Picked it up for cheap today with Steam sale. Looks like it uses the always-connected-UBI DRM. It plays decent enough, like a greatest hits remake of Sands of Time.
…an unnecessary remake…but with a slower, clumsier, steroided up Prince. WTF? Why was this necessary to make him unappealing? Less graceful, less acrobat with stiff, slow animation really kills it this time.
Combat is slower, floatier, not as satisfyingly tactile or crunchy as Sands of Time or Two Thrones (I hated the Two Thrones/Warrior Within and never finished those two, hating what they did with the story and feel…not to mention the music) …so it’s really not good combat at all.
As much as I loved the Sands of Time, the 2008 reboot was great and I am disappointed they didn’t continue that.
Prince of Persia has been rebooted so many times I have no idea what’s going on anymore. I didn’t even know that there had been a 2010 release; I thought the last thing we had was the 2008 reboot. They somehow manage to make it worse with each iteration, too.
For my money it’s the most woefully abused IP out there. Though it might not be for much longer, with the way the new XCOM and and Thief games appear to be shaping up.
I don’t know why the 2008 version is so unliked. Aside from not being that challenging and maybe a bit repetetive, it was still a fun, highly polished title.
I loved the small touches like the conversations that gave the characters more depth. The graphics engine/animation/art design were all top notch and the soundtrack was great.
They should have just worked on what needed improvement in that game and released a sequel instead.
Only by name. Game narrative itself had nothing to do with the film and was a flimsily connected story to the original Sands of Time game that shoehorns itself before the events of Warrior Within.
I rather liked it actually, played it earlier this year on Xbox 360. Plot and characters were forgettable, but it offered up a lot of nifty traps and obstacles to clambor through. If that sort of thing is what you want from a PoP game, then this is a solid play.
I can’t bring myself to liking the chunky, clumsy character models and clunky combat though. No flipping over enemies and slashing either, pretty disappointing.
I am currently playing through the 2010 Prince of Persia game, and I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying it. I’d say the combat system is more fluid and better than any of the PoP games so far. The jumping and platforming elements get more and more complex throughout the game and are really well paced. In that way the game reminds me most of PoP: Warrior Within. Even though that game was fairly maligned for it’s tone and story, it had the best paced gameplay in the whole series, I thought.
This new one really does a great job teaching you how to play and then ratcheting up the difficulty on the platforming sections a little at a time, keeping me absolutely riveted to the game because of the gameplay alone. Which, again, reminds me of Warrior Within.
So I agree 100% with BDGE: plot and characters are forgettable, but gameplay makes this a really solid title. It’s available really cheap now and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys the gameplay in previous PoP games.
The character is every bit as nimble as previous PoP games, including Sands of Time. Don’t let his bigger muscles fool you. The muscles are just there to make it look more believable that he can climb around the way he does, I think. He is still very light on his feet. To flip over enemies and slash them first jump on them, and then press attack. He’ll do a somersault and come down with his sword, similar to Sands of Time.
I’m finally at the end of the game and from a gameplay perspective, this is the first time the game has made a few missteps. Some of their scripting and precision on the controls has taken a hit right at the end.
One of the things you do in the game is to restore previously built structures in the palace that are now rubble. You do this at the press of a button. The game kind of reads your mind as to which one you want to activate next. As you jump, climb, swing, wall-run all over the place, you’re constantly activating one old area and then the next, and the game correctly activates the right one on demand every time you press LB.
Except near the end of the game, pressing LB sometimes doesn’t activate the right piece of wall. And it’s infuriating. I spent like an hour on two pieces of wall that wouldn’t activate for me properly. Finally I figured out why they were being finicky and that I needed to be farther away from them when I pressed LB to activate them properly. Which is the exact opposite of how most pieces of wall work in the game. Normally if you’re closer to them, you’re more likely to get the right piece activated.
Anyway, now that I’m on the level called “The Final Climb”, I suspect I’m only minutes from finishing the game. But I’m still frustrated that this technical glitch had to mar an otherwise great experience that this game provided so far. Compound that with the fact that the level “The Final Climb” requires me to provide a precision in climbing that I’ve never needed before. They might have made this last level a little too hard. I’m still determined to finish the game, but it’s no longer on the same level as Warrior Within anymore, which was almost pitch-perfect when it came to the platforming elements of the game. The Forgotten Sands was almost there, but it failed right at the end.
Has anyone tried out any of the Sands of Time Trilogy in HD that’s available on PSN now? I’m dismayed to see that the price for each of the three games is $15 each. In the age of gigantic Steam sales, that’s a pretty hefty price for some old games that I’ve played before and already own. How substantial is the HD facelift? That’s what I want to know. I played through Sands of Time again about a year ago on Xbox (played on the 360 through backwards compatibility), and I was dismayed to see that the game does definitely look very last-gen now.
I guess if I had to choose one game to buy from the three in HD, it would probably be Warrior Within. I just love running from the Da’haka in that game.
