Everything that made the first game special is lost here. This is where Ubisoft first tried to take their popular franchises and edge them up in hopes that it would lead to more sales. And those praising this game really latched on to that edginess. But this game is edgy just for the sake of being edgy. It has nothing to say and the relatable likeable Prince is now replaced with an edgelord who kills indescriminatly because of a lack of sleep and a never ending quest to escape the Dahaka and survive. I will admit that the story here does make sense in context but they could have done so much more with it. Instead it's an excuse to make the Prince bland and edgy. This game was made for the 14 year old edgelord who thinks nothing gets any cooler than blood and heavy metal music. And while there's nothing inherently wrong with that the entire experience comes off as souless and a way to appeal to an older demographic in the most surface level way possible. The combat in the first game wasn't great and I guess it's better here now that you have combos? My problem with the combat in this game is the enemies take too many hits and block way too much. They're also thrown at you at just about every platform you jump to slowing down the flow of the platforming and the game in general. In fact this game isn't too long and if you cut out the padding from the combat encounters and the cheap deaths in the Dahaka chases you could probably run through this in 4 hours or less. The breath and soul of this game can be surmised by running away from a big scary monster while Godsmack's "I Stand Alone" instrumental blares in the background. They course corrected with the final game bringing back the original Prince voice actor and making it more like the first game. I think that tells you what you need to know about how this one was recieved and its legacy.
