual greatest games of all time. I am disappointed beyond belief and feel like this is all just an elaborate ruse. You know, one of those cases where people pretend to like something just to seem sophisticated. I know this is a game from 2006 with just a fresh coat of paint (afaik Bluepoint didn't change any of the original code), but still. San Andreas is still fun, and that's from 2004.
Hyped for Demon's Souls though, graphics were great. Good job Bluepoint Games.
I am proud to now engage in an onslaught of comments calling me dumb, but this is also my first thread ever so please don't hurt me.
...
I got into this gen in 2018 with a PS4 Pro; God Of War, Spider-Man, and Red Dead Redemption 2 finally tipped me over the edge.
And then there was Shadow of the Colossus, too.
I missed out on it when I had a PS2 and have always wanted to play this. A game where all you do is fight HUGE bosses? Yes please. The remake looked fantastic and I was super fucking keen to finally to play what is considered one of the absolute GOATs in gaming.
And it starts off so cool - you're a stranger Wander...ing into a strange, desolate land, carrying your fridged wife to an altar in the hopes of saving her. Some ominous voices tell you it's hard, but not impossible. Just go and slaughter a bunch of colossi and then maybe we'll see what we can do.
And off you are.
And wow - what a world. This game looks beautiful.
If you've lived under a rock like I have, the game's loop is this:
You use your literal lightsaber (pictured below) to tell you the way and then you ride through this empty open world to kill your next colossus. You do this 16 times.
And that first colossus - oof. So cool. Absolutely unforgettable experience. In fact, all 16 colossi are incredibly distinct, and creative, to the point where I can still remember how and where I fought them. Good job Team Ico.
But oh my god this game just isn't fun. Like ugh. See I don't game a lot, as such I'm always very cautious with what I buy and play. Consequently there aren't a lot of games where I felt like I wasn't particularly enjoying myself. Of the more recent ones I really was disappointed by L.A. Noire's story and writing for example. I also got a bit bored by Uncharted 3's excessive and poor shooting mechanics (fuck those shotgun-wielding sponges)...and that's about it?
At no point that I can recall was I close to actually just stop playing a game but SOTC is...just so goddamn tedious.
I sometimes feel that Era gets a bit elitist about controls: I actually enjoyed The Witcher 3's combat, I didn't mind RDR2's "sluggy controls," and apart from GTAIV's cars, there isn't a game where I got seriously annoyed by the controls.
Until now.
Fuck Agro. What a stupid fucking horse. Seriously. I understand that I'm not controlling him, but I'm controlling Wander, controlling him, but who made this shit up. It's the most inconsistent, least fun, and weirdest to control (Triangle, for real?) horse I've ever had the pleasure to control. What was probably meant to be an emotional moment, was diminished because I was actually kinda glad that Agro died. Good job Team Ico.
And then there's Wander himself who's just as unreliable.
Climbing is unpredictable.
Swimming is as slow as the engine allows and just boring (and yet there is a high amount of water-based colossi).
The time for you to get up is shorter than the cooldown time of boss attacks (and becomes increasingly longer the lower your health), making you stuck in an endless loop of getting hit.
And then, since the gameplay is so limited, the fights themselves get kinda stale after the novelty has worn off.
It was fucking DOPE the first few times around, but then it just becomes repetitive: find the weaknesses, climb up, stab a bunch of times, repeat. It's actually annoying, because the gameplay mechanics are just so poor.
Like this guy here:
You want me to ride and steer Agro in a confined space BACKWARDS while trying to aim at some tiny eyes on a Dune worm? Fuck you SOTC. And this one was even among the less bullshit ones; the final boss, and the one in the lake with the teeth on top were so much dumber.
It's not "difficult," it's just annoying and tedious. I have played difficult games (obligatory "Dark Souls is one of my favourite games!"). This isn't one of them.
This game just isn't fun. Not in the slightest. Sorry. The story was kinda enjoyable and while the moral was noble ("Man is the real enemy"), but I personally thought the execution, especially wrt the ending was dumb. Matter of tase, I get it. Fine.
However I seriously don't understand how this game is held in such high esteem. It's not even a cult classic, or some controversial hidden gem, no, it's one of the actual greatest games of all time. I am disappointed beyond belief and feel like this is all just an elaborate ruse. You know, one of those cases where people pretend to like something just to seem sophisticated. I know this is a game from 2006 with just a fresh coat of paint (afaik Bluepoint didn't change any of the original code), but still. San Andreas is still fun, and that's from 2004.
Hyped for Demon's Souls though, graphics were great. Good job Bluepoint Games.
I am proud to now engage in an onslaught of comments calling me dumb, but this is also my first thread ever so please don't hurt me.
