As is the case with most resource-management based titles, the real-time Age of Empires II offers a complex array of choice-driven gameplay. First, the player chooses from different civilizations to play as, each with their own unique strengths and military units (ex. gunpowder for the Spanish, camel cavalry for the Saracens, superior ships for the Vikings, and slow but powerful elephants for the Persians). The game also allows you to customize its settings, difficulty level, and maps.
The basic plot/setup for the game is similar to all Age of Empires and Age of Mythology titles- the player must build their civilization as they progress through the ages, and each new age reached allows you to research more upgrades, build new buildings, and produce and equip new units with which to explore and conquer the other nations on the map. The concept is more casual and less time consuming than Medieval Total War, for example, and most games can be finished within an hour or two.
Some features make the semi-large scale of the game easier to manage, starting with the aerial isometric view to give a clear look at the sprawling map, while giving enough visual information as to what the player's units and buildings are doing. Features like "idle villager" and the outlines showing when units are hidden behind trees or a building allow the player to easily locate all of the people they control. The interface itself is a compact, graphically themed frame that holds allthe necessary resource supply numbers (Ex. food, wood, and gold), and health statuses and military formation options for a player's selected units. Historical facts are incorporated into the gameplay to further enrich the action.
More goal content comes into play in the form of winnable achievements and different goals to try and meet (time, conquest, wealth, trade, capturing of relics, and the building of expensive Wonders). The player can also choose to follow specific capaigns that follow the rough backstories of some of the included characters.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Game Analysis Walkthrough IV: Bad Company
Zach focused on the immense level of destructibility in Battlefield: Bad Company for the xbox. The player can destroy almost everything in sight, causing satisfying sandbox style lasting damage to the environment; the player can do everything from knifing through a door, exploding barrels or a port-o-potty, shooting holes in walls and roofs, leveling trees and lightpoles in a tank, and setting fire to vehicles. Even enemies you've already killed will still be dead if you restart the level from your last checkpoint.
Other plusses of the game are the immersive interface and driving gameplay. The onscreen indicators are very limited and minimal- a 3D map in the corner is helpful for helping the player find their location , and the amount of ammunition and health is displayed discreetly in the corner of the screen. When the player is taking damage, the screen turns gray and red to let them know they're under attack and are losing health. The first person shooter graphics are realistic and the customizable weapon kits and collectibles further drive gameplay.
A few failings of the game though, are little weak points that take you out of the action- the story about a military squad chasing a gold shipment into a neutral country, thereby causing a conflict is vague, and dubious. The characters are cheesily comedic, and the "health" system is unbelievable since it seems you can instantly heal yourself after some gunshot wounds by injecting yourself with adrenaline. Sometimes, the character movements are too stiff or don't quite flow smoothly with the environment (ex. walking speed is the same on land as it is when you wade through water).
Other plusses of the game are the immersive interface and driving gameplay. The onscreen indicators are very limited and minimal- a 3D map in the corner is helpful for helping the player find their location , and the amount of ammunition and health is displayed discreetly in the corner of the screen. When the player is taking damage, the screen turns gray and red to let them know they're under attack and are losing health. The first person shooter graphics are realistic and the customizable weapon kits and collectibles further drive gameplay.
A few failings of the game though, are little weak points that take you out of the action- the story about a military squad chasing a gold shipment into a neutral country, thereby causing a conflict is vague, and dubious. The characters are cheesily comedic, and the "health" system is unbelievable since it seems you can instantly heal yourself after some gunshot wounds by injecting yourself with adrenaline. Sometimes, the character movements are too stiff or don't quite flow smoothly with the environment (ex. walking speed is the same on land as it is when you wade through water).
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
My Game Walkthrough: Mirror's Edge
For my walkthrough, I analyzed Mirror's Edge, developed EA Digital Illusions CE, powered by the Unreal Engine 3, and released in November 2008 for the Xbox360 and PS3. The game is a single player, first person-view action/adventure, mostly platformer game with sections of fighting and shooting. The player follows the path of Faith, a member of a system of "runners" who physically carry information through a semi-futuristic city that's been otherwise oppressed and kept under close surveillance by a totalitarian regime. The main strength and novelty of the game in my opinion, was the realistic and unique first-person interface.
