By now you must have heard about this game.
Ever since E3 2005 there’s been a lot of anticipation for this game.
This game, from the creators of Ico, is supposed to be a first in games in that it’s all gigantic boss battles and nothing else! No cannon fodder creatures, no endless quests, no cities or leveling up… just you, your weapons (and horse) and 16 gigantic Colossus to fight.
The game isn’t out yet, but recently Playstation put out a magazine here in the US which featured a playable demo, which is where we are now… the DEMO review.

Of course the first thing people note is the beautiful graphics, and by playing the DEMO you’ll find the graphics are all the few views you’ve had promised and then some. It’s very beautiful, with wide and vast landscapes that stretch as far as the eye can see and filled with much beauty in each and every scene, and if you have a progressive scan feature on your TV then the graphics will be just that much better since this game will utilize that feature to it’s fullest (however this and two other visual modes in the game were still in the construction mode as of this DEMO, and not available).

The DEMO starts with a minute or so long cutscene that walks you right into the game, which just keeps on looking good as you go from the cutscene to the game itself (no loss in beauty of graphics at all).
You start off in the temple where the lady you are out to save is resting, surrounded by gigantic statues of the sixteen Colossus you are out to nail. Of course you are actually after only ONE Colossus but this is as good a chance as any to get a sneak peek at what the 16 look like. Of course this is not exactly accurate images of each, but at least you have a fair notion of what you’ll have to face in this game.

From there head towards the light and hold up your sword. This is how you find your prey, by the way, by holding your sword up and catching sunlight. The light forms into a beam the closer you aim it towards your destination, while it disperses into many beams the farther you aim. And, yes, for convenience there’s a little icon visible when you do this as well as a rumble feature which vibrates the controller when you are on your target. Well once you do that it’s time to head on out and ride towards the Colossus.

It’s a long way so ride hard! Get on that horse and push forward! Push for-- forward… nothing. Oh-kay… tap the button to make the horse run! Run, horse run! Run… slow start… run… run… oh-kay! Now we’re running! Run horse, run! And look

out for…. For… (nothing)… monsters… air creatures… people… boredom… yeah, that’s it! Beware the deadly boredom as you keep riding! Ride and… okay, we’re here so stop your horse…. Stop… stop… pull back and STOP STOP ST--… damn!
And thus we reach my first of MANY problems I have with this game. The horse.
Apparently it makes the horse from Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors a cakewalk to run ‘cause this one is a pain in the rear! Tap a button so it moves, which is slow going to get the horse going! Turn left and right to change direction, which is ALSO SLOW and you might accidentally throw the horse off it’s stride so you’ll have to get it up to speed again! Then you have to pull back to stop the horse, but it’s not exactly the kind of horse that stops on a dime (know what I mean) so you better stop way in advance of your stopping point lest you tumble off a cliff or something horrible!

Second problem (already?) is the traveling… the boring traveling!
At least in other games like Legend of Zelda and Darkwatch you had things to shoot while you were on the move, but here it’s go go go… fall asleep… ride horse off a cliff… boring!
Something, anything to alleviate the boredom of riding would be so nice.
What? You mean the excitement comes when I get to where I’m going and go to the Colossus? Let’s see.
Run run climb… climb… come on climb… huh? Hold down the R1 button to hold onto grassy walls to climb them… ok, climb climb… pull yourself up now… pull up… pull up… PULL -- ack, fell.
Apparently in order to pull yourself up you need to HOLD DOWN THE JUMP BUTTON AND RELEASE IT WHILE HANGING ON A LEDGE! Ditto with jumping up to grab a ledge. You need to jump AND TAP slash HOLD THE R1 BUTTON TO GRAB!! Then you have to HOLD AND RELEASE THE JUMP BUTTON TO GET ONTO THE NEXT… ugh.

Wow. We’re up to problem #3 already.
Problem #3 is the (bleep)y Rube Goldman controls of this game!
You can’t just ride your horse, oh no it can’t be that easy! You have to tap a button to start up the running, and pull to stop and god this horse is a pain being so darn hard to move!
You can’t just climb! You have to hold down the R1 button to hold on and climb, and THEN you HAVE TO hold and release the X button to get onto a ledge! And if you want to grab a ledge you have to…
This is supposed to be the thrilling fun of the game, right?

