The annoyingly titled Prince of Persia comes out in a very awkward situation. Ubisoft released Assassin's Creed a year prior, which was a major hit, but they couldn't yet afford to depend on that IP since it was still fairly unproven, and considering that videogame series never end until people get sick of them, despite POP ending pretty well in Two Thrones, they had to come up with a new game in the series. Perfect timing too since 2008 was around the time where videogame reboots became really popular, so it was a no-brainer to do what Sands of Time did for the series before. Sadly this game just made me wish I was playing Sands of Time instead.
In an attempt to reinvent the series pretty much everything is different here, even where there's no reason to change: from "minor" things like the control layout being completely different despite this Prince having around the same moves that the previous one had, to major ones like how the game is structured and how the platforming works.
The structure here is kinda similar to Warrior Within, but with more of a point: instead of having a linear game in an interconnected world, now you have the choice of what you want to tackle next. Here's the problem: because you can reach most parts of the game any time you want, they all had to be fairly similar in difficulty and content. Meaning that it all blends in after a while, making this game a very repetitive experience, especially when you realize that every level has pretty much the same pacing and structure.
But even if they didn't go that route, and even if they didn't make you grab a bunch of collectibles arbitrarily for padding purposes, the whole game has been completely reworked seemingly to play itself as much as possible. Everything now has massive scripting around it, every jump, every action basically just requires you to press the correct button somewhere around the time the animation is about to play in. When I figured this out I mostly stopped even using the analogue stick, mashing whichever button is required to make the Prince go forward usually suffices. It turns the trademark great platforming of the series into what is essentially boring busywork.
It's a shame that the great art direction was wasted on a game so bland and unassuming. It's kinda baffling to see a series degrade so much in just a couple years, but it's what we ended up with. In their attempt to make something new and exciting, they ironically did the exact opposite, creating a game which somehow feels both really small and less than the sum of its parts, despite the work that obviously went into it.
In an attempt to reinvent the series pretty much everything is different here, even where there's no reason to change: from "minor" things like the control layout being completely different despite this Prince having around the same moves that the previous one had, to major ones like how the game is structured and how the platforming works.
The structure here is kinda similar to Warrior Within, but with more of a point: instead of having a linear game in an interconnected world, now you have the choice of what you want to tackle next. Here's the problem: because you can reach most parts of the game any time you want, they all had to be fairly similar in difficulty and content. Meaning that it all blends in after a while, making this game a very repetitive experience, especially when you realize that every level has pretty much the same pacing and structure.
But even if they didn't go that route, and even if they didn't make you grab a bunch of collectibles arbitrarily for padding purposes, the whole game has been completely reworked seemingly to play itself as much as possible. Everything now has massive scripting around it, every jump, every action basically just requires you to press the correct button somewhere around the time the animation is about to play in. When I figured this out I mostly stopped even using the analogue stick, mashing whichever button is required to make the Prince go forward usually suffices. It turns the trademark great platforming of the series into what is essentially boring busywork.
It's a shame that the great art direction was wasted on a game so bland and unassuming. It's kinda baffling to see a series degrade so much in just a couple years, but it's what we ended up with. In their attempt to make something new and exciting, they ironically did the exact opposite, creating a game which somehow feels both really small and less than the sum of its parts, despite the work that obviously went into it.
NakedNader
3 years ago