The player guides Faith fluidly through the game environments by executing time-sensitive combinations of wall runs, wall tacks, jumps, rolls, slides, and other parkour-style acrobatics; the interactivity with the environments is similar to the Prince of Persia games, where there are many areas to freely interact with in different ways, although there's really only one "right" path to follow. There are no distracting indicators on the screen with the exception of a center reference point (that turns into a crosshairs when holding a firearm), creating a more immersive environment that really allows the player to feel like they themselves are in on the action. While the player can't directly see their character, Faith's presence is represented by glimpses of her arms and legs when she reaches for objects, climbs up on platforms, curls in on herself to roll safely from a high jump, or lashes out to punch an enemy.
The game plays through more like a chaptered story than a series of score or performance-based checkpoints, so there are no extra stats to monitor onscreen. There's not even a health bar, although Faith will grunt and the screen will flash red when she sustains a minor injury. If she's taking fire, the screen will flash red and show blood splatters, eventually dimming to black and white as her health fades and she dies. Most of the challenge in the game comes from timing your moves and manuvers correctly, which is paramount to navigating the environment- if you're too slow, you'll often quickly get shot by the authorities (AKA "blues") and the helicopters that follow you closely during chase sequences. If Faith doesn't have enough momentum, or is angled a little bit off from her target, she won't be able to jump or wall run to a far platform or reach a high-up pipe.
These limitations do help to make the gameplay as realistic and plausible as possible. For example, Faith runs slower and can't jump as high once she's picked up a pistol, can't jump or run at all when she's holding a shotgun, and often needs to shoot to break through thicker glass. With the exception of course of surviving extreme falls and multiple gunshot wounds when she has no armor to speak of, the limitations like the small window for executing moves sometimes gets to be annoying- On a couple occasions, I had to repeat a rather long sequence of platforming, fighting, then platforming again between the automatic save checkpoints in the game because of just one jump or wall run that was extremely hard to make if your timing was off at all. This wouldn't have frustrated me so much if there'd been an additional save checkpoint somewhere in between that action, so that I wouldn't have to start over every time I failed to make the jump, on one occasion, starting over INSIDE an elevator where I'd have to wait for it to reach the ground floor and then open before playing through. I also found it unnecessarily annoying how when I was trying to get my bearings of the surrounding rooftops sometimes, Faith just falls if you get too close to a ledge, she doesn't automatically dangle or recover herself.
Timing also comes into play during some of the mandatory fight sequences, which offers a refreshing challenge to the usual shoot-em-up setup. Since Faith is unarmed herself, you have to find a weapon or steal it from an enemy utilizing slow motion- Usually, enemies will be largely immune to kicking and punching, which might knock them back to give you breathing space for a moment, but won't kill them. The more heavily armored "blues" that chase you out of buildings in escape sequences can't even be deterred with pistol fire, thereby forcing the player to exit the level the way they're supposed to by finding alternate routes out, climbing up fountains, breaking through windows, climbing through ventilation shafts, and racing up stairs and hallways instead of trying to cheat and fight their way out of pursuit.
The audio and graphics were particularly essential to aiding gameplay, as red-colored objects offered a hint as to where to go next, and the "hint" B button usually pointed you in the right direction if you were lost- sometimes however, that just made it more confusing since it would be referring to a general, not an immediate course of action, which was increasingly unhelpful when you were unsure whether you could physically make or a jump or not and it actually pointed you AWAY from the platform you were supposed to reach next. Sound cues also clued you in on the action, since Faith herself is mostly characterized from what you see of her in the cartoon-styled cutscenes, her breathing, occasional cursing, and sound effects when she falls, gets shot, or pulls herself up onto a ledge; sometimes your boss would tell you to get going over the radio or inform you of what to do next, and the music would change from a majestic, thrilling tune to a faster pace when you were being chased or under fire.
