Brilliant.

User Rating: 9.7 | ICO PS2
An 8.5, huh? Ico was one of those games that just sort of snuck in under the radar. But it deserved far more recognition than it got. If it wasn't for the good things I had heard about it, I never would've bothered to pick it up. But when I did get a chance to play it, it blew my mind. Ico is the very definition of a videogame as an artform. It makes you feel like you're part of a thrilling adventure and a wonderful world. What other game gives you complete silence for a soundtrack? The only thing you hear are the sounds of the castle, enemies, characters, and various other effects. It's brilliant. Ico is a game with all unnecessary frills stripped away until there's nothing left but the story and emotion. It is simplicity itself. The world has wonderful fantasy themes all around, but it is not cliched like Dungeons and Dragons or Final Fantasy. It is almost psuedo-Celtic in a way. It is real yet decidedly otherworldly. The graphics are what astound me. They are fuzzy and muted, like a fragile flower in the glare of the sunlight. They are certainly not cel shaded, yet they are also not solid and textured like today's high tech games. This gives Ico a wonderful feel and look all its own. To this day I'm still not sure how they pulled off effects like the crackling lines of energy of the sword or the flowing shadows of the evil queen or the pale ghostly look of Yorda without resorting to cel shading. But what's even more astounding is that despite the simplicity of the gameplay, the fact that all you're doing is leading around two characters, trying to solve the puzzles of the castle and finding a way out, a huge amount of emotion finds its way through, and the characters grow on you, even in the absence of dialogue. Yorda and Ico never find a way to understand each other's language, and yet they instantly connect. Ico himself grows from a scared boy into a strong warrior. Yorda seems like the typical fragile girl, yet she too is brilliant personality. And the queen is the pinnacle of cool in villain form. Who can deny the pure power of the scene on the castle bridge where Ico jumps towards a weakened Yorda, who still manages to summon enough strength to catch Ico's hand. And the sword versus energy field battle in the queen's throne room is hands down one of the coolest fights in video game history. If it wasn't for the fact that this game is very short with little replay value and that the queen doesn't get enough screen time to make her seem truly evil and menacing, Ico would've been the single most perfect game in existence. But even so, Ico is a brilliant experience. It's one of a kind.