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PreviousPrince of Persia Hands On
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The problem with trade shows is that while you get to play a lot of games, you don't get to play any of them for long. When it comes to simpler, more familiar titles like LocoRoco 2, this doesn't matter so much. In the case of games like Hula Wii, it's a mercy. But it's a real issue as far as the new Prince of Persia is concerned. It's less familiar than you might think and by no means simple.
So we discovered at this year's Tokyo Game Show, where we played through a half-hour demo led by producer Ben Mattes. After the time was up, we had more questions than answers.
They began to emerge during the game's opening sequence. The visuals are just as pretty as you've seen in the screenshots, but it's ruined the moment the characters open their mouths. Our hero may be wearing a load of scarves but he sounds no more Persian than Jamie Oliver, and would be better off calling himself the Prince of Canadia. His new sidekick, Elika, also sounds like she's from Montreal, though she's dressed like a mail-order bride from Minsk.
There's a bit of business with the prince and Elika and a donkey. The donkey is the only one capable of getting through a dialogue exchange without making a wisecrack. The prince says things like "Whoa". At one point he falls down a chasm, and you think he's going to say, "Oh, crap!", but perhaps that was too edgy, because it turns into, "Oh, cra-aaaaah!" On another occasion there's an allegedly comedic reference to 'Farah', which according to Mattes is "the extent of the connection with the previous Prince of Persia games". Fans may feel that's a shame, and wish for a (sands of) time when the prince was quieter, nobler and didn't say "aboot".
Someone should tell her pedal pushers are well Y2K5, too.
But perhaps it's aboot time we all moved on. Since the new Prince of Persia was announced, Ubisoft has been frank about its intention to take the series in a new direction. From the first moment you pick up the controller, it's clear that's what's happened. Walking around is different; the prince moves more slowly, with a heavier gait. He can pull off huge jumps and impressive acrobatic moves, but the pace is slower here too.
You control the prince using a new system that we're told was designed to be simpler and more intuitive. If you want to do a wall-run, for example, you no longer need to worry about pressing a second button. Just jump at the wall and the prince will run along it automatically - either vertically or horizontally, depending on which angle you made the jump from. Then just press the jump button again to eject from the run.
The Prince and Elika must restore light to the mystical land of MotorStorm.
A bit of confidence is required to jump at a wall and trust the prince will run along it, especially when he doesn't seem to do this the first few tries. It took a little practice to work out how to get the angle right and build up confidence, but not much. There was a problem with one particular ledge where the prince kept dropping down and hanging instead of jumping off. This is the sort of niggly issue that final testing is designed to iron out, however. For the most part we were able to make the prince run, jump, climb posts and swing off poles without much difficulty - though perhaps without quite the same fast-paced fluidity as in the Sands of Time trilogy.
But it's in combat situations where the new Prince of Persia really stands apart. You have one button for sword-slashing and another for using your gauntlet, and you can combine button presses to pull off different kinds of attacks. So it's B to throw your enemy in the air, A to jump up after him and X to slash him to the ground on Xbox 360, for example. Nothing revolutionary there, but the twist is that combat takes place at a much slower pace. It's not just slower than in previous POP titles, but slower than in the vast majority of action games. There are no prizes for fast fingerwork here, as Mattes explains.
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farticusmaximus
20/10/08 @ 10:51
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I like the idea of a slower more considered approach to fights. Button mashing can be fun every once in a while but I prefer the one-on-one do or die fight where skill is the determining factor rather than how much caffeine you have in your system.
Shame about the dialog though. |
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squarejawhero
20/10/08 @ 10:52
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What was wrong with making a more elegant combat system with what they already had?
QTE's are QTE's, not matter how you dress them. A single evade button would suffice. |
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kangarootoo
20/10/08 @ 10:53
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"rather than the aggressive, spastic button-mashing that other combat games sometimes feature"
Did he really say that? Sheesh. |
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daz_john_smith
20/10/08 @ 10:58
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I don't like the sound of just jumping at a wall to 'wall run'. If I'm not mistaken Ninja Gaiden employed a similar system and I found it to be horribly trail & error and random; luckily it wasn't all that necessary in that game, in POP however I imagine it's alot more vital.
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kangarootoo
20/10/08 @ 10:59
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Reading throguh the rest of the article, and taking my comment above in hand, Mattes seems to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder about traditional quick paces fighting games.
I realise that PoP isn't God of War, and neither should it be. However, being different is only good if you provide at least the same level of quality. I worry that change for change's sake has crept in here. I hold judgement for the full review though. |
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groovychainsaw
20/10/08 @ 11:01
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Well, at least they changed that combat... That has always been the worst bit. Whether or not it is better remains to be seen though....
