14 DAY TRIAL // The new Prince of Persia title released by Ubisoft last winter was meant to be considered as a full reboot of the historical franchise set in the Middle East. It introduced a brand new Prince, and a fresh gameplay mechanic that would cause quite a lot of debates on the Internet.
The mechanic was in the form of Elika, the Prince's partner along the game, that would help him if he were to miss a jump or be close to death, restoring him to the previous safe ground. In essence, she was just something to replace the “Load previous checkpoint” mechanic, and keep the players immersed in the game.
But a lot of controversy was born, as hardcore gamers, accustomed to the older titles in the series that were more difficult, complained about it. The producer of the game, Ubisoft's Ben Mattes, has recently talked about it, and admitted that he might have made the game a bit too easy.
“I guess I made the mistake of projecting my own attitudes… I believed that, as a consumer base, the gaming industry had evolved to the point where they were punishing themselves for their failures… The idea with the Elika mechanic was that if you were a really good player, a single fall - when she had to pull you up - would be [a] devastating thing because it ruined your perfect run. We can’t continue to punish players for not being super leet haxxors but we have to do enough of that so that the guys on NeoGAF, hardcore message board gamers, won’t sell the game back.”
While the game was a bit too easy, with simple quick time events flashing on the screen during battles or acrobatics, Elika wasn't something that contributed to it, as she was designed to replace something already used by gamers for quite some time.
What do you believe? Was Prince of Persia too easy? And if so, was Elika one of the main parts that contributed to it? Leave us a comment with your opinion.