5/23/2013
The end of the first year
So it is almost the end of my first year at the university. I remember my first days on this course as it was a week ago. I was shy, curious and I didn’t know what to expect. The first term was fantastic, when I met all these new people, my tutors and I started the university life. I also begun my adventure with 3d modelling which was a bit intimidating at first but I quickly realized that it isn’t that scary, it just required some patience and practice. One year ago it took me a whole week to create 3d model of Dalek. Now I feel like I could do it within an hour, which I’m really happy with, as good time management as well as being efficient in short amounts of time are essential on this course. Its quick pace was sometimes killing me and it was hard to keep up, but… well I have to get used to it if I ever want to work in the gamming industry! I found both visual design and game production projects very interesting and I feel that every each of them thought me something new and valuable. Generally I preferred projects that allowed me to design something like the evil character project or the 3d gladiator project. Nonetheless, I’m aware of the importance of drawing from life and I’m glad that this course program required me to do it quite often. Life drawing sessions helped my to better understand the human anatomy and it’s noticeable that my characters are more coherent now. However, life is not a dream, so there were also some things on this course that I didn’t like... For example it happened to me a few times that I came to Fletcher just to be informed that there was no sessions that day. It’s probably not a big deal for students that live in halls that are 3 min away from University, but there are also people like me who live away and a simple note on Facebook or blackboard would prevent them from wasting time/money on traveling. I also found formative assessments a bit disappointing. I believe that it would be much more beneficial for us if Chris and Heather instead of assessing our works on their own would seat with us just for 30min, get through our drawings/models and give us some short verbal opinion on every project… But back to more pleasant subject now: critical game studies. Even though I hate writing and it was really hard for me to get through all the tasks from handbook I’m really happy that I did it, because they gave me some knowledge on how the gaming industry works. I was never good at standing in front of people and talking so I was really terrified when it came to doing the presentation… but after doing it three times my confidence got much stronger and I’m not so worried of the presentation that I’ll have to do in the future. Concluding – my first year at the university was fun, I’ve learnt a lot and I’m looking forward to the next year!
Elements of game design - part 4
What is a good game environment design? Is it one that takes your breath away and makes you stop a game for a while to take a look around just to appreciate the view? Well, yes. But if you are overlooking the surrounding while playing a game it doesn’t necessarily mean that it was poorly designed. Sometimes it has to be created in that way not to distract you from the plot and in that case it’s good too because you can be dragged into a game without analysing the surrounding. If the environ takes your attention from playing because at the back of your head you keep thinking that something is wrong it’s a sign that Level Designer or the Game Environment Artist messed up. For example below you can see a picture of a first person shooter set up in Mario’s world. It just hurts the mind, doesn’t it? Well... maybe that example was a bit over the top, but you know what I mean…
In general good environment design should support the atmosphere and narration of the game. In my opinion one of the best instances of that can be found in game Portal. At the first look it’s a first person puzzle game that takes place in some kind of test chambers. Levels look quite alike; all are clean bright and insipid. However, in some places, you can find a hole in a wall or an open ventilation shaft and if you go inside you start to realize that there is something wrong with this place. Hidden rooms are small, dirty, and gloomy and their walls are covered with some writings. When you find one of those you can’t stop looking for another one to get some more clues. It’s a great way to tell the story through the environment.
Another example of an outstanding environment design can be found in the game Prince of Persia. It’s easy to say that the developers of this game put a lot of attention to the look of levels, and no wonder, because the main gameplay element is concentrating on climbing the walls and jumping form edge to edge. I admire the concepts of this game artist David Levy as he had to create in them believable levels with magic atmosphere but also had to considered the way in which player would interact with the surrounding.
I know that I’ve mentioned this game sooooo many times in this blog, but I can’t just simply write a post about environments in games and not talk about Shadow of the Colossus! Most of its events occur within Forbidden Land where you have to defeat 16 colossi. Each colossus dwells in a unique lair, so you can find here mountains, deserts, caves and many more… All of them are beautifully designed and they emphasize character of each colossus.
