Ico: Under-Rated or Over-Rated?

[Abobo]

Heh, all this talk and I totally forgot to talk about the graphics!! I guess that's a good thing, right? I mean we all talk about how graphics shouldn't make a game, it should be the gameplay. But, hell yeah!! The graphics were fantastic. The lighting and achitecture of the entire castle was phenomenal. There were many many times where I just stopped and looked around at things. The atmosphere in that game was over the top. I think to this day, no other game has even come close. There have been tons of games that have come out since then with better graphics...but none have touched the level of atmosphere that ICO created. I think the only other game that may match that is the Prince of Persia game that is coming out soon.

[BioMechanic]

I think the major strengths of Ico are its intangibles and aesthetics, which are subjective elements, hence the split verdicts among the gamers who know what it is. I wish that it had more status among gamers overall, but it's not that kind of game. I don't think it's underrated or overrated - those who love it love it, and those who don't don't. Few people have halfway feelings about it.

The gameplay is simplistic, but the way it's integrated into the environment is not. Everything flows and is connected in an organic way. There's no confusing menus, maps, or over-the-top attacks to distract you, and emotional content is everywhere. Each time I've finished it, I've wanted more, but at the same time it feels right and complete.

It's the game that sold me on the PS2, and to this day remains my favorite game on the system, and one of my all-time favorites. It will stand the test of time, and I wish more developers applied the same aesthetics and care to their own products.

As for a sequel, there are a couple screenshots floating around. Hopefully we'll learn more soon (E3 04, I'd guess).

[Regus]

Over rated.

Ico is not a bad game, I'm not contesting that, but some of the praise it get's is unbeliveable. The game is incredibly short, the puzzles were very easy, the combat was merely an insidental annoyance that added no tension what so ever since the enemies were so easy to dispatch, and I felt absolutely no connection what so ever with Ico and Yorda. And I always laugh whenever I hear anyone talk about how moving and touching that underwhelming ending was.

In the end, instead of being blown away like some others were I was left with an empty "Is that it?" feeling. Seriously, the game could have benifitted from some added incentive to play through it again once you finished it. Once you finish the game, that's it, game over, nothing else to do here (you could get the mace, but who cares about that). I beat the game in under 4 hours with absolutely no trouble with any of the puzzles. With all the solutions fresh in my mind, I probably could've beaten the game in even less time. The game's length isn't really that big of a deal, I've played other games that were that short, like Soul Reaver 2, but at least that had an epic storyline that was worth revisting. Ico failed to grab me in any way that would make me want to play through the game again anytime soon.

The enviroments were really cool though, and I did appreciate the whole serene aptmosphere they were going for. But yeah, over rated for sure.

[MechDeus]

Ico is great.

That said, low-res graphics suck and the combat should have been either removed or redesigned. It was fine once in a while, but the camera blew chunks for the fighting and it was annoying waving a stick around in every single area at shadows. Why all the fighting when the fighting engine sucks? Should've been pure puzzles.

[johnk_]

the game received pretty enthusiastic reviews all around, so i wouldn't say it's underrated..

fantastic game, but not underrated or overrated.

[Abobo]

Just because a game gets fantastic reviews, does not mean that it's underrated. Maybe not underrated in the gaming media...but is it underrated by the gamers themselves.

[Yoshi]

I think it is rated accurately in the "mainstream media" but that it gets way too much credit around these parts.

[voltz]

it's been getting great views from both critics and TNL, but I think it's likely to be ignored by the public because this isn't the type of game anybody would normally care about.

I don't think it works comparing it to oddworld since it's style is closer to prince of persia.

[Mzo]

Prince of Persia beget Out of This World, which beget Flashback, which beget Oddworld, Tomb Raider, and Heart of Darkness.

I can compare Ico to any of the above and feel fine about it.

[Kinopio]

Its rated correctly. Its a fantastic game, but it has some huge flaws. Top 3 PS2 games, i'd say.