Simply dubbed Prince of Persia, our new hero is a mysterious tomb raider who stumbles upon a crumbling kingdom while trying to find his lost donkey, Farah. Joining forces with the Princess of the kingdom, Elika, they try to prevent the revival of the ancient God of Darkness, Ahriman, whose ‘corruption’ was released by Elika's father. Some will definitely appreciate how the story reverts to a classical storybook tale, reminiscent of Sands of Time. However, given the structure of the game, it may come off as a bit too simple for some, as there is not a lot of room for advancing. Basically, your main objective is repeated a little too often.
Odd couple. Great team.
There is a very large contrast between the last Prince and the new one, though you’re never explicitly told that he’s the "Prince". The last one was rather graceful and acrobatic, though also a whiny little sod, while the new one is tough, rugged, full of cheesy action one-liners and somewhat reflects the famous sci-fi rogue, Han Solo. Still, he’s a character that one can warm to very well. Where the Prince has often been a loner, he’s now stuck with Princess Elika and the clash in characters is rather obvious. However, it’s a relationship that ends up working very well and progresses nicely throughout the game, despite the structure.
Prince of Persia retains a lot of the conventions set by the original trilogy, while making some bold new moves of its own. Most obviously is the new visual direction, which has been pulled off in a rather stunning fashion. This is matched with a superb range of vision, a much more ambitious environmental setup and an amazing contrast between the cleansed landscape and the corrupted landscape. Apart from a few minor pauses from time to time, the game runs extremely fluidly as well. The visuals are backed up with some good voicing, vibrant sound effects and a soundtrack that soothingly reflects an Arabian Nights type theme.
Prince of Persia does not keep the point A to B structure of Sands of Time or Two Thrones, nor the open puzzle of Warrior Within. Instead, you have a temple which acts as a hub to four different areas. Within each of the four areas, you have five separate grounds that require cleansing from the corruption. Cleansing is done by making your way to the ‘fertile ground’ in each. This is easier said than done, as you have to make your way through some typical Prince platforming puzzles, that include wall running, column climbing and seemingly unreachable perilous jumps as well as a few new ones. Replacing the old mechanical traps, are bottomless caverns and the ‘corruption’ of Ahriman.
The cleansed grounds are so much nicer to look at.
As mentioned the Prince is not as graceful this time around, as demonstrated by his clawed glove that allows him to scrape down walls. Furthermore, Elika is no useless AI baggage. Aided by the magic of the God of Light, Ormazd, Elika assists the Prince in platforming, navigating and combat situations. So while it may be a little odd at first that the Prince is no longer working alone, they happen to make a pretty good team. In particular, there are a few interesting exchanges that you can trigger by pressing the L button/trigger.
In a unique and controversial twist, it is impossible for you to die in Prince of Persia. Some have argued that this makes the game too easy, while we found it to be something of a relief. Yes, having Elika save you everytime that you make a false jump or stuff up in combat does make the game easier than its predecessors. However, this choice allows for the game to flow, something which is necessary for a game that is about athletic and flowing movements. Particularly because it allows for you continue playing without constantly needing to restart. Furthermore, it has allowed the developers to create visually imposing obstacles that look like they are hard to pass. This is an area in which Mirror’s Edge failed. Furthermore, it doesn’t necessarily make the game easy either, as it still takes some effort and thought to get to where you need to go, though it does take out a lot of the frustration that usually is attached to such games.
However, this system is somewhat exposed in the combat. While it was refreshing to only have a handful of bosses and ‘generic’ enemies to fight, it was felt that the enemies were given too much ability in light of your advantages. The combat works and there are some nice combos to discover, though sometimes the enemies are too aggressive. For example, we had numerous instances of playing ‘deflect’ tennis, where our skilful blocks and deflects weren’t really rewarded. There are four bosses in the game, and each poses a unique challenge. However, fighting the boss happens before each cleansing so you’ll have to verse them five times each. While it does get somewhat repetitive, the structure of the game tries to help you by not needing you to verse them more than two times in a row. You can if you want to but that’s your choice.
Showing him who's boss.
Even though the Prince starts the game with all his general abilities available, to get to all the areas in the game you need to unlock four different powers of Ormazd. These allow you to ‘get’ to the fertile grounds. However, once you cleanse said grounds you are then required to collect light seeds, which are the currency for buying these powers. It is a bit strange that you figure out your way to the fertile grounds, only to then be required to once again trek these paths to do the collecting, but what this does do is allow you to appreciate the scale and design of the game, which shows to be a rather remarkable achievement and compelling for the whole 12-15 hour experience. However, like Assassin's Creed, this set up is likely to frustrate those who are looking to plough through the game, rather than going with the flow. Maybe if you didn't have to collect so many...
Prince of Persia makes a bold move with the new direction and a bold sacrifice of difficulty in favour of game flow. In our eyes, these moves have paid off handsomely, as the game mixes an audio/visual experience with a free-flowing, intricately designed experience that is entirely unique and thoroughly compelling. Some may dismiss the game as a glorified quick time event, or one that is too easy. However, never at any stage did the game feel ‘casual’, nor any worse off for it. For this kind of game that relies on flow and continuity, it happens to work extremely well that you never have to view a game over screen. Quite simply, Prince of Persia successfully mixes in a familiar experience with a new one, to provide a unique, compelling and thoroughly enjoyable final product.
. Cool review, I'll get around to playing it eventually.....
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