Environments are just as important as any other element of game design and they have to work well when put together with characters. Wrong decisions in developing them can easily affect the player’s perception of the game.
Links:
http://vyle-art.com/
http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/cat_game_environment_design.ph p
In general good environment design should support the atmosphere and narration of the game. In my opinion one of the best instances of that can be found in game Portal. At the first look it’s a first person puzzle game that takes place in some kind of test chambers. Levels look quite alike; all are clean bright and insipid. However, in some places, you can find a hole in a wall or an open ventilation shaft and if you go inside you start to realize that there is something wrong with this place. Hidden rooms are small, dirty, and gloomy and their walls are covered with some writings. When you find one of those you can’t stop looking for another one to get some more clues. It’s a great way to tell the story through the environment.
Another example of an outstanding environment design can be found in the game Prince of Persia. It’s easy to say that the developers of this game put a lot of attention to the look of levels, and no wonder, because the main gameplay element is concentrating on climbing the walls and jumping form edge to edge. I admire the concepts of this game artist David Levy as he had to create in them believable levels with magic atmosphere but also had to considered the way in which player would interact with the surrounding.
I know that I’ve mentioned this game sooooo many times in this blog, but I can’t just simply write a post about environments in games and not talk about Shadow of the Colossus! Most of its events occur within Forbidden Land where you have to defeat 16 colossi. Each colossus dwells in a unique lair, so you can find here mountains, deserts, caves and many more… All of them are beautifully designed and they emphasize character of each colossus.
Environments are just as important as any other element of game design and they have to work well when put together with characters. Wrong decisions in developing them can easily affect the player’s perception of the game.
Links:
http://vyle-art.com/
http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/cat_game_environment_design.ph p
4/27/2013
Elements of game design - part 3
Characters are the engine of every story. It doesn’t matter if it’s a game, film or book, you can’t tell a good story without a character. On the other hand, badly designed, half-baked character can easily damage even the most marvellous story. So there is no doubt that every character appearing in any kind of tale has to be thoroughly developed as it can affect one’s perception of the whole piece. So, how to create an interesting and appealing character? Is there any recipe for that?
I asked some friends what is their opinion on that and the most common answer I heard was ‘you need to make sure that the audience can relate to the character’. Sure, I can’t argue with that, it undoubtedly helps to sell the character, but it cannot be taken as a rule. After all, how many people can relate to a man-flesh eating murderer? Still, the character of Hannibal Lecter, played by sir Antony Hopkins is one of the most iconic movie characters ever. How did that happened? What is his secret?
Well, I believe that the key is a high contrast. You see an old man, gallant, extremely intelligent, loving history, art and classical music, but you know that a few minutes ago he has eaten someone’s face. Giving a character contradicting features is a good way to make it interesting and memorable and it is often used in games and movies.
A good example of that can be found in Tim Burton’s ‘Edward Scissorhands’, where the look of eponymous hero strongly opposes his personality. Although Edward resemble something between a demon from ‘Hellriser’ and a member of The Cure with scissors linked to his hands, he has a heart of gold, is shy, helpful and kind to everyone.
The above examples clearly show that it’s not good to judge book by its cover; nonetheless, movie makers and game developers constantly take an advantage of the audience stereotype thinking in order to make them perceive characters in a certain way. It’s especially noticeable among villain characters. When you look at Darth Vader, Lord Voldemort and Sauron you know at once that they are The Bad Guys, even though that the only thing that they have in common are the black outfits. Need a witch? Give her a black cat and broomstick. Archaeologist? Khaki shirt, hat and whip!
Playing with stereotypes while designing look of a hero is easy and popular trick, although creators have to be careful not to over-use it as they may end up with a boring dummy, looking just like thousands of others. What are the other things that should be avoided? Don’t make you hero too powerful.
