6 replies to this topic

[IMG News]

Apple Games's latest feature article examines Prince of Persia, the latest game iteration to be inspired by the 1989 original. In this version players take the role a new prince who must use his special gifts to assist the Princess Elika in her efforts to heal the lands. Apple Games' article takes the form of an interview with creative director Francois Emery, and includes sidebars detailing the game world's history, the prince's powers, and tips and tricks for success.

To reach that final act, you’ll find yourself jumping, swinging, running, and fighting your way through the lands overwhelmed by Corruption. Some of the Prince’s physical abilities are new to this game, including sliding down slopes, using his gauntlet as a grip while quickly descending walls, and roof- and wall-running. “We wanted to offer a more action-oriented experience that’s focused on the impressive acrobatics you must perform to reach your goal,” Emery explains.

Elika’s skills are comparable to the Prince’s, but she brings with her several magical abilities, including extending the Prince’s jumps, teleporting the pair between healed lands, and saving the Prince any time he’s about to fall to his doom or lose a fight. That last ability means it’s impossible to die in the game, but rescuing the Prince from a fall means he must start the current series of obstacles from the beginning, while protecting him during a fight gives the enemy a chance to regain some of its lost health.

“We wanted to enhance Ahriman’s presence with strong enemies, rather than multiple ones,” Emery relates. “You’re not overwhelmed but rather must go head-to-head with the evil source of power in the world. Those duels also serve as a direct link to the original Prince of Persia, in which you were fighting guards one at a time.”

Read the full article at the page linked below.

Return to Full Article - InsideMacGames News

[Frigidman]

For those who have the hardware to run this game smoothly (meaning, not a laptop)... this game is really awesome. I'm a fan of all the Prince of Persia's, and this latest one. Though its not in the same timeline/story as the sands of time ones, I don't see it really being a downside. Honestly, the third one of sand trilogy was really stretching it and getting tired/lameish. It was still fun mind you, but didn't have the caliber of awesome the first ones had.

Anyhow, if you can, like, want, this game is really great. Good to snag if you got the cash.

[Sneaky Snake]

So this is the newest Prince of Persia?

[iRolley]

I am really tempted... but would it perform well enough on a Core Duo 2.0 Ghz X1600 ?

[teflon]

yes, its the newest one, from late last year.

I picked it up a couple days ago for £10, which includes the epilogue (£8 on its own from PSN). So deal and a half right there.
Pretty good, I quite enjoy the actual platforming, its really easy to string stuff together, but not so simple that its just "hold down X" like in Assassin's Creed. But its lucky that they put Elika (the princess) in, because theres often a moment where the context sensitivity and generally loose and forgiving controls will come and bite you in the arse and you fall to your death cos the game messed up.

I also quite like the visual stylings, though I think think they were a bit off in achieving the 'watercolour painting' look. Valkyrie Chronicles or Okami do it better.

On the downsides, the combat is a bit stilted. Its too difficult to block attacks, because it seems to suggest that just holding down the block button will do so, but if you do that, they will constantly break through and have you on the ground having to do a QTE to escape. And its too difficult to get up a decent rhythm.

Oh, and theres a lot of flying, a la Starfox/pilot wings except that here its 100% on the rails, yet sends you hurtling through a little roller coaster ride without you having any indication of which way its going next. When youve got to avoid pillars during this, it can get a bit tricky and screw you over a couple of times.

Also, the level design as a whole is dictated towards being too easy because you can do the levels in pretty much any order. Yes, theres challenging parts, but that pretty much only the final boss battles/levels, which is a shame. It might have been better to structure it differently so that each of the four areas progressed better, rather than have a hub and picking the levels you want. Or have it adapt as you progress through the game, so that each level has 2-3 layers of challenges which add up as you beat the other bosses.
On the plus side, I believe the Epilogue steps up the difficulty, so Ill wait until thats done before making my mind up.

So on the whole, enjoyable platforming, mediocre combat, being too easy and annoying flying, all because of a bunch of loose gameplay that got through because you can never ever die.

On the whole, its easy to look past the flaws in the game, and see the potential there for the inevitable sequel to be a pretty great game.

[Tesseract]

Sneaky Snake, on April 10th 2009, 07:16 AM, said:

So this is the newest Prince of Persia?

Yeah, the naming isn't confusing or anything.

[teflon]

Yeah, I think they shouldve come up with a subtitle for the trilogy (i assume its a trilogy), kind of like the Metroid Prime trilogy and Ratchet & Clank Future trilogy (just about a trilogy here). Of course, with an already quite long name compared with many franchises, which are just a single word, and marketing's compulsion to add more and more subtitles (Dark Forces 4: Jedi Knight 3: Jedi Outcast 2: Jedi Academy anyone?) it could get a bit over the top...

Anyway, Ive finished the main part of the game now (not done the Epilogue yet), and I actually really quite enjoyed it. I still found the fighting to be rather clunky and not very well defined or explained to you properly, which could explain why I dont like it that much. Its a strange mix, because its easy enough that anyone can do it, but has depth which could make it quite engaging if it were more difficult, which would actually force you to get good at it... So I havent really got very good at it. It also doesnt help that the only times you have to fight are in boss battles and once on your way to them, so theres no real opportunity to practice... Perhaps a fight mode or similar practice area should have been included?

The platforming itself remained easy but pleasant fun throughout, whilst the Epilogue, which I played for a total of 5 minutes, really steps things up, needing you to not make a single button press wrong along a rather long and extended section, which makes it rather a lot more challenging. Its a shame that the PC and Mac versions dont get to see the Epilogue, it really does ramp up the difficulty.

Light Seed hunting is actually quite fun, to the extent that Ive managed to pick up all of the 1000 bar about 40 spread across the entire game, which Im going to have to go around and hunt out for the completist in me

Its still disappointing that the controls can feel rather wooly and loose at times, which lets you down quite often.

But Id still recommend it if you can find it at a low price point.