Why oh why do I do this to myself? I said that the last one would be the last one, but no. I go out to buy some chips late and I find myself thinking about concepts of the game design. My mind turns to something being debated now around Flower, most prominently over at Sexyvideogameland. The concept of the designer manipulating the player emotions, which in turn led me to a previous debate of the designer manipulating you into caring about a character. The dog from Fable II comes up a lot in this discussion. I have no opinion on it having not played the game. Then came Eleka from Prince of Persia.
Maybe this will get the game out of my system once and for all.
The designers intending you to care about Eleka. This is not conjecture, they have said so themselves. I never did care about her, in fact, I have stated that I was ambivalent about the whole game, but I could never figure out why. I loved the Prince of Persia series. I did so on the walk back and it comes down to the same problem I’ve had with the new game all along, the open world nature of the game. I could talk about he horrible choice in voice actors, the insipid dialogue or the ending, but all of those could have been done differently and not fixed it. Instead I will focus on two points that are at the core of game and where I think the real problem are.
First of all I did not care about the game. The reason I was ambivalent is that the game never told me I should be otherwise. Throughout the whole game you are bombarded with the knowledge that the world is about to end if Ahriman is released and regains his powers. His generals have already escaped and are corrupting the land as we speak. This is very evident as you go through and defeat the various corrupted and dodge the black goo and other traps. But once you’ve defeated, the Hunter, Alchemist, Concubine or Warrior and heal that area you are left with a peaceful land. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the grass is green and the water clear. It is as idyllic as it should be, so you move on to the next area. The problem is when you go back to a previous area. It’s not like you can’t either. The game invites you to revisit old areas, collecting light seeds or just enjoying the scenery. Excuse me I thought the world was ending. The game offers no threat to player for a majority of the game. Without a threat why am I motivated to fight on? Eleka’s constant insistence to continue on and stop Ahriman doesn’t endear her to me, it makes her an annoyance. I almost don’t believe her. I’m ambivalent, because I am not offered a reason not to be. If the game doesn’t offer a constant threat or at least the appearance of a threat then I’m not going to feel threatened.
Secondly, the designer’s made Eleka the new reset mechanic. Should you die, Eleka is there to save you and let you try again. Fair enough, the sands did the same thing in the previous trilogy. But there was a limit to how many uses there were. They became a carefully guarded commodity and it forced you to be smart about how you played. You could rewind time, but you could not afford to be reckless. It was there for quick fixes. In the new game, you can go crazy. Eleka will always be there to save you. You can be reckless in the game (that and I think it was there to cover up the design flaw they wont own up to of mapping too many moves to the same button that sends you into the abyss.) So if you can just keep falling and whatnot whenever you want then you aren’t grateful to be saved, you’re expectant. You no longer feel thankful to go back, but feel entitled. She is no longer the end she is the means.
This is why I was ambivalent about Prince of Persia. If the game is not going to care than neither will I. I have told anyone who would listen that I felt the first three games had crack baked directly into the discs the gameplay was so addictive. I always said to myself when I had to go, “one more wallrun, just one more.” Even Warrior Within with its unintuitive level design still made me want to run through the same death trap over and over. The new Prince of Persia also feels like they’ve baked crack into the disc only now its been a few years and buzz no longer comes, only apathy as something once great crumbles around you. I say I’m ambivalent about the game, but no matter how much time goes by I keep coming back to it. I can’t escape it. It’s like it hurt me on some emotional level. I see the greatness that it could have been, but instead all I only have are the broken promises.
I am sorry but I completely disagree with one of the points in your article.
I think it is fantastic the fact that Eleka is there to save you every time you make a mistake. What’s the point of loading and reloading previous saved games because you died whilst trying to climb a wall?! With this, you don’t need to do that, so I think it is just fantastic the way they designed the game because it does not break the game flow at all. This happens with another game called “Prey”, in which instead of stopping the game and taking you to the game menu, it takes you to a sort-of dream to resuscitate your body. I actually beg all game designers to keep doing this as I find very frustrating to load a previous saved game or being killed for not having the ability to use the mouse as a 10 year-old kid.
I think the game is actually entertaining, well designed, fascinating although I’m still trying to understand why Eleka’s father decides to release Ahriman by cutting off the little tree.
I would recommend the game. It is good, much better than others that I’ve bought!
As a game mechanic to keep the flow of the game intact, Eleka’s involement was, yes, a stroke of genius, much better implemented here than in Prey. The problem with it, is it is just that, a mechanic. Without anything else in the game from her that’s all I see her as and don’t care one lick about her beyond what she can do for me. No part of the narrative or design endears me to her. There is no structure to game, because it allows you to do anything in any order you wish gives no urgency and no point to anything in the game. Eleka saving you at every turn wouldn’t have been a problem towards a feeling of lack of threat, if every other part of the game didn’t do the exact same thing.
Warrior Within is better, Two Thrones is better, Sands of Time is infinitely better. Hell even the recent cash in Forgotten Sands is better. They all have a mechanic the keep the flow of the game moving without too much loading checkpoints and doesn’t undermine the direction of the game in every other aspect.
In looking it over I don’t think I explained myself well enough in the one post and did better in my other three essays on the game. The lack of direction and compunction to do anything is the main problem of the game. Eleka is merely a single aspect of that overall problem with the game, the one that I felt the developers want to manipulate me into caring about. That was the topic and I may have heaped more scorn on her than I should have without explaining where it was coming from.