Superman is one of the most iconic, marvellous and simultaneously boring superheroes. He is as fast as light, strongest than any other man and he’s resistant to everything but one thing – kryptonite, which as a result drastically reduces the group of people that can stand up to him… and it makes all fights monotonous and predictable. In addition, he wears pants over his trousers – and that also should be avoided when creating a hero.
There are many things that should be kept in mind while designing a character. For instance, high contrast and playing with stereotypes are common methods of developing a hero. On the other hand, following stereotypes could result in copying previously created heroes which might be negatively received by the audience. So that, I believe that new ideas are worth trying as different doesn’t have to mean worst.
I asked some friends what is their opinion on that and the most common answer I heard was ‘you need to make sure that the audience can relate to the character’. Sure, I can’t argue with that, it undoubtedly helps to sell the character, but it cannot be taken as a rule. After all, how many people can relate to a man-flesh eating murderer? Still, the character of Hannibal Lecter, played by sir Antony Hopkins is one of the most iconic movie characters ever. How did that happened? What is his secret?
Well, I believe that the key is a high contrast. You see an old man, gallant, extremely intelligent, loving history, art and classical music, but you know that a few minutes ago he has eaten someone’s face. Giving a character contradicting features is a good way to make it interesting and memorable and it is often used in games and movies.
A good example of that can be found in Tim Burton’s ‘Edward Scissorhands’, where the look of eponymous hero strongly opposes his personality. Although Edward resemble something between a demon from ‘Hellriser’ and a member of The Cure with scissors linked to his hands, he has a heart of gold, is shy, helpful and kind to everyone.
The above examples clearly show that it’s not good to judge book by its cover; nonetheless, movie makers and game developers constantly take an advantage of the audience stereotype thinking in order to make them perceive characters in a certain way. It’s especially noticeable among villain characters. When you look at Darth Vader, Lord Voldemort and Sauron you know at once that they are The Bad Guys, even though that the only thing that they have in common are the black outfits. Need a witch? Give her a black cat and broomstick. Archaeologist? Khaki shirt, hat and whip!
Playing with stereotypes while designing look of a hero is easy and popular trick, although creators have to be careful not to over-use it as they may end up with a boring dummy, looking just like thousands of others. What are the other things that should be avoided? Don’t make you hero too powerful.
Superman is one of the most iconic, marvellous and simultaneously boring superheroes. He is as fast as light, strongest than any other man and he’s resistant to everything but one thing – kryptonite, which as a result drastically reduces the group of people that can stand up to him… and it makes all fights monotonous and predictable. In addition, he wears pants over his trousers – and that also should be avoided when creating a hero.
There are many things that should be kept in mind while designing a character. For instance, high contrast and playing with stereotypes are common methods of developing a hero. On the other hand, following stereotypes could result in copying previously created heroes which might be negatively received by the audience. So that, I believe that new ideas are worth trying as different doesn’t have to mean worst.
Elements of game design - part 2
During my first presentation, which was the review of the game Shadow of the Colossus, I tried to explain what was that ‘special thing’ that made this game one of my favourites. I talked about colossi looks, magical atmosphere and environments... But I felt like I was trying to describe taste of a cake by talking about eggs, flour and sugar flavours… I couldn’t find a word for the thing that made all these elements one extra piece... But I’ve finally found a name for it: art direction.
The person responsible for art direction during a game production is called the art director. His job is to make sure that all elements of the final game are well designed, created and what’s important that they all work together as a whole. It’s really important, tough and demanding job. Art director is a link between artistic team (including concept artists, texture artists and 3d modellers) and the game designer. He has to make sure that all artists accomplish given them tasks on a level required by game designer, but also that they are being provided all materials needed to do that. That is where close work with lead artists is really important, as they help to manage individual art departments.
