radha

User Score
7.0

Presentation - 9.0
Gameplay - 5.0
Value - 2.0

Immersion: This is the most important element of an adventure game, this relates to how successful the game is in capturing the player and making him care for the world in which the game takes place, an immersive game, makes you replay it, lvl up every character, download encyclopedias, read facts, etc. When a game is not immersive is forgettable. Even fighting games can be immersive if you have a characters you relate to, in my reviews I will qualify this although is not in  VGchartz’s final scores.

Intro

This Prince of Persia is a reset of the popular franchise, the old prince and all other characters are gone. Set in a different place and with a new story the new prince tries to make a name for himself.

Story

There are only 6 flashbacks in the game that reveal the plot, and the plot itself is very simple, there is a twist at the end but you’ll figure it out faster than what was intended to. Although all images available of the game reveal a mystical aspect in it, there is really nothing mystical in the story aside from the fact that it’s using real Persian mythology for the story of the Final Boss, but since the games never set things up to let you know that, very few people will care or even notice it. Persia has a lot, and I MEAN A LOT of mythology from which enemy design could have been based off, but there are only 6 enemies in the entire game, they repeat themselves over and over again. Level’s art design looks good and is integrated to the story very well.

Characters

The new prince of Persia tries to connect the player with the new cast by using a chat on demand system, you press R1 and your partner starts talking to you, but this is just a copy of MGS's CODEC system, in fact the game stops when you are talking to your partner, which makes talking less encouraging, specially since the dialog is not as meaningful as Otacon’s tips in MGS.

If you look at an image like the one below, what's  your impression  of the prince? What kind of personality you think he has?

I thought he was mysterious and mystical, look at the gauntlet, I was hoping it had something do with the story since it looks cool.  Well the prince is not mysterious, his personality is close to Dante from DMC1 and he is often hitting on his female companion. The gauntlet ? Nothing, you never figure out why he has it, in fact the game doesn’t reveals anything about the new prince, just that he is very cocky and annoying.

Your female ally, Elika, is really the star of the game, and the only one that is revealed to be a prince, princess in her case, the plot revolves around her and she is responsible for all the spells and the only character development in the game.

Presentation

This is where the game shines, everyone that like this game will bring up this aspect of the game first and most of the players that don’t like this game will agree that this game looks beautiful, the art style is great. The voice acting is not good, but mainly because the prince is annoying.

To where the game fails the most is that it tried to achieve the atmospheric feeling that Shadow of the Colossus has, that feeling of been alone in a sacred mystical vast land, but this game fails, instead it feels boring and empty, why you ask? Because although you have a very agile character that can run on walls and all, you cant go wherever you want,  there are several set linear path, and you have a specific way to get from point A to point B, if you try anything else Elika will put you back at the beginning of that run, there is no real freedom. Another problem that doesn’t let that feeling come through is the fact that Elika keeps telling you people use to live in this place, but there are no houses, or at least places where someone could live.

In the First prince of Persia obstacles were part of a crumbling castle, and some security mechanism, so there was a reason for a pit or a pole to be there. In this prince of Persia you are suppose to believe people use to live among deadly pits and needed to jump from one pole to another just to buy groceries.

Last but not least, the game is full of bugs and glitches.

Gameplay

Here is where the game hits rock bottom for me. In sands of time you press R1 to run on the walls, in this prince of persia is automatic, no need to press any button. In SoT you got a small glimpse of which way to go whenever you touched a saving spot, in this prince of persia there are marks on the wall to guide you and Elika can send a ray of light ahead to show you the way. In sands of time you could rewind time to get a second chance if you die but only if you have enough sand in your dagger, well in this one is automatic and infinite, you never die.  Double jump on wall? Automatic, there is also a double jump that you need to call Elika to do it, but if you fail, she automatically puts you back in the platform you where before jumping.

 Yes the game is way too easy and what’s funny is that there is a trophy for finishing the game in less than 12 hours, I guess you are suppose to get this on you second play through but on my first play through i finished the game in 9 hours.

There is a combo system but you never die and you can defeat every enemy by countering his attacks, and using the same combo over and over again.

There are 4 bosses that you will fight 6 times each, no strategy is needed for 3 of them and all fights are the same. There is an occasional mob that appears once in a while, but he dies very fast and can be killed before he appears.

In this prince of Persia you can even get from one place to another by just pressing the jump button, not even the analogs are needed. The game feels very repetitive. The fact that you never upgrade the princes in any way is also depressing, and Elika the one that does evolve has only 4 magic’s, 2 do the same thing and all work only to go from one place to another(for flaying to a previously unreachable place ), and none add to the gameplay.

Value

After you finish this game you can, collect light balls. What for? To buy new armor of course... oh wait there is no armor in this game.... to buy potions then? No, no potions, then why would I want to get these light balls? Beats me, I have no idea. You are supposed to be able to unlock or buy skins, and i want to know why would I do that?

Overall

This game is either hated or loved by people, I preorder it and I want my money back. This game could have been a rental, and in 2 days I could have gotten everything I could have wanted from this game.  No replay value, too easy, and the graphics are hindered by some important bugs (sometimes the floor doesn’t load, yes the floor and if you step on it you die).

Why is this game a prince of Persia game? The prince doesn’t look Persian, he talks as if he is from New York, he even uses modern phrases. If you show this game to some one and don’t tell him the title off the game, he can play this game from beginning to end without never finding out this is a prince of Persia game, or even Persian related in any way.

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IMMERSION: 3 out of 10