Official Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Series) Thread
I noticed no official PoP thread existed so I now begin one.
I really like the first game, The Sands of Time. I entirely skipped the second game, The Warrior Within, since Ubisoft -- marketing, most likely -- decided to completely change what I liked about that first game (fighting emphasized instead of environmental puzzles, heavy metal instead of classically-inspired "Arabian" tunes, prince with swearing and a bad attitude instead of a witty, royal demeanor).
For a change, a press release was accurate: Ubisoft claimed The Two Thrones, the third game in the series, combined the best of the past two. After finishing this game within two days, I can confirm that this is entirely accurate! The environmental puzzles are back and as good as ever, the fighting is much more fun this time (including stealth kills, so you can skip melee combat much of the time), the prince is his old, charming self, and the music, while returning to its Eastern-inspired roots, belts out some symphonic, rocking tunes quite often. Indeed, Ubisoft Montreal was allowed to use a full symphonic orchestra to record the soundtrack for this game, and it shows!
I bought the game on launch, and after playing the game marathon-style (I like the series that much.) I finished the game around 10:00 P.M. on December 3rd. And if you want to get technical, I didn't start playing it until around midnight (00:00) on December 2nd, so yes, the game can be completed in two days.
Regardless, though that might seem a short amount of time, it was so enjoyable I couldn't help myself! Playing at a more leisurely pace, I'd say that the game would take a casual player between seven and ten days to complete.
The game is not perfect though. The balance of save points is weird, often with no save point for a long time followed by two save points close together. This is further hampered by the fact that the save point in this installment is a water fountain that fits in very well with the surrounding architecture, so you may accidentally bypass the save without ever realizing it.
There are some areas where it is incredibly unintuitive where to go next or what to do. The only way to figure it out is to keep trying until you die and then keep coming back to the area until you stumble upon how to progress. Frustrating, but thankfully infrequent.
My last quip is that there are a few bugs in the game, some of which are severe. Most people will probably never notice them, but I found I could get past some puzzles in an alternative way which was unplanned by the level designers. I'd say this is a good bug.
The problem is the game freezing bugs. I only encountered two of them, the second at the beginning of my second play-through, but thankfully both of them occured shortly after a save point. If I had played for ninety minutes and then encountered one without having been able to save first, I would have been mighty angry!
The first one I found was towards the end of the game. I obviously don't want to reveal too much, so I'll keep this vague enough so that only fellow players know of where I am talking.
There is a switch puzzle with three platforms that can be raised up and down in the gardens area. Do not go into the far corner (farthest from where you enter the room) and press the "alternative camera view" button or else it will freeze the game and emit a buzzing sound.
The second bug was found at the beginning of the game. After getting the initial dagger, I entered the code for an unlockable weapon. Then I ended up dying. After restarting and getting the dagger again, I try the weapon code but without results. Frustrated, I go to the menu to quit the game, and then select yes to quit. The game froze, no sound.
Forgive the tangent, but I felt my fellow game players should be made aware of the above bugs.
The current Prince of Persia series is the best game series resurrection I can think of from our modern times. Everything with these games came together seamlessly.
What are your thoughts on the series as a whole and the games individually? Will these games be remembered fondly five, ten, or more years from now, or will they be forgotten, swept away by the sands of time?
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