One could say ‘ok, I see it can be a hard job, but after all it’s still a managing job, there’s no difference between being art director and restaurant manager!’ Well... that’s no true. Although management is a big part of it, that’s obviously not enough. Even though art directors don’t create art pieces themselves they still need to be outstanding artists. Artistic knowledge of lighting, perspective, colour theory etc. is essential for being art director. If that wasn’t enough, they have to know everything about 3d modelling and textures as well!
Even though films and games are two different forms of entertainment I guess that the role of an art director in both is quite similar. They use different mediums but their task is the same: to make sure that everything works well together.
For me art direction is one of the most important aspects when it comes down to rating a game. A good example of game with an interesting art direction is Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. It’s a game set in post-apocalyptic future, so your first thought would be a Fallout-ish atmosphere, moody colours and vast deserts like in Mad Max, right? Well – surprise! Enslaved is one of the most colourful games I’ve ever played! Most of the time in this game I spent in a full daylight, running through abandoned city that slowly turns in to a jungle, full of vibrant plants and flowers. But what is the most important – it works really well with the story.
Being an art director is a hard job and I don’t think I would ever be a right person for it. Beside of lacking some essential skills like good communication skill I don’t enjoy managing other people and don’t feel comfortable when I have to make big, important decisions.
Links:
http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/?p=4176
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20001204/davies_02.htm
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050912/bossant_01.shtml
The person responsible for art direction during a game production is called the art director. His job is to make sure that all elements of the final game are well designed, created and what’s important that they all work together as a whole. It’s really important, tough and demanding job. Art director is a link between artistic team (including concept artists, texture artists and 3d modellers) and the game designer. He has to make sure that all artists accomplish given them tasks on a level required by game designer, but also that they are being provided all materials needed to do that. That is where close work with lead artists is really important, as they help to manage individual art departments.
One could say ‘ok, I see it can be a hard job, but after all it’s still a managing job, there’s no difference between being art director and restaurant manager!’ Well... that’s no true. Although management is a big part of it, that’s obviously not enough. Even though art directors don’t create art pieces themselves they still need to be outstanding artists. Artistic knowledge of lighting, perspective, colour theory etc. is essential for being art director. If that wasn’t enough, they have to know everything about 3d modelling and textures as well!
Even though films and games are two different forms of entertainment I guess that the role of an art director in both is quite similar. They use different mediums but their task is the same: to make sure that everything works well together.
For me art direction is one of the most important aspects when it comes down to rating a game. A good example of game with an interesting art direction is Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. It’s a game set in post-apocalyptic future, so your first thought would be a Fallout-ish atmosphere, moody colours and vast deserts like in Mad Max, right? Well – surprise! Enslaved is one of the most colourful games I’ve ever played! Most of the time in this game I spent in a full daylight, running through abandoned city that slowly turns in to a jungle, full of vibrant plants and flowers. But what is the most important – it works really well with the story.
Being an art director is a hard job and I don’t think I would ever be a right person for it. Beside of lacking some essential skills like good communication skill I don’t enjoy managing other people and don’t feel comfortable when I have to make big, important decisions.
Links:
http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/?p=4176
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20001204/davies_02.htm
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050912/bossant_01.shtml
Elements of game design - part 1
So gameplay – what is it? It’s one of the things that every player knows what it is, but is not sure how to explain it. I think that the reason is that every game has its own gameplay and it differs from one to another game’s gameplay. Even games of the same genre have different gameplays.
For example Baldur’s Gate and The Elders Scrolls: Morrowind are both RPG games set in fantasy universes. However if you look at them they look like a complete different games.The first one is isometric view RPG where you command the group of adventurers. In the second one you’ve got only one hero and you see the world through his eyes.
On the other hand… Are they really that different? In both games you’re on a quest, you fight the monsters, collect experience, obtain new weapons, and cast spells… The difference is how you do it – and that’s what the gameplay is. It’s the way in which player interacts with a game.
As you can see, it’s a very important aspect of every game and it has a great influence on a specific game look and playability. So who is responsible for that? Who, during the game production, makes decisions about gameplay, decisions that can drastically change the whole game? Well, it’s part of the lead designer’s job.
