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- E3 08: Eyes-On Prince of Persia
- Posted 4 months ago by Coop
During Ubisoft’s press conference (which I liveblogged here), developer Ben Mattis took the stage to demo the new Prince of Persia and narrate a play-through of one of the earlier levels of the game. I didn’t get to actually play, but watching him definitely gave me a feel for what the new Prince of Persia has to offer. The graphics, of course, are fantastic, and the new illustrative style gives Okami a run for its money when it comes to style.
Elika, the Prince’s cooperative companion, fills many roles throughout the game. When the developers first explained that she would follow the Prince without encumbering him I was reluctant to believe it, but watching the gameplay made me realize that she not only doesn’t hinder him, but actually helps. She serves as more of an extension of the Prince, teleporting in front of the him to throw him to a ledge, aiding him in combat, and even eliminating death from the game by bringing him back to the most recent safe platform.
The developers said that they didn’t believe that gamers needed the reassurance of a death screen to remind them that they fell off a cliff, and have instead decided to have Elika pull you to a safe platform if you fall. It isn’t really any different from reloading from a previous checkpoint, but it prevents the need to have the game reload all of the data after an obnoxious “YOU HAVE DIED” screen pops up.
Combat was featured in the video, which appears to be a combination of the previous game’s fighting and Assassin’s Creed’s combat. It is sort of strange to see the Assassin’s Creed engine taken to a supernatural and magical world, because the game definitely retains a little bit from its Mature-rated brother in crime. Early in the press conference Ben Mattis said that the early buzz for the game was that it was a game of the year contender and I laughed at that claim, at the end of the video I think that it isn’t as crazy as I originally thought.
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Comments
Having played through Sands of Time and Two Thrones, I'm eagerly awaiting the new PoP! I like their new take on the combat, it looks more interesting. The whole "no death screen" idea is something I could definitely get used to in other games too. Hard to incorporate though I'm sure.
I know he said she doesn't get in the way, but she's on the screen the entire freaking time. Having that white streak go across the screen on every jump could potentially get annoying.
aw man, i remember playing prince of persia on my dad's pc when i was like 4 or something
You can totally tell that there is some Assassin's Creed in there. Can't wait....
In all honesty, I'm actually a little worried about the combat. I am a huge fan of the last PoP series and I loved being able to jump back and forth from one guy to the next, taking them out in which ever order I figured would be best. Now, it's one-on-one and, my biggest worry, now the Prince is doing all these fancy, magical combat moves thanks to Elika. The only magic he had previously was to control time-flow, but his fighting was realistic to his abilities. I don't want my prince jumping though the air like he's in Devil May Cry.
Well now I'm less upset that there was no new Assassin's Creed announcement.
Although I hold reservations about a non-obnoxious support character. Sands of Time's princess was soooo irritating. Hopefully this Elika is better. To her credit, she didn't talk too much....