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Here's an underrated gem, Prince of Persia 08

Shin-chan

Member
I loved it at the time but I've never been able to play through it again.

It's a little too automated and easy and the combat is just kind of uninteresting.

I love the PoP series and it would be awesome if Ubisoft would go back to it. They'd undoubtedly shit the bed and turn it into a shitty open world RPG though.
 

Elios83

Member
It was really good.
Gem is a bit too much though because it was really repetitive and unfortunately the story was left unfinished.
 

SURGEdude

Member
Overrated.

The entire point of the game is to literally pick up hundreds of glowing dots.

No way to die, and the "tackle the areas in any order" meant they all had to be easy rather than ramping in difficulty.

The last level involved undoing everything you just spent doing, and the "true" ending is locked behind DLC.

I literally found myself daydreaming whilst playing it. I do the same whilst jogging or doing the washing up. That's what "entertainment" it's on par with.

@ bolded. I'm glad you brought this up because it destroys any chance for a learning curve. The ramping up complexity of the trilogy was one of it's most engaging elements.
 
Loved the characters, artstyle, lore and environment....

Hated the gameplay.

That EDGE preview was so misleading it was my NMS of that era: Fully scalable environments, dynamic combat with collision resistance (which was done by Demon souls), more nuanced storytelling.

And what a pity.. it had all the right elements bogged down by the streamlined approach to the series. Pop dares to take the risk by blending sophisticated mechanics that were hard to grasp at first but we're rewarding to master. Instead, we have a hand-holding platformer with collectibles...

Because Oh! Ubisoft.
 

SURGEdude

Member
Would have been better with either better combat or the combat removed entirely. Still a beautiful looking game to this day.

Bad combat is one of the few things it shares with the trilogy. But somehow they made it even worse than Sands of Time's button mashing shitfest.
 

Hexa

Member
I would just like to add that the mini games started on those colored circular platforms with the running and flying were complete bullshit.
I would also like to add that the few puzzles were pretty cool though. Better than any other PoP game IIRC.

Bad combat is one of the few things it shares with the trilogy. But somehow they made it even worse than Sands of Time's button mashing shitfest.

This. I genuinely didn't think they could make it worse, but they somehow did. >_>
Lost Sands biggest improvement was combat imo. Though I wish they kept the assassination thing from Two Thrones. I think Two Thrones is probably my favorite.
 
I felt the opposite, thought this game was super overrated. Everybody raved about it back in 2008 and I just thought it was so dull, a collect-fest.

Beautiful looking games and I wanted to like it at the time, but just didn't get the hype. Nice resurgence for a series that had been in the dumps,though.

Loved the characters, artstyle, lore and environment....

Hated the gameplay.

That EDGE preview was so misleading it was my NMS of that era: Fully scalable environments, dynamic combat with collision resistance (which was done by Demon souls), more nuanced storytelling.

And what a pity.. it had all the right elements bogged down by the streamlined approach to the series. Pop dares to take the risk by blending sophisticated mechanics that were hard to grasp at first but we're rewarding to master. Instead, we have a hand-holding platformer with collectibles...

Because Oh! Ubisoft.

Yep this is how I felt. Boring gameplay, with tons of collectibles that do nothing, and this lack of a challenge that made it such a mystery why people really liked it to me.
 

TSM

Member
This looked pretty at the time, but boy was it a tedious slog to play through. From what I remember the traversal was a chain of buffered inputs. This disconnected you from your character's movements and led to times when you made a wrong input and had to wait for it to queue up and play out.
 

BiggNife

Member
One of those games that deserves a sequel that it's never going to get.

Rough around the edges but visually gorgeous with some cool ideas. It needed more depth in both the traversal and the combat.
 

RBIYF

Neo Member
I loved this game. It's aesthetic was one of my favorites of all of last gen. I was very disappointed that this game never received the follow-up that it should have.

The visuals, world design and relationship between the two main characters were top notch. Sure, there were criticisms about the combat and lack of death penalty, but both of those criticisms could have easily been addressed in a sequel.
 

vatstep

This poster pulses with an appeal so broad the typical restraints of our societies fall by the wayside.
I was not expecting to see such praise.

