I've heard people bring up POP:WW and mention that it brought the series down and sucked. I started playing it last night and got to around the 2nd or 3rd save point...which is obviously not very far at all...but it seemed ok to me so far. I also looked up reviews on gamerankings and it seems to be all 80's and 90's. So for those of you that have played it does it become a complete mess the further in you get? I know some people hated the "dark" theme but it didn't seem to bother me too much (at least yet anyway). It seems to tie in with the story. I guess I'm just looking for answers from those of you that have played it. Please don't spoil any plot points if possible thanks
[quote name='jkam']I've heard people bring up POP:WW and mention that it brought the series down and sucked. I started playing it last night and got to around the 2nd or 3rd save point...which is obviously not very far at all...but it seemed ok to me so far. I also looked up reviews on gamerankings and it seems to be all 80's and 90's. So for those of you that have played it does it become a complete mess the further in you get? I know some people hated the "dark" theme but it didn't seem to bother me too much (at least yet anyway). It seems to tie in with the story. I guess I'm just looking for answers from those of you that have played it. Please don't spoil any plot points if possible thanks [/quote]
The dialogue and pacing was ridiculous. Like that first boss fight on the Pirate ship - you're still struggling with the new mechanics and they interrupt it mid-point so the Prince can yell "You bitch!". Come on.
Plus wait till you get to the castle's center hallway. There's something to be said for linear level development when appropriate.
Throw in glitchiness and the game just feels like a step backwards from the first - IE it's good, but not great. However there are a few action segments in that game that are badass - you'll know what I mean when they happen.
Frankly I think the game is much better than the first one, and better than the 3rd one. I like the dark aspect of the game, but get familiar with the "keypad-cheats" because some sections in the game, particularly towards the end, will require you to do a little bit o' cheatin. Nothing major, just the occasional restoration of mana..or life or whatever the hell that power you collect is.
I'm actually playing through the third PoP game now, and I find it far more annoying and frustrating than the second. I kinda liked the dark tone of the second game, so I never really saw where all the negativity came in, personally.
the music was anoying ( heavy metal grungy shit just didnt match the era) but that asie i liked the game. i was pissed more that there were alot of hidden collectibale i missed because they were extremely hard to find. i doubt anyone could find all the extra weapons and stuff without some kind of guide. the thing that kept chasing you got annoying after some time too but the main draw of those games is and has always been the level design and physical puzzles.
Terrible level layout, I once spent an hour going in one direction doing stuff that way and got stuck, I finally was desperate enough to look it up on gamefaqs and found out I completely wasn't supposed to do anything in that area until later. That one hundred percent never happened in the first game. That and the prince trying to act hardcore so much got old. He was a pretty funny guy in the first game.
I just didn't like the whole... bad-ittude theme the whole game had going on. I mean, it's one thing when it's done to be funny but it's completely different when they're serious about it. The Two Thrones handled it correctly though, I thought.
The glitches were really annoying... I don't know how many times I got stuck in walls/floors or how I would press a button and the prince would do something completely unrelated.
[quote name='mrelusive']Horrible music and bad level design. Ubisoft was caught trying to be "artsy fartsy" again.[/quote]
Actually I think it was the opposite.
The first game was a work of fantasy and imagination, in the second game they went commercial to sell more units (and it worked)
Sadly even though most gamers here saw through the addition of "dark" themes, a new badass Prince, and plenty of scantily clad goth chicks, it played well to the crowd that buys games on release day.
I shudder to think of what Beyond Good and Evil 2 would have looked like (I'm thinking nose ring, emo haircut, leather-daddy pig sidekick, etc etc)
[quote name='Vinny']I just didn't like the whole... bad-ittude theme the whole game had going on. I mean, it's one thing when it's done to be funny but it's completely different when they're serious about it. The Two Thrones handled it correctly though, I thought.[/quote]
Totally, the Prince will never be Kain, that's not why we play the games.
POP:TTT was great because in cutscenes the Prince would mouth off to enemies a second before realizing he was outnumbered - something I found myself doing in-game as well :lol:
[quote name='camoor']Actually I think it was the opposite.
The first game was a work of fantasy and imagination, in the second game they went commercial to sell more units (and it worked)[/quote]Yeah, the first game fits the bill more than the second. But I thought the music selection in WW was just way too... out there.
Unlike the blood and sex appeal, the music seemed more like an "artistic" direction than something that would be done to cater to a wider audience.
I liked the first one... until I got stuck in this room and either couldn't figure out which direction to swing towards, or the controller wouldn't allow me to swing the direction I was supposed to go in. I must have been 66-70% done and just quit it, youtubed the ending and moved on. Popped WW in and was immediately turned off that it was so combat and weapon based rather than physical puzzle solving (like the 1st one and ICO type games) which is what drew me in, in the first place.
I'm sure it's not so bad, but to go in with the mindset you're expecting from the 1st, it was disappointing. I might try the next PoP game if they make one, but I had T2T and never bothered playing it. (Just sent it out through goozex today). There's way too many quality games I have yet to play to spend time on *decent* fillers.