While the mostly linear, largely homogeneous clean-looking environments aided the "need for speed", get-in-and-get-out dynamic of the navigation, I still would have liked some more content to enrich them. There weren't really any extra pickups besides bonus packs, and interaction with objects in the environment was limited besides platforming on select surfaces, turning the occasional crank, pressing switches, and opening doors. When using a gun, Faith can only fire at enemies- nothing else is destructible (even fallen enemies' dead bodies). Sometimes little pieces add dimension to the city, like a passing train, pigeons that scatter when you run through them, or scrolling advertisements on the screens in the elevators. For the most part, the city seems to be a ghost town with the exception of a few visible cars and passerby in the streets when you're on building tops.
The player guides Faith fluidly through the game environments by executing time-sensitive combinations of wall runs, wall tacks, jumps, rolls, slides, and other parkour-style acrobatics; the interactivity with the environments is similar to the Prince of Persia games, where there are many areas to freely interact with in different ways, although there's really only one "right" path to follow. There are no distracting indicators on the screen with the exception of a center reference point (that turns into a crosshairs when holding a firearm), creating a more immersive environment that really allows the player to feel like they themselves are in on the action. While the player can't directly see their character, Faith's presence is represented by glimpses of her arms and legs when she reaches for objects, climbs up on platforms, curls in on herself to roll safely from a high jump, or lashes out to punch an enemy.
The game plays through more like a chaptered story than a series of score or performance-based checkpoints, so there are no extra stats to monitor onscreen. There's not even a health bar, although Faith will grunt and the screen will flash red when she sustains a minor injury. If she's taking fire, the screen will flash red and show blood splatters, eventually dimming to black and white as her health fades and she dies. Most of the challenge in the game comes from timing your moves and manuvers correctly, which is paramount to navigating the environment- if you're too slow, you'll often quickly get shot by the authorities (AKA "blues") and the helicopters that follow you closely during chase sequences. If Faith doesn't have enough momentum, or is angled a little bit off from her target, she won't be able to jump or wall run to a far platform or reach a high-up pipe.
These limitations do help to make the gameplay as realistic and plausible as possible. For example, Faith runs slower and can't jump as high once she's picked up a pistol, can't jump or run at all when she's holding a shotgun, and often needs to shoot to break through thicker glass. With the exception of course of surviving extreme falls and multiple gunshot wounds when she has no armor to speak of, the limitations like the small window for executing moves sometimes gets to be annoying- On a couple occasions, I had to repeat a rather long sequence of platforming, fighting, then platforming again between the automatic save checkpoints in the game because of just one jump or wall run that was extremely hard to make if your timing was off at all. This wouldn't have frustrated me so much if there'd been an additional save checkpoint somewhere in between that action, so that I wouldn't have to start over every time I failed to make the jump, on one occasion, starting over INSIDE an elevator where I'd have to wait for it to reach the ground floor and then open before playing through. I also found it unnecessarily annoying how when I was trying to get my bearings of the surrounding rooftops sometimes, Faith just falls if you get too close to a ledge, she doesn't automatically dangle or recover herself.
Timing also comes into play during some of the mandatory fight sequences, which offers a refreshing challenge to the usual shoot-em-up setup. Since Faith is unarmed herself, you have to find a weapon or steal it from an enemy utilizing slow motion- Usually, enemies will be largely immune to kicking and punching, which might knock them back to give you breathing space for a moment, but won't kill them. The more heavily armored "blues" that chase you out of buildings in escape sequences can't even be deterred with pistol fire, thereby forcing the player to exit the level the way they're supposed to by finding alternate routes out, climbing up fountains, breaking through windows, climbing through ventilation shafts, and racing up stairs and hallways instead of trying to cheat and fight their way out of pursuit.
The audio and graphics were particularly essential to aiding gameplay, as red-colored objects offered a hint as to where to go next, and the "hint" B button usually pointed you in the right direction if you were lost- sometimes however, that just made it more confusing since it would be referring to a general, not an immediate course of action, which was increasingly unhelpful when you were unsure whether you could physically make or a jump or not and it actually pointed you AWAY from the platform you were supposed to reach next. Sound cues also clued you in on the action, since Faith herself is mostly characterized from what you see of her in the cartoon-styled cutscenes, her breathing, occasional cursing, and sound effects when she falls, gets shot, or pulls herself up onto a ledge; sometimes your boss would tell you to get going over the radio or inform you of what to do next, and the music would change from a majestic, thrilling tune to a faster pace when you were being chased or under fire.