I thought it was decent at times, but it got old fast due to the lack of challenge and depth in the mechanics. The boss battles were so monotonous, too – and if I remember correctly you had to defeat each one several times.
 

Garlador

Member
The game was a bit weird with the "saving" mechanism.

But I also thought that was interesting how people said it made the game "too easy". I wish I could find it, but it was a study at the time between Prince of Persia and Mirror's Edge on perceived difficulty.

Prince of Persia - you miss your jump, you fall, it triggers a canned cutscene that lasts a few seconds of Elika reaching out and saving you, and then placing you at the last platform before you attempted the series of jumps.

Mirror's Edge - you miss your jump, you fall, you die, it spends a few seconds loading your last checkpoint, placing you at the last platform before you attempted the jump.

Structurally, they were identical and even the time penalty was almost the same. But because one had a clear "failure" state, and the other just kept going and kept you in the action, one was perceived at times as being rather hard and at times frustrating, while the other was heavily criticized for being too easy, despite the fact the superficial penalties were nearly identical.

It was an interesting look at how we perceive difficulty in games, and how execution can alter the same penalty as either a positive or negative thing for players.
 

KDC720

Member
I actually beat for the first time a couple of months ago. Beautiful and relaxing game with two great leads and some fun if not easy platforming. The combat did get really tedious however, but man that ending will probably stick with me for awhile.
 
I never got that complaint for the same reason. It's literally the same cycle of "failure > reset to spot before failure" that a reload or you died screen would offer, except it stays in-game and reinforces the relationship between the characters

How many games uses that very basic concept of checkpoints and failure for a narrative purpose, rather than just the gameplay usage of a Souls or a roguelike?
Exactly. It's not a good knock against the game, it instead creates a workaround for death being an issue that creates ludonarrative dissonance. Your Prince at the beginning is the same Prince at the end.
 

The Dude

Member
For it being loved here at gaf there's a lot of haters :p no seriously tho, seems like quite a split at the moment.
 

Vidpixel

Member
It's a gorgeous game for sure, and I actually liked the "twist" ending, but yeah, the gameplay literally consisted of collecting hundreds upon hundreds of glowing orbs. This overtly "gamey" design seemed to clash heavily with the beautifully immersive world they were trying to establish.
 

Mechazawa

Member
I'll have to remember to use "rhythm type" as a term if I ever make a platformer with football field sized input windows.
 
I loved it. The way you could keep your momentum going was super fun, plus it had good characters, was beautiful to look at and had a fantastic soundtrack. Great game that deserved more recognition.
 

Wanderer5

Member
If you ask me the DLC ruined the beautiful ending of the base game. I'll pretend that was the reason why a sequel never came, and not that most people didn't like the game.

Heh reminds me of how PC folks got screwed with the DLC, cause them pirates. Was pissed off, but the base ending is better with there being no follow up.
 
Yeah it's a sleeper for sure!

The art direction is incredible at times, the platforming is fun, and the combat was really flashy and fun to play last I remember (even if it did seem kinda quick-time-y).
 

Ventara

Member
I approve of this thread. It had it's flaws, but it was quite the experience, and I'm sad that we'll probably not continue the Prince and Elika's story.
 
Like the game but bosses use all the same mechanic, the way through the level has the same idea behind the traversal in all different worlds/levels. It's a bit samey in many aspects.

I think the standard non dlc, players choice ending was great, maybe just because it was different, that it was not a happy end.
 
Shame about the shallow combat but everything else from the visuals, to the story and music is fucking great. I'm hoping it'll be BC for Xbox One.

tumblr_m7ya71XDYp1qltfj7o1_1280.jpg
 
I didnt like this game. Back when I played it, I used to like chasing 360 achievements, but I this game was so devoid of combat and excitement that I just couldnt be bothered.
It did look very nice though and I did like the two main characters as well. The rest of the game was just too dull.
 
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