Prince of Persia 2008 – Final thoughts
Well, I did it (mostly without help): I beat Prince of Persia 2008, aka PoP 4.
I first heard about the game and wasn’t too interested as I hadn’t played any of the PoP games before and didn’t think I was into the Action Adventure genre. Then I heard about the DRM – word was there wasn’t any in the retail copy.
So I bought it to support Ubisoft’s efforts at publishing DRM-free games and was amazed at the production value: The sound, the art, the experience, I didn’t realize what I had been missing from the series.
The things that really stood out for me about this game:
- The art style. I had no idea cell shading could be so gorgeous.
- The level design. The areas where you face off against the alchemist were amazing.
- The “Elika, save me!” ability. This struck me as cheap to start with, but i was impressed after a while at how much this kept the game flowing.
- How intuitive the controls were with an XBox360 controller.
There are some things I’d have to critique though:
SPOILER WARNING!
- Conversations between the price and Elika. When cleansing the Concubine’s tower, the two begin to grow close, but in another general’s area they seem to be really distant, as if the previous time spent together didn’t happen. It’s almost like you were given the freedom to go anywhere you wished, but the storyline expects you to go a particular direction. This was jarring at times.
- Timing for some areas, such as when you’re running from Ahriman and trying to make it to a plate before he drowns you with corruption. The first one and later ones are easy enough, but there is one that even if you’re a little off, you’ll be forced to start over back at the last platform. I had to do that one almost 20 times to get it right. Just one second more leeway and it would have never stood out.
- The ending. Just like the remarks Sean had, the prince did not appear to be devastated enough to make the choice that he ends up making. He really should have been depicted as losing his mind before it happened.
- The timing required for some counter attacks, and how the buttons didn’t relate to the action needed. One example would be your enemy has you pinned to the ground with a sword pushing towards your face. You have your own sword against his and are pushing back. To successfully push him back you’d think maybe using your glove, or maybe the sword button would be needed. Yeah, maybe sometimes, but sometimes it’s the jump button or the Elika button. This could be unintuitive at times.
With all that said, I really enjoyed it and don’t regret being a early buyer at all. I don’t recall having any technical issues and once it was installed, I could put my disc away without any worries it would get messed up. I highly recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of the action adventure genre, and at the current price, even to those that haven’t given it a shot. At it’s current price of $15, you really can’t go wrong.
Tags: NODRM, Prince of Persia, Ubisoft