Basically, the lead designer of a game is like a director of the movie. It’s a person with overall vision of a game in his mind, who makes large design decisions to make sure that the final product will match this vision. It’s achieved by coordinating work of other designers: game mechanics designers, level designers and the writers. A game mechanics designer’s job is to make sure that the game is well balanced. For example, the person decides how much damage player will deal with a sword in comparison to damage dealt with a bow. Level designer is responsible for creating the game’s environment and levels. Writers create the story line, narrative, dialogs… They are responsible for making other game elements more coherent.
Beside of directing these people, the lead designer’s job is to presents design outside of the team and keep well-presented documentation of the game. One of the most important documents is Game Design Document. Usually it is created in the pre-production stage of a game development; however it’s constantly changing and improving during the production of a game. Basically, it is a written down core idea and vision of the game, which the developer team should refer to and use as a guide.
Obviously all these designers are only a part of the team involved in a process of game creation. Although some people still believe that games are created by 2-3 computer geeks closed in dad’s garage, that of course is not the case. More and more people are involved in creating games and the entire game industry is evolving with a great speed. I’m really excited to be a witness of that and I can’t wait to see how it’s going to look like in the future.
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiQcANX3NNE
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2675/into_the_transmission_randy_.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2156/game_design_theory__practice_.php
For example Baldur’s Gate and The Elders Scrolls: Morrowind are both RPG games set in fantasy universes. However if you look at them they look like a complete different games.The first one is isometric view RPG where you command the group of adventurers. In the second one you’ve got only one hero and you see the world through his eyes.
On the other hand… Are they really that different? In both games you’re on a quest, you fight the monsters, collect experience, obtain new weapons, and cast spells… The difference is how you do it – and that’s what the gameplay is. It’s the way in which player interacts with a game.
As you can see, it’s a very important aspect of every game and it has a great influence on a specific game look and playability. So who is responsible for that? Who, during the game production, makes decisions about gameplay, decisions that can drastically change the whole game? Well, it’s part of the lead designer’s job.
Basically, the lead designer of a game is like a director of the movie. It’s a person with overall vision of a game in his mind, who makes large design decisions to make sure that the final product will match this vision. It’s achieved by coordinating work of other designers: game mechanics designers, level designers and the writers. A game mechanics designer’s job is to make sure that the game is well balanced. For example, the person decides how much damage player will deal with a sword in comparison to damage dealt with a bow. Level designer is responsible for creating the game’s environment and levels. Writers create the story line, narrative, dialogs… They are responsible for making other game elements more coherent.
Beside of directing these people, the lead designer’s job is to presents design outside of the team and keep well-presented documentation of the game. One of the most important documents is Game Design Document. Usually it is created in the pre-production stage of a game development; however it’s constantly changing and improving during the production of a game. Basically, it is a written down core idea and vision of the game, which the developer team should refer to and use as a guide.
Obviously all these designers are only a part of the team involved in a process of game creation. Although some people still believe that games are created by 2-3 computer geeks closed in dad’s garage, that of course is not the case. More and more people are involved in creating games and the entire game industry is evolving with a great speed. I’m really excited to be a witness of that and I can’t wait to see how it’s going to look like in the future.
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiQcANX3NNE
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2675/into_the_transmission_randy_.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2156/game_design_theory__practice_.php
3/03/2013
Personal gaming history
I was born in 1990, one year after the end of communism in Poland. So, as you can guess, the
entertainment at that time was on a low level and I doubt there was anything
that could’ve been called a ‘game industry’. Of course I was too young to care
anyway. Fortunately, a few years later the situation in Poland got a bit better
and I could enjoy my first video game. It was a cheap Gameboy imitation but it
had about a few hundreds built-in games! Well, at least it supposed to… but the
fact was that there was about 6-8 different games and multiplicity of their
slightly changed variations. Although, it didn’t stop me from having some great
fun with it.