While the mostly linear, largely homogeneous clean-looking environments aided the "need for speed", get-in-and-get-out dynamic of the navigation, I still would have liked some more content to enrich them. There weren't really any extra pickups besides bonus packs, and interaction with objects in the environment was limited besides platforming on select surfaces, turning the occasional crank, pressing switches, and opening doors. When using a gun, Faith can only fire at enemies- nothing else is destructible (even fallen enemies' dead bodies). Sometimes little pieces add dimension to the city, like a passing train, pigeons that scatter when you run through them, or scrolling advertisements on the screens in the elevators. For the most part, the city seems to be a ghost town with the exception of a few visible cars and passerby in the streets when you're on building tops.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Game Walkthrough Analyses III: Shadow of the Colossus
In Jesse's examination of 2005's Shadow of the Colossus for the PS2, he highlighted the game's content failings that offset the ambient environments and original story following Wander, a warrior who quests to save a princess, the 2005 release was initially praised for.
Driving story and visually impressive cutscenes aside, the gameplay itself was lacking; the flow is largely linear, predictably alternating navigation/platforming phases with a short, boss battle sequence. The only enemies in the game are the 16 colossi, which steadily grow larger as the player progresses, although the difficulty level required to beat the creatures never seems to disproportionately offset the hero's available skills enough to offer a satisfying challenge. Although the game does succeed in requiring the player to use any new weapons or skills they've acquired to defeat each boss, once the player has figured out the specific strategy to exploit each monster's weakness, the actual fight becomes easy to win without ever dying.
Other features of the design also leave the player wanting, such as the simplistic environments, and other barriers to any sense of believable realism the otherwise visually immersive scenery offers. Wander's health regenerates over time which further decreases the risks to the player, there are no powerups, his horse has unlimited stamina, invisible barriers near cliffs or other hazards further make it impossible to kill yourself, and most of the map areas are redundant, empty space. Aside from an optional, object-hunting sidequest, there's little in the way of filler content, or even other NPC's to talk to, and the game in its entirety offers virtually no replay value.
Although it comprises no more than 6 or 8 hours of gameplay, Colossus' ambient visuals and stirring, dramatic soundtrack are redeeming. The cyclical structure of calm nagivation and action-packed fighting make it a refreshing take on the usually fast-paced action/adventure genre, and the hero does change overtime to reflect the story's progression. The game ends with a thrilling twist, as Wander absorbs the souls of all the colossi he's slain to save the princess, in turn becoming a giant beast himself to fight off the mortals that then turn against him.
Driving story and visually impressive cutscenes aside, the gameplay itself was lacking; the flow is largely linear, predictably alternating navigation/platforming phases with a short, boss battle sequence. The only enemies in the game are the 16 colossi, which steadily grow larger as the player progresses, although the difficulty level required to beat the creatures never seems to disproportionately offset the hero's available skills enough to offer a satisfying challenge. Although the game does succeed in requiring the player to use any new weapons or skills they've acquired to defeat each boss, once the player has figured out the specific strategy to exploit each monster's weakness, the actual fight becomes easy to win without ever dying.
Other features of the design also leave the player wanting, such as the simplistic environments, and other barriers to any sense of believable realism the otherwise visually immersive scenery offers. Wander's health regenerates over time which further decreases the risks to the player, there are no powerups, his horse has unlimited stamina, invisible barriers near cliffs or other hazards further make it impossible to kill yourself, and most of the map areas are redundant, empty space. Aside from an optional, object-hunting sidequest, there's little in the way of filler content, or even other NPC's to talk to, and the game in its entirety offers virtually no replay value.
Although it comprises no more than 6 or 8 hours of gameplay, Colossus' ambient visuals and stirring, dramatic soundtrack are redeeming. The cyclical structure of calm nagivation and action-packed fighting make it a refreshing take on the usually fast-paced action/adventure genre, and the hero does change overtime to reflect the story's progression. The game ends with a thrilling twist, as Wander absorbs the souls of all the colossi he's slain to save the princess, in turn becoming a giant beast himself to fight off the mortals that then turn against him.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Game Walkthrough Analyses: II
In his walkthrough for Batman: Arkham Asylum published by Rock Study, Chris outlined how the design excellently blended the compelling story with the various game mechanics. The underlying plotline of the Joker releasing all of Batman's enemies from Arkham Asylum for him to capture and defeat once more drives the action, and the story seems faithfully reproduced from the cartoon series, making it a joy for old and new fans alike to play.