Platforming sounds worrying though - why can't they make it fluid speed-run through a massive tower, like the best bits in the original? Sounds (dare I say it) a bit dumbed down, as if building on the assassin's creed engine left them with some over-simplified platform controls. |
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So they really messed it up basically. It sounds like it is neither fun nor instinctive to play in any way what so ever! Basically, in order to get a cinematic combat system, they have resoirted to the old press X to watch cinematic combat move A, then press Y to see combat move B etc. etc. No real player initiative in the combat at all. Then compund that with the wall runs not working unless you are at the right angle and you just know that the producer simply doesn't seem to understand how to create fun gameplay!
Basically he's taken over the POP franchise without understanding it. |
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"But Prince of Persia will by no means be the first or last videogame to feature rubbishy dialogue"
Look, videogames need creative scriptwriters and creative editors and creative directors, otherwise they will never grow up. Videogames are becoming so popular amongst the great unwashed, that it's embarassing being a 25 year old playing a game about a Tree of fucking Life in front of your parents, girlfriend, friends, whatever. I mean, a game like Animal Crossing is obviously aimed at kids, but it's got enough wit and charm in its dialogue to even make grown-ups smile. For action games that are aimed at teenagers, I often think you'd be better off leaving out story, script and dialogue, which would not only save the developer money, but the gameplayer time. |
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muscleblade
20/10/08 @ 11:12
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Crosses off the very populated "must buy" list and puts it on the equally populated "maybe" list with games like Mirrors Edge.
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Could be brilliant, could also turn out as a complete disaster.
I'm not sure I like the idea of the game actually 'punishing' the player when they choose to explore alternate strategies to the one the developers have in mind. I like to experiment throughout when I play games and the idea of there being a 'right' way with everything else 'wrong' may bring a degree of certainty for the more casual player but falls flat for more experienced gamers who are always looking for chinks in the armour to exploit, ways of finishing battles quickly, ways to exploit the AI etc. It sounds like they're building on the Assassin's Creed template to make something even more casual. |
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BadBoyBonner
20/10/08 @ 11:22
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Hmmmm....reading this made it sound like comparing Exploding Fist from the Spectrum to Tekken on the PS.
While it WAS fun to think at about one move per second years ago - things have moved on to split second - making an action adventure game seemingly frustratingly slow to play sounds like a very high risk move that was implemented to try and open it up to the lowest common denominator. I worry the net result will be a panning by the critics, derision from the old fans ( including me), and the casual gamer it maybe target to capture will ignore en mass. |
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What is it with developers and Quick Time Events? They don't add anything to the game, in fact they ruin the flow of the game. Let us beat the enemy in our own way and then show the stupid cinematic. My high hopes for this game have been diminished after this preview, let's hope Ubisoft pull it together.
And as for Canadian accents and modern language?! Oh dear oh dear... |
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MrDurandPierre
20/10/08 @ 11:27
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I'm a big fan of the series and absolutely adore the visual style of this game, but it sounds like it's going to fall short of its potential quite a bit.
I was aware of the "rubbishy dialogue" and poor voice-acting already, which is where I knew that even at its best it could only be a 9/10 game. I mean RE4 had a crap story and poor dialogue, but it's still a game that I've played to completion 3 times and has held up miraculously well over the years. I figured even though this would be no Shadow of the Colossus, it might still be a near-great game. But the combat does sound worrisome here. I'm all for the slower pace, but it sounds like there's only one right way to get through the combat sequences, which in essence makes them QTEs. That sounds much less fun to me. The platforming still sounds great and visually it looks as amazing as ever, so I'm sure it will still be pretty good. But I'm not getting my hopes up quite yet about it being worthy of a purchase at launch. |
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Triggerhappytel
20/10/08 @ 11:34
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I haven't finished reading this preview yet, but just had to come here and comment on the script. Sounds horrible and pretty much guarantees I won't enjoy whatever the plot is.
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Triggerhappytel
20/10/08 @ 11:43
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Okay, I'm not convinced... first of all, someone should tell this guy that pressing a button at a designated moment to instigate a pre-rendered animation is a Quick Time Event, however you try to dress it up. Other than that, the combat might be a change for the better - it was increasingly focal in the SoT trilogy so a twist and a different pace might be for the best. The platforming sounds dumbed down (how can you get any more simplistic than pressing X to jump and R1 to handle wall-running?!) and the plot and script sounds bloody awful.
To me this sounds like a potentially good game with a shit load of stupid flaws. But of course, we shall keenly wait for the review. |
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From the review it sounds like POP ver 2.0.
