just drips class. I've never played a game where the narrative was so
gracefully intertwined with the gameplay.
The game begins with the voice of the prince. He begins to tell the story
as the game begins and his narration highlights each area. A death has him
exclaim "No, it didn't happen like that" or "No, No - I saved her" before
you're given the option to try again. After a save point he says in an
aside "I'll begin the story from here next time".
The big gimmick of the game, the dagger of time, fits in perfectly as well.
Using the dagger's refillable supply of sand you can (among other things)
rewind time up to 10 seconds on demand. This allows you to get another
chance to try a difficult jump, evade an enemy strike or save an ally.
As the game progresses the dagger's increases its capacity and gains new
abilities. Enemies can be frozen in time or slowed allowing the prince some
breathing room. Combat in this game is gorgeous. It can be a little
frustrating at times due to the number of enemies, the duration of some of
the battles and the often cramped quarters.
The prince is wonderfully acrobatic. He can seamlessly climb poles, run
along or up walls, cling to or sidle along ledges, jump across gaps and many
other things. This extends into combat as well where the prince can valut
over enemies, launch himself horizontally from nearby walls and evade
attacks with flips and rolls.
In most games you naturally tend focus on a single enemy of a group (to
eliminate multiple threats), in POP you are encouraged to simultaneously
attack all enemies with quick jabs and flips dividing your swords attention
among them.
The camera is one of the best I've seen. It's not perfect (especially
during a few of the battles in small places) but it's the best I've seen.
During combat the camera is suitably cinematic at the right moments, but
never (well, only very rarely) gets itself stuck behind a pillar or wall.
You've also got your choice of first person camera (for looking about) or a
"landscape" camera that gives you a cinematic overhead shot for placing
yourself in the environment or overlooking some of the larger puzzles.
This game reminds me most of "Ico" (which is, hands down, the best PS2 game
ever) in the way the level design is executed and the missions play out.
Most of the missions involve working with Farrah, a beautiful assistant who
is both more active and more vocal than Ico's Yorda.
Like Ico the game is completely linear and lacks any real sense of
free-roaming. It doesn't detract from the game for me, but to some people
that's important.
The story is engaging and straightforward without being simplistic (and
without forced plot twists like most games). The characters (all three or
four of them) are clearly defined and engaging without requiring artificial
complexity or affectations.
The voice acting is well-done (especially for a game) and the script is
actually pretty good - even genuinely funny and touching at times. I was
honestly a little disappointed with the pre-rendered movies. The game
engine itself looks so great that the only-average prerendered movies just
fell flat.
I was also a little annoyed at the "extras". I don't mind if a game doesn't
have many (or any) but the only thing you get for completing the game is
unlocking the credits "movie" (a block screen with the credits) - it's a pet
peeve of mine but credits are NEVER an "extra".
I didn't get it (it's greyed out) but another extra is the complete original
game. This is a great idea, but since I didn't get it (I presume because I
missed something my first time through) it's just annoying.
I played most of the game with my five-year old son. On the very first
level (where combat is with humans) there is a very, very small amount of
blood but no graphic wounds or violence. After this you are only facing
sand demons: no blood. The monsters are monstrous, but really not so bad:
my son wasn't bothered at all by them (he called them "trolls" and "ogres").
My first play-through the game took me just under eight hours. I got hung
up on jumping puzzles twice (the damn torture chamber took more than few
tries) and had minor problems with a few of the other puzzles (mostly
wondering where to go).
The thing that's more likely to tie you up however are the larger battles.
Until you get the hand of watching your health, using the dagger's rewind
ability and taking out demons the battles can be very frustrating - I don't
think I finished any of them with more that a speck of health left.
Still - this is the best game since Ico. It's what "Tomb Raider: The Angel
of Darkness" could (and perhaps should) have been. It sets the bar for
narrative story telling and cinematic camera work in platform games.
Jim Davis
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