Squirrelinabox
01-14-2004, 03:13 PM
Ok prince of persia is probably one of the most hyped up games right now, and has been reviewed a bunch by a lot of different people. So, I probably won't be saying much new here, but I have some free time at work so here it goes.
Prince of Persia is fun, plain and simple. Ok, not plain, but definately simple. The game is pure action, fairly easy action, but fun action nonetheless. The reason it is so fun is because your Prince has more acrobatic tricks up his sleeve than Robin and Mario combined (odd combination I now). From bouncing back and forth on walls, to swinging from pole to pole, our Prince is one bad ass acrobatic marvel. The key here is that performing such tricks are unbelievably smooth and simple. You won't be fighting the controls here people.
Ok, so he is an acrobatic genious... so what. What about the bad guys? He doesn't just run away does he? Hell no. Take all those acrobatics and hand him a sword and you have one hell of a killing machine. Fighting is just as simple and smooth as the arial tricks. You just point in the direction of the enemy you want to attack, then either press the attack button or the "action" (jump) button. With multiple enemies on the screen, you are going to want to string each attack on each enemy to keep them all at bay while you work them down enough so you can finish them. But wait, there is only 1 attack button? Yup. Don't worry though, through in the jump button and you now can fly over enemies and hit them in the back, or bounce off a nearby wall and lunge at an enemy. There aren't too many different attacks you can pull off, but the way in which you pull them off is very fun. Later on in the game, certain enemies will block or even counter certain attacks, so you have to adjust. It keeps it fairly fresh, though I would have liked to see a bit more variation on the enemies. You do fight some birds later on, but I would have loved different ground enemies.
Ok, so I haven't talked about the dagger yet. Most of you have heard of it or seen it on commercials or in reviews... the dagger that reverses time. Yeah, it is as sweet as everybody says, well almost. The ability to rewind time is not only a fun part of the game, it is a key part of the game. There are a lot of places where you might not know if you can make a certain jump, or if you are supposed to go a certain way... Well, the best way to find out is to just try it. With the dagger, as long as you have sand (which is gathered from defeated monsters), you can rewind up to 10 seconds in case you fall, or get hurt or stuck. Trial and error isn't so bad with that nifty little dagger. My biggest beef is that there are a lot of places that look like you can just jump or drop down, but when you do, you realize you fell too far and die. Sure you can rewind, but it was pretty annoying to see a small little drop kill me.
What else can the dagger do huh? Well, it can slow time, freeze enemies, and it can make you go VERY fast. Slowing time was pretty much worthless. I only used it to see it in action. Fighting enemies is rediculously easy that slowing time on them only makes the fight last longer. I could see maybe a few places where slowing time might help an acrobatic stunt be easier... but in all honesty, I didn't have any trouble there either.
Freezing enemies is pretty cool, and really useful IMO. Basically you can stab ANY enemy (besides the final boss) with your dagger and they will get "stuck" in time. You can then hit them up in the air once and slice them again to finish them. This makes the biggest baddies in the game only 2 hit kills which is pretty substantial when you are fighting a bunch at once. If you get surrounded and can't seem to break through, freeze a couple of the bigger guys, kill the weaker ones, then go back to finish off the frozen guys. It adds a cool bit of fighting strategy to work out how you are going to divvy up the beatdown.
The "haste" ability is pretty badass, though I only used it once. It requires you to have full sand to use. You can clear almost any area of baddies with one use, and the effect looks awesome, but saving up that sand takes a bit of work and can be better used for the freezing of enemies.
Ok, so I haven't talked about the story. Though the game is all about action, the story is still pretty good, though very cliche. You are a prince, who took a dagger, who released some sand, which made a bunch of monsters (out of your buddies), which you must stop, while protecting a girl, which you fall in love with, the end. That's the basics of it. The girl actually fights with you by using her bow and arrows, though her help is EXTREMELY limited. Her dialogue is pretty humorous at times as he apologizes when she hits you with her arrows, or when she asks why you put your sword away in the middle of a fight. The voice acting as a whole was really good, pretty cheesy at times, but good considering the game is action oriented. My only beef with the story is the end, which I won't spoil for you.
Speaking of the end, the boss was lame. VERY lame. Oh, and there is only 1 boss in the entire game by the way. Also VERY lame. It doesn't need Legend of Zelda style bosses, since there aren't "levels" but give us a big baddy once in awhile to keep us interested and to break up the monotony of similar monster after similar monster. Anyway, back to the final boss... with all the emphasis of the game on the dagger, you would think you would need to use it in your battle with the final boss... well... no. I didn't use it once, and I can't see why somebody would. The boss was rediculously easy, took no thought or strategy, and didn't even require the dagger. I was really looking forward to fighting something other than the same monster over and over again... and when I finally got to the boss, he was weak.
Alright. So what do I think of it in the end? It rocks. Jumping around is so amazingly fun. To run along a wall, jump off it to another wall, bounce off that wall to a poll, swing up to a ledge, then jump to a pillar that you shimmy down onto is just pure fun. The fighting is equally as engaging and fun, though new enemies were needed towards the end as it did start getting a little repetitive. My biggest problem with the game is its length. I beat it under 8 hours, and I wasn't trying to go fast or anything. I just played it at a comfortable pace, looked around everywhere, found a lot of secrets, took my time killing guys, and under 8 hours later I am done. I don't think the game is worth $50... not for 8 hours. Most will probably complete it at around 10 hours, which sounds like the general consensus. Even then, an adventure game needs to be way more than 10 hours. It doesn't have to be rediculously long like the Legend of Zelda games or Final Fantasy games, but 10 hours is inexcusable IMO.
