8 Great Games That Said F**k You To The Player

7. Prince of Persia (2008)

Prince No, it€™s not here as a f**k you for being a reboot of a series which came frustratingly close to perfection, nor due to the fact that the Prince couldn€™t actually die throughout the game. It€™s here because of what happened at the end of the game. Throughout the game, the Prince teams up with a princess €“ Elika €“ to help rid her kingdom of the evil which seems to have taken up residence there. So far, so good €“ there€™s plenty of fun, some good game mechanics and some witty repartee as befitting a Prince of Persia game. Caught up in the game€™s gorgeous visuals, we enjoyed ourselves, even if our stay in Elika€™s kingdom was overly brief. Then came the end, and we were confronted with the evil god €“ Ahriman €“ who was behind all the darkness we€™d fought, and it was revealed that the only way he could be beaten was for Elika to sacrifice herself. It€™s a gut punch to the player when they find this out, and even more so when she dies, without compromises or twists €“ she doesn€™t avoid her fate, and is indeed as dead as dead can be. For many players this was already ridiculous, as it was a brutally cruel way to resolve the game€™s main conflict. Yet what made it worse is that it then became the Prince€™s unavoidable destiny to revive her at the cost of everything you€™d done so far. To revive Elika, the prince had to re-release the evil god, and the last visual we get is of him enveloping the world. It was a bit of a kick in the crotch for any gamer, made worse by making it clear they had just wasted around half a day€™s worth of hours in effort only to find out everything they€™d done was completely useless. Thanks, game.
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Durham University graduate and qualified sports journalist. Very good at sitting down and watching things. Can multi-task this with playing computer games. Football Manager addict who has taken Shrewsbury Town to the summit of the Premier League. You can follow me at @Ed_OwenUK, if you like ramblings about Newcastle United and A Place in the Sun. If you don't, I don't know what I can do for you.