Poll: Prince of Persia 2008

[Onyx Oblivion]

What were your thoughts on it?

I never understood all the hate for it, personally. The platforming was fun, the graphics were drop dead gorgeous, the soundtrack was as good as ever.

Sure, the overall story was lacking, but I found the characters lighthearted quips fun, with a more somber tone and dialogue where appropriate.

I loved it a little more than I loved the SoT trilogy, honestly. It could be because I'm an absolute sucker for cel shading.

The combat was very combo heavy, and sure, you couldn't "die", but if you did "die" in combat the foe would regen most/all of their health, making it essentially like restarting the fight, and thus punishing you. Especially on the bosses, which had loads of health and were hard to combo sometimes.

And yes, it was QTE heavy, but that's true of a large number of games these days. It's like complaining about pulp in orange juice. Some have it, some don't. Deal.

Light seed collecting gave me reason to explode the beautiful areas that I "fertilized", and wasn't too demanded unless you were going for achievements.

That's my opinion. Let's hear yours.

 

[Irridium]

I actually liked it. And I never really understood the complaint of not being able to die.

So dieing and going through a loading screen back to a checkpoint that might be a long time back is better than starting right where you were saved? I don't get it...

Dieing in games doesn't even really matter that much in games these days anymore. There isn't much punishment for it. Sure you have to replay an area, but thats about it.

And I liked the combat actually. Allowing me to find out all the combo's on my own really helped make the combat feel fresh. I would always try something new in every fight.

Exploring was fun as well. Yeah, overall great game. Didn't like it as much as the trilogy, but its still a fun game.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I really liked SoT, but for whatever reason WW and TT rubbed me the wrong way and I didn't even bother to play past 2 hours of them. The 2008 PoP was okay for a little while, but the gameplay was so monotonous and repetitive that I lost interest in a short period of time. It also didn't help that Nathan Drake was the voice of the Prince.

 

[child of lileth]

I hated it, and it made me never want to try the trilogy. There were way to many bugs and glitches in the game when I played. I was so sick of the jumping thing where the girl has to save you, but she doesn't always react in time to get you, so you just fall anyway, because she has lazy AI. I just can't look past that in a game all about platforming.

Plus, isn't that the game were you have to pay to see the ending as DLC? How is that a good idea?

 

[erbkaiser]

I liked it a lot. Elika-save is a much better way to continue than the annoying quicksave/quickload, or an immersion-breaking reset.
The game could have done with less combat though.
Also I found the voicecasting annoying, the Prince sounded like an American douche... would've preferred any other accent for him.
Still a beautiful and apparently undervalued game.

But when compared to the SoT trilogy, that still wins.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

It also didn't help that Nathan Drake was the voice of the Prince.

His name is Nolan North. And he does EVERYTHING.

Plus, isn't that the game were you have to pay to see the ending as DLC? How is that a good idea?

You pay for a better ending, at least. It does end, though. On a very WTF note.

 

[Latinidiot]

I loved it. only the platforming was a bit too easy. Press A to win, basically. also there were no puzzles. Still, I enjoyed it, only not quite as much as I enjoyed SoT

 

[RyQ_TMC]

I liked it, but certainly not as much as the Sands trilogy. And also less than the original two games. Among PoP games, I would rate it about on par with TT. And the only one worse is PoP3D.

Still, it's not bad. I played through the entire game, and that doesn't happen that often. I tend to ***** instead of praise, so here are my gripes:

Light seed collecting. You say you liked it, but to me, it was like a chore. Running around the rooftops in 'Screed is fun, but collecting light seeds here just wasn't. I blame Prince's awkward movements. He lacked the natural flow that the Prince had in Sands. Or Altair in 'Screed. Or Faith in MEdge.

Combat was much, much worse than in Sands. Awkward moves again, there was no natural flow, no rebounding off walls, none of the acrobatic style of the Sands Prince. Sure, he jumped around, but here, the style was more... animesque, shall I say? In Sands, the Prince's moves were impressive, but they served a purpose. Here, all the acrobatics and light shows seem needless.

Characters were shallow and undeveloped, but it doesn't usually bother me too much. But the enemies... it felt like every enemy was the same guy. Bosses were the only ones to provide any variety, but even they succumbed to the same tactics used 4 times.

As I said, I liked it and finished it happily. But it was not good enough for me to play again.

 

[jamesworkshop]

PoP 2008 was ok but the trilogy was much much better I especially like Warrior within despite not really getting behind the whole edgyness of it but because the SoT just felt too much like disney I constantly expected a magic carpet to turn up at some point.
In terms of gameplay WW just was a more flowing, consistance experience rather than Sot's trapped monster rooms respawning enemies devil may cry style.

