I believe this game inspired many of the more modern story driven single player games that still release today. An emphasis on realistic combat and platforming, real-time character dialogue and a tight linear focus all date back to this game.
What really sets this game apart from something like Uncharted is its world building and platforming. There is a tangibility to a lot of stuff that would otherwise be purely gamey and it justifies its time bending premise quite well. The save system is something that informs the story and a thing that the characters react to. I love how it shows events in time to simultaneously prepare you for the challenges ahead but also give you a peak into the events of the story. Health upgrades are presented as these weird dreamlike sections of the castle that you experience suspended in time. There is a real mystique and character to the world that sets this game apart from everything I've played. This games pacing is excellent. Even though it's all set in one location and the mechanics are stagnant throughout the whole game, you are presented with interesting platforming challenges that are varied and cinematically satisfying. The games platforming isn't too hard but it's just hard enough to where you feel like the Prince is always at risk of danger when doing his parkour. There will often be platforming sections that feel like big puzzles, having to work out a big sequence of climbing, swinging and jumping until you finally get to the end. These are easily the highlight of the game for me and why I prefer this to the way Uncharted handles its similar gameplay. Uncharted feels more well produced in its controls and presentation, but it doesnt reach the creativity and challenge of this game.
The combat in this is atrocious though. The sword fights feel grounded and cool at times, but to achieve this, they sacrifice it feeling good and things being in your control. It is just a mess of context sensitive actions. You can never quite do the things you want to. When enemies back you into a corner it all falls apart and you just have to hope they don't block your attacks or you accidentally do a useful move that staggers them. On top of this you have to do a death blow when they are grounded which compounds the issues. Enemies are very poorly conveyed as well. I never quite know when I can hit them or not. I just kinda mash until they stop blocking. Unfortunately these combat sequences drag the game down when they happen. I wish it was something more simple or there was just much less of it.
While I praised its pacing and really creative presentation. The story itself is nothing to write home about. I do enjoy the Prince being this selfish chauvinistic protagonist that learns to be better by the end of it, but it feels like it missed a few steps at developing the characters. The game really wants to sell you on The Prince and Farah's relationship but I just never felt it. It can be cute sometimes but a lot of it just felt like Farah was just destined to fall for him because she's the only woman in the story and that rubbed me the wrong way. Like it's alright, and I even enjoyed the ending, but it fell flat for me overall.
Despite this games rather big issues the stuff it does well is just so great. It is a beautiful and well done experience that's often really smart. It has some of the best climbing mechanics I've seen in a game and it just captivated me until the end. It's very easy to see why this is such a classic and why it influenced so many games to come. Its still worth playing today.
What really sets this game apart from something like Uncharted is its world building and platforming. There is a tangibility to a lot of stuff that would otherwise be purely gamey and it justifies its time bending premise quite well. The save system is something that informs the story and a thing that the characters react to. I love how it shows events in time to simultaneously prepare you for the challenges ahead but also give you a peak into the events of the story. Health upgrades are presented as these weird dreamlike sections of the castle that you experience suspended in time. There is a real mystique and character to the world that sets this game apart from everything I've played. This games pacing is excellent. Even though it's all set in one location and the mechanics are stagnant throughout the whole game, you are presented with interesting platforming challenges that are varied and cinematically satisfying. The games platforming isn't too hard but it's just hard enough to where you feel like the Prince is always at risk of danger when doing his parkour. There will often be platforming sections that feel like big puzzles, having to work out a big sequence of climbing, swinging and jumping until you finally get to the end. These are easily the highlight of the game for me and why I prefer this to the way Uncharted handles its similar gameplay. Uncharted feels more well produced in its controls and presentation, but it doesnt reach the creativity and challenge of this game.
The combat in this is atrocious though. The sword fights feel grounded and cool at times, but to achieve this, they sacrifice it feeling good and things being in your control. It is just a mess of context sensitive actions. You can never quite do the things you want to. When enemies back you into a corner it all falls apart and you just have to hope they don't block your attacks or you accidentally do a useful move that staggers them. On top of this you have to do a death blow when they are grounded which compounds the issues. Enemies are very poorly conveyed as well. I never quite know when I can hit them or not. I just kinda mash until they stop blocking. Unfortunately these combat sequences drag the game down when they happen. I wish it was something more simple or there was just much less of it.
While I praised its pacing and really creative presentation. The story itself is nothing to write home about. I do enjoy the Prince being this selfish chauvinistic protagonist that learns to be better by the end of it, but it feels like it missed a few steps at developing the characters. The game really wants to sell you on The Prince and Farah's relationship but I just never felt it. It can be cute sometimes but a lot of it just felt like Farah was just destined to fall for him because she's the only woman in the story and that rubbed me the wrong way. Like it's alright, and I even enjoyed the ending, but it fell flat for me overall.
Despite this games rather big issues the stuff it does well is just so great. It is a beautiful and well done experience that's often really smart. It has some of the best climbing mechanics I've seen in a game and it just captivated me until the end. It's very easy to see why this is such a classic and why it influenced so many games to come. Its still worth playing today.