Slightly more than a year ago, I wrote a review on Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. I didn't like that game then. Bad Prince. Bad music. Too much blood, gore and corny dialogues. Fast foward to the present day, I've completed Warrior Within for the third time on the PS2, and I've grown to appreciate the game better, mainly due to its plot. The Back to the Future-style time-travelling tale just grows on me, and I didn't "hate" the game so much.

Which is why I decided to pick up Prince of Persia: Revelations. It's essentially the same Warrior Within game, although Ubisoft has decided to prolong its already long gameplay hours to even longer, by including exclusive puzzle levels previously not seen in Warrior Within. This is godsend for Prince of Persia fans, since we somehow never get enough of running along walls, swinging from bar to bar, and, oh, taking out a lot of enemies with free-form fighting. These additional levels are extremely tough as well, and will give even hardcore Prince of Persia junkies a stern challenge.

Revealing the brilliance of the game's plot would be a major spoiler, so I'll just say that, if it's too confusing earlier on, it'll all begin to make sense towards the end. Unfortunately, for all my acceptance of the game, the hardware issues bugging many PSP games continue to be a major issue for Revelations. Insanely long loading time. Frequent drop in frame rate. Difficulty in controlling the camera angle (which requires you to hold the L1 button while rotating your left analog - a bit silly). Game continuously loading when you're in the midst of solving a puzzle. You know, that sort of thing. These really take out a lot of joy from playing the game. The platforming could be great. The fighting could be enjoyable. But they all didn't work so well because of the PSP's limitations.

Thankfully, at least the game is good to look at. Even though the graphics are rather dated, they appear very sharp on the PSP screen, which further demonstrates the power of the machine. The audios are also loud enough, although I don't really like Godsmack. It just takes away the feel from the series, but I've been complaining about this for over a year now, so I'm just gonna shut up.

So, where does that leave Revelations? A good game, still, but a slightly torrid playing experience due to some technical issues. It's probably too difficult a game for the casual gamer, and it's certainly not recommend for playing on the burst because of its intensity. I'd recommend this only to seasoned Prince of Persia fans.
Slightly more than a year ago, I wrote a review on Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. I didn't like that game then. Bad Prince. Bad music. Too much blood, gore and corny dialogues. Fast foward to the present day, I've completed Warrior Within for the third time on the PS2, and I've grown to appreciate the game better, mainly due to its plot. The Back to the Future-style time-travelling tale just grows on me, and I didn't "hate" the game so much. Which is why I decided to pick up Prince of Persia: Revelations. It's essentially the same Warrior Within game, although Ubisoft has decided to prolong its already long gameplay hours to even longer, by including exclusive puzzle levels previously not seen in Warrior Within. This is godsend for Prince of Persia fans, since we somehow never get enough of running along walls, swinging from bar to bar, and, oh, taking out a lot of enemies with free-form fighting. These additional levels are extremely tough as well, and will give even hardcore Prince of Persia junkies a stern challenge. Revealing the brilliance of the game's plot would be a major spoiler, so I'll just say that, if it's too confusing earlier on, it'll all begin to make sense towards the end. Unfortunately, for all my acceptance of the game, the hardware issues bugging many PSP games continue to be a major issue for Revelations. Insanely long loading time. Frequent drop in frame rate. Difficulty in controlling the camera angle (which requires you to hold the L1 button while rotating your left analog - a bit silly). Game continuously loading when you're in the midst of solving a puzzle. You know, that sort of thing. These really take out a lot of joy from playing the game. The platforming could be great. The fighting could be enjoyable. But they all didn't work so well because of the PSP's limitations. Thankfully, at least the game is good to look at. Even though the graphics are rather dated, they appear very sharp on the PSP screen, which further demonstrates the power of the machine. The audios are also loud enough, although I don't really like Godsmack. It just takes away the feel from the series, but I've been complaining about this for over a year now, so I'm just gonna shut up. So, where does that leave Revelations? A good game, still, but a slightly torrid playing experience due to some technical issues. It's probably too difficult a game for the casual gamer, and it's certainly not recommend for playing on the burst because of its intensity. I'd recommend this only to seasoned Prince of Persia fans.