GC 2008: Prince of Persia gameplay run, jump, and climb-through
by Randy Nelson 
{ Aug 20th 2008 at 8:30PM }
In it, you'll see the tweaks made to the series' platforming style, the ways in which the Prince's partner, Elika, aids him, and the strategic combat system used during battles with zone bosses. Oh, and did we mention it's drop-dead gorgeous? It doesn't hurt that it's already playing great, either.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Red Leader @ Aug 20th 2008 8:43PM
Sorry guys, I just can't get past the whole, two people performing acrobatics to leap across long distances and all the other fancy moves their pulling off. It reminds me of watching some trapeze artist at a circus, and I dunno about you, but that doesn't really scream to me, "Hey, that would make a fun game!"
eipxen @ Aug 20th 2008 9:19PM
It becomes kind of like an environmental puzzle game later on; as you play more it's not as much about pretty animations as it is about figuring out how to navigate all the traps and jumps and stuff (at least I think so, anyway)
I wasn't sure if I'd like that style of game before I played it, but before I knew it I blew straight through sands of time and just wanted more
I'm assuming you haven't played PoP before, btw; if you have, sorry for stating the obvious
Red Leader @ Aug 21st 2008 10:03PM
Yeah, I played all three PoP games, and thought they were all pretty good. What you're describing is precisely what I don't want. They aren't really evolving, they're just providing a distraction to make you forget that it's the same game but with slightly fancier moves.
Top Cat @ Aug 20th 2008 8:46PM
hmm, maybe its just the video (or me for that matter) but some of the gameplay doesn't seem as fluid as it could be.
Of course, it's not like the disastrous "standards" of MK vs DC but the change over between the animations seems easy to point out and that breaks up the flow.
Altairio @ Aug 20th 2008 8:47PM
Looks quite good. The weird teleport catch in mid air thing they do does look a little odd though.
syrik zero @ Aug 20th 2008 8:49PM
+1 for awesome Avatar
Solid Chief @ Aug 20th 2008 9:55PM
Its like that koolaid guy...You guys can say anything and itll get voted up =]
Solid Chief @ Aug 20th 2008 9:56PM
Its like that koolaid guy...You guys can say anything and itll get voted up =]
xGeneral DEATHx @ Aug 21st 2008 7:56AM
Its like that koolaid guy...You guys can say anything and itll get voted up =]
Mr.ESC @ Aug 21st 2008 11:48AM
Its like that koolaid guy...You guys can say anything and itll get voted up =]
Ihavepants @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:36AM
Its like that koolaid guy...You guys can say anything and itll get voted up =]
syrik zero @ Aug 20th 2008 8:49PM
Yeah... They should focus on Assassin's Creed 2 =D
Mr.ESC @ Aug 21st 2008 11:55AM
Dear God no.
You know I don't understand Ubi they already have the formula for an awesome POP game and the AC engine so everyone knows the logical step forward is POP using AC engine but instead they do this Cell shaded thing.
Now I have to admit that when I heard about this anime POP I freaked out, anime is overrated and their fans are well not the smartest persons on earth (See anticrawl for example) but I must say that this trailer was actually pretty good and while the Cell shaded makes the Prince look more like Dante from Devil may cry the rest looks quite good now that the only thing I dislike was the one liners, what the frak prince?
Now that I could be wrong but they could be using Naruto Rise of a ninja engine for this game which was good but not as good as the AC engine.
Obie @ Aug 20th 2008 9:01PM
If the chick can teleport and carry you, why doesn't she teleport you to the end of the level right away? ;)
Tango Charlie @ Aug 20th 2008 9:29PM
Amen. Why does she need to do all the leaping and climbing?
Also, the warp thingies seem arbitrary.
ALSO also, the dialogue (particularly the prince's) is awful. "Why do we have to head TOWARDS the bad guys"... really? Seriously?
But man, it sure is pretty.