[quote name='camoor']The dialogue and pacing was ridiculous. Like that first boss fight on the Pirate ship - you're still struggling with the new mechanics and they interrupt it mid-point so the Prince can yell "You bitch!". Come on.[/QUOTE]
This.
POPWW sucks for the same reason that Mario would suck if Nintendo made him a punk rocker.
SoT was one of the most beautiful (and mature) games on last gen. WW scuttled everything.
It wasn't really any "worse" than the first one from a mechanical standpoint, people just whined about the new themes and the music and the focus on combat over platform puzzles.
[quote name='Rei no Otaku']At least the 3rd game was a nice apology.[/QUOTE]
Really?? I broke my first controller ever playing this game today -- the whole Dark Prince health drain is bullshit, especially when trying to figure out where you're supposed to go; the chariot races are absolute hell; checkpoint placing is absurd. TTT is by far my least favorite of the PoP series.
Let's see in WW, the Prince loses his slighty wussy look and tries to become edgier and more of a badass. Now I like the first and third games a lot, the third had it's issues but it looks the best of the three. I just felt WW could have looked a lot better at the time when it came out.
I don't think WW sucks. Actually WW is my favorite. SOT is 2nd. And TT is my least favorite.
That being said I admit that when I first started playing WW back in the day I hated it because it was so different from SOT and it wasn't at all what I expected. When I stopped focusing on what WW wasn't (SOT ) and just enjoyed it for what it actually was I realized it has a great story and fun game mechanics. After playing WW, I found that I actually liked WW better than SOT because I think WW's story is better and I liked the fighting system better (SOT is just button mashing).
IMO the 2 biggest obstacles to enjoying WW is the prince's new look which makes him look like a crazed crack addict and the neverending Godsmack song. If you can get past those 2 things, then I don't see any other reason why you wouldn't be able to enjoy the rest of the game.
the appeal of the game grew once i realized i could skip nearly every enemy encounter. the combat was better, but i didn't ever buy a PoP game for the fighting.
I'm coming in a little late, but that shouldn't matter. This thread was ing made for me. I've ranted and raved a few times on here about WW, and always joked that I should save it in Word to save myself the time. I never did, unfortunately - and you're getting The Somewhat Shorter than the Long Version.
Graphics| Not a whole lot of problems here. Except for the hair. Look at the hair on the Empress. What the ?
Combat| Too ing much! Sands of Time was a platformer first - fighting was second. Warrior Within tried to rectify the problems with Sands of Time's combat, and it did only a mediocre job. For all the fancy new moves you got, very few of them were really useful - unless it was a 1v1, you were always better off jumping over enemies and cutting them up in the air. A shame, since WW doubled the amount of god-damn combat! Also, what was with the ten billion weapons? I checked through the manual ten times, and never got a real explanation for what the weapons' stats meant.
Combat Continued|
Jesus Christ, was that shit ever annoying. Those exploding dogs, for example: an enemy that actually punishes you for killing them. The only safe way I found to kill them was to land the finishing blow and run full-speed off the edge of whatever platform I was on.
Then there are the bosses. them. I remember reading an interview in EGM post-SoT wherein Ubi Montreal lamented that they could not include all the bosses they wanted to. Thank ing God, because WW's bosses were abysmal. I'm speaking specifically of the "Juggernaut" guy. The first time you fight him - hey, this is kinda neat, climbing over him like this. The second time? Well, hey, I'm travelling through time - I guess I can run into you twice. The third time? Okay, ing die. The fourth time? Shit, his health bar is three times as big! The fifth time? Ooh, the fifth time, he got a new attack: he threw exploding dogs at you like grenades. So yeah, that guy.
Characters| Probably the biggest complaint everyone has. The Prince has no actual personality this time around - sorry, but "brooding" is not a personality. Then there's Kaileena, the new "love interest". The new, bland, idiotic, kinda freakish looking love interest. I clapped when
she died in WW. Then I was mad when
I found out she survived according to official canon. Then I clapped again when
she died in Two Thrones for real. She still sucked as a narrator, though
. I know - rate her on her own merits, not relative to Farah (about whom I have a few complaints myself). Thing is, she has no meritsof her own. The less that's said about her, the better.
Oh, and masochistic vampires? I think someone at Ubi has a fetish.
Personally I loved POP2, and the music works for me. I enjoyed every bit of it. It got glitchy at times, but considering the way the platforming works its sorta understandable. I hate that people bitch and whine about the music. I LOVE it.
Dahaka races anyone? Those rocked so hard. Apart from that, it was more or less the same game with some improvements in gameplay, and some setting/story/mood tweaks.
There was an ambient soundtrack that was quite good. Then those same 4 chords came blaring over.
Plus I have an inkling they spent too much money on Monica Bellucci and not enough on playtesting. There's a reason she doesn't speak much in Matrix Reloaded.
