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 I will be the first to admit that my first experience with the Prince of Persia saga was with “The Sands of Time”. However, this game still holds a place as one of my favorite titles of last generation. The game had a style to its movement that I had never felt before. The protagonist felt unique and well developed. However, this feeling was soon crushed by the Emo version of the Prince from “Warrior Within”. This Prince was the prince who shopped at Hot Topic, sat in his room all day listening to My Chemical Romance and swore that he wasn’t cutting himself. Perhaps it was my hatred for this iteration of the character that made me so relieved when there was somewhat of a return to form in the final game in the “Sands of Time” trilogy, “The Two Thrones”. While clearly not the same character from the original game, the Prince felt somewhat normal and at least put away his Godsmack hoodie.
While the character may have changed, often times the gameplay felt the same and it was here that true frustration lay. Not only was the option to use the “sands of time” (an ability that allowed the prince to magically rewind the time to just before you made that stupid jump that you swore you could have made) available, but much of the time it was a necessity. More often than not, you would make small mistakes that would cost you dearly if you didn’t rewind your way through history. However, there was always much more frustration within the battle system of the games. Often times you would be thrown against 3 or 4 enemies at a time and combat was clearly not the games strongest suit.
Why is this history lesson so important? It is because if you go into Prince of Persia expecting many of the issues that plagued the series previously, you will be pleasantly surprised to see that the team from Ubisoft has done a fantastic job of fixing the core mechanics of the game. While this may sound strange, however, there are times when the game actually feels worse because these issues are not present.
Have your magical female companion throw you over the jump!
Prince of Persia acts as a fairly simple story. Boy meets girl. Girl turns out to have magical abilities. Girl’s father unleashes ancient evil God and now boy and girl must destroy ancient God’s corruption on the land, while battling his four generals. While it may seem like a fairly simple concept, however, the game is able to take advantages of the simplistic narrative in a multitude of ways. Firstly, the Prince, voiced by Nolan North of Uncharted” fame, and his female sidekick Elika have a strangely compelling bond. This bond is built through the various interactions the two characters have with each other. At any time during the game you can hit the L1 button and have Elika and the Prince have a conversation. This can lead to many moments of hilarity, including a certain game where one character must guess what the other one is looking at. It’s smaller interactions like this that make both the Prince and Elika feel unique.
The world within Prince of Persia is different from the previous iterations in the series, however, in that it is somewhat open-world. Here’s how it works: When you first start the game, there are 4 initial areas that you can travel to. When you defeat the “general” within each of the 4 areas, you then must use Elika’s magical abilities to heal the land (basically tap the triangle button as fast as you). You may then proceed into 16 smaller areas where you fight the exact same bosses again and heal the lands again, only to activate the “Black gate” and fight the general for the final time. You can tackle these areas in any order you want, except for the Black Gates, as they are all connected.
It is not just the dynamic between these two characters, however, that makes this game feel different. The art style of this game is, simply put, stunning. The character models all have a very hand-drawn look to them, despite the fact that they are in 3D. There is also a very stark contrast between “corrupted” lands and “healed” lands. The corrupted lands feel very dark and brooding, emitting a feeling of hopelessness. The healed lands, however, feel vibrant and alive. The contrast can only really be felt, however, when you are in a healed land that borders a corrupted land. It is here that you really see the beauty of the art style of this game.
The gameplay is fairly similar to previous 3D iterations of the Prince of Persia series. You must wall-run, wall-jump and generally do things that no sane human being would ever consider in order to reach your goals. However, this title in the series handles these actions in a fairly different fashion. To begin, there is no rewinding time like in the previous trilogy. Instead, you must use Elika in multiple ways to reach your goals.
The first way you will use Elika is simply to point you in the correct direction. Simply pushing Triangle will lead you to whatever point you have marked within your world map. It seems like a small detail, but there are times that you can get lost in the semi-open world environment. She will then become an actual weapon within battle and later you will activate more of her magic abilities, allowing for more options when you are wall running or wall jumping.