Bill Pullman @ Aug 21st 2008 2:57PM
exactly! she's following you the whole time, until you need her for an extra-long jump, and then she magically catches up to you and helps you across? that looks ridiculous. i'm sure they'll explain it away too, like they do with everything: "oh, she can do that, but only under such-and-such conditions, so that's why you can't do it all the time". that pretty much ruined the flow for me.
David @ Aug 20th 2008 9:14PM
The combat system seems a bit weak, to be honest. Especially after the wonderful fighting in PoP2 and 3.
nawid @ Aug 20th 2008 9:24PM
@syrik zero
Are you high? This looks way better than Assasins Creed. The only flaw is bad voice acting. Why does the prince sound like Drake from Uncharted? Why couldn't they use someone who didn't sound so caucasian?
RankHypocrisy @ Aug 21st 2008 9:32AM
Hey genius, Persians ARE Caucasians.
Rob Accomando @ Aug 20th 2008 9:28PM
definitely cool. But the person behind you is a little distracting.
Grizzly @ Aug 20th 2008 9:39PM
Did the visuals remind anyone of ICO? the black sludge enemies and the way he caught the girl?
Truffled @ Aug 22nd 2008 2:14PM
I agree. That is the first thing I thought of. You got this girl in tow, who you have to have with you so she can use the glowing red dots and so she can use her "magic" that you don't have. The sludge did remind me of the shadows from ICO, but it also reminds me of the enemies from a PS1 game called Heart of Darkness.
finnith @ Aug 20th 2008 9:39PM
Looks like a really solid and gorgeous looking game...except for the terrible voice acting of course.
Grizzly @ Aug 20th 2008 9:43PM
Agree with voice acting being annoying – would pull me out of it if he makes "quips" every 20 seconds.
The combat is very basic looking.
Is Elika co-op controllable?
Bise @ Aug 20th 2008 9:57PM
The voice acting sucks, i know it's a new prince and all, but it's just cheesy, you can't even pretend he's a persian prince. And his running animation looks like a japanese rpg, what happened to tilting your body when turning?
Don't get me wrong i love PoP series, but this just looked odd.
rhooke @ Aug 20th 2008 9:48PM
@nawid
i agree. he sounds like Prince of Ohio. Heaven forbid they give him a middle-eastern accent, but at least the standard fantasy British accent would be better than what they've got now.
Nightvortez @ Aug 20th 2008 9:52PM
Rawr that's the same level as E3, the platforming looks amazing, but the prince shouldn't be making cliche wise cracks, just completely makes his character into a douche.
Trance Addix @ Aug 20th 2008 10:38PM
Gameplay looks awesome :).
NBShermanator @ Aug 20th 2008 11:54PM
from the looks of things i liked the last generation's series better. It feels like they focused too much on how they could make this Prince even cooler and lost a lot of the quality of the game in the process.
If you can jump up off of any wall and slide down any vertical surface, how the hell can you fall? It seems like they completely n00bed the platforming
Abscissa @ Aug 21st 2008 1:01AM
It looks good, but a few problems:
- When did the Price become such an enormous whiner?
- When did he start stating the obvious? ("I'll pull you up!")
- The voicework and dialog are TERRIBLE! I'd rather they just shut up and spoke in text, or just didn't talk at all. No dialog and voicework is better than bad dialog and voicework. If you can't do it right, don't do it at all.
- "Gaseous darkness" is becoming quite a gaming cliche. The sand monsters in Sands of Time were far for interesting and original.
- The red-wall-teleporter-pads look straight out of Sonic Adventure 1. They were basically just useless out-of-place filler in that game (and I liked that game), and they don't appear to be any better here.
- I liked "Cellda", but I'm still not sold on it in here. It looks fine during gameplay, but during cutscenes (thank god those appear to be very short, btw) they just look really awkward.
Ken Seang @ Aug 21st 2008 1:18AM
"Behind every great man there's a great women" this quote fits this trailer perfectly...
Easo @ Aug 21st 2008 10:19AM
But that great woman should be your companion, not your babysitter.
I have to wonder though, if she can do everything you can do and more, why isn't she the main character? Why is the Prince even in the game?
modified @ Aug 21st 2008 1:28AM
Ubisoft is getting my money for this one. I rarely buy games without multiplayer too.
