I did quite like the way the Prince of Persia ending battle was performed through the eyes of the enormous boss. That was both a cool and effective way of conveying the menace of the creature you were fighting.
I also thought it was a spectacularly pretty game, and I loved the soundtrack.
Sadly, however, I didn’t finish the game with the sort of positive feelings towards it that characterised my response to the ending of Sands of Time. There was joy, yes, but only in the sense of relief that the frustrations were finally over.
Here’s me over the last couple of hours of play:
Yes, you’ve said that already.
And again!
Please, please stop saying the same stupid things over and over!
Take that! I pressed the “A” button!
Yes, well may you recoil at my ability to hit the “B” button when bluntly told to do so.
Oh no! My inability to hit “Y” within half a second of suddenly being ordered to do so has caused the villain’s health to entirely regenerate, thereby making the last five minutes entirely pointless!
Yeah! I sure can press “X” when told to!
Watch me press “A”!
Yes, Elika, well may you be impressed by how deftly I risked RSI to hit “X” really quickly.
God I hate quick time events.
Also – like GTA’s stupid “I hope you raced through this sandbox game and didn’t explore at all” time-based achievement, Prince of Persia has two achievements that punish you for enjoying your time in its world (if you were able to). One punishes you for using the Elika checkpoint system (instead of saving and reloading); the other punishes you for taking your time to collect light seeds.
I got both achievements, but only because I wanted it to be over and played as quickly as possible.
Developers: no more of these “here’s a reward for racing through the game” achievements, please. (Particularly ones that are worth more than finishing the game.)
And you know what I think about QTEs.
Posted by Jeremy 
