Review: Ico (PS2)
If I can somehow get my frozen hands to actually move, I’d like to write today about a game that I finished recently
called Ico. Ico was released in 2001 for the Playstation 2, so I’m only about five or six years late in actually
playing it — although if you can’t get your hands on the newest systems, you might as well go back and
play some old classics. Ico is definitely a classic, and perfect for a gamer who wants to play a short game of near-
perfect quality.
Ico is a young boy born with horns – a singularly unfortunate physical characteristic for boys
in his village to have. Boys with horns are supposedly cursed, and have to be sacrificed to ensure the prosperity
of the rest of the village inhabitants. When he turns twelve, Ico is taken to a remote castle by some warrior-type
guys. They have a special sword which reacts to certain statues that act as barriers in the castle; it moves them
out of the way. After they proceed to a huge room filled with sarcophagi, Ico is locked in one, which apparently seals
his fate. However, after the men leave, an earthquake shakes the room, knocking over the sarcophagus Ico is
entombed in, and setting him free. He is knocked unconcious, and has a vision of a shadowy figure in a hanging gibbet,
whereupon he is grasped and dragged back into his own shadow by unknown assailants. When Ico wakes up, he explores a bit
and comes across that same gibbet that was in his dream, but this time it contains a pale girl. He releases her, only
to realize that they don’t share a mutually understandable language. She barely has time to speak one incomprehensible
sentence before real shadows start to emerge from the floor, grab her and drag her into some unknown abyss. She
obviously doesn’t want to go, and Ico grabs a nearby stick and fights the shadows off. Since Ico and the girl can’t
communicate verbally, he takes her hand, leads her around — and discovers that her presence will move the
statue-barriers in the castle. What next? Escape, of course.
Escape won’t be quite so easy, however. The shadow creatures don’t give up after their first defeat, and will periodically
try to recapture the girl under Ico’s protection (whose name, it turns out, is Yorda). In addition, the castle in which
Ico and Yorda are wandering is old and decrepit; with broken bridges and pressure-sensitive plates that open doors,
progressing can be a challenge. Of course, after Ico overcomes an obstacle, he must also think of how Yorda (who is
not as physically dexterous) can follow him.
After some experimentation, the physical limitations of Ico become known variables, and the player realizes what is and is
not possible in the game world. Before this point, there can be bouts of frustration when progression is seemingly
impossible (especially to those who didn’t read the manual, like me). However, after this point is overcome,
obstacles are viewed in terms of what Ico is capable of, which makes the game much easier. One interesting thing was
watching a roommate who didn’t yet realize the limitations of the game — he made everything just about
impossible for himself, and in general his problems were self-imposed.
Ico and Yorda’s progression through the castle is mostly linear. It may seem at some points that various paths are an
option, but usually the easiest and most obvious path is the one that you can actually progress down. This linearity
is something that I, of course, appriciate mightily. Although the scope of the castle and surrounding environment is
massive, most of it is explored in the course of the game.
All this is well and good, but when you boil down to it, the appeal of Ico is due to artistic ambience and
intriguing obstacles in the game environment, as well as the emotional connection developed by the player.
The castle has a palpable, lonely feeling to it — it seems that many of the structures within the castle
have no use for humans, which makes it that much more alien. Due to the lack of dialoge and character
development, players must speculate for themselves why Ico and Yorda are making the choices that are acted out
on the screen. This makes things much more interesting than they would be otherwise, if the designer decided
to be heavy handed about the plot.
Well, lame as it is, I’m tired of writing! Such a shame, too, as Ico is a pretty darn good game, and I’ve definitely
not done it justice here. The few downsides (I feel I might as well mention them) are mildly tedious
fighting (vs. the shadow creatures) and overall low difficulty/length (I beat the game in five hours). An
enjoyable five hours, though, as I believe I mentioned before. My final recommendation? It’s one you’ll want
in your collection.
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