 

[Baby Tea]

I really enjoyed it.
I bought it used for 20 bucks, and it was well worth that amount.

The platforming was fun and responsive, and challenging at points (But never to the point of 'I quit'). The combat was fun, and the combos weren't overly complicated. And the 'you can't die' thing was something I wish every platform game had. Let be honest here: Accidentally dropping down a hole near the end of a level, only to start at the last checkpoint (Which may or may not be the beginning of the entire level) is frustrating, and makes me (At least) put games down until I can find my patience again.

This system was like a check point every time your feet were on the ground. I loved it! It kept the game moving with no stupid 'You were killed by a grenade! Watch out for the indicator' style load screens and tips. You never were pulled from the game-play. I wish it was in more games.

My Favourite PoP will always be number 2, though.
And that's Prince of Persia 2, not Warrior within.
Just awesome.

 

[Sonicron]

I really, really liked this game, but it had two central flaws that bugged the hell out of me. Every time I replay it I try to convince myself it's not that bad, but after a few hours the combat makes me scream in frustration, especially after Ubi did such a great job with the combat system in WW. And then there's the fact that the DLC ending was even more of a cliffhanger than the original one, only with any and all lightness of tone removed, and now it seems Ubi decided to throw this storyline off a cliff in favor of milking the SoT setting to death.

 

[yourbeliefs]

It also didn't help that Nathan Drake was the voice of the Prince.

His name is Nolan North. And he does EVERYTHING.

It was incredibly annoying in AC2 (which I played about a week after finishing Uncharted 2) to hear his voice and it just would pull me out of the experience, although the segments he was in didn't do much to stop that from happening in the first place..

 

[Casual Shinji]

My biggest problem with the platforming was that it had no real weight to it compared to the previous games. Where in The Sands of Time you had to hold the button to succesfully execute a wallrun, in PoP 08 all you did was press the button once and the wallrun is done for you. And the platforming was so easy it almost became a QTE on it's own.

The characters where annoying smart asses who seemed to come straight out of a Joss Whedon show and the way they were designed just didn't work for me. The visual design was splendid, but the character design was to Square Enix-y. I guess that's what they were going for, but I hated it.

Now, to be honest I only really liked the first Sands of Time game. Warrior Within was pretty good in the gameplay department, but the characters took a turn for the worst from then on.

 

[Cronqvist]

I played it recently and i quite liked it. The dialog, while not quite fitting the scenery was quite entertaining. But the combat got a bit repetitive as everyone said. Nevertheless the game had quite a good flow, since it doesn't realy penalize you in any way.

In regards to the ending, i sorta realy liked it. His resolve to "F*** that! I'm going to get her back no matter what!" and that they just left it there, sitting, for the player to deal with.

I heard there was that DLC-Pack that retconned the ending. But i haven't played it and i also disapprove of such moves. I liked it how it was.

 

[Jandau]

It was OK-ish, but pathetic compared to the trilogy.

The platforming was still there, but everything else was gone - clever puzzles, solid combat system, interesting characters and plot. It's not so much a bad game as it is a mediocre one, further diminished by the legacy it's trying to follow...

 

[Fightgarr]

I had mixed feelings about it. I thought that it was incredibly pretty and the art style worked well. The overall art direction and monster design was well executed. I thought that the platforming was fun, if just a little bit too simple. I thought the combat was really sticky, though. I liked the idea of only ever dueling enemies, but the combat controls I found unresponsive and the prince would often pause awkwardly after a combo. I also hated the amount of button mashing sequences there were, in particular with The Warrior. Some of them involved breaking out a set of the Rock Band drums, pausing the game, plugging the drums in instead of the controller, unpausing, doing a drum roll, pausing and resuming play. That is button mashing done VERY wrong.

The other thing I disliked was the voice acting (why was Elika's father Persian-sounding but both Elika and the Price where American?) and the characters in general. The Prince strikes me as that cliched protagonist that falls somewhere in the smarmy/sarcastic, selfish seeming man who does the right thing anyway. It's a character that I feel works when it's done really well (e.g. Malcolm Reynolds, Spike Speigel, Han Solo) and is bland and uninteresting if not done very well. Elika strikes me as an cliched, nagging, annoying love-interest tag along character. I hated them both.

Overall I had a good time with the game, but I was really happy when it was finished and I could move on to a different (better) game.

 

[Kyle 2175]

It was ok but the characters were pretty bad and the combat was quite boring.I liked it but not as much as the Sands Of Time trilogy.(except maybe Warrior Within,I never could get into that one).