My list of "beats" has drastically increased since I procured a Playstation 3 of my own a few months ago, but I have yet to actually review any of those games. Well now that school is over for the moment I can finally get to it, and what better to start off with than one of this Winter's most anticipated games: Prince of Persia.
The Plus: Firstly, this game is beautiful. The characters, the environment, everything. You will find yourself swiveling the camera around in every new area just to try to take it all in. I know I did. Secondly, the area designs are amazingly well done. The previous Prince of Persia games all had decent level designs, but none of them were as open and creative as the ones you will see in this iteration. This is a very good point for the game as you will find yourself traversing the same areas over and over again in an attempt to collect the world's many light seeds. Thirdly, the musical score is extremely well done, and fitting. This is a major change in the face of the last two games as they had us listening to either overly dramatic rock, or terribly messy mixtures of traditional Arabian music and... more rock. In Prince of Persia the music really fits the environments quite well. It's not overdone at all and it is actually quite epic. You really get that "lost civilization" feel while you're jumping from beam to beam and climbing up and down conveniently viney walls. Fourthly, and finally, are the trophy/achievement systems. This is one of the first games where I believe the little challenges are completely necessary as this game only sports one difficulty, and I really don't think I would be playing it again if it weren't for these little "rewards." Instant replay value.
The Minus: As great as I would like to claim this game to be, Ubisoft made quite a number of mistakes in this newest Prince of Persia addition. Firstly, a lot of the dialogue is quite terrible. The voices are decent, but you will find yourself having to listen to the Prince and Elika droll on so much that it really makes you just want to mute the game all-together and just read the subtitles. I mean for goodness sake, they play a game of I Spy at one point! Secondly, there is no game over screen to be found in this game. When you are about to fall to your death (which happens quite often) or an enemy or boss is about to decapitate you, Elika just uses her magic to save you. Now I am fine with this being outside of boss or enemy fights since the time reversal mechanic is gone, but they could have at least allowed for game overs in said fights. I mean, it is kind of sad that you can leave during a fight with the game unpaused and come back with everything being just like it was. Thirdly, the combat was way too simple. If you force an enemy to a wall or a ledge the game automatically goes into a cut scene where you either oneshot the enemy (for normal battles) or go into a button-mashing QTE (for bosses). This really becomes a hindrance when you try to pull off the big combos. Fourth...ly(?), the mechanics are frustratingly off kilter. You will make so many bad jumps and catches that your head will literally explode. Seriously, it took the doctors over thirty hours of surgery to put my roommate's back together. I was lucky enough to be wearing a toboggan at the time so it didn't take nearly as long for me.
So there you have it, my seventy-five cents. I am awarding Prince of Persia 3.5 stars out of 5 for being so much fun and oh so pretty, but for still needing a lot of work. I am very much looking forward to the next installment.
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