The graphics are impressive, placing slightly stylized, yet realistic looking character models into a slew of dark, gritty, nonlinear environments. The combat system seamlessly incorporates time-sensitive button mashing with stunning, slow-motioned visuals of Batman's powerful kicks, punches, and chokeholds, and the Unreal and Chaos engines used in the design lend satisfying ragdoll effects to the enemies.
In addition to Batman's successively growing arsenal of deadly weapons, picked up as rewards throughout the game, the player is given access to a bunch of useful gear to help navigate dynamic levels; players can scale walls with a grappling hook or swoop down on unsuspecting baddies using Batman's cape-turned-glider, allowing the player to develop their own fighting tactics using their environment. The platforming is just as engaging as the fight sequences, often blending hand to hand combat, exploration, and the masked hero's stealthy side in detective mode, or when the player chooses to have Batman perform silent takedowns of his enemies instead of merely barging in, guns blazing so to speak (or in this case, fists?). Collectively, the wide range of options offered to interact with the game environments keep the action from ever being redundant, and maintain replay value even after the game has been beaten once.
The player character isn't static either, as Batman sports more visible cuts and bruises and picks up upgrades and different weapons as the game progresses. The game world is as successfully atmospheric as those in the Bioshock or Prince of Persia titles, and enriching sidequests such as the trail of clues left by the Riddler encourage the player to venture from the more linear, main plot sequence to explore the limits of their environment.
Conducive with the immersive setup, the actual gameplay experience is interrupted only by a loading screen, the occasional map, and verbal cues said by Batman himself to offer valuable hints as to what the next goal is to keep the player from getting lost or confused too often.
The graphics are impressive, placing slightly stylized, yet realistic looking character models into a slew of dark, gritty, nonlinear environments. The combat system seamlessly incorporates time-sensitive button mashing with stunning, slow-motioned visuals of Batman's powerful kicks, punches, and chokeholds, and the Unreal and Chaos engines used in the design lend satisfying ragdoll effects to the enemies.
In addition to Batman's successively growing arsenal of deadly weapons, picked up as rewards throughout the game, the player is given access to a bunch of useful gear to help navigate dynamic levels; players can scale walls with a grappling hook or swoop down on unsuspecting baddies using Batman's cape-turned-glider, allowing the player to develop their own fighting tactics using their environment. The platforming is just as engaging as the fight sequences, often blending hand to hand combat, exploration, and the masked hero's stealthy side in detective mode, or when the player chooses to have Batman perform silent takedowns of his enemies instead of merely barging in, guns blazing so to speak (or in this case, fists?). Collectively, the wide range of options offered to interact with the game environments keep the action from ever being redundant, and maintain replay value even after the game has been beaten once.
The player character isn't static either, as Batman sports more visible cuts and bruises and picks up upgrades and different weapons as the game progresses. The game world is as successfully atmospheric as those in the Bioshock or Prince of Persia titles, and enriching sidequests such as the trail of clues left by the Riddler encourage the player to venture from the more linear, main plot sequence to explore the limits of their environment.
Conducive with the immersive setup, the actual gameplay experience is interrupted only by a loading screen, the occasional map, and verbal cues said by Batman himself to offer valuable hints as to what the next goal is to keep the player from getting lost or confused too often.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Game Walkthrough Analyses: I
In his analysis of the Playstation 3 hit, God of War II, Jimmy focused on how the developers used the element of scale to effectively create an original, thrilling gameplay environment. Using perfectly picked examples of epic boss battles, and clips showcasing the game's seamlessly blended fighting and platforming, he demonstrated integrating extreme scale differences into GoW brought to life the mythology-based storyline and more than made up for the unusually short game length.