Right now though, when you buy PoP, you get Splinter Cell for free, so it may be worth it (though I haven't opened Splinter Cell yet).
Prince of Persia is fun, plain and simple. Ok, not plain, but definately simple. The game is pure action, fairly easy action, but fun action nonetheless. The reason it is so fun is because your Prince has more acrobatic tricks up his sleeve than Robin and Mario combined (odd combination I now). From bouncing back and forth on walls, to swinging from pole to pole, our Prince is one bad ass acrobatic marvel. The key here is that performing such tricks are unbelievably smooth and simple. You won't be fighting the controls here people.
Ok, so he is an acrobatic genious... so what. What about the bad guys? He doesn't just run away does he? Hell no. Take all those acrobatics and hand him a sword and you have one hell of a killing machine. Fighting is just as simple and smooth as the arial tricks. You just point in the direction of the enemy you want to attack, then either press the attack button or the "action" (jump) button. With multiple enemies on the screen, you are going to want to string each attack on each enemy to keep them all at bay while you work them down enough so you can finish them. But wait, there is only 1 attack button? Yup. Don't worry though, through in the jump button and you now can fly over enemies and hit them in the back, or bounce off a nearby wall and lunge at an enemy. There aren't too many different attacks you can pull off, but the way in which you pull them off is very fun. Later on in the game, certain enemies will block or even counter certain attacks, so you have to adjust. It keeps it fairly fresh, though I would have liked to see a bit more variation on the enemies. You do fight some birds later on, but I would have loved different ground enemies.
Ok, so I haven't talked about the dagger yet. Most of you have heard of it or seen it on commercials or in reviews... the dagger that reverses time. Yeah, it is as sweet as everybody says, well almost. The ability to rewind time is not only a fun part of the game, it is a key part of the game. There are a lot of places where you might not know if you can make a certain jump, or if you are supposed to go a certain way... Well, the best way to find out is to just try it. With the dagger, as long as you have sand (which is gathered from defeated monsters), you can rewind up to 10 seconds in case you fall, or get hurt or stuck. Trial and error isn't so bad with that nifty little dagger. My biggest beef is that there are a lot of places that look like you can just jump or drop down, but when you do, you realize you fell too far and die. Sure you can rewind, but it was pretty annoying to see a small little drop kill me.
What else can the dagger do huh? Well, it can slow time, freeze enemies, and it can make you go VERY fast. Slowing time was pretty much worthless. I only used it to see it in action. Fighting enemies is rediculously easy that slowing time on them only makes the fight last longer. I could see maybe a few places where slowing time might help an acrobatic stunt be easier... but in all honesty, I didn't have any trouble there either.
Freezing enemies is pretty cool, and really useful IMO. Basically you can stab ANY enemy (besides the final boss) with your dagger and they will get "stuck" in time. You can then hit them up in the air once and slice them again to finish them. This makes the biggest baddies in the game only 2 hit kills which is pretty substantial when you are fighting a bunch at once. If you get surrounded and can't seem to break through, freeze a couple of the bigger guys, kill the weaker ones, then go back to finish off the frozen guys. It adds a cool bit of fighting strategy to work out how you are going to divvy up the beatdown.
The "haste" ability is pretty badass, though I only used it once. It requires you to have full sand to use. You can clear almost any area of baddies with one use, and the effect looks awesome, but saving up that sand takes a bit of work and can be better used for the freezing of enemies.
Ok, so I haven't talked about the story. Though the game is all about action, the story is still pretty good, though very cliche. You are a prince, who took a dagger, who released some sand, which made a bunch of monsters (out of your buddies), which you must stop, while protecting a girl, which you fall in love with, the end. That's the basics of it. The girl actually fights with you by using her bow and arrows, though her help is EXTREMELY limited. Her dialogue is pretty humorous at times as he apologizes when she hits you with her arrows, or when she asks why you put your sword away in the middle of a fight. The voice acting as a whole was really good, pretty cheesy at times, but good considering the game is action oriented. My only beef with the story is the end, which I won't spoil for you.
Speaking of the end, the boss was lame. VERY lame. Oh, and there is only 1 boss in the entire game by the way. Also VERY lame. It doesn't need Legend of Zelda style bosses, since there aren't "levels" but give us a big baddy once in awhile to keep us interested and to break up the monotony of similar monster after similar monster. Anyway, back to the final boss... with all the emphasis of the game on the dagger, you would think you would need to use it in your battle with the final boss... well... no. I didn't use it once, and I can't see why somebody would. The boss was rediculously easy, took no thought or strategy, and didn't even require the dagger. I was really looking forward to fighting something other than the same monster over and over again... and when I finally got to the boss, he was weak.
Alright. So what do I think of it in the end? It rocks. Jumping around is so amazingly fun. To run along a wall, jump off it to another wall, bounce off that wall to a poll, swing up to a ledge, then jump to a pillar that you shimmy down onto is just pure fun. The fighting is equally as engaging and fun, though new enemies were needed towards the end as it did start getting a little repetitive. My biggest problem with the game is its length. I beat it under 8 hours, and I wasn't trying to go fast or anything. I just played it at a comfortable pace, looked around everywhere, found a lot of secrets, took my time killing guys, and under 8 hours later I am done. I don't think the game is worth $50... not for 8 hours. Most will probably complete it at around 10 hours, which sounds like the general consensus. Even then, an adventure game needs to be way more than 10 hours. It doesn't have to be rediculously long like the Legend of Zelda games or Final Fantasy games, but 10 hours is inexcusable IMO.
Right now though, when you buy PoP, you get Splinter Cell for free, so it may be worth it (though I haven't opened Splinter Cell yet).