Now, the next game is quite significant. In mid 90s economic
situation in Poland still wasn’t great and I cannot recall anyone I knew owning
original NES. However, if you ask anyone my age from Poland if they know what
Pegasus game is I bet they will nod with a smile on their faces. Basically it
was quite cheap NES substitute you could get on markets. Most versions came
with two controllers, a light gun and 100 in 1 cartridge. But, just like with
original NES, you could buy many additional games. Spending many hours playing
games like Mario, Contra and Mortal Kombat is one of my most vivid memories of
my early childhood.
At the age of 8 I was heavily impressed by one of my mate’s
new toy – PC. I asked my parents for one they said I will get it as my first
Holy Communion gift. When they enquiried what game I would like to get with it
I couldn’t recall the title of one I saw at my friend’s (it was Doom), and I
just said ‘one where you can see only a hand with a gun and you shoot
monsters’. So I got Half-Life.
It was the first PC game I’ve ever played and it also became
one of my all times favourites. Well, at the age of 8 I was shitting my pants
while playing it, but still... it was great! I remember, back then I believed
it looked photorealistic. Beside of HL I was playing every game that came on cd
with polish gaming magazine: CD-Action. The most memorable were games like
Roller Coaster Tycoon, MechWarrior and Heroes of Might and Magic III (I still
love it).
A few years later I got PlayStation and I spent many hours
playing Tekken 3 and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, however I still preferred PC
gaming. I kept exploring Half-Life world with the original game extensions:
Opposing Force and Blue Shift.
When I was 12 one of my friends asked my ‘hey, you like
fantasy books and movies, why don’t you play any RPG games?’ and I was like ‘I
don’t like strategic games’. It took him quite a while to persuade me to try
and play Baldur’s Gate. But I’ll be in his debt to the end of my life, as it’s
become my no.1 favourite game. Although it’s 15 years old, in my opinion, it
has two things that many modern games lack: absorbing plot and likeable
characters.
It also encouraged me to try out other RPG series like
Icewind Dale and Fallout. Even though they both were really good I felt like
they were missing something. In the search for that thing I found about
traditional, paper-based RPG games like Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer.
For me, as they take place in my imagination, they are beter than any video
game.
Obviously it doesn’t mean that I totally neglected virtual
gaming. For many nights I was sucked in to the worlds of games like The Elders
Scrolls: Morrowind and Fable. As a fan of series I couldn’t stop playing
Half-Life 2 when it finally was released. There were many other games but I
will mention only two most significant for me.
The first one is Shadow of The Colossus. I don’t remember how
I find out about this game, but when I did I purchased PlayStation 2 just for
this game only. And I don’t regret a penny. I wish they release sequel/reboot
for X-box…
The other game is The Witcher. Not because it’s polish game,
but because it’s based on one of my favourites book series – the Witcher Saga.
I have to admit that CD Project did great job with visualization of characters
and places from the book. The Witcher 2 was even beter and I can’t wait for the
next episode.
It would be too boring to talk about ALL games I’ve played so
I will finish here. I just hope that some day I will add to the list a game
with my name in credits.
New Game Journalism
I guess I am not the most suitable person to write about game
journalism because I don’t have much to do with it. I don’t buy games magazines
and I very rarely visit games related websites. There are a few reasons for
that but most of them come down to fact that – as I wrote in my first entry in
this blog – I’m a casual gamer. I do not fancy paying £6-8 for a magazine to
read about games that I’ll probably never play.
Sure, someone could argue that
I could read them anyway, because who knows, maybe I’d like some review and I
would like to give the game a try? But here comes to play second reason why I
don’t read reviews – they tend not to focus on qualities that I value in games.
I don’t care too much whether game has brilliant graphics or gives us a wide
range of weapons etc… For example – I didn’t choose to play The Witcher 2:
Assassins of Kings because most of gaming portals/magazines scored it 9/10 nor
because critics prised its combat mechanics, customization and environments… I
played it because it was based on one of my favourite books and I wanted to get
the feel of the world that I imagined while reading Andrzej Sapkowski’s novel.
