The game places you in the role of a nameless hero who travels to an ancient temple seeking to have his female companion brought back to life by the grace of an unseen (but heard) deity. To do so, the player-character must travel across an expanse of geography and slay the land’s only inhabitants: the Colossi, sixteen massive creatures.
As stated before, this game is not intended for making waves in gaming technology or to wow the gamer with eye candy. Instead, the developers of this game wanted to engage the gamer’s emotions and create a more introspective gaming experience. The first creature you kill you do so with relative ease and bravado. However, with each successive victory, your feelings begin to change. Each Colossi has its own distinct behavior pattern and even personality, and attacks you only after it has been provoked. And as terrifying as each creature looks (the snake-like Colossi living in the water will give you nightmares) they all have a pathetic innocence about them, making you feel almost guilty and more than a little selfish for ending their existence. You begin to question the nobility of the quest, and wonder if the Colossi are truly evil since their only crime is existence. It must be said that all of those questions may be answered soon; I am only half-way through the game. But even if I find out that my player-character is truly a hero, I will never forget those late-night gaming sessions with those questions running through my head.
And while I am no great fan of Nintendo, I must admit the vast majority of their games at least offer something new to the gamer. The same can be said for the Dance Dance Revolution franchise and the new game Guitar Hero.
These are works that will make video games not just commercially successful, but will bring about mature and sophisticated video game criticism. Unfortunately, they are not games that fly off the shelves. Metal Gear Solid 3 was a commercial success because of its respectable pedigree; however, far too many gamers are content to write off Psi-Ops and Shadow of the Colossus as novelty games worthy of a rental at best. Within the industry, the move for less licensed games, franchises, and copycat development can come directly from the developers. They can simply refuse to work on more and more games that are essentially a remix of another title. Developers can push harder to create their own original characters and settings and claim back the unique cultural icons that the gaming community has grown to love. Since a distributor can’t make money unless they have a product to develop, they will have to meet the developers in the middle if they want to stay in business.
But, for good or ill, we live in a capitalist economy. People follow money. Distributors will only publish games that stand to make a profit. Developers need a job and will develop games that distributors want. And if develops go on strike, distributors will buy from elsewhere. The greater portion of the gaming community wants games to play online with their friends; not abstract investigations of human nature or technology that blurs the line separating the player and the player-character.
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