Prince of Persia had a strong presence at Eurogamer’s Expo in London. With PS3 and 360 kiosks both at Ubisoft’s outside tent and on the show floor, as well as free T-shirts and Posters, you couldn’t avoid catching a glimpse of this beautiful, vivid adventure.
The new game in the series has quite a different feel than the Sands of Time trilogy, in just about every way imaginable. The well spoken Prince of Sands of Time, and his brooding, emo transformation in the latter two games, is replaced with an entirely new “Prince”; a wandering vagabond who gets wrapped up in a world saving adventure.
Voiced by Nolan North, the new Prince has an astounding resemblance to North’s previous character, Uncharted’s Nathan Drake. Nathan’s snide sarcasm and aversion to take things seriously are applied to the Prince in an uncanny likeness.
The pantheon of games on PS2, Xbox and Gamecube featured impressive and realistic graphics with an emphasis on fantasy and a slightly heightened palette. This time round, the world and the characters are plastered with thick primary hues, and outlined with graphic novel-esque strokes. Combined with fluid animations and massive backdrops, the game is nothing less than drop dead gorgeous.
While your actual path is quite restricted, a Ubisoft rep told us that structures in the distance would be explored in later levels.
The new Prince also moves and interacts with the world with some significant differences. The level we played was designed as a series of platforms and challenges, but generally in a straight, forward direction. This allowed for more fluid, free running like gameplay, as appose to Sands of Time where the more Tomb Raider styled platforming made each jump and each move a more deliberate and considered action.
The Sands of Time used a face button for jump and a shoulder trigger for wall climbing and running. In the new game, however, everything is put on the A (or X, on PS3) button. While this is more traditional, we felt a hesitance to do wall runs as you must place confidence that merely jumping at the wall will trigger a run, unlike the assurance of pressing the dedicated “wall run” button in previous games.
Relegating almost every platforming technique to the A button definitely adds to the previously mentioned fluidity, but streamlining and concentrating the controls undoubtedly has an effect on the game’s difficulty.
This is not least helped by partner Elika. Her assistance, grabbing your hand and offering a “helpful” magic-fuelled ride back to the jump you just mistimed, will no doubt be a point of contention between gamers looking for a challenge. Ubisoft has assured gamers that the Prince will never die in the game, and will always be saved, during combat or after a wrong jump, by Elika. The Sands of Time was, on occasion, a difficult game with a massive string of jumps and obstacles between you and your goal. The satisfaction of clearing them all after many unsuccessful attempts may be lost in Prince of Persia.
The Prince has a metal gauntlet that allows him to slide down cliff faces without harm. It also lets him grab and throw enemies in combat, Devil May Cry style.
A PoP game wouldn’t be complete without combat, and this travelling thief has plenty of moves up his sleeve. Putting acrobatic feats on A, sword slashes on X, gauntlet grabs on B and Elika’s magical powers on Y, spotting the correct time to use each power will create a long string of attacks. Alternatively, blocking attacks successfully can lead to deadly parries and counters.
Prince of Persia ushers in significant differences than the tired franchise of last generation. Replacing the latter games’ questionable art design with luscious cel-shaded visuals, and dropping the series’ gimmicks for the pure platforming, combat and puzzle solving trifecta that we swooned over with Sands of Time, the prince is back. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you’ve got another game to put on your Christmas list this year.
Post a Comment