Review: Prince of Persia

When the Prince first arrived on the scene back in 1989 on the Apple II few would have believed that a franchise was in the works when it had to go up against several other big name titles that year, including the original Sim City, Populous and even the Gameboy.   It took five years for a sequel to finally arrive and though it sold well the next game, an ambitious 3D entry, was a complete flop, filled with tons of glitches and some very troublesome controls.  When Prince of Persia 3D failed and the game’s creator felt that the series was over Ubisoft stepped up to the plate and, after negotiating a license deal, 2003 yielded us a reimagining of the POP franchise: The Sands of Time.  This 3D Price title was exactly what fans were frothing at the mouth for and its two sequels kept players coming back for more.  Fans have been very apprehensive when it comes to the latest title in the series as it bears no subtitle nor almost any relation to the Sands of Time series.  Fans, I’m here to say that there’s no need to fret.

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Like Sands Through the Hourglass...

The game follows the Prince (though neither his name nor reason for his title is revealed) on a particularly bad day.  After having lost his donkey in the desert, both a motivation as well as the biggest running gag of the game, the Prince finds Elika, a princess of a nearby temple that keeps the evil god Ahriman imprisoned.  Naturally, through a fit of misguided parental feelings, Elika’s father kills the Tree of Life, leading to Ahriman’s freedom and eventual corruption of the entire kingdom.  The Prince and Elika, brought together by fate, depart on a quest to put the evil god back behind bars while trying to come to terms with the father’s corruption.

Prince of Persia is a very charming game on all fronts, none the least of which is the development of the story, mostly told through quick in-game cutscenes and dialog between Elika and the Prince.  The prince, with his smarminess and Elika’s passion for the restoration of order lead to some very intuitive, smart, and down right funny conversations.  The story stands out amongst the crowd, giving us something you don’t expect to find at every turn.  It does have a few standard clichés but what is a certainty is that, once you learn more about Elika and her father’s history, you really begin to feel for the characters.  The ending is quite a surprise and gives the feeling that a second game is all but unnecessary as questions are left unanswered.  The next game in this series will have a lot to live up to when it rolls around.

Float Like a Butterfly

The Prince of Persia franchise has always been a staple of the hack-and-slash genre since Ubisoft gave us The Sands of Time in 2003.  Swift combat, tight controls, and ingenuitive exploration have always been trademarks of the series and this latest entry does not disappoint.  The first point of order is the new open world that players get to explore.  The previous entries in the POP franchise have always involved linear levels.  Prince of Persia this time around discards that tried and true method with the ability to travel anywhere they wish within the realm of the kingdom.  Well, kinda.  While it is true that the game never forces you to get to a location by going a specific route the various routes never force you to stick to the path until you reach an intersection.  The world may seem like it is really large and open but the grim reality is that, unlike the open nature gameplay that players expected to find from the same developer as Assassin’s Creed, the game almost all of the time is nothing but corridor crawling at its finest.

The main objective in the game, other than putting a stop to Ahriman, is healing the Fertile Grounds, twenty unique locations throughout the kingdom that have been corrupted by the evil god.  Each Fertile Ground is also the site of a miniboss fight in which players fight the particular boss of that section of the world any number of times depending on the level being played.  The Fertile Grounds, oddly almost anywhere but actually located on the ground, are always an entertaining romp to get to but, once healed, leave very little incentive for the player to return to.  Players can open the map menu and warp to any healed Fertile Ground available, which is handy when heading off to finally kill a boss.  However this feature is discouraged by the game’s Light Seed system.

The Light Seeds are the necessary collectable of Prince of Persia and is with absolute certainty the most tedious part of the game.  After having healed a Fertile Ground the path the player took to get to it becomes covered in them which unfortunately is where the game throws in mandatory backtracking.  In order to gain news powers and in turn access other levels throughout the world, Elika and the Prince must collect specific amounts of Light Seeds, though the order in which you unlock these powers is entirely up to the player.  It is understandable that Ubisoft wanted to expand the play time by incorporating the backtracking but it would have been more enjoyable if Light Seeds were more common and didn’t require as many to unlock new powers.

Sting Like a Bee

Combat is by far the most enjoyable part of Prince of Persia, though it couldn’t be any more different from Sands of Time.  Rather than very frequent fights against dozens upon dozens of enemies, POP changes things up by having very few fights against but a handful of enemies during each level.  Players can even prevent fights by attacking the enemy’s spawn point before they arrive on the scene.  It would have been more desirable though to have fights come more often than only a couple of times per level as the combat system, while simple, is quite fun.  Built entirely around a simple combo system, each face button corresponds to a different type of attack with the end result being easy to remember combos, though it isn’t very accommodating to button mashers.  The combo system is all about timing so it is easy to break a combo but if you get your timing right with what’s going on on screen then you’re going to win every single battle you come upon.

One new addition to Prince of Persia is something the series has never really considered: a full time partner.  Elika serves more than just a plot motivator; she helps out in almost every aspect of the game.  When traversing the world she uses her powers in various ways, including giving the Prince extra air time while leaping as well as activating magical pads that wouldn’t be available for use otherwise.  In combat she serves as a magical attack, lunging off the Prince’s back and assaulting the enemy, albeit not as strong as the Prince’s sword.  What makes Elika unique among co-op partners is that she makes it entirely impossible to fail or die.  Fall in battle?  She uses her powers to get you back on your feet.  Miscalculate a jump?  Elika pulls you to safety.  While this is a smart feature to help encourage playthrough it doesn’t alleviate the stress as well as it should.  Sure it helps when you make a mistake and doesn’t force you to go through a loading screen but when you mess it on one of the games long climbing and grappling sequences and are forced to restart it entirely it does tend to annoy.  Overall though Elika is a smart addition to a game filled with hundreds of potential pitfalls.

Another Day at the Beach

Prince of Persia is, for all intents and purposes, a graphical powerhouse.  Built on the same engine as Assassin’s Creed and the recent Shaun White Snowboarding game, POP trades in large, realistic towns and good looking white powder (no, not cocaine) in return for an interesting cel-shaded environment with little to no denizens at all throughout the game.  As if taking design hints from other games, POP looks very much like a cross between Ubisoft’s recent Naruto games and Capcom’s Okami.  Every level has a corrupt and pure look with an accompanying real-time transition between the two once a Fertile Ground is healed.  While both are just fine looking it’s easy to nitpick about a few of the textures, but that’s neither here nor there.  The character design, though sparse in number, is well done and compliments the vibrant colors of the cel-shading very well.  Lip syncing is spot on and match the charismatic nature of the characters.  Stability is never really an issue as the game runs at a very smooth framerate with no crashes and almost no slowdown.

The audio design is very well done.  While the voices for the Prince and Elika don’t exactly reflect the character design the voices do fit the script quite well.  Sound effects are well timed and are unique enough to not be recycled far too often.  The music is very sweeping and does an excellent job motivating you toward your objective.  It is also pretty dynamic and reflects the action on screen quite well.

Dashing Through the Sand

The past three months have been devastating to gamers’ wallets, with must have title after title arriving on store shelves with absolutely no pity being bestowed upon us.  Thankfully the onslaught has finally come to an end and Prince of Persia serves as a great title to round out the entire lot.  With an interesting storyline, a bright and colorful world to explore, and hours upon hours of platforming action, there’s very little not to like about the latest title in this long running franchise.