Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.... the sewers are really cool!

When I finally got to a bridge battle where I have to square off against a person that I was told up to this point is an ally I was a bit worried because I was pretty far from my last save point and I didn't have any healing potions left. The battle was pretty easy though and it was one of those tricky things where you are actually supposed to lose and it isn't possible for you to win even if you never get hit.

Haha! You got me game!

Well after that you get thrown off a bridge and end up in an underground cavern of sorts that is just called the "sewer" or The Depths and this is where those anti-poison medallians you've been hanging onto all this time come in handy and I suppose I should have known that this was coming.

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Obviously the poison elements are green because that is video game law but there is also an eerie element of general lack of music and it is very dark. So dark in fact that I had to turn off the lights in my living room because I was struggling to see the enemies on my screen. At one point some little something or other comes and walks along with you in order to illuminate just the area in which you are standing so you can no longer look above, below, or ahead of you to scout to a certain degree.

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It creates a sort of survival horror aspect to it and while I would be pissed off if the entire game was like this, I do like that it lasted for just a short while.

The enemies in here at first seem like something that is really tough to overcome, but then once you figure out that the only thing you have to do is warp behind them and then they go down really easy, they don't pose much of a threat anymore from that point forward.

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This gigantic SOB though, I only had to do one lunge at him with my dash move to realize that this giant shield he's got going on there prevents any of that warp-behind business. Try it an he whallops you across the room. haha. It became evident to me that I do not possess a particular skill or item that is required to get past it so instead I just ran away, which is something that you frequently have to do in this game. If you try to attack something and nothing is getting through, there is a really good chance that this is must a moving version of the colored doors in Metroid... you can't get past it yet so just wait and maybe come back later.

Let me briefly whinge about something in this game because you know it is impossible for me to praise something without finding a fault in it as well. Sometimes when you do finally get past these things to an area behind them you will be elated when you see a chest sitting in a corner there.

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All of these chests that I have encountered save one of them have contained some sort of collectible or skin and I'm the sort of gamer that doesn't give two shits about that sort of thing. I would rather the chest simply contain money or something I can actually use in the game. I really do not care about collectibles at all unless they are working towards some sort of higher, in-game reward.

I can't find an image of it but there is this "ghost" sort of enemy that folows you and you cannot hurt it outside of very certain situations. It will cast projectiles at you and also appear and then immediately strike you. If you want to kill this thing, well, good luck! I have killed a few of them but it was only due to dumb luck. Most of your strikes towards it go right through it and just gives it time to cast a spell that is going to throw you across the room or worse, down to the bottom of whatever platforming section you are attempting at the time.

I call these kinds of enemies in any game I encounter them in "magic bullshit GO!" enemies and while I suppose they serve there purpose of making the levels more difficult, I do find it completely full of crap that you don't have any sort of real way of dispatching them other than "dumb luck". They are there to annoy you and make platforming more difficult and boy do they ever accomplish this goal.

One aspect of the Depths or the Sewers that I initially hated but grew to appreciate was that you temporarily do not have a map because someone has taken your seer stone or whatever it is called that enables you to have an overview of the world.

At first this is frustrating but for a while there it made exploration more exciting and I actually did a lot more exploring than I think I would have otherwise.

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I also like that I found my first optional boss while down there. you do not have to fight this guy and if you lose to him you have the option of leaving the area back to the last Wak Wak tree (save point). You don't have to fight it at all and the award it gives you afterwards is also an optional part of the game.

This kind of reminds me of the plethora of optional bosses they had in my favorite game of all time, Hollow Knight. Of all the bosses in that game I think only a handful of them are actually necessary to make it to the end and I think Ubisoft took a page out of that playbook and I applaud them for doing so.

This is a fantastic game ya'll. I know there is a lot of hate towards Ubisoft right now but in the end I have played a bunch of games by them that I really enjoyed so while I am not going to buy "Shadows" and was never going to anyway, I hope the company can survive because let's be honest here, aside from some very strange narrative decisions they have made in the past, they have made some seriously strong and quality games: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is definitely one of them