With the latest Prince of Persia game coming out next week, I’m beginning to get that tingly feeling that generally indicates large amounts of hype along with tinges of doubt as to whether or not the game will deliver on its promise to take the franchise “back to its roots”. Obviously, this is no direct movie tie-in, but rather a revist back to the series’ glory days on the PS2/Xbox with plenty of platforming action and a story that takes place in the seven year gap between Sands of Time and Warrior Within.
As a post on the Official PlayStation blog today by Ubisoft Producer Graeme Jennings indicates, the dev team is talking up the game’s inclusion of elemental powers, “epic” battles (we like that!), and implementation of the Anvil Engine from Assassin’s Creed II for gigantic bosses and huge amounts of on-screen action.
So, with all of that in mind, I simply wanted to make a post that would gauge the EBA Community’s interest in The Forgotten Sands as the game prepares for release. Sure, we’ll do an official uREVIEW once it’s out, but I figured it’d be fun to gauge your level of excitement NOW as the hype hits an all time high.
Also, how many of you are interested in the Wii version RATHER than the 360/PS3/PC version of the game??? They’re pretty different from what I hear.
You can check out the cinematic trailer above or a slew of gameplay vids on GameTrailers here for the 360/PS3/PC and here for the Wii to help formulate your opinion.
Now, let’s discuss.
I am not excited about the combat, I liked the WW and TT combat of pulling off crazy combos with either one or two weapons. But another thing I was glad to have in TT was the speed kills. The elemental powers look cool, but not PoP. I have a wait and see attitude.
I think for the real consoles, as long as they utilize the same engine as ac2, the game will be waaaaaay better than any videogame-movie-tie-in-videogame(if that makes any sense).
Unfortunately May is already looking at me with $260 with all the other titles, so I’ll wait to get this for the void of doom july-august.
The Wii version looks just like two thrones, which is not a bad thing.
But from what I’ve heard the wii version will have the original prince of persia included, which leads me to believe that the core game is a little short.
I played trought all Prince of Persia 3D games and they’re all rents for me. Not transcanding, jsut very good experiences. Unfortunatly, this new game seems a bit uninspired. I wish they would go on with their new prince adding more… There was much to uncover, the prince was very enigmatic and interresting. I feel the timeline was fine without this addition, it seems out of place to me. I really feel ORIGINALITY is very difficult to add in gaming developpement! Why not stay in known fact… Everything I’ve seen in this game has been done to death and in the combat sequences, it’s been done BETTER!
this game will be the last one in my “Buying list”.
i hope the soundtrack will be great as PoP . plus i want to see something original from this game.
Well! only tuesday will tell whether this game is a true success or not.. Personally I am going to pick up Red Dead Redemption instead on the 18th and probably end up renting this title a week or two later. After the recent ones being quite a disappointment and this being fueled by a movie.. which was most likely rushed because of it.. I really doubt it will deliver on the old school Prince of Persia style. I hope to hell I am wrong because we all have been waiting far too long for a good PoP game. Even though the old games were focused on platforming I am most concerned about the combat since that has seemed to be the main issue dev’s can’t really seem to understand. Surprisingly I LOOOVED the combat in two thrones and the platforming as well. It really felt like a perfect mix of the original + Warrior within which I LOOOOOVED. I hope they expand on this style.. cause to be frank just platforming with 1 monster once in a while gets boring pretty damn fast. I want difficult against the odds combat where if you don’t flip over a certain guy & jump off the wall then you are dead in a matter of seconds! The prince is pretty much only wearing leather straps and silk so there is no reason why he should be able to take more than two slashes of a sword AT MAX. Lets hope Ubi can pull this shit off even under the time limit pressure.. in my opinion they really should have waited & released this title after the movie to give them more time to come up with better ideas and just to perfect everything about this game. My feelings about this title is if it fails and gamers don’t like it then we may see the end of the Prince of Persia franchise :\..
well said. only thing ill add is that the new PoP games (last 5 years), assassin’s creed, mirror’s edge, and skate can be thoroughly enjoyed through a demo without wasting money on bogus story lines these rubbish games throw out. they substitute action for the immersion and experience. bioshock 2 splinter cell conviction as well. so angry. might as well pick up a trite nba game or something do some meth or something
I’m writing this because I think a lot of the commentary on Prince of Persia (PoP) is just keeps missing the mark. I say this from the perspective of a big-time fan of the Sands of Time (SoT) trilogy on PS2/Xbox. SoT, TWW, and TT all have their pros and cons with game-play and story line respectively, however, all three games are excellent games in their own rights; even given their flaws (see me pros and cons for each below)!!
When the reboot came wasn’t sure where the franchise was more than excited when I purchased the game. After about 45 min. of playing while battling a combination of nausea, boredom and bewilderment of what a steaming pile of shit this game was, I promptly returned the game that very day. After seeing all the cut scenes and further game-play on YouTube, I still cannot for the life of me see how people think that this is such a great game. I actually think that Ubisoft has hired a bunch PR people to try and ward off or counter any negative press. All I can say is, every person I know that is into the SoT Trilogy and even the people at GameStop where I bought the game think the reboot sucks!
