Prince of Persia

for a video version of this review, check http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVyzF6vIOBA

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The Prince of Persia series became big when The Sands Of Time was released. Mixing impossible acrobatics with combat and time travel, the sands of time was known as one of the best in the series. After not as praised sequels, ubisoft decided to try out a new formula, and the result is this game, simply named Prince of Persia.

 

On Prince of Persia, you control the prince, which, by the way, isn't really a prince, and you never find out his real name. He's lost in a sandstorm looking for his donkey when he first meets this game's partner, a princess named Elika, who’s being chased by her father’s guards. After a few chases and combats that work as a tutorial, you'll see Elika’s father unleash the dark god Ahriman right in front of you.

but... but ellie, i'm doing it for you!

To put Ahriman back to wherever he was trapped inside, you must travel through the corrupted lands without touching the deadly goo called “corruption”, defeat their guardians, known as “the corrupted”, and purify the area. You'll also have to collect shiny orbs named “Light Seeds”, that allow you to unlock four special powers for Elika. At first, her only use out of battle is to give you a double jump, but as you unlock these abilities, you'll be able to fly, leap through the air and even sprint on walls and ceilings.

 

The controls are pretty sharp and easy to learn. You have the movement keys; the acrobatic button, which includes jump and dodge; the Elika button, which does everything related to Elika, from the double jump and the special powers to a GPS-like power that helps you find out how to get to the place you want; the gauntlet button, which uses the prince's gauntlet for climbing, swinging and throwing enemies in the air; the sword button; and the defense button, which also works as the button to drop down.

 

The acrobatics are impressive to see and incredibly fun to perform, and the way the prince moves is so smooth it actually looks like defying gravity and running through ceilings is actually possible. Rarely will you see a situation where the controls get in your way.

wait, you mean you can't? OH SH**

Still talking about the acrobatics, the freedom the game gives you to improvise is amazing. Unlike some games *cough* uncharted 2 *cough*, if you look at something, and if you could technically reach that something within the controls' limits, then you can reach it. There's usually a way that is the main one to be followed, but nothing forbids you to go crazy and invent some insane move that will also work. Actually, sometimes, when you miss during an acrobatic, you'll have to improvise in order to survive.

 

Talking about survival, Prince of Persia came up with an interesting way to avoid that annoying game over screen. Every time you “die” in battle or miss a deadly acrobatic, Elika will come to your aid. In case of the combat, the time she takes to protect you and bring you back is used by the enemy to recover itself. They don't necessarily recover it all, but it's enough to give the game a good challenge. If you fall down to your death during an acrobatic, Elika will pull you back to the last stable platform you stepped on. This not only gives you more freedom to risk your life doing crazy acrobatics, but avoids the frustration of taking one minute to get off the game over screen and try that 2 minutes acrobatic again. Even if you touch corruption, Elika will pull you back.

"can you PLEASE stop poking the goo all the time?"

The combat has a pretty interesting feature: you have the attack buttons (sword, gauntlet, acrobatic and magic) and the defense button. With the defense button you can block or try a parrying move that gives you the chance to counter. With the four attack buttons, you can come up with practically any combo you can think of, from the simple hack and slash with the sword to something more complex.

 

Unfortunately, the combat is where the game fails. It is incredibly fun to fight and create combos, but other than the bosses, the fights are short, since whenever the enemy gets close to a wall or an edge, you instantly do a finishing move, and since the battles most of the time take place on a small arena, you won't even have the time to finish your first combo. The other problem with the combat is Elika. She never gets in your way during the whole game, but when it comes to combat, she's way too specific on how close you must be to the foe to strike. If you are too far (which usually means just a few steps from sword's reach), she'll do the whole “leap on your back and prepare to jump” animation just to say “get closer!”, and all this time wasted usually means a blade in the face. Your face.

 

There's also a problem with the flying power. It basically keep throwing things in your face at random without warning, and since you're flying and spinning all the time, sometimes it's hard to find out how you're supposed to dodge. Also, they're usually long and boring, so if you don't see that last wall, you'll have to do it all over again, and you will regret it.

"RIGHT, RIGHT! i mean, LEFT! nononono, UP! no, do-- oh, screw that"

The graphics are obviously great. The mix between cel-shading and realism creates beautiful scenarios, and you'll never get tired of walking through them. There's actually a way to warp through purified lands, but I honestly never used it. Monkeying my way through is always more enjoyable. The sound is good, but I always have the impression that the game's soundtrack is composed of one song only. It doesn't feel repetitive, though. It's just something to listen while you're playing around, looking for light seeds.

 

My final word on the game is: play it. Some people might say the “no game over” makes the game easy, but I don't know since when challenge's measured by number of game over screens. But it's true, though, that the most challenging moments in the game aren't too challenging, so it's unlikely that you'll ever get stuck in the game. Collecting light seeds might sound like just another fetch quest with backtracking, but since it forces you to go to places that you didn't go when you had to purify the land, and some of them are in pretty tricky places, it doesn't feel like plain backtracking. It's the kind of game everyone needs to try out at least once.