POP for dummies. Did you find Sands of Time or Two Thrones too difficult? Did you struggle to work out the puzzles? Were you defeated by enemies that required skill to defeat? Sick of having to learn how to play the game? Don't worry! POP the ADD version is here now. With clear easy to understand accents and nice big flashing buttons. You will have beaten the game in under 6 hours and you can move on to the next title! Hurrah. |
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Seems odd that they've decided to use the same platforming controls as Ninja Gaiden, which always seemed less precise than PoP's system. Not that it mattered, because NG was always about combat, with platforming a bit of an afterthought, kind of the reverse of PoP. Then again, if this game is even slower than Sands of Time, which was already far slower than Ninja Gaiden, maybe the control system will be a little more precise.
Not really liking the sound of how this game is turning out, though. |
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alimokrane
20/10/08 @ 11:46
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Clearly Dear Ellie, you have no idea how the previous prince of persias were like.
1. in the sands of time trilogy, the prince, farah and all other characters had an american accent, I dont see why this is a problem now ? 2. Combat has ALWAYS been slow in Prince of Persia. looking back at the prince of persia series, the combat system in this game is closer to what the games were like before the sands of time trilogy. 3. QTEs: come on, you can bloody turn them off!!! why is this game being critisized for QTEs when games like Heavy Rain with heavy QTEs us, are being praised ? I suggest you go play the sands of time trilogy again.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 20/10/08 @ 12:49
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Triggerhappytel
20/10/08 @ 12:00
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alimokrane - I think the problem with the overall speech here is the scripting and delivery. No-one wants contemporary jokes or language in a game supposedly set about 3000 years ago (except Ubi, apparently), particularly if they are delivered with an abhorrent American accent.
Also, you can turn off the QTE button prompt, but I doubt you'll be able to disable them entirely. You'll still need to press a certain button at a certain time to instigate a certain animation. It takes all the skill out of it. And I think the reason people are more concerned about QTEs here than Heavy Rain is that the PoP series doesn't need them - as proven by the last three games. I didn't like them in Fahrenheit, so for that reason HR is not particularly on my radar. Also, I'm 90% sure Princey was English in TSoT, possibly in the other two as well? Not sure about Farah, but either way their accents were more in-keeping with the period than generic emo US accents. Obviously someone speaking with a Persian accent would be optimum, but Ubi would never do that as the US market wouldn't like it.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 20/10/08 @ 13:01
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"What we want, as a player experience, is sitting back, pressing the buttons more methodically and strategically, and therefore getting sucked into the flow of the game - rather than the aggressive, spastic button-mashing that other combat games sometimes feature."
Can't see what's wrong with that philosphy. Whether it's well implemented remains to be seen. Controls (or user imput) are what limits games the most. Anything that helps to make a game better within the limits enforced by the controls is a plus IMO. |
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"Lets remove all interaction and have scripted cutscenes. Absolute pish. They are hollow and completely pull you out of the "moment".
What was a novel gimmick in the previous generation has no become a tired shortcut for developers today." I really don't see what QTE has to do with this gen versus the previous. Controls for 360 and PS3* haven't changed and that's what QTE is a solution for: The inability of contemporary control schemes to supply the imput required for complex interactions between avatar and the rest of the game world. * Of course PS3 does feature motion sensing but it's too new for most developers to actually do something useful with yet. |
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hiddenranbir
20/10/08 @ 12:23
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When Sands of Time was announced it was an exciting re-imagining because it had been so long.
This second re-imagining isn't coming with that same sense of "Oh I get to play a game I haven't played in yonks" kind of deal. |
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kangarootoo
20/10/08 @ 12:36
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@alimokrane
"Dear Ellie"? Patronising, a little? Bit childish don't you think? "the prince, farah and all other characters had an american accent, I dont see why this is a problem now" The prince character in Sands of Time had an english accent. Can't remember if the Farah character did or not. And everybody complained about the accent of the Prince in every sequel after SoT, so it was a problem back then. "Combat has ALWAYS been slow in Prince of Persia. looking back at the prince of persia series, the combat system in this game is closer to what the games were like before the sands of time trilogy." How are you able to define what "slow" is without having played the game. Ellie has played it (and has obviously played the previous games). Perhaps she should have said "slower", but she probably didn't think splitting hairs like that mattered. Some of the text in the article (Mattes himself says "You can press B and literally wait almost a full second before you need to input the next key" at one point) suggests to me that combat is a LOT slower than in previous versions, so what are you referring to that makes you think otherwise? "QTEs: come on, you can bloody turn them off!!! why is this game being critisized for QTEs when games like Heavy Rain with heavy QTEs us, are being praised ?" Who is praising their use in Heavy Rain? Everything I have read has said good thing about HR, BUT referred to QTEs as an as yet unresolved point of concern. In fact QTEs are the main thing everyone refers to negatively when talking about HR. And turning off the onscreen button prompt is not the same as turning off the QTE itself. This may be a leap of faith, but I'm pretty sure the thing people object to with QTEs is the game mechanic, not the onscreen button symbols used. I am sensing a chip on a shoulder here, but I'm not sure why.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 20/10/08 @ 13:54
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