Finished via the Genesis version's definitive edition romhack, which would easily be my rec'd version of the game due to better pacing over the PC version as well as aesthetic hacks to make it closer to Mechner's vision.
Prince of Persia 2 inspires great hope with its opening. The cutscene presentation is top notch with a full on storyline (voice acted on other systems) and richly detailed cutscene portraits to boot. The first couple levels are extremely unconventional, with the Prince simply running away from the town to jump on a ship and then being shipwrecked with nothing but a puzzle to enter a cave challenging him.
However, after that it just sorta becomes... overly safe and more of the same honestly? The battles are just more of POP1, only the simplicity of the swordfighting was much more forgivable there. This is made worse by the fact the swordfighting is much more frequent in 2, to the point I was often finding glitches that allowed me to skip fights. The exploration fares better, and it's nice that the game forces the player to look for at least some hidden potions rather than having them feel like a bonus, but I still don't think anything is as out there as the heart of the volcano or teleporters in 1.
Visually, the game is about as good as 1, only with much better cutscenes. I have no complaints here and everything I said about the rotoscoping in 1 applies here. The giant spider at the end is funny looking and it's nice there's a wider variety of guards. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1135408595106795580/1158999347216785419/images.jpg
As for the music... eh I think it sucks but isn't awful enough to dig into why in any way. Just feels there. I played the game this morning and already don't remember any of it.
There's one really neat idea where the player can play as Shadow Man, but it's extremely obtuse to figure out and it can only be done for 1.5 levels. At least the final boss there was a clever idea. That said, all the level design is more obtuse than 1 and not for the better IMO.
IDK, it's just kinda sorta more of Prince of Persia 1 but more meanspirited towards the player to sell guides, and while 1 really pushed the envelope, 2 doesn't feel like it wants to achieve greater heights. It's just a kinda decent followup to 1. 2 can be a memorable enough experience to go through once with the Genesis fan patch and a walkthrough, but I can't justify to myself ever playing it again.
Prince of Persia 2 inspires great hope with its opening. The cutscene presentation is top notch with a full on storyline (voice acted on other systems) and richly detailed cutscene portraits to boot. The first couple levels are extremely unconventional, with the Prince simply running away from the town to jump on a ship and then being shipwrecked with nothing but a puzzle to enter a cave challenging him.
However, after that it just sorta becomes... overly safe and more of the same honestly? The battles are just more of POP1, only the simplicity of the swordfighting was much more forgivable there. This is made worse by the fact the swordfighting is much more frequent in 2, to the point I was often finding glitches that allowed me to skip fights. The exploration fares better, and it's nice that the game forces the player to look for at least some hidden potions rather than having them feel like a bonus, but I still don't think anything is as out there as the heart of the volcano or teleporters in 1.
Visually, the game is about as good as 1, only with much better cutscenes. I have no complaints here and everything I said about the rotoscoping in 1 applies here. The giant spider at the end is funny looking and it's nice there's a wider variety of guards. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1135408595106795580/1158999347216785419/images.jpg
As for the music... eh I think it sucks but isn't awful enough to dig into why in any way. Just feels there. I played the game this morning and already don't remember any of it.
There's one really neat idea where the player can play as Shadow Man, but it's extremely obtuse to figure out and it can only be done for 1.5 levels. At least the final boss there was a clever idea. That said, all the level design is more obtuse than 1 and not for the better IMO.
IDK, it's just kinda sorta more of Prince of Persia 1 but more meanspirited towards the player to sell guides, and while 1 really pushed the envelope, 2 doesn't feel like it wants to achieve greater heights. It's just a kinda decent followup to 1. 2 can be a memorable enough experience to go through once with the Genesis fan patch and a walkthrough, but I can't justify to myself ever playing it again.