I’ll admit that I’m surprised to see that one of my most anticipated games of the year, Prince of Persia, isn’t really selling that well. Oh, sure, it’s not selling badly per say. But it’s not moving the numbers expected of an Ubisoft flagship title around Christmas. Especially considering that it’s from a series of celebrated and favored games (where even the emo-whiny Warrior Within was, underneath it’s over-marketed bullcrap, an outstanding game from a playstyle perspective).

The one thing I’ve always liked about Ubisoft is that they aren’t afraid to screw with an established formula. Sometimes they expand upon it in small ways (as in the first few Splinter Cell titles), and sometimes they make games that are just good games – critics be damned. Beyond Good and Evil was one of these titles, if only anyone had ever played it. Other times they try something that only sort of works, as with Assassin’s Creed, and what they end up with is a very different experience that doesn’t quite fit the cookie-cutter expectations of their target audience.

Creed was by no means perfect, but it certainly didn’t deserve the hate and vitriol that the gaming community thrust upon it. People saw the promo and wanted “Prince of Persia in Jerusalem” because, for all of the community’s wailing about being given the “same old game” every year, that’s essentially what sells. Just as EA, who pumped out sequal turds until their pockets were bursting with money and are now taking a hit at the register because they finally have some unique and interesting IPs in their lineup. But what Assassin’s Creed at least tried to do was to create a new genre of game play. And yes, travel was a bit tedius, and the sword play could have actually used more Prince of Persia. But when Ubisoft got hammered with scores like in the 5-6 out of 10 range, I was admittedly baffled. Compare that with the 9.5 and 10 scores gifted to Grand Theft Auto IV which, while a very good game, is really just Grand Theft Auto III with a major graphical facelift and a more compelling main character.

What really surprised me about the new Prince of Persia is the character development, and the sheer volume of dialogue in the game. Occsaionally the Prince’s quips do get annoying, as with any gaming character. But the purely “optional” dialogue sequecnes between the Prince and Elikah are actually wonderfully done, recorded believably, and add an entirely new dimension to the game that one might dare to call “character development”. Maybe it’s a sad thing that non-cringeworthy voice acting and interesting characters are worth pointing out as an exception in a game – though they’re often the rule and not the exception for Ubisoft (yes, yes, Warrior Within, I know), and that deserves recognition. And that development is not unique to the Prince of Persia franchise. The afore-mentioned Beyond Good and Evil was filled with compelling, interesting protagonists. And hell, Sam Fisher and Irving Lambert feel more like “real” people than most television and movie characters.

One of the principle complains I kept reading was that there was no way to really “lose” in the new Prince of Persia. Technically, your character cannot die. In the event that you miss a jump or get taken down to no health by an enemy, your companion resets the encounter. In the event of the climbing sequences, she pulls you back to the last place you stood on firm ground. During battle, she resets the fight, often allowing the boss to regain a large portion of his health. And these critics are right. You cannot die in Prince of Persia. They’re also missing the bloody point.

If you want to get right down to it, you cannot die in the last three Prince of Persia games, either. For one thing, you had the time rewinding powers that let you re-try difficult jumps or undo poorly thought out attacks. And there was also a save feature in place, coyly disguised as the Prince’s faulty memory. In fact, I can’t think of any game that I’ve played in the past several years where death was any impediment to progress. All Prince of Persia does is automate the quicksave and quickload buttons so you don’t have to tap them every time you fuck up. And to be honest, the new “saving” feature actually adds some measure of challenge to the movement sequences, since you don’t get to simply rewind your mistake. You must start the entire sequence over from your safe “starting” point.

So, from a console standpoint, what they cut from the game was an annoying “death” screen that I’d see a few hundred times and a constant set of trips through the save / load menu. I can live without those things. Now, I do think that the boss fights could have been handled more appropriately. Those just seemed like an endurance match, with quicktime events popping up so often they scarecely felt like quicktime events and almost became gameplay elements. Almost. So the boss never-die feature was imperfect, and until you figure out each boss’s technique you may be fighting them for a long time. But the overall arch of the game, the style with which it was carried out, and the cleverness with which they turned the final boss fight (no spoilers) into a test of what Prince of Persia is really about as opposed to a combat twitch-fest deserves more praise, honestly, than the game has received.

Ironically, the other game on my 360′s to-beat list is Bionic Commando: Rearmed. As a huge fan of the original, I have to say it’s pretty breathtaking to see a non-franchise title receive the sort of fan service restyling that Bionic Commando did. There are plenty of elements of the game that have been updated – there are both new and improved weapons which can be hot-swapped mid-level, many of the bosses (as much as BC had them) are completely redesigned, and the bionic arm is insanely powerful in comparison to the original title. But the reason that I mention Bionic Commando is that it was traditionally a difficult game, and it still uses a “lives” system. You have a limited number of chances, per level, to not die. Failing that, you get booted out to the stage selection screen.

Of course, Rearmed uses a saved game feature, unlike the original which had to be defeated in either a single sitting or else was a slow, lurking death sentence for your NES (as the console sat on pause for hours at a time). There are no quicksaves in Rearmed, and while you can acquire extra lives, the supply is by no means infinite. Add to that the fact that several of the bosses take some practice and coordination to learn to fight. So does all of that makes Rearmed a harder game?

No, not really. It just makes it take longer to beat. As long as you have the requisite skill required to beat the trickier stages, you will eventually (by either luck or rote memory) defeat them all. You’ll figure out every swing sequence and time every bazooka shot to the point where you are killing off-screen enemies as you progress. Because the truth is that in games like Prince of Persia and Bionic Commando, where the environment is a principle enemy, your ability to move through that environment is as much a test of your gaming skill as the enemies you defeat.

And what happens in Bionic Commando is that you learn the earlier portions of the stage better than the later ones, because you have to traverse them over and over again. Death has, at least, some meaning because of the greater penalty involved. It also makes the game less enjoyable during several sequences where the game does feel as though it is punishing you for its own learning curve (including one where a boss does not count as “defeated” until his death animation completes, and should you die in that time, you still fail. . . I damn near gave up on that encounter at first because I couldn’t figure out why I was still losing). Interestingly, because of the “connected world” aspect of Prince of Persia, as well as the surprisingly enjoyable “scavenger hunt” sub-quests (and I normally hate scavenger hunt mechanics), my overall ability to move through the stages and perform the acrobatics is pretty balanced across the board – a claim I simply cannot make in regards to Bionic Commando.

Look, if your complains about the new Prince are the graphical style (though I can’t see why) or the ending (which was ridiculous, but at least different), I can see your point of view. I may disagree with it, but I can at least understand it. But if you’re bitching because the game isn’t “teh hardcorez”, then I have a suggestion for you. Every time you die, quit to the main menu and load your last saved game. There you go – artificial difficulty restored. For everyone else, I can’t recommend the new Prince of Persia enough. Give it a spin. And if you haven’t played Rearmed yet, seriously, get off your ass (I only waited so I could play it on the 360 with a proper controller). Rearmed is as much a blueprint for how to refashion a side-scrolling classic as Metroid Prime was a blueprint for how to transfer it to 3D. And I hope Capcom paid attention, because the new Bionic Commando title is on the horizon!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 11:58 am and is filed under Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.