It is here that the game feels a little murky. When you finally unlock more of Elika’s abilities, you will then be able to activate various “power pads” on walls throughout the land. These powers can range from allowing you to run directly up walls (giving the game a feeling similar to the 3D Sonic games) or the ability to fly (similar to Super Mario Galaxy). The problem is that sometimes these powers don’t work as well as they should. If, for example, you use the pad that allows you to run up a wall, there will be times where you need to move quickly, but simply do not have the ability to. There will also be times where you may fly, but crash into a building you didn’t notice quickly enough.
It is these failures, however, that highlight the game’s main strength and, to some, its main flaw. It is physically impossible for the Prince to die. You may jump off a building, but Elika will swoop in and rescue you from your certain doom, putting you back on the exact spot where you were last standing on your own two feet. You may take 30 hits from an enemy sword, yet Elika will save you every time. This may cause contention to some, as it makes you feel as though there is no consequence to death. In reality, all this does is eliminate the “Game Over” screen; however, if you want to be punished for your mistakes, this may not be the game for you.
Elika, however, does not always work in your favor. In many ways, she gets in the way of fluid movements. Let me explain: in some misplaced sense to make the game feel more realistic, Elika acts like another physical being in the world. This means that if she is in your way, you must wait for her to slowly move out of your way. If she is between you and a jump, this can be extremely frustrating. In addition, any given time she may block your way when you are hanging on a wall. This means that you must wait for her to jump over or below you so you can travel in the right direction. It’s these little moments that break the flow and make the game feel slow.
As I mentioned earlier, fighting enemies was always a major pain. This game has simplified the fighting system to an almost ridiculous level. You will never fight more than one enemy at a time. When you do encounter an enemy outside of a boss battle, you will most likely have the opportunity to slay them before they even become a threat, as there is a few seconds when they are spawning into the world that if you strike, you prevent them from actually materializing.
When you do need to fight, however, you will find that the mechanics are tighter in some places, but much more lax in others. When you enter a fight, you are actually using separate mechanics from the running and platforming stages of the game. You then will use the 4 face buttons of your controller to perform certain attacks. Using the triangle, you will activate Elika’s magic abilities, using circle will activate your gauntlet, using square activates your power attack and the x button acts as a basic attack.
When you reach later portions of the game, enemies will actually use certain forms that can only be damaged by using a particular attack and this is where the game can become infuriating. There may be a time when you must use Elika’s magic attack. This would be fine if Elika had any decent range on her attacks. Instead, you must be about a foot and a half away from the monster. If you are not, then you will attempt to activate the attack, Elika will say, “I can’t attack from this distance” and the Prince’s character animation is such that he will be left vulnerable for an attack. The same does occur for other attacks and can be extremely frustrating when your enemies can use this time to regenerate their health.
As mentioned before, you do fight 4 boss characters about 6 times throughout the entire game. The Concubine, the Warrior, the Hunter and the Alchemist each reside in different areas that have their own unique look and feel to them. This creates a very iconic feel for the characters and makes you want to fight them.
It should be noted how clearly the ending is set-up to continue the story. In fact, there is a trophy you get for beating the game called, “To be continued…” clearly setting up a continuation of the story. What is a shame is that this game is clearly not the same sort of self-contained story that a game like “Sands of Time” was. While this may seem like a minor complaint, it seems like there should have been more effort made just in case Ubisoft decides to not make another game.
The largest flaw with Prince of Persia, aside from combat issues, is the fact that the same issues with repetition that occurred in Assassin’s Creed are still present. There are few variations in the gameplay and there are times that it can get somewhat boring. The game, however, keeps environments different enough and has enough story behind it to keep it fresh for quite some time.
I came into Prince of Persia wondering if this game would be as good as “Sands of Time”. What I came to discover is that, while they have similar gameplay elements, they are very separate games. Prince of Persia acts as a tremendous next-gen creation yet fails to deliver in some aspects that really do matter. Overall, Prince of Persia is a game you should experience. While there are issues, the game is superb in delivering excellent character interaction, a unique art style and the feeling that you are in this world. The flaws are there and for some those flaws will be enough to make them hate the game. Yet, for most, if they enjoyed previous iterations of the series, they will most likely enjoy this one as well.
Final Score: B+
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