t13monkeys's Full Review: PRINCE OF PERSIA HUGE 35 X 25 MOSAIC POSTER for Xb...
Ubisoft has decided to reinvent the Prince of Persia series yet again, and this time instead of the transition from 2d to 3d, it makes a jump into the cell-shaded and makes a bee-line break away from the traditional video game mold. Many reviewers have criticized it both positively and negatively for the biggest innovation, the Prince’s new sidekick, Elika, who can protect the Prince against all bodily harm, equating to a game with a built in cheat code. That said, some folks really dug this new concept, but honestly once the honeymoon is over it’s easy to see just how much the gaming experience has diminished. Bottom line is this- the new PoP sacrifices too much game for limited innovation.
Elika, the Princess with Multiple Personality Disorder
For the uninitiated, you play as a crystal blue-eyed adventurer, who does little justice to Persian people, and looks like a tanned version of Chace Crawford on Gossip Girl. I usually will look the other way when it comes to racial stereotypes in video games, but this rendition deviates far and hard from the previous PoP games which at least didn’t emphasis model-like looks and a complete disregard for any sense of mythical accuracy.
Then there’s Elika, the light-princess who despite being a magical being still has to physically follow you around. She also has a totally psycho personality ranging from submissive to outright sassy. It’s completely confusing to piece together who she is because one minute she’ll joke with the prince, the other minute she’ll act impatient and want to move on. Love-hate maybe, but her weak lines make the dialog moments a bit less than precious. There isn’t much story in this new game- not even an FMV. Ubisoft apparently went for the most integrative experience they could get- but it’s a downer because there isn’t really any strong sense of a bad guy or a comprehensible mission other than to restore the corruption infested lands.
A lot of game reviewers have harped on a lot of meaningless praise, saying they bonded with Elika and enjoyed having the cute princess around. I can only attribute that to “lonely gamer syndrome” because I honestly did not see the charm other than her good looks. To prove my point, I think I’ll just point out that there is some sort of blatant innuendo in having her give out an orgasmic breath as she “heals corrupted lands” by tapping Y rapidly.
Prince of Persia is No Longer a Game
Completely devoid of challenge, Prince of Persia revolutionizes the video game series by not being a game at all. You see, if you fall, Elika will save you. If an enemy tries to chop your head off, Elika will save you. The only real loss from dying is just that you’ve wasted time, a far too generous way of attempting to reduce gamer frustration.
Games like Contra 4 might be overly frustrating, but the last Prince of Persia series really didn’t rack up too much frustration. In that great game series, gamers could slow down time or reverse time if things looked bad, and it was a good way of letting players have trial and error especially for challenging segments. This was about the right balance between controller hurling and total passivity, but for whatever reason Ubisoft decided what worked was broken and moved on.
To add insult to injury, Ubisoft also concluded that getting lost was a big no-no, so rather than having to even figure out where to proceed next, Elika has a built in magical ball of light that shows you the way. It’s more than just a giant compass though- it’s actually straight-on GPS because it doesn’t just point, it travels the very same path you need to jump, wall-run and climb, removing the need to even look around and figure out how to get from one place to the next.
So rather than being a platformer, Prince of Persia has actually transformed into a collecting game. The goal is to collect light spheres now in order to power Elika up. So players will need to occasionally stop and look around in each area until they’ve found enough spheres. It’s a gameplay element that will be fine for patient gamers, but for folks like me who prefer my meat and potatoes in combat and platforming,- PoP just does not provide.
Prince of Persia isn't a game, it's an attempt at art
It moves closer to the cinematic realm with its highly stylized cell shaded look, and that shoves it more into the realm of Ico. PoP is about experience, the feeling of running along walls and the flutter you’re supposed to get in your heart as you transform a dark infested land into a place of lush-greenery. It’s more about the emotional high than the typical “I must kill the next boss” that usually drives gamers on. The story and dialog are still far from anything Oscar-worthy, but presentation-wise it is impressive, with an expansive seamless world and a minimal of load times.
Same Old Moves
The new prince has a gauntlet that lets him glide down walls and stuff, but once you’ve learned how to wall run, wall climb and jump you’ve pretty much exhausted most of the gameplay offered. It’s sort of dismal just how little there is to do in this game other than activating the same old moves just rearranged in different patterns as you traverse from place to place.
There are power-tiles to add a little spice, but you’ll quickly find out that these are the most annoying of them all as you are thrown dizzyingly about with little control over where you’re going. A few moments where you’ll have to wiggle the directional pad to dodge crashing into the wall add some pointless frustrations (so much for minimizing that Ubisoft!) but again I can’t emphasize enough that PoP is all eye candy and less about substance.
Fighting is another sore spot. The same combos come in use to fight bosses that have predictable patterns. Normal enemy spawn can be completely eliminated simply by running up to them and attacking before they spawn and you’ll always only fight one enemy/boss at a time. If they do spawn, expect to use a simple combo that involves you knocking them off a cliff. While I would agree that the previous Prince of Persia combat systems had their flaws, I still attest that they were fluid, beautiful and a touch more challenging. Knowing you can’t die in PoP is what ruined it for me, because I know that no matter how I button mash, I’ll come out victorious. Is it Worth it?
Some reviewers blathered stuff about how this game was still worth it, or how the “artistic presentation” somehow balanced out the lack of challenge but I’ll wholeheartedly disagree.
The thing is- while the new Prince of Persia started off well enough, tugging on some of my nostalgic heartstrings, it quickly became a yawn-fest because as beautiful as the world and environment are, the game is simply devoid of enemies and life. The creepy black butterflies or the corruption spreading into the prince were laugh worthy because deep inside I knew no matter what happened, I would never die. The snappy banter between the prince and Elika soon became intolerable to me as I found their characters increasingly inconsistent, redundant and irrelevant to the plot. The story started off ok, but then turned predictable, and half-finished. The final boss was a laughable string of trial and error that involved less skill than fighting the mini-bosses. In short, there simply is nothing good about Prince of Persia other than its good shiny looks. At 13-14 hours long, PoP will provide enough game to last a week, but provides little replay value. If PoP really seems to be your type of game or you are a diehard fan and just want to get the nostalgic rush, go ahead and rent it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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