[quote name='camoor']What's wrong with Farah? I liked her, she's more authentically feminine (as opposed to the annoying in-your-face female characters in most games)[/quote]Personality-wise? I loved Farah. She was great. But in a fight, she was the most mind-boggling annoying thing ever. It's like your average escort mission, only instead of running away, the person you have to escort stands stillwhile getting surrounded by monsters and shoots you.
[quote name='dtarasev']Dahaka races anyone? Those rocked so hard.[/quote]They were cool, but the colour wash-out made it impossible to see what the hell I was doing sometimes. Trying to pick out a tan-coloured ladder against a tan-coloured wall with a "sepia wash" over the screen with a one-hit KO monster behind me got old pretty fast. Still, as far as WW went, the Dahaka was probably the best thing going.
[quote name='dtarasev']Dahaka races anyone? Those rocked so hard. Apart from that, it was more or less the same game with some improvements in gameplay, and some setting/story/mood tweaks.[/QUOTE]
Meh. I hated those. A frustrating exercise in trial and error gameplay for the most part.
I think it sucked because people were getting tired of the series. Also the series had gotten away from what we loved about it. I don't think people could associate with the main character, because they changed him too much. The series grew up too fast IMO.
[quote name='Thomas96']I think it sucked because people were getting tired of the series.[/quote]This makes no sense. Warrior Within was the second Prince of Persia game in, like, 8 ing years.
[quote name='Thomas96']Also the series had gotten away from what we loved about it. I don't think people could associate with the main character, because they changed him too much.[/quote]So... we were getting tired of it because it changed too much?
[quote name='Thomas96']The series grew up too fast IMO.[/quote]Giving characters tattoos and obligatory love interests that they actually have no connection to whatsoever != growing up.
[quote name='willardhaven'] Overall though there's a great PoP game buried underneath it all.[/quote]This is true. Underneath all the shit, there is a good game. Sadly, I lent out my pressure washer...
the deal with WW isn't that it's a bad game. Matter of fact the general consensus is that it's a good game in spite of the changes. In SoT which was brilliance entirely thru the combat was weak. It was more of an after thought. It was fun but you rarely got to use it. The game was more focused on platforming. I remember people being confused about the boss it was 'too easy' these are people who don't get the real boss is doing the last level without your sword.
The problem with WW is that they decided to up the combat. Good idea in principle but it was executed poorly and you end up fighting ALL the time. That and too much 'time' themes. PA summed it best. In spite of this the game managed to keep the excellent platforming that made SoT great hence the high scores.
[quote name='coolsteel']Terrible level layout, I once spent an hour going in one direction doing stuff that way and got stuck, I finally was desperate enough to look it up on gamefaqs and found out I completely wasn't supposed to do anything in that area until later. That one hundred percent never happened in the first game. That and the prince trying to act hardcore so much got old. He was a pretty funny guy in the first game.[/quote]
Well I only played 2-3 hours of WW. I'll start it over again after I finish Paper Mario but the direction SoT was great. I did miss the gameboy unlockable thingy but aside from that I never got lost always knew where I was going. The prince himself was a cheeky son of a gun. Even dying was amusing. "No no .. that's not how it happened"
i remeber reading an article that was talking about SoT saying unlike most games it wanted you to finish. I think it was Sirlin. matter of fact I found it.
It also includes the ultimate player-friendly feature: the ability to rewind time! If you miss a jump or get hit by an enemy, just rewind time to before that happened and try again. You need sand to power this time-rewind, but you can get it easily from almost any enemy. The Prince of Persia design team wants you to succeed. They are rooting for you every step of the way. While some gamers thought this was “too much hand holding,” I think the majority of the audience found it “accessible and inviting.”
I don't know about TT but as lttle as I've ventured into WW I'm a little lost that's whY it's on the backburner until I get TT then I 'll just go thru 'em both.
[quote name='The Crotch']This makes no sense. Warrior Within was the second Prince of Persia game in, like, 8 ing years.
So... we were getting tired of it because it changed too much?
Giving characters tattoos and obligatory love interests that they actually have no connection to whatsoever != growing up.
The main character changed to much from the initial PS2 PoP game...
This is true. Underneath all the shit, there is a good game. Sadly, I lent out my pressure washer...[/QUOTE]
People were tired of the series because the main character changed too much, also, if the sequel came out 8 years later, that's too long. That would cause consumer interest to go down and thus... people got tired of the series. You have to feed people when they're hungry not when they've eaten something else. and when I'm talking about the series growing up too fast, I'm talking about the maturation of the main character, he was young, nieve in the first game, then in the other games, he's bad ass, older looking, etc. Too much had changed from the original prince that we observed in the first PoP game.
It seems to tie in with the story. I guess I'm just looking for answers from those of you that have played it. Please don't spoil any plot points if possible thanks 
ing made for me. I've ranted and raved a few times on here about WW, and always joked that I should save it in Word to save myself the time. I never did, unfortunately - and you're getting The Somewhat Shorter than the Long Version.
