Poll: Sands of Time < Warrior Within?

[SnowCub]

Ive loved all the Prince of Persia games (even the Amiga one) Ive played, but Id never played Sands of Time until now. I think Id hyped it up a lot from all the praise people give it.

The only thing is, as Im playing through it I can't think of anything the second game doesn't do better than the first. Has anyone else noticed this? Why does Sands of Time get all the praise when Warrior Within was given relatively bad press.

The combat is unbalaced, slow (literally) drawn out and repetative. I loved the story of the second with the whole time travel thing (though Im only half way through SoT's story so I still have hope). Even the platforming seams simple and the environments arent as spectacular.

The only thing i can think of is that at the time people just heard "Oh its emo!" then started venting hate. I quite liked the darker themes and it made for a much more interesting game and the characters actually had... well character.

Sorry for ranting, I guess I just feel let down. What are your feelings on the series. And just out of interest I thought Id add a poll for your favourite PoP game.

Thanks for reading (if you could be bothered) ^^

 

[Baby Tea]

Obviously, the best Prince of Persia game was Prince of Persia 2.
You know, the one where you start by leaping out the window of the throne-room, and leaping on the back of that ship?
That was just so freaking awesome.
And the game just got better.

That, followed by the original Prince of Persia.
I'm not a huge fan of number 4, 5, or 6.
Though 4 and 6 held my interest long enough to finish them.

 

[GundamSentinel]

I loved Sands of Time, never finished Warrior Within (probably the excess of emo and the bad music) but Two Thrones is my favorite. Warrior Within combat, Sands of Time charm and of course the Dark Prince.

I thought the new Prince of Persia wasn't half bad, but not on par with SoT and TTT.

 

[SnowCub]

Well, Sands Of Time has the better plot and (arguably) the better free-running, but Warrior Within has the better combat and pacing.

I think they should both by enjoyed for their strengths, I couldn't say which is better for me. I prefer playing Warrior Within though. Actually, I think I might do that now.

I think the main reason people don't like WW is, sadly, Yahtzee. I don't remember anyone hating it before he said it.

I think it became too 'cool' to hate emo stuff. And everything remotely dark was labled emo. I hate it when Yahtzee makes it popular to dislike stuff, yeah hes funny but hes hardly a fair critic.

 

[tklivory]

I (still) play the PoP trilogy frequently (i love the runny, jumpy bits too much). My favorite to play is Warrior Within, because I just LOVE the combat style and the artistic design. I notice stuff like that, and I still get blown away by the detail and care that was lavished on WW's sets and functionality (nothin' like it, to my mind, until Assasin's Creed 1/2) It's fun to play in the present and try to figure out 'now what did this look like in the past'. Also, you have the present/past dichotomy, and then the prince/shadow warrior difference as well. The different story endings also add a lot to the game, as opposed to Sands of Time and Two Thrones, which pretty much had a linear path to a single ending.

On a side note, I have played multiple platforms of these games, and as near as i can figure out, the XBox and PS2 versions had serious sound bugs. When i play on the Gamecube and PC, i don't notice the rock music all the time, but on Xbox i notice it seems to play incessantly. I'm a soundtrack nut, so i bought the soundtrack for WW. Believe me, the music for that game is as good, if not better, than Sands of Time. It's just that because there's so much more combat, the player notices the rock heavy combat sections. There's rock music in Sands of Time, too, but because there was less combat, the player doesn't seem to notice it too much.

Looking forward to Forgotten Sands, to explain the prince's transformation (hopefully).

 

[MrSpider]

I like Sand of Time and Two Thrones was ok for what I played of it but the only one that made me feel like I was playing an old school game was Warrior Within, particularly the Dahaka sequences. I didn't really pay attention to the out of place Godsmack soundtrack and the change in mood seemed rather logical within the confines of the plot. I think a lot of people were turned off by how drastic the changes were and others lined up behind Jordan Mechner, who was opposed those changes.

 

[Outright Villainy]

They both had their charms really. Sands of time for me, was more fresh and the acrobatics were amazing the first time around. The characterisation was strongest in that game too in my opinion. Warrior within made the combat fun, though there was a bit too much of it, but the highlights for me were the dahakha scenes, tense, brilliant set pieces where the walls come crashing around you as an unstoppable beast snaps at your heels, the screen growing darker as it sucked the life from the air when it got close to you. Fucking. Awesome. And a little terrifying.
Overall, I'd say sands was better, but WW had the standout moments with the chase scenes. The music sucked ass though, God smack are the epitome of generic angry rock. *sigh*
I'd like to hear As the palaces burn in a PoP game though...

 

[Thaius]

Eh. I adored Sands of Time, but I was indifferent about Warrior Within.

