Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia is the latest take on a classic franchise that predates to the original NES days. While the character has had many iterations over the years, perhaps his best was in Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time, for the original Xbox. While that game was almost enough to single handedly reinvigorate the platforming genre of video gaming, the subsequent sequels perhaps did just as much to hurt the genre as they did to promote it.  Not to say the sequels were horrible by any means, as stand alone games they are quite good. However, as is usually the case with follow ups to smash hit games, the ensuing sequels are never quite able to achieve the positive responses garnered by the original and wind up victim to additional criticism.

Fast forward to the current generation of consoles in which games have evolved to the point that First Person Shooters reign supreme. The days of the platforms are long gone. So much so that many would argue that the “trigger” button has replaced the “jump” button as the most universally recognized control input on the planet. Ubisoft Montreal brings back the Prince of Persia franchise with an all new Prince character with a fresh new universe and storyline to match.  How does this fare with today’s bloodthirsty kill hungry gaming community? 

GRAPHICS 10/10

Perhaps the most amazing thing about this game is the graphics.  PoP features a completely revamped art direction utilizing cell shaded graphics to give the seamless appearance that you are playing an actual cartoon rather than a real game.  The lack of a Heads up Display (HUD) also serves to increase the level of immersion into this new world, allowing the player to focus on the vastness and huge scope of the beautiful environments.  The game is without a doubt one of the most eye popping games to ever grace a console. 

I consider myself an avid fan of all genres of video games, however I can’t help but feel that I have somewhat graduated and progressed onward from platforming games.  Not that they are too easy or anything like that, but the quality of platforming offerrings on current gen systems have been lees than enticing. However, the graphics alone on this game alone were enough to make me want to go out and play it. 

STORY 6/10

The story is of the typical regurgitated “imprisoned villain somehow escapes and proceeds to corrupt the entire land” variety.While not entirely original by any means and highly predictable throughout, the story is barely enough to keep you plodding through the levels to find out how it all plays out. The biggest gripe I have is with the main characters. The prince, for lack of a better term, is a straight up a-hole. It makes me wonder who came up with the concept of his character and whether or not that person still has a desk over at Ubisoft.  The prince constantly spits horrible cliched one liners all with a Laguna Beach accent. This is slightly annoying at the beginning of the game, but hearing the same stuff after already enduring hours of it tends to bring out the disgruntled postal worker in me.  It got to the point that I actually didn’t care if he died or not as they both felt equally rewarding…but more on this later.

The other “main” character is your sidekick, Elika. Without giving too much of the “plot” away, Elika is a princess with magical powers who holds the key to purifying the corruption spread by the recently escaped main villain. The main villain is so crucial to the story line that I don’t even remember his name.  Elika is perhaps the single saving grace of the story. She follows the prince everywhere and is controlled by the player in certain situations. She definitely serves to detract attention from the Prince overall while making him seem a bit more likeable. (Rumor has it in order to increase this effect, Elika will be voiced by Sarah Palin in future PoP games.)  Overall, the story is nothing that hasn’t been done infinitely, with a slight twist in the ending but still nothing overly compelling.

GAMEPLAY 7/10

Here is the meat of the game that people will either love or despise with all of their being. While I can understand the concept of decreasing the difficulty of games in an attempt to cater to a broader audience, PoP takes this one step further by completely neutering the entire concept of risk in a video game. Traditionally, in most games when you screw something up, your character loses a life or a turn, whatever you want to call it. Bottom line, there is a definite penalty, usually “death”, that adds a sense of risk and urgency to a game. Prince of Persia has no deaths whatsoever. That’s right-none. Fall off the edge of a cliff? you won’t die. Get stabbed through the chest while you have no energy? you won’t die. Drown in toxic waste that should disintegrate your body? You won’t die.

How is this possible? Through the use of Elika, who is just as much a gameplay element as she is a character. Elika is equipped with various types of magic with different purposes, making her a virtual guardian angel of sorts . She helps you reach impossible ledges, guides your direction, and offers advice on how to progress. If you fall off of a ledge, her hand magically swoops down to grab you and fling you to safety. Even though she will take you to the checkpoint right before you fell, you still will not die. If you’re engaged in a boss fight and you have a sliver of health left and are about to be killed, she shows up and uses magic to blast the enemy away from you before they can deliver that final death blow. I know alot of people will argue that dying isnt the only way to fail at a game and that resetting to the previous checkpoint is penalty enough, but it just doesn’t work that way for me. The hardest time I had was that without death, there was aboslutely no sense of danger in this game. I would jump wrecklessly from ledge to ledge knowing that if my judgment was off, I would be caught by my sidekick and lifted to safety.

I appreciate the uniqueness of this new concept, yet I can’t get into it at all. It was not a game breaker for me, but it was still quite unmotivating. The sense of achievement is minimal.   For me, this resulted in the gameplay having a bit of an empty feeling. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of challenge in executing the jumps and maneuvers in this game and they definitely take some skill. My biggest problem is that it leaves so little up to the player in terms of accomplishment. You don’t pass an area because your twitch reflexes allowed you to react with lightning speed to get across a gap at the last minute. Rather, you passed an area because the game is programmed to have Elika catch you and propel you to safety.  At the most intense parts of the game, the controls boil down to little more than a button guessing mini game. Bosses are reduced to hitting the correct button when prompted as opposed to actively engaging, dodging, and attacking them under your own control. I just feel that in order to appeal to a wider audience they stripped the game down to nothing more than an interactive cartoon. While this may be great to some, it leaves many a hardcore gamer in the dust.

OVERALL 7/10

While the game definitely has some good things going for it, the flaws are hard to overlook. Perhaps the most disturbing part is that the flaws are actually intentional gameplay elements included by the developers. While previous PoP games had fairly high learning curves and required a high level of skill to be successful (think the Ninja Gaiden series with less killing, more platforming), this game seems to strip away the challenge and intensity that made the other games so great. You almost feel like you’re being led by the hand through the entire game. The question of “how can I pass this?” is replaced by “when will I pass this?” as success is guaranteed in this game, it is almost inevitable.  I can understand that people will love this game, I can’t help but feel that it could have been so much more.  The game reminds me of another high profile Ubisoft release around the same time last year, Assassin’s Creed. Both games have all the components to be incredible games, yet due to developer assumptions of what gamers would expect, both games wound up being simply average at best.  Definitely rent this to experience the unique art style of the game, however, I would highly suggest trying it out before purchasing.