Prince of Persia
Prince of Persia first made its way into our lives back in 1989. It was a a nice little side scroller and kicked some ace for its time. It was all about timing your jumps just right and watching out for traps along the way. Ubisoft is back at it again with their interpretation of this classic game but this time has taken the series in a new direction both artistically and in regards to its game play elements.
The story revolves around a very American sounding character who wishes to remain nameless. One second he's looking for his pet donkey in a sandstorm, the next he's doing triple back flips off of flat mountains and mingling with a princess by the name of Elika. Elikas is running away from her crazy ass daddy and you decide to tag along for the ride. After a brief in game tutorial of how to prance about like a prince, you end up in a temple housing the tree of life. Elikas father appears again and chops the tree down, in turn releasing the evil god Arhiman. Ahriman proceeds to corrupt the landscape all around as any recently released evil god would do.
You now have to make your way through each area in order to restore the lands by reaching their fertile grounds. You must collect light seeds in order open up some of Elikas abilities that allow you to reach areas that were once inaccessible. Once you open these special plates it really opens up the level design and allows you to see how much time and effort was put into this game. Green, Red, Blue and Yellow plates allow you to scale, fly and fling around the massive levels in an exhilarating cinematic style that is pleasing in every way.
I must say that Ubisoft has put together one fine ass looking game. They have decided to take the cel shading approach to its design and this really gives the franchise a great new look and certainly differentiates it from its previous installments. The world you play in is one massive stage that is beautifully crafted and all interconnected. You can simply navigate your way to the next area or use the warp option on your map. It's great to have everything all set up this way as it gives you the option to constantly explore without any load times in between. On the other hand, if you want to go directly to an already explored territory, you can simply warp over and avoid the lengthy trip. You would be doing yourself a disservice as simply seeing this game is a privilege all on it's own. Colours are vivid and animations are silky smooth. Backgrounds are lush and the detail is perfect. The graphics are just a pleasure to take in as you make your way around the massive levels.
Were the classic game had a perfect ratio of difficulty compared to reward, the remake had very little to say in regards to difficulty. Once you get a sense of how the levels are laid out, game play very quickly becomes an automated process when playing this game. You'll see scratch marks on a wall every so often and guess what.....that means you either run across or climb vertically depending on what direction they're leading to. This is just a small example but it really takes away from the discovery aspect that has a much higher reward. You'll pull off the most incredible looking acrobatic acts but will feel robbed seeing as how you only pressed the same buttons a couple of times. You'll find yourself at times just mindlessly going through the motions as you progress through the game on auto pilot. It's not exactly a bad thing and without it, the game would be impossibly hard. I just feel that it somewhat takes away from the players experience of discovery.
There are of course some parts were you have to tap into that Grey matter of yours in order to make it to the next obstacle. If you happen to screw it all up, don't worry, Ubisoft forgot to turn "god mode" off. Every time you don't quite make a jump or hit the wrong button at the wrong time, Elika swoops in and saves the day by dropping you off at the last place you were standing. This even applies to enemy battles. You don't have a life meter of any sorts and you really can't go wrong. The enemy gains a bit of life back and that's pretty much it. All of this means that this game is pretty damn easy. Even though PoP is pretty tame, the overall experience is so gratifying, it doesn't even matter. Hard core gamers may be a little off put by this but for the casual gamer out there, it's just right.
When Ubisoft took hold of the reigns of this series, they created amazing levels with puzzle solving and exploration elements. When they released its sequel, Warrior Within, they beefed up the fighting system by having swarms of bad guys coming at you at once, pulling of devastating combos while taking them out. Prince of Persia is now back to its immense level design coupled with intricate obstacles between point A and B. Fighting is now done on a one-on-one basis requiring you to pull of certain combos or quick time event sequences in order take your opponent down. The battles can get very repetitive and at times last way longer then you'd like. You only really face about 5 different types of bad guys including corrupted enemies along with bosses you will face several times over the course of a section.
Overall I'd definitely suggest that everyone gives this game a try. It's a ton of fun pulling off moves and either ascending or descending to the next fertile ground even though it doesn't take much to do so. Its scope is massive and is an extremely polished game. Elika is a great addition to the game and does not get in the way at all. The main character is a bit of a douche bag but you get over it. Here's a quote from the game "Yeah, keep praying, it's very generous of you to risk my life for your god!" He also makes off the wall comments about her weight and bitches and moans about how tight she's grabbing on to him while hanging off of a sheer cliff 100 hundreds of feet above the ground. This was an attempt at humour but unfortunately comes across as being more annoying than anything.
Other than the easy game play and annoying main character, this game is a gem. A definite must try just to experience the cinematic scope of this beautifully crafted game.
