ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

I'm not gonna retread the 'gaming as art' debates for these games, troll the 'net for such discussion. What I will say is that these are beautiful games for the PS2 era, somewhat showing their age (they were unfortunate to be played straight after Uncharted 3 for me), but you can get where they are going.

I think I am in the minority, but I prefer Ico to SOTC, despite having to sometimes wait for Yorda to catch up, it has much more engaging gameplay, reminds me of my first Tomb Raidering (if that's a word). SOTC feels overly clumsy with the controls - I think that's a combo of the camera and the fact that I think they were going for the feeling that you are struggling to hold onto the Colossus.

Ico, on the other hand, is such a serene game. I don't think I've ever really noticed things like background music, but I noticed this, because so often it is basically silent. Those used to modern games will say it is too short (I notice there's a Trophy for completing in under 2 hours), but it's quality, not quantity, that I appreciate. Also, I don't necessarily have the bandwidth to get to the end of most games nowadays, so the fact that the end is attainable keeps you going (this is what ultimately put me off Batman AC),

So, I'll give Ico a 10, just because I can. SOTC gets a 7 for me, but I can appreciate people giving it more. I'll give the package a 9 then, with some generous rounding up, and the fact that frankly I'd have been happy with just Ico.

Both games are unique and fun, and they are given a slight boost in graphical quality. But for the most part still very much resemble PS2 games. Certainly worth a rental, unless your only interested in games where you run around and shoot things, if that's the case then you should instead pick one of the hundreds of cookie cutter shooter that are available.