Problem #4 is the lack of necessity to hurry in this game.
I mean with no creatures breathing down my neck, no enemies to fight, no deadlines

to meet, and nothing to get my blood pumping this might as well be a casual Sunday stroll to kill Colossus… then again a deadline would suck ‘cause it’ll be impossible as we reach Problem #5.

Now you’ve finally climbed up to the top and found the huge open area where the Colossus roams. After a cut scene showing the Colossus enter the scene you are sent to kill it… and how do you do that?
You first have to locate it’s weak spot with your sword! Yes, hold up the sword and run the light across it until the sword vibrates (controller vibrates) which means you’ve found the weak spot. In this case it’s on the back inside the maw of what looks like a giant stone jaw on the back of said Colossus.
Now you have to climb the Colossus, and to do THAT you need to target it’s legs with your bow while it marches about… without a target lock… while the damn thing shakes the ground and makes it hard for you to aim properly, as it comes at you trying to kill you, with it’s legs protected by armor bits… yeah.
This game isn’t asking much of you, is it?

Once you kneel the thing you must climb it quickly, using the same pain in the rear R1/jump combos to climb and pull yourself up which (if you become flustered) can easily be forgotten and you fall off.
Of course if you take too long to climb to a spot you can rest your “grip” meter (on the lower right hand of the screen) will shrink to nothing and you’ll fall off… which means you have to repeat the kneeling and climbing all over again!!
Yeah, I know, this game would be dreadfully boring if it was so easy… but won’t it be dreadfully frustrating if it’s so damn hard?!? While I don’t want this to be a pushover I don’t want this to be a pain in the butt!!

Let’s see. What ELSE is wrong?
Problem #6 - No target locking system. Everything is done manually.
Problem #7 - Good luck attempting to hit the creature while on manual! You should take several good hours of gameplay to just down ONE Colossus!
Problem #8 - You will never evolve or level up during this game! You will be the same throughout from beginning to end, with no new weapons, tools or anything to even add any spice to the gameplay. And, sadly, you weren’t very agile or Link-like to start with so you definitely need the upgrades no question!
Problem #9 - There’s no villages or towns to break the tedium of Colossus killing, no monsters to give you something to challenge you, nothing but Colossus and god it gets old fast. Heck, even a chain of brothels would be better than vast nothing! Really!
Problem #10... People will

still buy this game. If people snatch up Dynasty Warriors 5 (a game that is a long beatdown button masher) they’ll get this beautiful … uh… platformer? Action? RPA? Well, they’ll get it even if it could have been better, and that’s kind of sad.

Now that I’ve finally got my hand on this highly anticipated game, and played it for myself… I don’t know what everyone is happy about with this game! I don’t know, I just don’t know.
Yes the graphics are sweet, and will be even more sweet if you can utilize the progressive scan feature, and the concept of boss only battles is nice in theory… but it falls apart in execution from my POV.
The game suffers from control issues that are a pain to have to master. There is nothing in this DEMO to even hint at motivation to move you from battle to battle. Then there are the Colossus themselves that are hard to bring down… and did I mention there’s no motivation? There’s that too.

I don’t know about you but I need some motivation to play through games like this, and with seemingly nothing to motivate you from Colossus to Colossus exist EXCEPT this woman who is sleeping what am I doing here anyway. I need motivation, people, motivation! As for the sleeping woman who is she? Is she your beloved wife who now lies near death unless you fight to save her? Is she a princess that you fell in love with but now must save so you can live happily ever after together with? Is she just a girl you found and you’re just got the hots for this strange girl you just met? It’s not like endless hours of Colossus killing will be rewarded with a hot sex cutscene or anything for all your troubles (and right now anything that promises to justify the endless tedium or Colossus hunting is a justification to play this), so what is my motivation to win again? Where am I inspired to struggle to the bitter end to kill all the Colossus?

Yeah. It’s pretty and all… so why am I struggling to beat this if there is no motivation to beat this?
At least Ico was a trippy puzzler that gave you a girl to save, lots of puzzles to overcome and enemies to bash which moved you along with lots of reason to get to that next area and those next puzzles to beat, this game however doesn’t even seem to feature that much joy which is a major disappointment!
Yes, a full review is on this way and I hope the final version is more fun than this DEMO, ‘cause if I based my entire thoughts on this game just from the DEMO I would be highly disappointed right here and now.
Please full and complete game, don’t suck.