Existing comment:
PlayStation 2
Action: Shadow of the Colossus
Shadow of the Colossus presents a modern-day fairy tale in which a young man named Wander seeks to bring his girlfriend, Mono, back to life. Distraught, he makes a deal with a dark entity and must strike down sixteen enormous, mythical creatures known as Colossi, which inhabit the barren, empty world of the "Forbidden Land."
The vast, ancient landscape of plains, forests, deserts, and caverns imposes a sense of isolation as Wander searches for the Colossi accompanied only by his horse. Each giant creature has a unique and creative design and must be defeated in a different way.
The true power of Shadow of the Colossus is in the tension between the player's selfish need to destroy these great, innocent creatures, and the dramatic sense of loss in witnessing them fall. The scale of the Colossi and the dazzling, haunting artwork combine to create epic yet devastating battle scenes.
Target: Gradius V
In Gradius V, players control a fictional spaceship through a vibrant, side-scrolling landscape of planets, asteroids, and space stations.
The designers at Konami have created numerous games in the Gradius series, all inspired by classic, 2-dimensional arcade-style shooters from the 1980s. To develop Gradius V, they collaborated with the developers at Treasure, who had worked on some of the most complex games in this genre to date.
The game's mechanics remain true to its arcade roots, but the designers combined the straightforward gameplay with a powerful audio visual experience… Highly detailed backgrounds, enemies, explosions, and an energetic soundtrack battle for attention.
Adventure: Okami
Okami is set in a mythical, past Japan, in which the player takes the form of a white wolf god, Amaterasu, and must defeat an evil demon in order to restore life to the land.
Designer Hideki Kamiya combined wood-cut and watercolor imagery with Japanese monochrome ink painting, known as sumi-e, to create the game's imaginative world. This unusual approach creates an animated landscape that evokes an ancient watercolor parchment come to life.
The art style also influenced the game's controls by introducing the concept of a "celestial brush." Players use this virtual brush to "paint" characters on the screen to trigger actions or summon mystical powers.
Okami stands today as a visually stunning and imaginative game that pushed the boundaries of video game design.
Tactics: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is considered by many to be the first example of a postmodern video game. The game's anti-war message and complex narrative deal with issues such as artificial intelligence, social engineering, nuclear arms, and political conspiracies.
The story is critical to the game and is told through numerous spectacular cutscenes, placing the player at the heart of an interactive movie that can run up to 20 hours in length.
As in all of the Metal Gear Solid games, Sons of Liberty emphasizes stealth and avoidance over open engagement and deadly force.
This, combined with incredibly detailed environments and a spine-chilling orchestral score makes playing Metal Gear Solid 2 an unforgettable experience. |