 

[quiet_samurai]

Hate to say it, but I liked the Emo one the best. The combat was amazing, and the parts where you wre running from the Dahaka is pretty thrilling.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

I liked Warrior Within especially the Dahaka parts. The reason i didn't like it was the character of the prince he turned from a Arrogant snobby douche to an overly emo twat. The level desinging was a bit annoying..i.e changing the way the traps will kill you by changing the time period. Other than those factors number was good.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

I think the main reason people don't like WW is, sadly, Yahtzee. I don't remember anyone hating it before he said it.

You don't? Maybe you were too young, but trust me, it got highly panned by critics and players alike back then.

A quote that comes to mind is, "SoT was like being part of a wonderful storybook. WW was like being part of a 14 year old goth's diary."

Several game sites had massive write ups with how bothered they were about the change in tone, music, and voice acting. Penny Arcade's classic "I smolder with generic rage" comic was a pretty good barometer for the time. The fact is that SoT was so good because we enjoyed the freerunning and time mechanics, but even moreso because we liked the Prince, and Farrah, and the world that they were a part of. WW broke that, and a lot of folks backlashed at them for it.

I know this is the escapist and it's cool to say that the only reason things are the way they are is because of Yahtzee, but no, not in this case.

- J

 

[tiredinnuendo]

You don't? Maybe you were too young, but trust me, it got highly panned by critics and players alike back then.

A quote that comes to mind is, "SoT was like being part of a wonderful storybook. WW was like being part of a 14 year old goth's diary."

Several game sites had massive write ups with how bothered they were about the change in tone, music, and voice acting. Penny Arcade's classic "I smolder with generic rage" comic was a pretty good barometer for the time.

I know this is the escapist and it's cool to say that the only reason things are the way they are is because of Yahtzee, but no, not in this case.

- J

How odd. Maybe it was because I got it on gamecube back in '04 and all the gamecube mags I read back then gave it really high scores, some higher than they'd given SOT. I don't remember anyone I knew who got it hating it either. In fact, I used to have friends around just to play it, we all enjoyed it so much.

However, come Yahtzees opinion on the game, all of these friends now say they thought it was shite and all the press I hear about it nowadays is negative. Perhaps I'm just reading different things then you are.

May depend on whom we were speaking to as well. You were, by your profile, around 12 when WW came out, and presumably discussing it with other 12 year olds. Whereas I was fully grown. We probably had far different tastes back then, as did our circles of friends.

- J

 

[ZforZissou]

I like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time the best, personally. I had literally never played anything like it. I didn't have any of the hype, I didn't have anyone's words to twist my mind, I saw it at the rental store, played it, bought it, and have been a huge fan of it.

Unfortunately I couldn't get through Warrior Within, and therefore have never played Two Thrones. Something about it just buugged me... I think it was the vast departure from the snobby, arrogant, young prince, and the change of tone, after having just come freshly off the first one, which was much less dark. It was that and that my younger self couldn't get past the Dahaka parts. Even going back now, and trying to play it, the game just freaks me out, and I don't even know why... But I am now determined to get through it, and Two Thrones, because I know that Ubisoft has made a good trilogy here, and I'm going to see it through, dammit!

 

[Rednog]

I like the first 3, but I absolutely hated the new PoP. I thought that the platforming was kind of bland and overly easy. But my biggest reason for hating it was the button mashing events, I'm sorry but button mashing events are stupid and are a gaming relic back from like the mario party days. What is the point of them yea your character is struggling to do something but I don't need to do an action that pretty much damages my keyboard/controller (seriously the pace at which you need to do it on a keyboard could easily break it). And it doesn't just happen once and a while, every other damn mini boss needs to be button mashed to be killed.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

I still like it though, more than Sands Of Time, usually. Not because of the music or the 'dark' attitude though, that annoyed me even at age 12.

And having to continually turn off the TV when that woman was gratuitously showing her arse at the start in case my mother saw it was a pain. Still, the combat was great, and the puzzles were even better, at least to me. it was imaginative too. And then Two Thrones had to go and fuck that all up.

Oh no, even back then, people thought that the gameplay (mostly the combat) improvements were good. It was the total package that was lacking. A story over substance thing. We hated the character and wanted him to shut up and die absolutely every time he said or did anything, and given how much we'd loved the Sands of Time Prince, that level of character assassination is actually kind of impressive in a really screwed up way.

Think of the reactions when Phantom Menace came out. Sure, it had better special effects, better actors (tough to beat Liam Neeson), better fighting choreography... but it also had Jar Jar Binks and Jake Lloyd, and that alone went a long way towards killing the franchise.

- J

 

[benylor]

Never managed to get far with WW, as my disk was defective. TTT was by far my favourite of the three I DID play, however. SoT's combat is just too shallow (Vault -> Slash -> Stab kills 80% of enemies, Block -> Counter-stab kills everything else), but TTT was actually fun. As for the new PoP... I disown it.