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Review: Prince of Persia [2008]


Gryfer

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Hey everyone!

 

Recently, I thought I might like to start reviewing the games I play for a number of reasons that you don't care about. That said, it's a new thing I will be doing for all my games from here on out. I'll always keep them spoiler-free. I also don't have any set sort of criteria for how I rate a game.

The first thing I’ll start off with is that I wasn’t a huge fan of the Sands of Time trilogy. I thought they were solid games, but they each had their glaring problems in my opinion (e.g. SoT had abysmal combat, WW was way too emo, and T2T’s combat was also pretty bland). If you were a huge fan of the Sands of Time trilogy, you may be really offput by the 2008 reboot because it deviates from the formula in some pretty serious stylistic ways.

Immediately, I noticed the art style of this entry. It has a combination cel-shaded, wind-swept feel that I thought was really captivating. After traversing the tutorial area (canyon) and being introduced into the first real open area, I actively found myself ignoring progression in favor of looking around at the scenery.

The story is pretty generic and at times the game itself seems to shrug it off in the manner of “Yeah, yeah, plot stuff. Let’s get to the runny-jumpy-climby bits.” It’s certainly not a bad story, but it certainly isn’t the highlight of the game.

The game lets you run free pretty quickly after establishing the initial plot and makes one of the stylistic changes I think was poorest — it turns it into an open world sort of game. You can choose which area you go to first and, consequently, which boss you fight first. The bosses are a large part of where the narrative and personality of the game come through, but they can potentially lose their punchiness if done in the “wrong” order. Without spoiling anything, one of the bosses tried to cut at the characters, but if you had happened to pick that boss first, there would be no history established that would make the cuts meaningful. I think it made the story much more impactful to go from “left to right” on the world map, so to speak. If you’re reading this and haven’t played the game, I promise that will make sense if you do choose to get it.

Speaking of the characters, I think they’re well done save for one major flaw: this is a game based in, theoretically, Persia or at least some other Middle East/southwest Asian sort of country, yet the characters both have American accents (disclaimer: I am an American). Nolan North (Nathan Drake) was probably not the best choice for the role. That said, the characters themselves are fun and relatable and unique. They’re forced together by the plot with obvious different motivations and vastly different personalities, but throughout the game they play off of each other very well and show actual development, but you do have to take the time to pursue the optional dialogue between the characters. The new female character, Elika, is a great addition. She can be sassy at the right times, but she’s resolute and knows what she’s doing —or at least why she’s doing it. She helps in combat and platforming and, if I can be a bit shallow, she’s absolutely stunning as well. One of my favorite things about the game that goes unnoticed is how they physically interact in the game world together. If you jump on vines on the wall, the Prince always waits for a half second until Elika jumps to him and holds on around his neck. Then if they’re hanging onto the same ledge and the Prince wants to pass her, they’ll do one of a few switchovers. If you’re on a rafter or beam, they grab each other’s hands and do a fun little spin and the Prince will make some snarky comment. It makes them feel both very real and like they’re really interacting with each other.

Combat is the biggest stylistic change in the game and probably where most people have their qualms with the game. Instead of the ‘classic’ Sands of Time trilogy-style combat, this game dumps that in favor of a sort of Mortal Kombat-style duel. Every single enemy encounter is one-on-one in some nature of closed off combat space. You have four basic attacks: sword, magic (Elika), gauntlet, and a sort of acrobatic/alternate sword attack. At first, the combat is incredibly clunky and unintuitive. It’s all based off of a combat tree that allows you to chain together one of the four types of attacks. The longer your attack chain, the more damage you do. Once you get a hang of the combat, it actually becomes really rewarding to knock off a huge combo and cut off a full bar of the enemy’s health.

On the other hand, there are three just terrible parts of combat. The first and most egregious of the errors is the enemy blocking. As the game goes on, it chooses to make combat more difficult by upping the enemy block rate to the point where they start blocking 75% of what you throw at them. To get around it, you basically have to physically lift the enemy off of the ground and attack them that way. Another problem is the variety of combat (or lack thereof). In the entire game, there are, I believe, six different enemy types. In one way, it’s a stylistic choice. In another way, it was lazy design. Lastly is the quick-time events. Some of the QTEs require such incredible timing that I don’t know that I ever got one. Other QTEs always have the same response to a certain enemy move and that felt fair, because as I learned the enemy’s combat style, I learned how to move about without even being touched and it felt like I was improving. The problem with simply spamming a button or picking at random is that if you’re wrong you “die” and the enemy gains back some health.

