Ico

Ico is Sony’s nod to the Art House. It is a game that is small, quiet, and thoughtful. It has a distinctive visual style and a haunting soundtrack. It is suffused with a feeling of loss. Ico probably has nothing to offer children.

Ico begins as a young boy is locked away inside an enormous, empty castle. The only other occupants are the spirits of previous children who were also sent to the castle to be sacrificed to its mysterious Black Queen. In his attempt to escape, the boy meets a strange, otherworldly girl named Yorda whom he must rescue. Leading this girl through the jumbled and hazardous maze of the castle is the focus of the game. Each area is a complicated puzzle and getting Yorda safely from one point to another is never simple as the castle’s spirits intermittently attempt to snatch the girl away.

The setting of Ico is distinctive and amazingly real. The castle has a complex architecture which is richly textured with rust, overgrown weeds, and moss. Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast came to mind as I clambered to the top of a spire and looked out across a vast and crumbling ruin. Pools of warm light gathered between the shadows and an autumn breeze rustled through the trees in a lonely and decayed landscape. The music was minimal and eerie, usually taking a back seat to the sounds of the environment. Wind on water and the creak of old wood provided most of the soundtrack for my strange journey.

One small moment stands out in my mind after playing. In the past, console hardware limitations have restricted a game character’s ability to interact with the environment and game design has out of necessity fixed the number of actions that a player can take while “on stage”. Early in the game I entered an area that contained a broken down windmill surrounded by a shallow pond. I walked up to the edge of the pond and without paying attention fell in and began dog-paddling about. This was startling because I was so accustomed to the “stage scenery” aspect of game design that it never occurred to me that the pond might anything more than a pretty set decoration. Suddenly, the power of the Playstation 2 hardware sets me free and I can move about and interact within a real space.

Although the game can be completed in about 10 hours and contains no secrets that might give it replay value, mature players will be very satisfied with its note-perfect ending. It is a game that lingers in the mind like an Andrei Tarkovsky or a Terence Malick film. Ico has the quiet grace of a fairy tale told in the old style.

Sony Playstation 2
SCEA/SCEI
2001

game review by Jeffrey Fleming, 2001