No co-op in new Prince of Persia

By Ellie Gibson Published 29 May, 2008

Despite debut of lovely sidekick.

Prince of Persia producer Ben Mattes has confirmed to Eurogamer the game won't feature a co-op mode - despite the fact he'll have a sidekick.

As announced yesterday, new character Elika will help the Prince perform acrobatic stunts, fight enemies and explore environments. Useful in single player, but will you be able to bring in a friend to take on Elika's role?

"No, is the short answer," Mattes told Eurogamer. "The longer answer is it's impossible to capture the flow of the two characters' interaction between human players."

Elika's AI is extremely complex, apparently, and an important foundation of the game. "You could not choreograph that type of movement if two people playing the game were fighting over what to do," observed Mattes. "So no."

Prince of Persia, as it's simply titled, is out on 360, PS3, PC and DS in time for Christmas. Expect a full interview with Mattes soon.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 4 years ago

    Fair enough, I would've thought it'd be a single-player experience anyway. no need to shoehorn in co-op just because it's in fashion just now.

  • Gremo #2 4 years ago

    prine prince of persia as a single person game anyway

  • Tuffty #3 4 years ago

    I too am not fussed, but how many reviews will decide to highlight this as a negative point when the reviews start rolling in anyway?

  • hiddenranbir #4 4 years ago

    Give me the freedom to kill her if I so wish it. Let's see her AI complex itself out of that.
    Edited by 1 at 29/05/08 @ 14:01

  • MrXBob #5 4 years ago

    @hiddenranbir:

    That would be very easy actually. Just code her to block everything you do - which would be incredibly effective since it just takes whatever button you press and counters it with the specific block instantly. So you could attack her all you like and she'd react accordingly.

    Of course killing her would be stupid, she's an integral part of the game.

  • penhalion #6 4 years ago

    well one fear removed at least. Still not sold on the AI thing though. Computer AI is not as good as a real human so to say

    "The longer answer is it's impossible to capture the flow of the two characters' interaction between human players."

    is quite frankly utter nonsense. The atmostphere is increased dramatically if you have to actually tell your friend to run behind a monster for the old shake and bake manouver or set up a double pile driver etc. etc. I guarantee that the only way the AI character will do these special moves if after you weaken the enemy and then have to do some kind of set finisher move. I can almost smell the quicktime!

  • YourMessageHere #7 4 years ago

    God forbid that you have to make a game where the player decides how they want to play the game. No, the "this is how to have fun, take it or leave it" approach is clearly a much better idea.

  • Freek #8 4 years ago

    It's a single player game, the series has always been that. Other characters have been involved before, same as in other games.
    That doesn't mean it suddenly has to be co-op.

    Thinking multiplayer must be included in everything is the cause of much wasted development resources into features that often end up being half assed and not really played anway. It's a plague particularly infectiouse to the FPS genre.

  • penhalion #9 4 years ago

    @freek

    No-one is saying make it multiplayer! We are saying if you force us to go through the game with an AI buddy, then at least give us the optionof having a human play the part of the buddy. No matter how much faith you may have in the Ubisoft team, we all know that computer AI (non military that is) is not a patch on a real human. That being a given, the AI will need to telegraph it's moves to the player and rely on set pieces to do special moves. It's simply not going to be possible to yell to the AI "Go behind him so that I can distract him and you hit him with the exploding jars". Instead it's going to be the AI telling YOU the human player that you need to hit him in spot X to damage him or yelling that you need to run away because you don't yet have weapon Y to harm him etc. etc.

    In short, in order to keep the interaction between the player and the AI consistent, they will need to have the AI lead you by the nose! Suggesting where to go, pointing out puzzle solutions where you need the AI to do something etc. etc.

  • Daikon #10 4 years ago

    The least they can do is set things up so that players can choose which of the two characters they want to play as...

  • Mudo #11 4 years ago

    :DFawkes:

    Bloody videogame fashions.