Renegade Viking's Review of ICO on Playstation 2

Developer: SCEA | Publisher: SCEA | Released: 2001 | Rated T for Teen

Reviewed on February 28, 2004

 Ico is the newest game I reviewed. It took me a while to get too it. Okay the game was published by SCEA (Sony Computer Electronics America) and developed by SCEA. All I can say is the game is not the best game nor is it very bad. In the game you play a boy with horns. He is a prisoner in this tomb full of dead people. He finds this young girl, his age about 12, who he finds in a chamber high above. Once he frees her, they both have to find a way to escape the tomb before the girl (who is wanted by an evil queen) disappears in the walls. Her name is Yorda. Ghouls will try to kidnaper her, and the entire game is trying to get out. The ghouns won't appear unless Ico stops or opens doors by climbing walls, touching levers, defeating bosses leaving the girl by herself.  

The entire game is on one disc and I'm still in the process of playing it. The graphics are good, may be a little dated now because three years have paced since it came out. But the game uses a 3D engine. The art work is vast and there is some CGI video in the game. Most of the time the game has cut scenes from the game. Unlike a lot of 3D games, the camera isn't a problem 95% of the time. This game has no bad angles, and the camera just shoots at another angle instead of going above the character preventing you from seeing anything around you.

Controls are responsive and it feels like Grand Thief Auto 3, sort of. I like it because it is a hack and slash game combined with a little exploring. Some even hard to figure out. You'll save by sitting in couches during the game. Both characters have to sit at once and the player presses X to save.

I play this game because I'm up to the challenge. It's filed in the action/puzzle genre. The backgrounds are as good as any high profile RPG. I hear it's one of the better titles SCEA released. They released Legend of Dragoon in 2000 (year before ICO) and it flopped. I have the game and I thought it was alright. Legend of Dragoon is much longer than ICO.

This game is only 20 dollars. Before you think about picking up ICO, go with older Playstation, by all the good Squaresoft games (Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy 7, Xenogears, Legend of Dragoon, Arc the Lad) for Playstation cause a lot of them are 20 dollars. Final Fantasy X is 20 dollars if you haven't already picked that up. Kingdom Hearts is 20 dollars. Jak and Rachet and Clank are platform games costing a low price of 20 dollars new. The games listed are PS2's best in the action platform / RPG category.  If you have played the games above, and looking for a good platform (Legend of Zeldaish) game, look at ICO. It really has a new catagory, 3rd person action/strategy. The game is good enough to keep me interested, I mean it! I give it a 7.5/10 because it's just me or do I just have too much time on my hands.