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Ico

Ico is a rare gem among videogames. It is a game that doesn’t grab your attention by being loud, but by being quiet. Ico is just about as minimalist as they come, with gameplay and storyline both extremely straightforward… or so it would seem. In actuality, Ico goes to show how what isn’t said can be even more powerful than what is, and as a result, the game hides far more depth than it lets on.

Ico is the story of the titular character, a young boy cursed with a pair of horns. Seen as a bad omen by the villagers of his town, he is brought to a secluded castle and left for dead in a stone casket. Upon freeing himself, Ico needs to find his way out of the castle, with the help of an ethereal girl named Yorda, whose magical abilities are the only way to get past the obstacles in their path. As you proceed through the game, you have to lead Yorda through the dangers of the castle, a seemingly simple task that becomes far more involved as you go on.

Occasionally, the pair will be attacked by an onslaught of smoke creatures, whose intent is to drag Yorda off with them, although they rarely present any large challenge. Mainly, the gameplay focuses on a series of puzzles that has you simply trying to find a safe way for both Yorda and Ico to get to the opposite side of a room. Although the game does have the occasional switch/block-pushing puzzles, the majority of the game’s puzzles are completely environmental, asking you to look around at your surroundings and think things through in order to proceed.

One puzzle, for example, puts the pair in a humongous room with a chandelier that has a gap in the floor that Yorda can’t cross. Ico, on the other hand, can explore the entirety of the room, but needs Yorda to get to the other side to clear the barrier that blocks the door there. After doing some climbing around, you eventually discover that the chandelier, like much of the rest of the castle, is a crumbling relic, fragile enough to jar loose from the ceiling, bridging the gap below.

While it may sound simple enough, finding the solution actually takes a good deal of observation, looking around the room, as well as using a bit of logic. One of the things that sets this game apart from the crowd is that the style of the puzzles that fill the game are as realistic as possible, giving the player a real sense of accomplishment when you’ve found the solution.

One of the unique things about this game you’ll quickly notice is that Ico’s storyline is not really told through words, but through observation. The entire game has little more than a few paragraphs of dialogue, but every element of the game reveals more of the story, from the crumbling castle walls to the rusted machinery collecting dust within. You’re never actually told what the purpose of the castle is, or why it’s in such disrepair, but with so many clues to what’s going on around you, you can begin to peice together a vague idea of what’s going on.

This is even more true with the characters. Ico and Yorda both speak imaginary languages created for the game, and though Ico’s words are subtitled, Yorda’s language is a mystery to both the player and Ico himself, and as a result, the two say little to each other aside from Ico occasionally calling for Yorda to come to him. But even without a word exchanged between the two, you learn so much about them through their actions and interactions, from the way Ico tugs at Yorda’s arm when they hold hands to the random points in the game when Yorda gets distracted by birds flitting through the area.

The designers behind the game actually wrote entire AI routines for Yorda to follow when you’re not holding her hand, adding even more realism on top of the game’s incredible character animation. I swear, character animation this lifelike is outright unheard of, and is even more impressive when you take into consideration the fact that no motion-capture was used in creating the game.

The game’s graphics bathe the castle exteriors in overbearingly bright light, and interiors are dimly lit by torches, giving the castle an dreamlike glow that’s extremely impressive. And although many of the game’s textures have a somewhat low resolution, this actually work for the game rather than against it, fitting in perfectly with the ethereal look of the game. And any small amount that that would detract from the game is more than made up for by the humongous environments, with many of the castle’s rooms almost cavernous in nature, and with distant parts of the castle clearly visible from other areas.

The game’s sound compliments the graphics very well, featuring mostly just ambient noises of the wind, water, and occasional bird. The entire castle seems blaketed in an overbearing hush that sounds absolutely perfect. What little music the game has, namely the opening, ending, and “save couch” themes, are all quiet, simple, and beautiful, much like the rest of the game.

Ico should come with a warning label, though, and that is that the game is extremely short. All told, the game can easily be beaten in six or seven hours, give or take an hour for the occasional tough puzzle or detour to gaze at your surroundings. When the title was originally released, this would have been a huge issue, but being that the game can now be found selling for $20-30, the game’s short length doesn’t seem quite so bad anymore. In any case, buy or rent, Ico is a unique experience that I think every PS2 player must at the very least play, as it is a unique experience that should not be missed.

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Posted by Jake McNeill on Jul 23rd, 2003 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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