Let's Talk About Games

I've been replaying Prince of Persia, the old 2008 game, for the past few days. I originally owned it for the Xbox 360 back in the day, but I have a copy on Steam now.

The graphics hold up exceptionally well. Plus, someone in the Steam community had a quick edit that allows you to manually adjust the resolution to any size you want, so I'm enjoying it on my 4K monitor now, even though there's not a 4K option in the video settings. It looks like this game could've released in the past 5 years or so; they put a lot of work into the look and feel of it.

This game is basically Assassin's Creed before Assassin's Creed released. Most of the game is spent running along walls, climbing things, chaining movements across multiple surfaces, etc. It's pretty satisfying to play. And the controls are easier and smoother than the early Assassin's Creed games.

The only downside is that fights are slow, as you need to chain attacks and defend at precise moments to make decent progress. Everyone has a large health bar, but lower enemies can be ended quickly by just shoving them off platforms.

Fortunately, enemies are few and far between. The game mostly revolves around collecting glowing white magic balls floating throughout the levels. When you get enough, the princess following you throughout the game can unlock powers that allow you to navigate new levels. Each level has an end boss to fight, and as long as you chain attacks and defend well, it's mostly just a game of patience, picking down their health bar a little at a time. The ultimate goal is to clear all the levels and fight the BBEG who was released at the start of the game.

Like I said, there is a princess following you throughout the game. But it's not an escort quest; quite the opposite really. She uses her magic to ensure you stay safe throughout the entire game. If you fall off a ledge, there's a brief cutscene of her teleporting after you and then teleporting you back to a safe platform. If you die in battle, she rewinds time a little bit to when you're still alive and fighting. She's mostly able to take care of herself, so you don't need to focus on her.

Back in the day, I got the sense that the prince you play as was just a snarky, sarcastic asshole, constantly harassing and belittling the princess. It always made me think of Link from that awful 1989 Legend of Zelda cartoon. But since playing through again, I see he's not that bad. Maybe a bit sarcastic at times, definitely uses humor to deflect conversation, but he's not the raging asshole I remember him being.

I really enjoyed this game 16 years ago, and I'm still enjoying it today!