Video Games : ICO

Rating: - An excellent game - buy it
Like others have said, an excellent game. Atmospheric, absorbing in a way that I haven't encountered on other games and challenging for an inexperienced game player such as myself, but I suspect a little too easy for the more experienced

One word of warning to parents: I bought this since the game's theme seemed to be something that would interest my 5 year old daughter and she had seen it on the PS2 demo disk. I was also reassured by the ELSPA rating, however she found a lot of it very intense and scary - especially the baddies which have a spider like appearance. Maybe for slightly older (or braver!) children than the rating suggests

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Rating: - This is superb
This game is basically a puzzle game, but it includes such brilliant graphics, action and emotion that you'll completely forget that it is.
The story behind the game is that you are a boy, who has horns, which means you are cursed. Because you are cursed you are locked away in a castle, but you manage to escape the cell you were put in. Then you find someone else in the castle, a fragile girl named Yorda. It is your task to escape the castle with Yorda, and make sure she doesn't get harmed.
As I said before the graphics are brilliant, and the graphics and sounds add alot of atmosphere. You also become very attached to the characters, because you want them to escape so badly!
If you like fast paced games with alot of action happening at once, this game isn't for you. But if you would like to try a different kind of game, which is alot less stressful but still very enjoyable, this game is for you.

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Rating: - Nice face - shame about the gameplay.....
Can i just say as a proviso is that I love puzzle games and, when I first bought this game, I realised it was right up my street....puzzle elements galore against beautifully drawn backdrops.....and yet.....

...the more I got into the game the more bored I got with it - why? Well it just seemed the same theme over and over again....boy meets girl....boy directs girl...boy leaves girl and pulls a few switches....boy rejoins girl and pulls her up a few ledges....and away we go again....

This wasn't helped by the 'baddies' - again very good to start with - dark,spidery looking monsters with genuine menace, but, once you got used to them, again it was the same thing over and over again...

So, in the end I just got fed up and ditched the game.

So, if you take my advice, check it out before buying....if you like it fine, but remember, apart from the stunning backdrops, what you play in the first 5 minutes after meeting the girl is what you end up playing the whole game through (or what I played through anyway).

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Rating: - Staggeringly Beautiful
By turns enchanting and haunting, Ico is a game of intense emotional impact, yet one that achieves this through deeply involving, uninterrupted gameplay rather than an overly-intrusive narrative strand (as in MGS2). Undeniably visually outstanding, it is Ico's well-thought out level design and unique 'teamplay' element (with Yorda) that really draw the player in. Definitely one of the finest PS2 games to date, and perhaps a fleeting glimpse of Sony's fabled Third Place.

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Rating: - Wonderful!
Ico is a beautiful game. You're the title character, a boy born with two horns, who's one day put away in a giant, dark castle for all eternity. But the cell Ico is locked into falls over and opens up. Ico gets out and soon after he meets a girl, Yorda, who is captured in a huge cage in one of the castle's many halls. Ico sets her free and together they start their search for freedom; the way out of the castle, constantly followed by dark, smoky spirits which are trying to pull Yorda back into their black poodles leading to their underworld.
Not only do you have to protect Yorda from the spirits (if she's captured, also you will be killed by an evil dark force spreading out from their underworld holes), but you'll have to solve puzzles to open new doors to new rooms. As Yorda can't climb, swim or jump as good as you, you'll also have to solve puzzles to make ways for Yorda so it's possible for her to follow. In addition to the fact that her being captured is the same as your own death you'll also need her force to open up special gates, so you better watch her carefully and not leave her alone for too long.
The game is throughout perfectly well done. The visuals; from the massive castle constructions rising above to the seemingly bottomless walls and cliffs disappearing through fog into the ocean far below, from the play between light and shadow in the castle's many courtyards and through open windows onto the castle walls to the tight steamy underground caves with their waterfalls and rusty constructions and waterwheels. Then add the realistic sound effects which are changing depending on where ever the characters are; if it's a small rom, a hall, a cave or a courtyard; or how far away from the "camera" they are. Even your steps never sound the same. Then you have some fantastic ambient sounds adding even more realism to it all. And the voices are wonderfully relaxing and natural.
Finally add the animation. The main characters are so alive it's almost scary moving seemlessly on their own or together hand in hand. When you leave Yorda alone she'll walk around on her own, look around and respond to you in a way so that you'll question if it's not actually real the stuff you're watching. Sometimes she can even be awkward not following you. Annoying all right, but it adds to her personality. I would't say it's a bug. The game is too well done for that.
The puzzles can sometimes be easy indeed, but more often it'll be more than just finding the next lever and you'll more than once have to use your brain, experiment and even take chances that might seem lethal in the first place. Once, in the beginning, I got stuck because I underestimated Yorda's abilities. If I had read the booklet more carefully I wouldn't.
The downside of the game is that it is fairly short. I completed it in about 10 hours and I am an average gamer. And since you're only equipped with a stick as a weapon in the beginning, fighting evil spirits is actually harder at the start than when you progress in the game and get more powerful weapons, like the sword. Because the spirits are the same thoughout the game. They're never advancing, so towards the end, enemies are a breeze to get rid off. And when you at last defeat what you'd call a boss, who you'll think is the first of many, the game is finally over. I am not spoiling anything saying this because this is even written in the booklet.
Younger gamers will maybe spend longer time completing it. Older gamers should just enjoy this perfect game world; a poetic game more realistic and atmospheric than most others.
If you own a PS2 you should really buy this, if not it's nearly worth buying a PS2 just because of Ico.