Back when this one was released for the PS2 I only ran through the normal mode and was glad I finished it because I was dead bored by it early on. As I saw the common praise for this game grow I was totally sure I must have missed something those days. After on and off play of the PS3 3D version for 7 years now and 4 play throughs on normal and 1 on hard mode + the normal time challenge mode I know I did not miss anything.
Of all the games I finished the last 30 odd years of playing games, this one gets my Oscar for the most overrated, boring, irritating and cheating on its gamer game ever.
For the period this game was released in, the way the main character moves is an utter disgrace. Even Lara Croft moved more fluently in her first adventure and that one was already 10 years old when SotC was released. All that talk about making the game feel 'realistic' is utter nonsense. Granted, the horse moves realistically. But what does that add to fun game play? Totally nothing. Oh, let's make the horse not always respond to Wander's commands, let's make the horse slow down excrutiatingly fast when it enters other type of ground so that the gamer has to speed up again time and time again. Team Ico just does not know how to balance its realism. The realism makes this game a true boredom hell. And if only the realism was always translated into real life physics but they even get that wrong. At some instances the colossus doesn't even have to move to make your character make the most ridiculous tumbles and falls. Certainly in hard mode (game play through and hard time challenges). Take this, sometimes Wander hangs upside down a colossus so head down, arms gripping but...below his head and yet staying in that position as if there was no gravity.
At times they seem to have gone so far in creating a complex colossus they lost track of the fact that with all the bad camera stuff and the fact that the gamer has to stear and aim as well, they just take control of the main character out of your hands and let you kill the colossus in a very simple way (the sand colossus in the cave for example).
And oh boy about that annoying camera! Not for a second you get used to it turning back into a position you don't want as soon as you let loose of the camera sway button. Part of the game play you say? Not at all, Team Ico just doesn't know how to solve technical problems. Again, even Lara Croft's personal camera man in her first adventure was much better 10 years before SotC's release.
The gameplay could have been wonderful if only they would have kept their imagination going. But seeing that of the 16 colossi they created, they even manage to have a somehow 'recycled' one show up for a second time (the bull type one) it seems they lost interest. That one is by the way by no definition a colossus at all. Playing games should be about fun, about being glad you kept going at challenges and finally passing that challenge. Not once in beating 6 (playthroughs) x 16 colossi did I get a feeling of fulfillment.
After a few colossi you've seen it all as the very barren landscape is so empty and bland that it doesn't give you adrenaline enough to really enjoy the search for the next colossus.
Finding fruit and white tailed lizards to give you more strength and stamina is so lame that at first you don't even realize they are there to add strength and stamina as you hardly see your levels rise after you digest the stuff.
Reading some of the interviews with Team Ico they seem to suggest that all that is in the game was meant that way. My behind I say. This game looks and plays as if they got bored inventing original colossi, saw that the game could be finished easily and then just started adding annoying game tricks and character behavement to make it last longer.
And please don't get me started on the hard time challenges! That's where Team Ico starts to cheat on you as the gamer as they make the main character go totally bunkers. Yes I smashed one controller to never never land during one of those challenges. This is one of those games that almost make you decide to never pick up a game controller again.
So, is there nothing good to say about it other than that you probably will be glad it's over when it's over? Well, some of the music has Oscar movie quality and that's it but during the main battle sequences it is utterly annoying as hell.
Though I do hate to thrash games like these which do seem to have taken a lot of time to create obviously, I just can not give this more than 1/10 as this game was frustration hell, not fun at all.
This is THE game Sheldon Cooper would make just to annoy us all.