The development team behind the latest addition to the Prince of Persia series has done a great job at hiding the fact that they were pressured to deliver the game early, to catch up with the release of the movie produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. It is quite interesting to see how they managed that, given the fact that rushed launches usually result in a flurry of bugs and gameplay elements that feel unfinished.
It is clear that they concentrated on the platforming aspect and, as
I said yesterday, it is a resounding success. This means they had a choice regarding the combat.
They could have tried to innovate and perfect the combat, but failed miserably at it because of the limited time. In what I would call a smart move, they resumed to building a simplified version on the combat system that is to be found in titles like God of War or Dante's Inferno and be done with it.
While it's not something extraordinary, it's not bad either. It relies on button mashing too much and there are no real combos to be employed, other than kicking the shielded enemies. It is boring and mediocre, but it's functional and serves its purpose to deliver entertainment between the excellent acrobatic sequences.
It is also a very short game, clocking in at about 6 or 7 hours depending on how much time you want to spend breaking vases. All in all, I think that despite the difficult situation I suspect the developers were in because of the movie, they managed to release the title just in time to cash in on the film's relatively successful run. They concentrated on doing one area really well, while leaving the rest to be
mediocre, but functional.
This is a gamer diary entry and a full review of
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is available.
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