This game looks great. That is a fact. But what of the story? What of the challenge? The motivation?
When you start playing, its as if you were dropped in the middle of the story and you never really know how you got there in the first place. Sure you could say you were a fish out of water, but I would say you were more like an American prankster in the wrong place (Persia) at the wrong time (6th century?). The character just feels ridiculous in a bad way.
The prince feels more like that guy, you know, from Drakes Fortune. Probably because its the same guy. Well, same actor playing pretty much the same character. And while that character worked in a modern tomb raider, it does not work at all in PoP.
The gameplay is ok, once you figure out all the visual cues but once you do, you almost feel like you are not playing the game but the game is simply guiding you along. Much like Fable, there is a magic trail to tell you exactly where to get etc.
I think with this, Fable, and even Dead Space, I am growing a bit tired of games taking away every sense of adventure by simply telling me where to go. Sure, you don't have to use it but the levels in these games are too large with too many repeated structures. Seems to me, its just a lazy way to get around disorienting cut-and-past level design. I probably shouldn't knock PoP for things that all games are doing lately, its just that in the last great PoP (Sand of Time) you felt like you were exploring a real environment where as in this game you feel like you are following a track.
Overall, the gameplay is decent and the game is gorgeous but its just missing a few elements and I don't feel the story was developed early on which makes it hard to get into.
Another problem is the combat. Its as bad as its ever been in the series IMO and not only that you are locked on to a single opponent the whole time without a chance of ever being defeated. I get that some games can get frustrated with combat but when did it become a good thing that you could never ever loose a battle? Just seem anti climactic to me.
On the good side, once you get to chaining moves together, it does have a good sense of flow and it can be fun. But the stuff I ranted about in the majority of this review kept this game from making anything other than a confused impression with me.