For me the most important questions were: ‘is it a good representation of The
Witcher universe?’ and ‘does it capture the mood of the books?’ Unfortunately,
but not surprisingly, none of the reviews that I found while working on my
presentation project did answered these questions. I encountered the same
problem when I was interested in buying Star Wars: The Force unleashed game. As
a fan of the movie I was curious how the game relates to the George Lucas saga
and does it have the ambience of the galaxy far, far away, however, most of the
reviews focused on graphics and on possibility of throwing things at the
enemies. And that’s why I think the new game journalism is something really
interesting. As I was reading through articles from Guardian’s ‘Ten unmissable
examples of New Games Journalism’ I found that non of them focused on the
technical aspects of games and instead of saying what you can do they rather
said how it feels to do it. My reaction to Ian ‘Always Black’ Shanahan’s
article ‘Bow, Nigger’, where he describes the situation that happened to him
while playing Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast was ‘Oh my god! That’s exactly how I
remember this game! That was awesome!’ and it did make me want to play this
game again!
And that is what a good review should do in my opinion. It should
help you to decide if you want to play the game or not. Because if game gets
3/10 in some magazine it means nothing more but ‘person who reviewed this game
didn’t like it’. And who cares? For me it still can be the most amazing game in
the world! In NGJ there’s no scores ranking.
It does not say ‘you should/shouldn’t play this game because…’ Instead, it
focuses on the experience of playing particular game. I believe it’s great way
of writing about games and if gaming magazines would featured that kind of
reviews I would pay this £6-8 to buy it.
Links:
1/20/2013
Game review: Shadow of the Colossus
GAME REVIEW:
SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS
When I stood in front of the first
colossus my heart started to pound faster. He was a few times my size.
Enormous. Slow, but lethal.
I
have to make a confession here – I don’t feel comfortable next to animals
bigger than me. Even though my parents own a farm and there are always plenty
of horses but I have never got close to them unless I had to.
So
why the hell I was playing a game where the main focus is on defeating giant
creatures?! Hell, I literally bought PS2 to play this game!
Well,
I think it was because of the style and atmosphere of the game. It looks like
Lord of The Rings had a child with Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
Marvellous landscapes, epic fights and sensation of ancient culture.
Shadow
of the Colossus takes place in Forbidden Land, a fantasy realm separated from
the rest of the world by mountains and sea. Despite of PS2 clumsy graphic I was
enchanted with the beauty of that place. I spent a lot of time just wandering
around, appreciating breath-taking sights, huge caves and timeworn temples.
Also the atmospheric effects like fog and sand storms only magnified the
climate.
And
it was not only because I wanted to fight it, I was just really curious how
it’s going to look like. Developers of this game did a really great job and I’m
a big fan of each colossus design.
They
vary in shape and size; some of them resemble deadly animals while the others
have humanoid forms, still, all of them have some things in common. Their stony
faces don’t express any emotions so colossi feel more like objects than the
creatures, yet they all emanate with dignity. It’s easy to believe that they
are extremely old and that they settled in the Forbidden Land long time ago.
Even though my aim was to overcome these ancient beings I almost felt respect
for them.
At
first I was a little bit disappointed when I found out that there’re only
sixteen opponents in this game. But as it turned out that was enough to keep me
busy for many, many hours. The sword and bow that our hero is equipped with
seem to only tickle colossi, unless they hit vulnerable spots. And it’s not an
easy task to hit these spots. You would be surprised how many swear words it
takes to figure out how to reach flying colossus back…
To
summarize I will say that Shadow of the Colossus is a wonderful, one of its
kind piece of gaming. Although I know that some people may be scared away by
imperfect PS2 graphic and obscure story, but for me it’s one of the best game
I’ve ever played.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)