14 DAY TRIAL // The Prince of Persia franchise is probably one of the most popular series of adventure games out there, entertaining gamers since 1989, when the first one was launched. From then on, with the help of French publisher Ubisoft, the franchise received quite a lot of new titles and has made the Prince a memorable character, even though he changed his appearance quite a few times.
The latest iteration in the franchise, the new Prince of Persia, is set to be a total revamp of the series, with a completely new art style and a new main character, totally different from the one in the Sands of Time trilogy. Although the team at Ubisoft Montreal, who was responsible for this new title, took quite a lot of risks in the making of this game, the new Prince was met with some pretty high expectations by fans.
Although most of the industry critics praised it for its unique features and the stunning open world, some voices claimed that, thanks to the QuickTime events and, most of all, because you couldn't die, the game was too easy. Now, Ben Mattes, the producer of the game, comes to talk with IGN and reveals that the team aimed at both casual and hardcore gamers for this title, and although passionate gamers might believe that the game was a bit easy, the environments and puzzles will make up for it.
“I honestly cannot count how much time we spent talking about this subject. Making an accessible game that would still please the hardcore gamer was one of our main goals on this game. Sometimes I think we succeeded, sometimes I'm less sure... Our gamble was that the experience of the game would be undeniable to the hardcore. We knew they would find it 'easy' but counted on them getting caught up in the scenery, the story, the poetry of movement – the 'magic' of it all – and draw their sense of accomplishment and joy from that rather than the more typical fail-die-frustration-fail-die-frustration-succeed-joy loop.”
Although Prince of Persia might appear, at first glance, a bit easy, some levels are pretty challenging and offer some great rewards. The visuals of this new game are indeed stunning and will surely please a lot of fans. Let's hope that the development team at Ubisoft Montreal will improve it with the next iteration in the franchise.