That being said let me define what I think of when I think of what embodies PoP. The prince is definitely Human. Not to belabor the point of risk versus reward but an example of a great gaming experience for me would be the knot you get in your stomach during the Dahaka chases when you only have one sand rewind or the end of SoT when you have to do all the crazy plat forming with no sand powers. Don’t get me wrong… I don’t want to start bang my head on the wall after having to repeat a boss battle or section of a game for the 100th time but I do like a little bit of a challenge. The fact that he is human also mean that the acrobatics and parcours have to be within some kind of reason. I mean, I saw the Prince flying and doing upside down summersaults on the ceiling between the ring jumps and shit… I mean come on!!! The princes mortality has even been a cornerstone of the PoP francise since the very fist game on the PC. I did enjoy the magical elements presented in the SoT trilogy but I never felt overwhelmed by it.
What I think of the new PS3 iteration after playing it for 2 days? As far as the gameplay so far, I think the Prince jumps way too high from a standstill and too high in general. Or at least make the jump based off of how fast your running. I feel the same for the wall run… it’s a little too over exaggerated. I also don’t like that the human enemies disappear when they die. I don’t much like the combat system so far. It just seems to be one bottom hacking so far. I’m not a fan of not being able to block with the sword. I was really into the free-form fighting developed in the SoT especially in TWW. As far as the Magic. There is a bit too much of it for my taste. I liked the “relative” realism of getting sand from a sand creature or health from a water fountain. I’m not sure I like the idea of hacking boxes for health and magic orbs. I am a little more optimistic with the storyline. I’m glad Ubisoft returned back to the roots. It at least gives me the resolve to even finish this game because I’m actually not really that into the game-play so far. Critics are saying it gets better as you get more powers but it was the human free-running through platforms, puzzles and free-form fighting that made the game fun for me.
In conclusion, I have no clue if anyone will every read this as I am not an avid blogger but I somehow hope someone from Ubisoft will read this and that it may somehow impact the next PoP title that comes out. From the looks of how the Ubisoft developers swear by the greatness of the past iterations of PoP for the PS3 and the rest of the next generation consoles, this realization seems highly dubious. The way things stand for me now, I would almost be happy if Ubisoft just came out with a PS3 version of the original SoT trilogy for PS3 similar to what The God of War franchise did for the first two games and I would just drown my sorrows in my nostalgia.
Sands of Time:
Gameplay Pros and Cons:
• Plat forming was fun
• Controls were very responsive and
• Nice intro to form fighting. Although it got repetitive at times you skip a lot of the fights if you wanted and I thought the toolbox for to be fairly diverse and overall fun
• Would have been nice to have a few more boss battles
• Graphics and art in the levels were breath-taking
• You were mortal but the ability to manipulate time blended well with the storyline and just enough to keep you from ripping your hair out in complex platforming sequences.
Storyline Pros and Cons:
• All around great story telling and very original for platformers in that era. No complaints from me here
Warrior Within:
Gameplay Pros and Cons:
• Plat forming was more fun than SoT. I liked the additions like the curtain slide, the linking wall runs with ropes and end even most, not all, of the Dahaka chases
• Controls were very responsive and intuitive
• I liked the enhancements made for the free-form fighting. You skip a lot of the fights if you wanted and I thought the toolbox for combat even more diverse than SoT. I liked that it was a bit more gory… (what can I say I’m a 30 yr old gamer)
• Graphics and art in the levels were breath taking. I enjoyed the pseudo open world feel of some of the levels. It was a bit too dark btu I liked that a conscious effort was made to put in some beautiful settings like the gardens
• I found the music a bit annoying at times
• Boss battles were very uneven, sometimes too difficult.
• You were mortal but the ability to manipulate time was enough to keep you from ripping your hair out in complex platforming sequences
Storyline Pros and Cons:
• All around great story telling. I like the liked that the Prince as a bit more of a hardass. The fact that it‘s set many years after SoT didn’t make it too reaching for me
• The ending left it an opening for not pigeon-holing the franchise into some dark depressing hack-and-slaher
• I missed the fact that Farrah wasn’t in this one
Two Thrones:
Gameplay Pros and Cons:
• Plat forming was more fun
• Controls were very responsive and intuitive
• Nice intro to form fighting. Although it got repetitive at times you skip a lot of the fights if you wanted and I thought the toolbox for to be fairly diverse and overall fun
• I have mixed thoughts on the speed kills I liked being able to do them. They got old after a bit but you didn’t have to use it if you didn’t want to
• Boss battles were an improvement to that of WW. I found some of the speed killing sequences to be a bit of a pain in the ass of some of the bosses
• Graphics and art in the levels were breath-taking. I enjoyed the pseudo open world feel of some of the levels. I liked that it lightened up the mood a bit from WW
• Much better soundtrack that WW
• You were mortal but the ability to manipulate time was enough to keep you from ripping your hair out in complex platforming sequences
Storyline Pros and Cons:
• All around great story telling. I like the balance struck between the SoT and the WW versions of the Prince.
• Mixed feelings on the Dark Prince. It was a good change up in the game play but I was glad you didn’t use him for too much of the game
• Bringing Farrah back was a plus