Ico

Ico is the first game from Team ICO. Released in 2001 on the Playstation 2, Ico was originally destined for the Playstation 1, but it was decided by Sony that the fledgling consoles weak game line-up at launch needed stronger better games. And so Ico's release on the PS1 was cancelled and it was developed and released for the PS2 instead.

Ico is very unusual and is not like most other Playstation games. Ico blends soft flowing imagery with harsh angular architecture to produce a dreamlike quality which is rarely seen in games.

Ico is also the name of the playable character, a young boy with horns. His aim is to escape a dark crumbling castle in which he was imprisoned. Early on he rescues a young girl called Yorda from a cage suspended from the castle ceiling and they both must escape while avoiding being captured by strange dark creatures which also inhabit the castle. These creatures are not unlike those seen standing around Wander in SOTC every-time a colossus is defeated. The creatures attempt to kidnap Yorda if she’s left alone for too long and you have to call to her or grab her hand and pull her to safety while attacking them with a stick or a sword. It’s all very tense at times and the creatures are quite persistent.

The main attraction is the castle which is quite simply massive. Each room contains a puzzle or a path which is related to another rooms puzzle. It’s quite difficult to understand how the rooms link together and you must keep track of where you are and where you came from. This is the challenging part of Ico, the castle is a massive puzzle of interlinking rooms and pathways that for the most part don’t give any clues as to how they relate to each other. Only persistence and careful thinking about how the rooms relate to each other will allow you understand the puzzles.

It took me about a year to complete Ico. When I did it felt very rewarding. I won’t spoil the ending for you, needless to say it is worth the effort should you choose to undertake such a task as beating the castle and its secrets.



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Ico