Kratos, the game's hero, uses the blades chained to his wrists not only for hacking and slashing, but to navigate his environment as he swings from one platform to another and scales walls like a mountain climber with an ice pick. This feature is particularly useful with the game's massive baddies, since Kratos must first attack his foes from lower ground before actually climbing up Atlas' monstrous hand to place the finishing move or slashing at the midsection of a Colossus before climbing up his arm.
This evokes the same scaling aspect that made the Prince of Persia, or Legend of Zelda games such a pleasure to play- while the environments in GoW II seem more linear than the expansive Ocarina of Time map, or the elaborate, dynamic, interlinked rooms in Warrior Within, all of these games successfully immerse the player in organic, sprawling settings, easily viewable by cinematic camera angles. The God-sized GoW enemies specifically remind me of some of the boss battles in OoT and Twilight Princess (ex. giant Ganondorf, the lava dragon Volvagia, and the titanic Morpheel) as well as the trolls in WW, and the Hellish gladiator creature or the final battle with the evil, super-sized vizier the Prince faces in The Two Thrones.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Game Essentials Overview: Room for Improvement?
Even when failures don't easily come to mind when thinking of a game as enjoyable as these, there's always room for improvement. Besides the unavoidable slew of occasional bugs and glitches innately found in Twilight Princess and the Prince of Persia games, each have their fundamental design failings.
Twilight Princess alone is hard to find fault with, besides the storyline which is initially similar to its predecessors that may be just as easily redundant as it is familiarly enjoyable to fans of the older Ocarina of Time and other Zelda games.
The limited audio of the game are definitly notable though, since the various charcters throughout Hyrule still appear voiceless as all dialogue and explanations are presented in text form only. The deisngers could easily have employed that capability but for whatever reason chose not to accompany the updated graphics and extended scope of the game with new in-game dialogue and voiceover additions as well. Even the sound capability that Nintendo added to the Wii controller is also a design flaw in my opinion- the sound quality is poor and annoyingly tinny, and while the idea of having Link's yells, sword clashes, and certain sound cues like the melodic opening of a door come from the controllers itself might be good in theory, the actual implementation of it is ultimately distracting and detracts from the immersiveness of the game whenever the player hears half of the key sounds coming from their hands and not echoing from the room around them.
Additionally, the hearing impaired players might run into trouble during the few sections where sound is helpful or even essential to gameplay, for example when Link must follow the music through winding forest paths to find the Master Sword.
The motion-sensitive manual interface of the Wii is another feature with its own cons as well as pros; while the controllers allow more physical involvement and command over the myriad of items and long-range weapons than the Gamecube or N64 consoles could ever offer the Zelda franchise, it might make more sense and make gameplay more fun if the direction of the player's Wiimote motions actually corresponded with Link's swordstrokes.
Turning a critical eye to all three Prince of Persia titles , more flaws are naturally noticeable, perhaps in part because Ubisoft didn't quite have the option of following as popular a tried-and-true blueprint as Twilight Princess had to build off of. The Sands of Time that generated more than a little acclaim in its own right, was named Game of the Year in 2003, and is arguably the best designed title of the trilogy I've examined here, still leaves room for one or two improvements; the character models aren't exactly incredibly high polygon, although the textures and animations used do compensate for their limited realism. Besides that, the visuals are stunning, even by today's standards in my experience. The implicit challenge level of some boss battles could be questioned too, and the limited combat options definitely get repetitive after repeating the same 4 or 5 moves throughout the game.
Warrior Within elicited widespread criticism from many fans of the first game, namely for its sudden directional change and accompanying deviation from the more likeable, innocently arrogant Prince to make way for a darker, tougher, selfishly-motivated warrior. I enjoyed this game as much or more than the first one however, although I did notice a few new features that bothered me. Although the backtracking through previous environments perhaps was intended to be more immersive than the sometimes unnaturally linear gameplay of Sands, it pushed the explicit challenge of navigating the extensive environments with an entirely useless minimap menu to a level that was downright confusing and frustrating at times. The intentionally darker, almost obnoxiously moodier feel of the game overall would likely anger fans if they didn't take it as an entirely different game altogether, but even with such acceptance, the less-than stellar voice acting (Favorite line: "You BITCH!" Or was it "Who do you think you are??" - "I am the Prince of Persia!" No shit, Sherlock. Guess he still doesn't have a name) seemed cheesy and idiotic, a far cry from the charming banter in Sands of Time.
