Prince Of Persia [PS3 / 360]

[laruso]

thanks to play.com's early posting and being off work with flu ive got to play this today

for a start the limited Play pre-order box version is lovely, not looked at the bonus DVD yet though, but there are codes to play as the original prince and farah from sands of time. AND if you sign up in game to Ubisofts service you also get unlockable Altaiir skin.

Only played about an hour so far and it has flown by.

playing PS3 version, and the game is beautiful, 1080p silky smooth and really really stunning to look at. the controls are perfect, it seems like they returned to the Sands of time in feel, but have been further simplified. wall running etc are very easy but look impressive as ever.

Nolan North who voiced Drake in Uncharted, has voiced the prince and while some may say its an odd fit, to me its perfection - I really like the quick witted, quips of the prince here. Its a great match of PoP and Uncharted!

the combat has been simplified and works better in practice than i expected in videos, its combo system is like a branching tree - press one of 3 buttons, then press any of them again etc, giving scope for varied attacks. it all looks slick as hell, but isnt that deep (its no DMC) but the game isnt overly combat heavy so far.

yes it is true you cannot die, but again its a brave move that works. mis time a jump and Elika swoops in to save you and puts you back at a previous checkpoint. at least it saves a dying/ game over/ your're sh*t screen and gets you back into the game fast as possible.

ive played a lot of the season's big games now and this one had me instantly grinning from ear to ear and holds it own among them, with more personality than most of them. I hope it sells like it deserves to because this game is top quality.

[Cuber001]

Sounds great. I'm not sold on Resistance 2 and saw IGN's review of this, and now with your impressions, look like i have found myself a Christmas present!

Although i have NEVER played a PoP, do i miss out on anything? And how is it storywise?

[Number45]

The stories aren't connected, so you're fine. Hunt out Sands of Time though (PS2/GCN/Xbox) because it's fantastic.

[laruso]

i loved R2, but the story was a bit (a lot!) generic.

the story is great here (not as generic as R2 but still along the lines of usual videogame "rescue the lands from darkness " fare), i dont want to spoil it though, but the interaction between the prince and elika is brilliant. As is the whole art style. It may turn people off, but in my opinion the illustration look really works and gives the game a unique atmosphere.
if you havent played sands of time, the best way to describe it is as an acrobatic 3d platform game. You can climb, swing, run along, anything including ceilings! generally you have to find your way up some kind of tower by climbing and thats where the appeal is (like the levels in Uncharted if you have played that, but better) the animation is spectacular and the attention to detail is what makes this special - its very very playable and doesnt punish you for making a mistake.

where as sands of time let you rewind time to re-try a section if you messed up, here Elika saves you with her magic. So I guess its an extension of that original idea.

so many nice little touches like if you and Elika are standing on a narrow beam, if you walk past her then he grabs her hands, goes "excuse me!" and sidles past her to make space. other lesser games you would magically pass though the AI character as if it wasnt there.

i guess if you like games which have clearly been a labour of love for the developer, and are super slick but playable then this is for you.

[ShadowDancer]

I'm tempted. SOT was overrated but was a proper attempt at a decent game. The other two were awful, but others seemed to like them. The 2nd one makes me want to vomit thinking about it.

[laruso]

The other two were awful, but others seemed to like them. The 2nd one makes me want to vomit thinking about it.

couldnt agree more! this is definitely a return to form.

[SuperBeatBoy]

I don't know why your all dissing Two Thrones it was a good game. I can understand the hate for the 2nd one, it was a return to form for the third. Shame i never managed to finish it due to a game breaking bug in the pc version.

[Number45]

I hated the second enough not to bother picking up the third.

[ShadowDancer]

The third is better, John is right. I just couldn't get into the series as a whole and I honestly have tried. Its unfair to knock SOT too much, as it really was a great attempt, it just didn't do it for me (I did complete it)

As I've played the series..I have always seen potential, I do fancy this though.

[Btang84]

Is this game really in native 1080p?

I enjoyed Sands of Time, though the reviews and general impressions of the sequels put me off, though I am going to buy this once the price drops.

[laruso]

Is this game really in native 1080p?

back of box says so and it does look the business.

i too didnt play the last game because the second one put me off.

[vkun]

Damn I'm really tempted to get this game but not sure if I want to pay 40GBP for it and go through the hassle of ordering from play.com who still belives Slovenia doesn't exist . Does anyone know if the preorder box is really "preorder" or just a play.com special and will be sold after the release date as well.

[Number45]

I think it's an LE rather than a pre-order incentive. Not sure how limited it is though.

[EvilBoris]

Is this game really in native 1080p?

Nah it won't be, it'll be upscaled.

[Xhorder]

I've been playing this game for the last two days and I'm quite impressed. The art style is fantastic, and the gameplay is also pretty good. It reminds me a bit of Ico and SotC, but not as Japanese in style. The prince is quite a smart ass with his comments, it gives the game a nice touch of humour. I laughed out loud when he kept on trying to play a game with the princess ('starts with an s....').

The world is branched into several areas and you're free to go wherever you want. Still, some of them can only be reached after certain targets have been met. But every area is pretty cool, lot's of acrobatic moves, climbing, jumping etc. The sword fighting is cool as hell. There aren't a lot of enemies, but I'm always happy when I encounter one since the fighting is so nice to do. Lot's of moves during a battle and cool combos.

Within the first two hours I got a lot of achievements already. Maybe a little too much (you actually get one for starting a new game) sometimes. But it's a nice encouragement to continue the game. Now at six hours or so the achievements aren't unlocked as frequent as at the start.

All in all PoP is a very good game... Maybe because I didn't expect anything from it I'm liking it so much. But everyone who liked the old ones should check this one out.