Prince of Persia

A wrong turn

I have loved Prince of Persia (P-of-P) since its first incarnation in the 8-Bit days. I played all of the "Remake" games on the PS2 and waited this one with baited breath. Boy was I disappointed! Visually the new P-of-P is beautiful, with lush cel-shaded artwork that has the feel of a high-quality animated movie, however that is about all the good I have to say about it.

The gameplay, which has always been a combination of challenging platforming and intense combat before, has been totally destroyed. Gone is the time-controlling of the old games and in return they have given us a companion who automatically saves you from death if you make a mistake. This results in a platforming game where you cannot fall off a platform...which is pointless since it means there is no skill what-so-ever needed to get where you are going.

The combat is much the same. For the fist thirty seconds it looks amazing and then you realise that it is just a series of button presses that animate certain special moves. There is no real skill needed (Not even button mashing!) and you can complete most fights with a blindfold on.

In addition, gone is the strongly story-driven game and instead you spend most of your time running about collecting items that are not far off the gold rings in a game like Sonic the Hedgehog. If you want to find something to totally break any suspension of disbeief and immersion you have then that is perhaps it.

Had this game come out seven or eight years ago it could have been good fun but it is impossible to ignore the other additions to the genera since and so sadly it fails. It is perhaps a good purchase for you kids if they are five to eight years old and looking for an easy cartoony game, but if like me you are a gaming vetteren steer well clear!

Way to easy

NEW PRINCE HAS RETURNED!

The very addictive game-play does become repetitive after you fight the same bosses several times through-out the whole game. I like the story very much and the ending leaves it open for a continuation. At first, I was a little skeptical about the art that was used in this "next-gen" game but was very pleased after the first few minutes of playing that it worked very well with the camera angles and the controls. I just hope that there is more to come of this >

This new installment of the POP Franchise is just too dissapointing.

The storyline for this game is pretty straightforward. your the 'Prince' (i dont think he's a prince, but he doesnt have a name) and you meet elika. her father unleashes darkness on the land and you have to heal the grounds and collect light seeds. pretty simple.
The fact that you can explore the world freely is fun, scince it gives you a sense of freedom, and although if you buy i warn you not to expect a prince of persia with tons of puzzles, manuvering through traps, and epic large scale fights. the fights are annoying when they just pop up randomly (not the "boss fights" that are generally the same as the other ones) and the story is fairly long... if you stop to find light seeds.
The Gameplay does get repetitive athough. its always 'get to the fertile grounds. fight someone. collect light seeds. repeat.' and there's virtually no puzzles. the hardest one i've come across so far (i will admit im not finished the game) was when your climbing a tower, you have to turn two circular objects with 90 degree fissures of nthem to get up to the next point. it was very simple and i only recall one puzzle after that (not including the 'get here to find light seeds' puzzles)
another thing i missed was the traps. there werent any and that was part of what made the originals so fun. the only thing ive encountered so far that i can call a trap if when your wall-running there are tentacle like things that stretch out and grab you at random times.

The only reason i gfavce this a four was because despite being poor, especially for a POP title, is was fun traveling up places and fighting, and was kinda fun finding light seeds. if your looking for a bit of action and adventure, rent it first. if your looking for a new gen POP title, stay away.

DON'T fall for the hype!

This newest installment to the Prince of Persia franchise has forgotten what made this title great. The first Prince of Persia contained amazing visuals, a fantastic and gripping story, and an amazing atmosphere and feel. This newest installment is lacking all of those, but manages to add even more faults to further pull down the series.
First off, rarely do i see a game series gradually become graphically worse with each new sequel. The first Prince of Persia was visually stunning with what seemed to be some sort of filter that mystified the environment creating a whimsical world that enveloped its players. This Prince of Persia looks like a polished Playstation 2 game with mediocre environments, and less than impressive character designs. The hair alone looks like that of the PS2 engine. Its garbage. The body shading looks like flat plains with shaded detail made to look like 3 dimensional design, but doing so poorly. With the examples of what the PS3 can do, this game is nothing more than a flashy PS2 title.
The story that gripped us all in the first Prince of Persia was narrated by the hero himself, as if he were telling his tale directly to the player. It was enticing and fluid. The character acting and accent fit well with the background and kept the theme strong throughout. That, now, has been replaced with a bad american california boy voice with lame comedy to break up the little story flow that exists. Its absolute buchery.
Finally, the game play lacks that same mystifying appeal that pulled us all to the original. In fact, the environment is downright boring. Thank god, there is the option to press triangle and have your path laid out in front of you because the environments look so similar that you wouldn't be able to navigate getting for mundane location to location. Additionally, you are forced into more platforming than you would like by collecting "light seeds" which allow to continue the story. Collecting these white orbs is nothing but redundant. Redundancy is a great word to describe this game. The bosses are so easy that you can defeat them almost as fast as the painstakingly easy enemies you come across now and again.
Seeing that so many people gave this game a good rating perplexes me. I LOVED the first Prince of Persia. Was disappointed in the second, and thought the third was on the track to getting the series back into the spot light, but this newest installment is utter garbage. Its laughable how repetitive the bosses, environment, and over all game play is. The only explanation for other people giving this title anything higher than a 3 out of 5 is its popular name, but nothing more. If you're a fan, give this game a rent before you shell out the 60 bucks. Likely, you will find yourself kicking yourself in the ass for losing the 6 bucks on the rental.