My Review: Ico HD (PS3)

In conversations regarding the artistic merit of video games, Ico is bound to be brought up eventually. This action-adventure game was originally released in 2001 for the Playstation 2 by the same team that would later go on to make Shadow of the Colossus, and was recently rereleased with said game in a collection for the Playstation 3. With a new sheen of high definition polish, Ico is ready to make sure that gamers get a chance to experience the unique and emotional journey it has to offer.

STORY

Ico begins with what I assume is the title character, a young boy, being imprisoned in a mysterious castle by his fellow villagers because he has horns, which is considered to be an ill omen. When Ico tries to escape, he meets Yorda, a pale and mysterious girl who is able to unseal the magical gates that impede Ico’s progress. Together, the two of them try to escape, all while being pursued by the dark Queen of the castle.

Ico’s story is told in an extremely minimalistic fashion. There are few cutscenes, hardly any dialogue, and no voice acting outside of the gibberish characters spout whenever they’re talking (akin to side characters in the Zelda series, like Midna). Really, Ico tells its story through every facet of itself- the haunting abandoned castle, the striking art style, the clever puzzles, and a strong sense of immersion that comes with these things. By far its key element, though, is the emotional aspect of the game, as Ico and the player attempt to lead Yorda to safety. Guiding her by holding her hand, protecting her from monsters, helping her when she falls… it’s a poignant representation of romance in a video game. As a result, Ico’s story works largely on an emotional and a thematic level.

GAMEPLAY

As mentioned earlier, Ico is an action-adventure title, with a heavy emphasis on puzzle solving and exploration. The castle that Ico and Yorda explore acts as a ‘Metroidvania-style’ linked world, that the player will progress through in a linear fashion, unlocking new shortcuts and passageways bit by bit, and solving cleverly designed puzzles along the way. Yorda is basically helpless on her own (and her A.I., while usually competent, sometimes gets confused), so it falls to Ico to guide her along the way, leading her to the next magical seal so she can open it and the pair can progress. The puzzles are very well designed and encourage interaction with the environment, and enough searching will eventually lead you to the next lever to pull, ladder to climb, block to push, etc. From a design standpoint, Ico is technically flawless, although it does stumble in a couple areas. First, keeping in line with the aforementioned immersion factor, there’s a lack of any sort of tutorial, making the opening section of the game a tad confusing, although to be fair the early puzzles do a good job of teaching the player on their own. Ico also doesn’t have the best controls, which normally doesn’t matter all that much, until you’re forced to make precise platforming. The controls, combined with a slightly finicky camera, simply aren’t there, and it’s very frustrating having to replay ten minutes of the game because of one failed jump.

The largest gameplay hiccup in Ico is the combat. The simplicity of the button-mashing combat isn’t the issue, though. The enemies in Ico, shadow creatures that serve the Queen, will teleport into the area and try to make off with Yorda, and Ico has to prevent them from taking her to the portals from which the monsters spawn, which will result in a game over should he fail. Early combat scenarios aren’t terribly challenging, but later in the game the monster portals will be quite out of reach, dooming you should the monsters reach Yorda. Even worse, the game has a nasty habit of spawning monsters when you and Yorda are separated. On the plus side, enemies don’t respawn, and the focus on rescuing Yorda does make each combat scenario very intense, not to mention reinforcing the player’s connection with Yorda. The problem is that the combat just isn’t any fun. Still, the focus of the game is on puzzles, and in that regard, Ico is quite an enjoyable game.

PRESENTATION

Perhaps the most striking thing about Ico’s presentation is the lack of anything remotely game-ey in its appearance- there’s no HUD or health bar of any sort, all of the puzzles are integrated into the world design, and all in all the game goes to great lengths to immerse the player. It helps that Ico was a gorgeous game even for its time, being a pioneer of several graphical techniques such as bloom lighting, and the HD upgrade makes things even better. Ico is a great-looking game- the animations are smooth, the frame rate didn’t dip once in the entirety of my playthrough, and the expansive castle is quite visually impressive. Particularly well done is Yorda’s character model, which is incredibly expressive. Yorda will stumble when you run too fast, flinch when you swing your weapon too close to her, gasp when you fall from a ledge, and even point you in the direction of the solution to a puzzle if you take too long trying to solve one. One gripe I do have with Ico’s presentation, and I’m not sure if this is the fault of the HD version or if it is present in the original as well, is the brightness settings. On the default setting, it’s simply too dark to see in some indoor places, but turn the brightness up and it’ll be far too bright when you go outdoors. The music in Ico mostly consists of ambient noises such as chirping birds or running water, but what little genuine music there is (such as the ending theme “You Were There”) is great.

CONCLUSION

There really isn’t anything quite like Ico. It’s a strange game, but a pleasant one, which invites the player on an emotional journey, and offering an incredibly unique experience. It has its fair share of problems- clunky combat being the worst offender- but I do feel that everyone should at least give Ico a try. I’m certainly glad I did.

SCORE- B+