On that note, it’s appropriate to talk about “dying” and how it works in the game. You never actually die in this game — any time where you mess up on a platforming section, Elika simply grabs you and drops you off at the last plot of land you were standing on. For platforming, it does an absolutely stellar job of keeping up with the pacing, not punishing you too badly for failing, yet ensuring you do have some skill and aren’t just bull-rushing. I found it to be the perfect balance. Considering that platforming is what a PoP game is about, this is what I thought was the most important. The combat was not why I came to play this game, it was for the platforming. It really kept the game moving, frustrated me enough to feel like I actually messed up, but never got to the point where I felt like I had to walk away for the day.

You also never die in the combat. Should you fail the QTEs I just spoke of, Elika will save you, the enemy will gain back some health (less and less each time you “die”), and the battle continues on. It really devalued the combat because you are, almost quite literally, invincible immortal. So long as you’re doing some damage, you can’t lose. Dodging really blows. Nothing else to really add there. Combat movement also could have gone through a few more upgrades. You move quicker while blocking than not (extremely counterintuitive) and one of the bosses requires you to position him in a  certain way — but it’s hard to do so when you move slowly and especially when he starts blocking more often.

Specifically to the platforming, there are a few changes/upgrades to the series formula. The biggest addition is probably the gauntlet the Prince wears. It effectively allows him to do two things: slide down the wall and grab an otherwise smooth wall and jump up it once. These two seemingly small factors really open up the amount of options in the platforming sections. The other big addition is a double jump with Elika. This was a lot of fun to me because it kept things fluid and active, but there were a handful of times I got stuck because I didn’t realize we could jump as far as the gap was. I believe the last new mechanic is the ability to jump to a wall before starting the wall-run. It creates a bit more flow because you’re already naturally running; just jump and begin the wall-run from where you make contact with the wall.

To wrap up, I do want to quickly talk about the story again. One thing I really appreciate in a game that has been lost in current gaming is when a developer wants to tell a story. Nowadays, every game is a choose-your-own-adventure, which has its merits. But in PoP, there is a defined ending and I quite like that.

Positives: Platforming, flow, variation of mechanics that move you throughout the game, characters, art-style, satisfaction from getting good at the combat system.

Negatives: Combat, open-world was unnecessary and makes an already meh story lose a sense of strong focus.

Overall, is the game fun?

Yes. The combat is the glaring weak point, but I came to Prince of Persia for platforming. It does a great job at that and, combined with the characters and art-style made it worth my time. Combat is a very small part of the total game, so it certainly doesn’t do too much to retract from an otherwise worthwhile experience.

Overall, would I recommend the game?

Yes, but with the caveat not to expect a lot from the combat. Enjoy it for what it is, and also don’t expect it to be too similar to the Sands of Time trilogy.

Was it worth it?

It’s probably not worth the $20 price tag it’s currently sporting in the PlayStation Store, but it’s definitely worth the $3 price tag from GameStop.

BONUS: Epilogue DLC

This will be a much shorter review. If going leisurely, the Epilogue won’t take more than 3 hours of game time. If being quick, you can get through it in under 2 hours on your first try. My second playthrough of the Epilogue clocked in at 1:05 and that was with going "out of my way” for the “collectibles.” The collectibles are pointless. It felt annoying because of that, but some of them were at least mildly challenging to find or get to.

The combat is mostly unchanged, but what really disappointed me was the designers recycling already overused bosses. There are four main bosses in the original game that you fight six times each. Two of those bosses show up again and you fight a sort of combo battle between them. It was really lame and disappointing. They add a story point of why it’s the same two, but it just felt like a cop-out to me. They did add a new rushing mechanic: if you and the boss are far away, tapping X quickly will have you bum rush them and a follow-up QTE will determine who “wins.”