The Two Thrones seeks to combine the best of its two predecessors, returning to the simpler storyline and more linear gameplay of SoT with the visual vengeance and free-form combat system of WW. Its few flaws then, are naturally a decrease in breadth and content from the previous title, as well as more limited explicit and implicit challenges- it sought to replace the puzzles and strategy the first two titles possesed with more action and fighting, although even the exciting chariot races and boss battles seemed a little too easy.
Twilight Princess alone is hard to find fault with, besides the storyline which is initially similar to its predecessors that may be just as easily redundant as it is familiarly enjoyable to fans of the older Ocarina of Time and other Zelda games.
The limited audio of the game are definitly notable though, since the various charcters throughout Hyrule still appear voiceless as all dialogue and explanations are presented in text form only. The deisngers could easily have employed that capability but for whatever reason chose not to accompany the updated graphics and extended scope of the game with new in-game dialogue and voiceover additions as well. Even the sound capability that Nintendo added to the Wii controller is also a design flaw in my opinion- the sound quality is poor and annoyingly tinny, and while the idea of having Link's yells, sword clashes, and certain sound cues like the melodic opening of a door come from the controllers itself might be good in theory, the actual implementation of it is ultimately distracting and detracts from the immersiveness of the game whenever the player hears half of the key sounds coming from their hands and not echoing from the room around them.
Additionally, the hearing impaired players might run into trouble during the few sections where sound is helpful or even essential to gameplay, for example when Link must follow the music through winding forest paths to find the Master Sword.
The motion-sensitive manual interface of the Wii is another feature with its own cons as well as pros; while the controllers allow more physical involvement and command over the myriad of items and long-range weapons than the Gamecube or N64 consoles could ever offer the Zelda franchise, it might make more sense and make gameplay more fun if the direction of the player's Wiimote motions actually corresponded with Link's swordstrokes.
Turning a critical eye to all three Prince of Persia titles , more flaws are naturally noticeable, perhaps in part because Ubisoft didn't quite have the option of following as popular a tried-and-true blueprint as Twilight Princess had to build off of. The Sands of Time that generated more than a little acclaim in its own right, was named Game of the Year in 2003, and is arguably the best designed title of the trilogy I've examined here, still leaves room for one or two improvements; the character models aren't exactly incredibly high polygon, although the textures and animations used do compensate for their limited realism. Besides that, the visuals are stunning, even by today's standards in my experience. The implicit challenge level of some boss battles could be questioned too, and the limited combat options definitely get repetitive after repeating the same 4 or 5 moves throughout the game.
Warrior Within elicited widespread criticism from many fans of the first game, namely for its sudden directional change and accompanying deviation from the more likeable, innocently arrogant Prince to make way for a darker, tougher, selfishly-motivated warrior. I enjoyed this game as much or more than the first one however, although I did notice a few new features that bothered me. Although the backtracking through previous environments perhaps was intended to be more immersive than the sometimes unnaturally linear gameplay of Sands, it pushed the explicit challenge of navigating the extensive environments with an entirely useless minimap menu to a level that was downright confusing and frustrating at times. The intentionally darker, almost obnoxiously moodier feel of the game overall would likely anger fans if they didn't take it as an entirely different game altogether, but even with such acceptance, the less-than stellar voice acting (Favorite line: "You BITCH!" Or was it "Who do you think you are??" - "I am the Prince of Persia!" No shit, Sherlock. Guess he still doesn't have a name) seemed cheesy and idiotic, a far cry from the charming banter in Sands of Time.
The Two Thrones seeks to combine the best of its two predecessors, returning to the simpler storyline and more linear gameplay of SoT with the visual vengeance and free-form combat system of WW. Its few flaws then, are naturally a decrease in breadth and content from the previous title, as well as more limited explicit and implicit challenges- it sought to replace the puzzles and strategy the first two titles possesed with more action and fighting, although even the exciting chariot races and boss battles seemed a little too easy.
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