Prince of Persia (2008)
The 3D Prince of Persia reboot was one of the greatest game I'd played in a while, but when it produced two sequels I almost completely ignored them. I meant to get around to trying them, but after hearing that both departed from everything that made the first one great they just got pushed to the back of my list.
A few years after the release of the PlayStation 3 however, Ubisoft announced a newly rebooted take on the Prince of Persia property. Touting a complete redesign that included active cel shaders and some fantastic graphical elements, this new Prince of Persia was a long time coming but I still wasn't sure if it was the game I was waiting for.
It was a while after it's release that I decided to finally pick it up. With cel shaded designs used frequently at the time, to me it felt gimmicky and that alone pushed me to rethink my interest level on this game. BUT for whatever reason, I did eventually pick this up and when I did finally get this game rolling I realised what a terrible mistake I had made.
At first when I was playing this new Prince of Persia I felt like it was lacking. It didn't open up with the quality of character that Sands of Time did and I wasn't necessarily happy with the overall design. All that said, it didn't take long for the entire game to do a 180 in my mind. After the introductory level, once the story really started and the whole world opened up.
This Prince of Persia is unlike most any other platformer. Once you get rolling it's clear that you can not only see from end of the world to the next, but that you can speed run the entire length of it once you've opened it up. There are four major areas of the game, each vastly different in design from each other. Each area featuring recognizable landmarks that are visible from the furthest ends of the landscape.
One of the most fantastic parts of this game is the brilliantly designed landscape. It's absolutely dripping with style that is bound to reality, historical or otherwise. Areas are connected by endlessly deep chasms that you skirt along with acrobatic skill. Flagpoles, outcroppings and buttresses line gorgeous architecture carved out of the rocky landscape and gardens float from huge balloons stitched from various patches of fabric. The entire world consumed by a living darkness which you slowly defeat one boss at a time, bringing colour and life back to the gorgeous land around you.
There really is no other game quite like this. Even other games in the series. I'm quite surprised that since this game's release Ubisoft never made another like it. Instead, they recreated Sands of Time, this time based on the feature film, which was in turn based off of the original Sands of Time game. Kind of like how Silent Hill 5 took lead from Silent Hill the feature film which was based off of Silent Hill 1. Only Sands of time turned out super bland.. Prince of Persia was gorgeous, featured some fantastic characters (which I haven't even had space to get into) and a beautiful soundtrack. It was the perfect fresh new take on the series that sadly never saw a sequel. Anyone who hasn't tried this really should, it's both inexpensive and gorgeous.
The 3D Prince of Persia reboot was one of the greatest game I'd played in a while, but when it produced two sequels I almost completely ignored them. I meant to get around to trying them, but after hearing that both departed from everything that made the first one great they just got pushed to the back of my list. A few years after the release of the PlayStation 3 however, Ubisoft announced a newly rebooted take on the Prince of Persia property. Touting a complete redesign that included active cel shaders and some fantastic graphical elements, this new Prince of Persia was a long time coming but I still wasn't sure if it was the game I was waiting for.
It was a while after it's release that I decided to finally pick it up. With cel shaded designs used frequently at the time, to me it felt gimmicky and that alone pushed me to rethink my interest level on this game. BUT for whatever reason, I did eventually pick this up and when I did finally get this game rolling I realised what a terrible mistake I had made.
At first when I was playing this new Prince of Persia I felt like it was lacking. It didn't open up with the quality of character that Sands of Time did and I wasn't necessarily happy with the overall design. All that said, it didn't take long for the entire game to do a 180 in my mind. After the introductory level, once the story really started and the whole world opened up.
This Prince of Persia is unlike most any other platformer. Once you get rolling it's clear that you can not only see from end of the world to the next, but that you can speed run the entire length of it once you've opened it up. There are four major areas of the game, each vastly different in design from each other. Each area featuring recognizable landmarks that are visible from the furthest ends of the landscape.
One of the most fantastic parts of this game is the brilliantly designed landscape. It's absolutely dripping with style that is bound to reality, historical or otherwise. Areas are connected by endlessly deep chasms that you skirt along with acrobatic skill. Flagpoles, outcroppings and buttresses line gorgeous architecture carved out of the rocky landscape and gardens float from huge balloons stitched from various patches of fabric. The entire world consumed by a living darkness which you slowly defeat one boss at a time, bringing colour and life back to the gorgeous land around you.
There really is no other game quite like this. Even other games in the series. I'm quite surprised that since this game's release Ubisoft never made another like it. Instead, they recreated Sands of Time, this time based on the feature film, which was in turn based off of the original Sands of Time game. Kind of like how Silent Hill 5 took lead from Silent Hill the feature film which was based off of Silent Hill 1. Only Sands of time turned out super bland.. Prince of Persia was gorgeous, featured some fantastic characters (which I haven't even had space to get into) and a beautiful soundtrack. It was the perfect fresh new take on the series that sadly never saw a sequel. Anyone who hasn't tried this really should, it's both inexpensive and gorgeous.
No comments:
Post a Comment