I actually beat it last week (I just beat "God of War" yesterday, more on
that later).
First things first: I didn't like this game nearly as much as the first.
The first ("Price of Persia: The Sands of Time") was fairly light hearted
and had a much, much stronger narrative. This one wasn't bad: it was just
improved in all the wrong places for me.
Anyway: this game picks up after the first. The Prince, having stolen the
dagger of time and releasing the sands of time is now being chased by a
nasty, unstoppable monster for having screwed with the timeline. So he
decides to travel to the island of time to confront the empress of time and
try to prevent her, in the past, from creating the sands of time.
(Yes... they use the word "time" a LOT.)
There are some really annoying narrative gaps in this. One of the biggest
being that even when in the past (supposedly before the sands are created)
fallen enemies release sands which the prince can collect to use time powers
(although he gets these powers over the course of the game just as in the
first... can't these video game heroes EVER remember what they learned
previously?)
In any case this game has fallen prey to the marketing machine which must
make everything "dark". The Prince, faced with his own death, becomes a
sardonic killing machine. The soundtrack is punctuated (horribly in my
opinion) with heavy metal combat music and the women in the game all have
gravity defying wardrobes (and breasts).
The combat aspects of the game have been tremendously expanded from the
first, but I found this more tedious that anything else. Enemies have more
health and are better able to block attacks (although only superficially so
since each enemy character has a rather limited selection of animations).
Basic "get this grunt" battles can take several minutes and some boss
battles can take 10-20 minutes.
Battle is also much, much bloodier this time around with special moves that
include dismemberment and decapitation in addition the stylized filleting of
the first game. Where the first game brought to mind words like "finesse"
and "grace" in battle this one brings up the ideas of "viciousness" and
"ruthlessness".
Combat is incredibly combo heavy. If you don't learn the combos early
you'll have trouble in the game. One nice feature is that in many areas you
can save some combat time by learning and executing wrestling throws to
fling your enemies from ledges and balconies. The ability to pick up and
use, as a secondary weapon, any weapon dropped by an enemy is a nice touch
as well.
The acrobatic puzzle elements are still there, but are toned down some. The
fortress where the game takes place is traversed several times in two eras
(a generic "past" and "present"). The time switch does provide some variety
in that the areas change (falling to ruin in the present).
In some cases this backtracking is cleverly done but in general it smacks of
tedium. There are also several secret "fun" weapons in the game - but in
most cases these can't be obtained until late in the game and then only with
ridiculously long backtracking into previously explored territory. At least
one of them can only be found during one of the many chase sequences and I
would expect most people to miss it completely (nothing at all distinguishes
it until you pick it up).
Also once you do get a special weapon it exists soley as a secondary weapon.
You can't get another special weapon or a regular weapon without dropping it
(and you can't pick up weapons you've dropped). Since a single push of the
circle button also throws you're secondary weapon I found that I quickly,
but accidentally threw away all those that I found without getting much use
from them. Very frustrating.
Anyway... the acrobatics. There's not much new here but there wasn't much
needed as this was the shining jewel of the first game. We now have the
addition of being able to dagger-slide, Errol Flynn-style, down draperies
and ropes which can extend our already impressive wall-runs.
Most of the acrobatic puzzles are clear but some were extremely frustrating
to simply figure out due to poor camera positioning where it simply didn't
look like certain jumps could be made.
There were also several "chase" sequences where the beast you're running
from finds you and you must run away else he snatch you up. For the most
part these sequences were manageable, but you nearly always needed to
attempt them several times as you learned what was required of you at each
junction.
There were also, late in the game, several sequences that required quick
acrobatics to survive a collapsing environment. One of these in particular
was so long (the prince had to stay in constant motion and complete upwards
of twenty precise acrobatic moves) and difficult that I nearly gave up the
game. It took me nearly and hour to complete this segment which, when done
correctly, took less than two minutes.
The time powers are back and the prince can use the Sands of Time he's
collected to reverse time for up to seven seconds (to recover from a bad
mistake), slow time to a crawl for all but him (this latter power makes even
the most fearsome of regular enemies significantly easier to deal with) and
perform a weird kind of slow-motion berserker attack.
Missing from the first game is the ongoing narration by the prince (which I
missed a lot). Video sequences are just as impressive (as you'd expect them
to be) but (it seemed to me) shorter and with less substance over all. The
voice acting was good, but not great (surprising since they had several
"name" actors doing the work). The writing in general was, I thought, just
a tad bit juvenile (note the imaginative use of the word "time").
As noted the soundtrack of the game was amazingly out of place, but the
general sound effects were very well done. The graphics, as you would
expect from an UBISoft title, were outstanding and slight better than the
first game. This is definitely one of those titles that the PS2 "shouldn't
be able to do" according to some people.
The game has two available endings, the "good" ending only available if you
find all nine of the hidden health upgrades throughout the main game. Both
of these ending however lead directly into the coming third game of the
trilogy.
As you traverse the game you can smash open special chests which unlock
sketches and other production art work. This is nice, but should you miss
any it's TREMENDOUSLY tedious to search the entire fortress again to find
them.
As you might have gathered the game features graphic, but fantasy violence
and definite sexual overtones (although the latter not until the very end).
All told the game took me perhaps 10 hours or so to beat. However as noted
you'll be spending a LOT of that time battling over powered "common" enemies
and retracing your steps.
If you liked the first game but thought "I just wish I could fight more"
then you'll LOVE this game. If you loved the first game then you'll
probably like this one as well but, like me, you'll also be pining for the
prince we once knew.
Jim Davis
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
Get the mailserver that powers this list at
http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=17
Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:164163
Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5
Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5
Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
