Prince of Persia

Whoa! That's all I can say about this game right now. This was better than the sands of time in some ways for example, graphics, enemies, more running on walls etc.

You play as the man with no name but he's called Prince. He is walking in the desert, lost his donkey, when he sees a woman being chased by baddies. He goes and rescues her but then realizes he has stumbled into something dangerous. Ahriman, corrupted leader, has broke free of the spells and his terrifying power unleashes. He has no choice but to help,along with Elika, and save the land of his evil clutches.

This game was a letdown to the series. Not! The only things that are wrong with the game are, the repetitive fights, the rating PG which people though was funny, and you can never die in this game since Elika always saves you.

The frustrating this about POP4 was the orb collecting which made crazy and sometimes i would quit the game because the orbs are so hard to get especially the tricky ones.

Music: 8.5 Game play: 9.0 Story: 8.0 Overall: 9.5(Incredible)

Well not entirely true, the "Two Thrones" game for some reason was released on the Wii, and technically that prince is not in this game. However, the series has reached the newest consoles and I applaud their first effort that is rather good, though part three in the series is still the best one I have played. The story has a new guy lost in the desert searching for his donkey who has all the gold he got from a previous adventure. This character is by no means a prince, rather he is an adventurer who is about to get tangled up in a very difficult ordeal involving a princess. Well he meets a princess being pursued by men and he steps in. Which could be considered a mistake, however this leads him on a quest with the princess to revive lands in a kingdom tainted by a dark god. Once all the lands in this kingdom are healed the dark god who is threatening to escape will be imprisoned securely once more. There is more to it than that, including why the bonds holding this dark god are breaking in the first place, but if you play the game you shall learn yourself. Most of the game is the acrobatics one is used to from the last three games in this series. You do a number of climbs, jumps, and figure puzzles during this quest. The fights, while not many in number though are the highlight as they are very cinematic in nature and really fun when you hit a good combo. Do not worry about dying as I did not die the entire game. The princess sees to it your character stays alive and this may seem to make the game less challenging the thought of doing some of those lands without her make me cringe. You would be seeing a lot of game over screens that is for sure. The characters are good too as the prince is rather funny and has a better personality than the last one. You get to have some rather humorous exchanges between he and the princess. The problems in the game are just enough to make this game score an eight. One, it gets a tad repetitive when you have to go through the same area a couple of times to collect orbs. The ending is obviously setting up a sequel and is kind of irritating as you went through a whole lot to have the prince do what he does. It also just does not feel epic enough in areas as the end credits are a bit disappointing compared to part 1 and 3 from the previous games. There could have been a bit more enemies to fight as well as you kind of have to fight the same ones over and over. Still a good first effort so I hope this one does well enough so I can see how this story continues.

The most unique pop game and with it's cel shaded graphics the game has aged quite well and by far the best looking game in the series, it also has a really nice soundtrack and great environments.

Elika your traveling companion is the heart and soul of this game and she helps the prince alot throughout the entire game, she also stops you from falling which means you can't die in this game but that's really not an issue since it helps the game to flow better without going through a loading screen.

It's a very underrated game in the series and it's a shame that it never got a sequel.

Quicktime events ruin the combat.

The sword combat could feel brilliant and flow with beauty. However, Prince of Persia never lets this happen, as it's interrupted with quicktime events. This was that era. The absolute worst thing of the Seventh Generation: QTE. Quite disappointing. Seriously some of the best swordplay I've experienced in a video game, but the QTE ruins it. Just awful. Sad.

The last level isn't fun.

The variation of perspective and lack of colour for the parkour-ing makes it difficult in an un-fun and un-challenging way. Just annoying. I feel personally insulted when game devs don't respect my time, and don't play-test games enough. Yes, it looks beautiful. Initially. But any game can look dull and uninspiring when you've seen the same stage for the tenth time in the same fifteen minutes.

The levels are too linear.

You can choose where to go, but you really can't take alternate routes to get there. Makes traveling the same areas feel pointless after you collect the spirit things that unlock powers, so it's essential you can teleport to fast-travel. As the paths are so linear the parkour would have benefited from more parts where the route is better defined, which allows for efficient sleekness of uninterrupted gameplay.

...That's really the heart of PoP's problem: in an effort to tell its story, Prince of Persia constantly interrupts itself needlessly. Makes me appreciate something revolutionary that much more, like when The Last of Us showed gamers that story could be told during travel, during breaks in action, without stopping the natural flow of the game. I understand needing to tell the story, but we now know better ways to do this without stopping the player's meaningful interaction completely dead.

Games like Prince of Persia make me angry. It's not just some average game. It's not some forgettable experience. Prince of Persia is a beautiful game with timeless (gameplay) animation and some genuinely enjoyable parkour-style platforming. It's a memorable game. I wouldn't be angered by something notoriously awful like Superman 64. Universally hated, I can watch 10 seconds of gameplay and know that game was a steaming turd. But PoP had so much potential to be a great game. All that held it back were poor decisions. Technological limitations and know-how do not limit Prince of Persia at all. It was simply bad choices. It's incredibly disappointing. I would LOVE a remake that dispenses with the QTE and constant breaks in parkour travel. Fix those things, and you have a great game. Allow the combat to feel continuous. The story should be told in dialogue like it is, but allow it to unfold naturally without interrupting travel.

That's it. Fix these things and you instead have a game that is perfectly-paced and flows with the player, not against her.

I really wanted to love this game. I damn-near did. But I will not be replaying PoP, sadly.

Prince of Persia is remarkable in its animation and some of its gameplay mechanics, but the constant interruption of potential flow ultimately sours the experience.

Visually, this is one of the most refined and mature titles I've ever seen. The art direction, the environments, are just magnificent. Great voice acting and a mildly amusing script also helped. The game has almost no load screens, and in an open world game, it sure is nice. The gameplay mechanics work really fluidly, so getting the Prince around is a breeze. That all being said, this is a very poor installment in the PoP series, for the gameplay is ridiculously redundant, and its puzzle solving elements could be completed by a nine year old. Not that I have anything against nine year olds, it's just that when a game's combat is a rarity I would expect something else to redeem it. Unfortunately, it is not the case here. The platforming is enjoyable for the first few hours, but it gets real old real fast. Also notable, you can figure exactly what will happen the entire length of the game within the first hour of starting it. So, what does PoP offer us ultimately? A beautiful world to explore, compelling banter between the two protagonists, and a very fluid platforming element. On the other hand, the story is laid out in the first 20 minutes, the combat (which is enjoyable) is scarce, and every other facet is so easy I can't fathom how they were targeting anyone over the age of 12 to enjoy this in its entirety. So basically, it fails on PoP's three historical strengths. Play the demo, and leave it at that.