Prince Of Persia

[Papercut]

the 'who cares' was a throwaway remark ... it wasn't intended to offend anyone by making out that their opinion is wrong or that they have no right to make any criticism which differs from mine and for the rest of it..........

thats exactly how it reads.

[Shez]

Say it with pictures. More fun

[Brats]

Enjoying the combat is an important part of the game. I can see why somebody might be put of the game if they don't enjoy the combat, even if I think there's more to the combat than a quick half hour play will show.

Having said that, even if you don't like the combat, if you can possibly grin and bear it, the game offers some the most ingenious and delicious highlights for many a year, especially towards the end.

[Crispin]

Yeah, but I'm very particular about my platformers. In the sense that they are:

A) Very good as genres go
B) Don't need mixing with other genres to add variety.

I want to get from A to B. More than enough challenge. Imagine the block levels from SMS with lots of respawning enemies - it wouldn't be fun. Nor was this. I loved Wall running, avoiding spikes and jumping from ledge to ledge. What I didn't like was being attacked by bats on ledge: hitting attack twice, waiting five seconds for the bats to come in again, rinse and repeat for multiple hordes of bats.

Whenever I was in combat, I was always thinking: I wish this was a platform section.

I know why they did it, they wanted to appeal to the masses. Which is a shame for me, but presumably everyone else liked it, so I'm not going to be arrogant enough to call them wusses or something. If you didn't like your platformers, it would get repetitive. But the same could be said of most genres.

[John Beaulieu]

the combat had to be there though .... not to appeal to the masses (though i expect this was a consideration - though from sales its looking as though the masses took no notice) but to stay within the Prince of Persia guidelines.

Now i personally would have preferred one on one sword fighting (like the original PoP) but this doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment of the game to me, it just stops it being the perfect game (surely we want Ubisoft to have something to improve on for the next installment)

[Brats]

I don't think they did it just to appeal to the masses, more because the original games had combat in them.

Funny enough, the combat in the first games was immensely simple (just wait for the opponent to strike, parry and then hit) and yet no-one seemed to mind at the time .

[rjpageuk]

Funny enough, the combat in the first games was immensely simple (just wait for the opponent to strike, parry and then hit) and yet no-one seemed to mind at the time .

Thats because sword fighting in a game had never looked so good or realistic before.

Where as now, we have seen fighting done much much better in many other games.

[Vaipon]

I agree with Camps. One on one combat encounters against more intelligent enemies would of worked perfectly. As it stands, the fighting is incredibly dull and bland. It just seems like a real chore every time you reach an area that's populated. There were many occasions while playing where I had just enjoyed a nice section of puzzles and traps, only to reach a room full of dumb enemies. That sinking feeling...

Ubisoft definitely did it to increase the length of the game imo. I suppose they had to do something. If there was little or no combat, the game would barely be an bigger than ICO. I just wished they had concentrated on duelling, instead of the stupid slash-em-up nonsense.

[macosx!]

I enjoyed the combat eventually, real white knuckle stuff in the use of the re-re wind to stop your mistakes, and when it all flowed together the effect was stunning. Near the end was a bit silly with the amount of repawning again though.

[macosx!]

I enjoyed the combat eventually, real white knuckle stuff in the use of the re-re wind to stop your mistakes, and when it all flowed together the effect was stunning. Near the end was a bit silly with the amount of repawning again though.

[Squirtle]

If you didn't have the combat you wouldn't have the Haste move which is quite simply one of the best special moves in a game ever. Simple as.

I finished the cube version last night, and went straight back and started again. The amazing thing was just quick I could race through those opening sections now knowing how the game moves and controls. I was bouncing off those soldiers, block attacking, wall bouncing and everything and hardly stopping to catch my breath. This game is simply superb.

[macosx!]

I finished the game without ever using the Haste move, what was it?

[PeteJ]

Maybe I was a little bit harsh earlier by saying the combat was the worst since Dino Crisis 3 (maybe ), but I was incredibly frustrated with a great game doing some really silly things.

The greatest problem I had was not feeling entirely in control during combat, which is the exact opposite of the rest of the game. Often a downed enemy would need a good plunging with the dagger, only for the prince to auto-target someone else and freeze them instead. For all the fluid movement and fancy rolls you can do, I feel it is often undone with unfair, repetitive situations.

I agree what was said earlier about the pacing, which is all over the place, especially as quite frankly the length the fights go on for completely takes the piss. I also think it was extremely daft to include bats and birds as enemies, as the prince is completely unsuited to attacking them effectively, again, this destorys the pacing as so much time is spent wildly swinging your sword in hope, not in skill.

I'd much rather the combat was stripped out entirely from the game and more made out of the envrionmental interaction. I was surprised how speed was hardly ever made to be essential however, since many platforms crumbled when the player jumps off, not after a certain amount of time. Perhaps the highlight of the game was the Prison, since the Prince had to keep moving the entire time. The movement or expectations were not difficult, but the pressure was there to keep going the entire time. This provided a far greater rush than the combat ever did, but unfortunately it rarely happend.

All that said, I do feel Pop was a game well-worth playing. The highs far outway the lows, and the story was well crafted right to the end. I do feel the game is greatly overrated, though enjoyable all the same. I'll never return, but I'm glad I finished it still.


Oh, and great post as always concept. I don't entirely agree, but you make some nice points.

[Squirtle]

I finished the game without ever using the Haste move, what was it?

It's mentioned earlier in the thread but it's where you have full power on sand and power tanks, you hold down the right trigger then press the left one and the screen goes all Sepia and you just push in a direction with the B button and the prince just kills anyone in that direction. Repeat and wipe clean all rooms in the blink of an eye. Just brilliant.

[Che Musashi]

The thing that pisses me off about the combat is the placement of it. I went through forever of puzzles to score a new sword. The one in the library. I'm all pumped to go do some more puzzles and 85 magically teleporting zombies appear and kill me.

Some how I manage to survive only to have wasted all my sand trying to survive the melee, so solving the puzzle is a more difficult. It seems they never have water or a save spot when you need it.

I want to finish this game, but sometimes it seems cheap and frustrating with the combat at times.