The selling point of the DLC is really the extra platforming. I enjoyed the platforming in the base game, so I decided to give it a shot. It was definitely far more difficult, which I appreciated. They also seemed to realize that they never used the gauntlet to grind down a wall mid-section anywhere in the base game and used it several times.

As for the story, I don’t feel like it added anything. In all honesty, I wish I had been left without the additional story.

Overall, was the DLC fun?

Yes. The additional platforming was much more challenging and made me feel like I was being tested more.

Overall, would I recommend the DLC?

No. I felt the combat was a much bigger negative here because they literally just recycled old bosses. Felt really lazy to me. The ending was, at best, not improved and, in my opinion, actually made worse.

Was it worth it?

In my opinion, it's not worth the $10 it’s currently listed at in PlayStation Store. If you liked the game, I wouldn’t bite at anything less than $5, honestly.

Hope you all enjoyed the review! Let me know what you thought about the game, my review, or if it helped you!

Edited by Gryfer
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Hey, great review.  It reads well, hits on most of the major points.  I appreciate the summarizing at the end too.  I also agree with most of your thoughts, it's nice to see someone review the whole package and not just "You can't die! Worst game ever! Nuff said!"

 

It's a good game, albeit flawed.

Edited by FrecLognAizeW
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This is why i never give two shits about reviews. I disagree with nearly all of this review.

Reviews on YouTube are at least entertaining due to the personality of the reviewer. I still give nearly no weight to them though. Text reviews are even more useless. Reviews are just a jumbled biased mess.

I'll watch some gameplay on YouTube and decide for myself whether or not i want to buy the game.

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Great and lengthly review. I mostly don't read a lot of reviews because I mostly just watch a couple video reviews of games I'm looking at then kind of make up my own mind from there whether I should invest in them or not. I remember playing this particular POP back in like 2009. I remember loving the art style and the "open-world" aspect of it. Combat was really inferior to the originals. I actually really liked the combat in Warrior Within and Two Thrones. There was enough variation for me not to get bored with them. Especially the stealth kills in TT that reward you for being sneaky and timing your button presses accordingly for a swift kill. SoT was the only POP game besides this one where I felt combat was more dull. 

 

Getting back to the reboot, I agree with you that the platforming is solid and is quite enjoyable. I haven't gotten the chance of completing this entry in the series yet because I was borrowing it from a friend. I might pick it back up since it's dirt cheap and conclude with my final thoughts on the matter. For a person who doesn't read many reviews I enjoyed looking over and analyzing yours. Keep up the good work!

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  • 3 weeks later...

In my opinion this is the most underrated game on the ps3/360 I loved it, the graphics are amazing, the characters brilliant and the story while nothing new keeps you going and I never felt bored. Also the I found the combat addictive, I bought the game back in 2008 when it came out and paid 60 euros for it. Never did i regret it.

EDIT: also fuck you ubisoft for not making a sequel.

Edited by Johnathan994
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  • 2 weeks later...

Nice review, Gryfer.

I just recently played the entire game through, from install to 100% trophies, and I agree with a lot that you had to say.

Aside from the few grammatical errors, the only gripe with the review would be using the word "invincible" to describe the Prince constantly being able to be saved by Elika. I believe the better choice of word would have been "immortal." Whatever. Tomato, tomato.

I see you've also got a Forgotten Sands review up; I'm headed there right now. :D

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Would like if you could break the review more. I failed to realize where you stop talking about your experience with the previous games and started the actual review.

Not sure if you're being sarcastic here or not. I literally didn't discuss my experience with the previous games except one extremely brief parenthetical: "(e.g. SoT had abysmal combat, WW was way too emo, and T2T’s combat was also pretty bland)"

 

 

Nice review, Gryfer.

I just recently played the entire game through, from install to 100% trophies, and I agree with a lot that you had to say.

Aside from the few grammatical errors, the only gripe with the review would be using the word "invincible" to describe the Prince constantly being able to be saved by Elika. I believe the better choice of word would have been "immortal." Whatever. Tomato, tomato.

 

Glad to hear I'm in the ballpark with how others are feeling.

 

You're quite right, immortal is certainly the better word to use and I'll replace it. That said, I didn't spot any grammatical errors after a re-read.

Edited by Gryfer
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