Unlike the previous installment of the series, this one reliese is a "midquell" squeezed into the last- concole generations triology. Being the bastard middle child, the game writing suffers for not being able to take things quite as far as PoP game have traditionally done.When playing this game I struggled to set my mind into if this was a homage to earlier games, or a genuine stab at something new. What I found was that while many elemtents of the first PS2 PoP game had been used, there were sufficient innovation for this title to be called something different. If you will a game that states "lesson- learned" from all those ps2 titles. Noe here is the final product:
The game at first passes for a mediocre game with aspirations, but after you get the hang of the story and pacing, you suddenly realize that this is quite a good game, that suffers from a low- self esteem. It is as if the developers said, okay, we have what it takes to build a good game, but's lets safe on this one and just take in the money.
There are odd inconsistencies in the game, such as texturework, level design and camera- work being excellent, while the animations and A.I. being at times quite poor. Examples of this is are beautiful tile- textures with individually sparkeling pieces of mosaic, and the Prince excellerating from when he starts to jump to about zenith hights. I mean. Why!
Also the plot starts good. One brother is faced with having to cope with the loss of the other in an alzimers- like fashion, but then that aspect is horribly underplayed as you near the end, and your boss- character ends up just being this oversized (but just as stupid) sand monster. (At this point you may cry out "story spoiler alert!" to which I would eloquently reply; "What story!")
While the pacing of the old gameplay elements is excellent, shifting from jumping to combat, to different environment jumping, and the occasional puzzle- solving, you NEVER encounter an innovation on this part. You can perhaps see 50- 60 enemies on screen at one time. Why not mix it up, let you fight with some soldiers at your brothers side for some bonding time, or perhaps lead a few soldiers yourself in a charge. What about getting to know more than two characters?
It seems that this game is a game for PoP fans, by PoP fans. And while it excells at being just that, it never exeeds expectations.