MyPackage @ Aug 21st 2008 3:24AM
I'm diggin the graphics and the visual style but I agree with everyone else, that the voice acting sucks. It seems strange that with every POP game since Sands of Time the voice acting has gotten worse. The voice acting in Sands of Time was pretty damn good, especially the prince, and it's only gone down hill from there. Also half the sound effects sound like they we're taken out of Final Fantasy.
Zorink @ Aug 21st 2008 3:34AM
So she can renew guardian saplings without a celestial brush?
Questworld @ Aug 21st 2008 4:01AM
I'm having some reservations with the whole jump/teleportation mechanic. And yes, the voice acting does sound quite modern. Still, I'm actually interested in this game. I never cared for the last trilogy because I just didn't care for the design of the Prince. The costume in this game however is so much more intriguing.
Questworld @ Aug 21st 2008 4:25AM
I think this PoP is more sci-fi/fantasy now than the original. With that in mind I think I like this better. Might even see fantasy vehicles too. It's a little confusing where to climb though.
phildrip @ Aug 21st 2008 5:44AM
'Why do we always have to go _towards_ the bad guys?'
A little piece of me died when hearing that line. Cheesy isn't the word.
icurafu @ Aug 21st 2008 9:18AM
It's like Disney style voice acting and really cartoon-style movements. This is just a cash-cow nothing at all like the original gritty PoP with blood spikes.
ratm @ Aug 21st 2008 10:12AM
Looks like the dialogue was written by the same guy who wrote dialogue for Resident Evil series.
Jim @ Aug 21st 2008 11:15AM
the gameplay looks pretty solid. the prince's voice actor is just horrible and ultra cheasing. besides looking a bit slower paced than i was expecting it all looks pretty good, love the new art style.
Booxatron @ Aug 21st 2008 12:05PM
He's cheesing his balls off, dude.
The Purveyor of Justice @ Aug 21st 2008 12:32PM
Hmm....they are trying way to hard to reproduce the excellent humor of the sands of time, and failing miserably.
The prince's voice is way out of character; doesn't fit the prince at all.
Cheesy (not funny) dialog.
At least the gameplay looked interesting; some cool platforming.
Ditch the voice actor, and get someone who actually sounds believable. OH! and fire the writer too, he writes crappy lines....crappy.
Red Leader @ Aug 21st 2008 10:05PM
Oh my god, it's Windwaker all over again! They're going to damage the good name of PoP, I just know it.
MedHead @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:50AM
I was interested in this game when I first saw screenshots. After hearing about the new jumping options, I started to lose interest. After seeing this video, I've stopped wanting to buy the game.
Brent @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:34AM
So the black goo balls appear to just be reskins of the wall/floor saws from the sands of time trilogy.
The Prince sounds like a poor imitation of Ron Livingston.
Does any one know how they'll handle missing a jump and dieing without the sands to rewind? Will she teleport you back automatically or something? Or will you just die?
The original screenshots/art concepts seemed impressive, but in the actual gameplay footage, the prince looks less artistic/stylized and more cartoony, and the 3d environment doesn't appear to have the same stylized look as the characters. It feels more like an environment from the warrior within with a 2d-ish prince running around them.
I'm not overly excited for this game anymore, but I'll wait to play it firsthand before giving up on it.
nik3daz @ Sep 1st 2008 3:10AM
Yeah, there's a teleport mechanic instead of the 'You're dead, deal with it' screen but it pretty much does the same thing; takes you back to a checkpoint. Apparently it's to help the game 'flow'.
Combat might be okay, the video seemed to invest too much in the block button and the battle was a little too short.
I'm not sold on the Coop jump idea but it seems like a short distance thing so I spose if there's a decent and reasonable explanation, I'll stomach it...
All in all, still looks to be a worthy game but yeah, mute the voices in sound options and we're good to go.
Oh yeah, and this does feel a bit Okami with the black fog and violent plant growth but the plants aren't as vibrant.