Suskie's Shadow of the Colossus review

Hm... I'm torn on this one Suskie. I mean, I don't agree. I found all the Collossi to be wonderful puzzles, though I felt some weren't very epic to actually fight. Still, it is my belief that a good review doesn't have to be right as long as it conveys its opinion with well-informed analysis and anecdotes. You do this very well. You almost convinced me I didn't like the game.

But not quite.

My problem with this review is that it doesn't see itself through to the end. Every time you say something bad about the game, you seem to follow it up with a shy shrug and small smile and then you point out something excellent. If Shadow of the Collosus was a grand adventure with a few catches, then you should say that (as you do at the end, more or less), rather than use the grand and ultimately meaningless statement of "it wasn't the game to define a generation."

He initially gave it a 4, but apparently it was supposed to be a 5, like it is now.

Bear in mind we are not in grade school anymore. A 5/10 is not an F. A 5/10 can mean average, which I believe it does on the scale used by staffers.

"Every time you say something bad about the game, you seem to follow it up with a shy shrug and small smile and then you point out something excellent."

And that is exactly what I would expect from a review that rates the game as average.

My problem isn't with the score. It's with the introduction and thesis of this review which is somewhere along the lines of "God, this game is frustrating to the point of distraction." I think Suskie shows his frustration well, don't get me wrong. But I think a stronger thesis would've more closely matched his conclusion ("Shadow of the Colossus is really epic, with a few bad notes"), or vice versa.

I don't mean to spit in your face, Zipp, but this critique doesn't make much sense. The reason I'm not leaning more strongly in one direction or the other is because that's not how I feel about the game. Shadow has good parts and bad parts in roughly equal measure, and they even each other out. The result is an average game. I'm sorry if that opinion is inadequate, but that's how it is.

I'm only three Colossi in - on my fourth or so attempt to "try this game again because everybody says it's awesome" and this review resonates strongly with my feelings on it. It's an endless source of frustration that what Wander does and what my controller tell him to do have at best a loose connection to one another, and figuring out what the game wants from me is getting on my nerves so much that I forget to enjoy the epicness.

And somehow the experience doesn't stick. All it takes is for a few months to pass since I last put the game away with a sigh and I yearn back for another stab at those gargantuan creatures. But whenever I give the game a new chance, I get stuck and bored and annoyed at roughly the same time as on my last attempt.

It's good to know that it's not JUST me.

Thanks. Yeah, the game everyone else is raving about really sounds fun, doesn't it? I'd like to play that SotC.