I have been waiting for this game since the 2007 announcement and honestly never expected a masterpiece after all the development setbacks. At least finally know why it took this long. Team Ico never managed to get the core game mechanics to work, as I have no other way to describe the way the game fails to "work" at times. Most of the game revolves around making your companion Trico do the one thing that will get you to the next puzzle room and accomplishing that boils down to try and error. A 6-8 hour game thus becomes a 10-12 hour game. I would perfectly understand Trico having a mind of her own but that's not what went wrong here. A game with a heavy amount of climbing ultimately NEEDS to work when the right bottom is pressed and this isn't always the case here. You even get constant vocal cues on how to solve the next objective, as the developers seemed to understand that their own shortcomings. It's also noteworthy that the game looks like a PS3 game (outside of the highly scripted last hour), while playing like a PS2 game, but these are secondly concerns. More music would have helped too and the solid story is a bit more straightforward than I expected. The 2 much older predecessors are thus much better experiences in the end. Even the similar Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom for left me less frustrated but I can ultimately recommend the TLG to the right audience. It's highly unique, ambitious and you get to play as a "passive companion", as Trico ends up doing all the heavy lifting. Newcomers should get the Team Ico HD remasters for last gen first though. I ultimately wish that I could love the game but I only somewhat like it in the end. A shame, as Ico is one of my favorite games. 6,5/10
