Prince of Persia 2008
This game. Just. Ah my gawsh.
I slammed about it a couple of times to those whom listened to it, especially about the controls and the awkward chemistry between Prince (only by name!) and Elika. Despite that...
The game was breathtaking.
First off, let me slam about the controls again. They get awkward at times. It might be because I'm rather adjusted to the trilogy's controls, such with R1 (Ps2-control-wise) being the whole wall acrobatics made it much more easier to control. So probably that initial bias kinda killed the mood for it. It took me a while to get adjusted to the newer one's, especially in terms of platforming and battling. To wall-run and climb, you have to hold a specific direction and hold the jump button, which led to confusion so I kept on jumping off the wall. Luckily, there's never really a game over (which saves a bit of frustration with the game) so there's no real consequence.
Yeah. There's no possible way of dying in this game. As much as it makes the game easier, it's still a good method of keeping you from throwing the controller across the room. And with a wireless controller like the PS3's, I think I may have saved my damage deposit for my dorm room.
Other than that, it's a really simple platforming game. The whole "power plate" concept tries something new for it, but doesn't really add to the platforming. It's basically the only thing you spend a chunk of the game on. Revisiting areas you JUST cleared (i.e. Ubisoft's way of makingthe game longer) so you can collect light seeds and get new powahs(without the price of sanity all that much).
Now, the one thing that took my breath away was the artistic values. I can still listen to the music to this day and be in near tears at the sheer beauty of it all. They really pulled all the stops at the visuals and music of this game. Zur and Chartwood (Chatwood?) make a return--originally they did the composition of the first and third of the SoT trilogy, although, I must admit, that those soundtracks lacked the oomph tpo make it a memorable soundtrack. Even with the capabilities of that time, they could have still made it into something beautiful, like Beyond Good and Evil did at around the same year.
But, thanks to the next gen abilities without pushing it to the max, they pulled all the stops to making it the "1001 Arabian Nights" feel to it, which is the basic premises of the artistic values of this game. The manage to pull the feel from the music with heavy use of woodwinds and strings, with the brass as either a countermelody or the accompaniment. Despite my awesome bias of being a brass musician, I can still say that the strings are incredible in some of the themes and manage to create an epic feel to them at the beginning of the game, but then as the soundtrack progressed, it's clear that woodwinds wear the pants in the relationship.
The artwork is nothing to shake a stick at either. Some of the art is done in a rather impressionistic style, which, if you know me well enough, causes me to squeal like the little fangirl that I am. There's a big play on the contrast in the game, done with the stereotypical "light and dark" motif. So like, land corrupted= muted, gray, black colors and stuff. Land healed= Woah hey! Of course, the use of bright blues during the former makes for some pretty magic effects dealy and I'm getting really tired of trying to explain this. Just...watch some videos or something.
Now, in terms of writing, I will say it right now, that, despite the awkward portrayal of Prince and Elika, it was plain amazing to the point where I want to find the writers of this game and kiss them. The story itself was played out rather well and brought interesting concepts and rather sympathetic villains, despite the fact that it's the fate that they chose for their own selfish(or not) needs which lead them to be mindless servants of a dark God. The main thing about this game is the interaction of both main characters and the clash of their beliefs. On one side, we have the cynical Prince and, on the other side, there is the Princess/Priestess Elika who is determined to save the land and bring back her people. They're often arguments can be heard throughout the game, but there is some chemistry that forms along the side, which leads to the ending that left me somewhat wrought with grief (and I felt so bloody bad for the Prince by the end of the DLC epilogue, despite the predicament being his fault) and basically sets it up for a sequel.
...
Hi, Ubisoft Montreal. Can we get a sequel for this game and not the movie-tie-in thing?
I slammed about it a couple of times to those whom listened to it, especially about the controls and the awkward chemistry between Prince (only by name!) and Elika. Despite that...
The game was breathtaking.
First off, let me slam about the controls again. They get awkward at times. It might be because I'm rather adjusted to the trilogy's controls, such with R1 (Ps2-control-wise) being the whole wall acrobatics made it much more easier to control. So probably that initial bias kinda killed the mood for it. It took me a while to get adjusted to the newer one's, especially in terms of platforming and battling. To wall-run and climb, you have to hold a specific direction and hold the jump button, which led to confusion so I kept on jumping off the wall. Luckily, there's never really a game over (which saves a bit of frustration with the game) so there's no real consequence.
Yeah. There's no possible way of dying in this game. As much as it makes the game easier, it's still a good method of keeping you from throwing the controller across the room. And with a wireless controller like the PS3's, I think I may have saved my damage deposit for my dorm room.
Other than that, it's a really simple platforming game. The whole "power plate" concept tries something new for it, but doesn't really add to the platforming. It's basically the only thing you spend a chunk of the game on. Revisiting areas you JUST cleared (i.e. Ubisoft's way of makingthe game longer) so you can collect light seeds and get new powahs(without the price of sanity all that much).
Now, the one thing that took my breath away was the artistic values. I can still listen to the music to this day and be in near tears at the sheer beauty of it all. They really pulled all the stops at the visuals and music of this game. Zur and Chartwood (Chatwood?) make a return--originally they did the composition of the first and third of the SoT trilogy, although, I must admit, that those soundtracks lacked the oomph tpo make it a memorable soundtrack. Even with the capabilities of that time, they could have still made it into something beautiful, like Beyond Good and Evil did at around the same year.
But, thanks to the next gen abilities without pushing it to the max, they pulled all the stops to making it the "1001 Arabian Nights" feel to it, which is the basic premises of the artistic values of this game. The manage to pull the feel from the music with heavy use of woodwinds and strings, with the brass as either a countermelody or the accompaniment. Despite my awesome bias of being a brass musician, I can still say that the strings are incredible in some of the themes and manage to create an epic feel to them at the beginning of the game, but then as the soundtrack progressed, it's clear that woodwinds wear the pants in the relationship.
The artwork is nothing to shake a stick at either. Some of the art is done in a rather impressionistic style, which, if you know me well enough, causes me to squeal like the little fangirl that I am. There's a big play on the contrast in the game, done with the stereotypical "light and dark" motif. So like, land corrupted= muted, gray, black colors and stuff. Land healed= Woah hey! Of course, the use of bright blues during the former makes for some pretty magic effects dealy and I'm getting really tired of trying to explain this. Just...watch some videos or something.
Now, in terms of writing, I will say it right now, that, despite the awkward portrayal of Prince and Elika, it was plain amazing to the point where I want to find the writers of this game and kiss them. The story itself was played out rather well and brought interesting concepts and rather sympathetic villains, despite the fact that it's the fate that they chose for their own selfish(or not) needs which lead them to be mindless servants of a dark God. The main thing about this game is the interaction of both main characters and the clash of their beliefs. On one side, we have the cynical Prince and, on the other side, there is the Princess/Priestess Elika who is determined to save the land and bring back her people. They're often arguments can be heard throughout the game, but there is some chemistry that forms along the side, which leads to the ending that left me somewhat wrought with grief (and I felt so bloody bad for the Prince by the end of the DLC epilogue, despite the predicament being his fault) and basically sets it up for a sequel.
...
Hi, Ubisoft Montreal. Can we get a sequel for this game and not the movie-tie-in thing?