Prince of Persia
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Prince of Persia
Ubisoft Montreal took a great risk in this re-invention of the beloved Prince of Persia franchise. Much like what Sands of Time did for Jordan Mechner’s PC classic, Ubisoft tried to give players a game that was both unique and familiar. Taking only the best elements from various titles within the franchise, Ubisoft gave us an entirely new Prince and a female sidekick, Elika. Fans of the series will be quick to compare the game to Sands of Time and unfortunately that is the last thing players should do when approaching this new title. You will have to approach it as a new experience – only then will you fully appreciate the new Prince of Persia.
Gameplay
Stuck in a sandstorm, searching for his lost donkey; the Prince (who is more rogue-like than he is princely) finds himself transported to another land where he runs into Elika. Elika is the princess of a clan that has, for generations, protected and guarded the Tree of Life and the temple that enshrines it. After saving Elika from some would be assailants, the Prince follows her to the Temple. They arrive just in time to see Elika’s father free the dark god Ahriman, who was imprisoned by his brother Ormazd, the god of light. An unlikely hero (and an unwilling one at first), the prince agrees to help Elika (who wouldn’t help this beautiful, barefoot maiden? ) magically heal corrupted fertile grounds surrounding the temple and collect seeds of light in an attempt to hold back the corruption of the dark god. Thus begins your adventure.
The focus of Prince of Persia’s gameplay remains in acrobatic platforming. Elika is eternally at your side which offers a unique twist to the dynamic motion of the Prince. If you need help during a jump, she’s there to give you that extra boost in mid-air. Miss a jump, again she’s there to pluck you from the fall, returning you safely to the last ledge you leaped off from. The Prince and Elika dance around each other with graceful ease and she quickly becomes an integral part of all your actions. Whether it’s using her weight as a counter balance to get around her on a small beam (think teeter-totter), or lightly tossing her from side to side while hanging from the wall – she is your life line and the eternal “do-over” mechanic, instead of actually dying in game, Elika saves you. She is an integral part of the game’s action, so much so that even when she’s tied up and unconscious, she still manages to save you from dying. This little design flaw humoured us and we’re sure it will humour you too; but more importantly is that without Elika, this game would have become boring – fast. In fact, her ability to save you from certain death reminds me of the prince’s ability to rewind time in Sands of Time. It was also nice and refreshing that she wasn’t simply a helpless maiden in distress but a strong, able female who can hold her own in a fight (we are glad to see the breaking down of old stereotypes).
The game’s combat has a cinematic style where combos allow players to string various moves together in a seamless, flowing action. The combat system is simple yet elegant. There are 4 different types of combo chains which are determined by which type of attack you start with and each face button represents one of these attacks: sword, aerial, grip/lift and Elika (magic attack). For example, the player can start an attack combo with a lift followed by a sword attack and then finished with Elika sweeping in with her magic. The attack sequence is all up to the player and there are many sequences to experiment with. Players will need to make good use of their environment and respond properly to the enemies special stances in puzzle-like fashion to succeed. Players new to the game will find the helpful onscreen prompts, such as when to block, a welcome sight; however more advanced players will wish for a way to turn these off, upping the difficulty level. Combat is not a priority in the game, and we felt that this helped to emphasize the strong story-element that gave players a feeling of isolation within the world. We would have liked to have seen more combat within the game, but it is easy understand that Ubisoft made the decision to sacrifice combat for an engrossing story and atmosphere.
Speaking of puzzles, they make a triumphant return in Prince of Persia. Whether it’s gathering light seeds from impossible areas or finding your way from place to place or fighting one of the four bosses, the entire environment plays out as one huge puzzle playground. It takes some thought to figure out how to manipulate your surroundings to make good use of the duo’s abilities since the game not only requires precision in combat but also in the timing of its acrobatics. There are more concrete puzzles as well; turning levers to manipulate and open up new pathways provides a challenge. We liked that the game doesn’t require you to be a “completionist” to finish the game; if an area seems too difficult, you can easily move on and still see the game’s end.
We can’t continue without mentioning the camera. Where so many games couldn’t give us decent camera mechanics, Prince of Persia features a fluid, action oriented camera that never seems to fails us. Whether swinging around the corner or embroiled in a hard fought battle, the camera keeps us locked in on the action as it happens. A minor issue we noticed is if you have an area straight above you, the camera would not allow you to look in that direction. While a mild inconvenience, it gave us an excuse to fly, jump and zoom around the landscape to obtain the proper camera vantage point – and we liked having an excuse to run around in this beautiful world.
We were pleasantly surprised with this reboot of the Prince of Persia franchise, especially after inferior titles like Two Thrones and Warrior Within; however, this doesn’t mean that we didn’t see a few problems. The gameplay is extremely repetitive and with at least 24 zones, we found it irritating that we couldn’t do more within them. We were also frustrated at the lack of bosses within the game, there are only four and you will see them over and over again. Even worse, it seemed that we could only injure them until the final fight. Perhaps that was Ubisoft’s intention, to create an addiction to the game, causing us to return in hopes of victory. Also the game screams for adjustable difficulty settings. We understand that the developers wanted to attract more casual gamers to the game but the rest of us will feel little left out. The acrobatics are by far the most entertaining part of the game; but hardcore gamers (and even those in-between) may find themselves bored after a short while.
Graphics & Sounds
Prince of Persia looks great; believe the hype folks, this is a beautiful game. The cel-shaded graphics mixed with the overall art direction and lush enviroments makes this game extremely gorgeous. One of the nicer aspects about the environments was the way in which it interacts with you; corruption splattered on the walls, floors and ceilings will strain to get their claws on you and minions are animated within walls to block and stifle your movement. This forces you to be patient and time your acrobatics accordingly. Although we did see some minor (really minor) texture tearing and some collision problems, the overall visuals are some of the nicest we’ve seen in a while. While many people questioned why Ubisoft decided to go in this unique direction, we can’t imagine seeing any other visual style applied.
In terms of the sound, they are on par with the visuals; swords clashing, the Prince’s claw scraping, corrupted creatures screaming, environmental sounds, everything makes it great. The game’s soundtrack is also very effective and fits with the overall presentation. We have to give credit to Ubisoft for trying something new with a humorous, sarcastic Prince; it opens the game to a newer and wider audience. However, hardcore gamers and fans of the series may be turned off by this. We wondered why the Prince was the only person without a Persian accent, while Elika had a border-line accent herself, we had to ask if the upcoming movie with Jake Gyllenhaal had something to do with the Americanization of the Prince. It seems that there was a lot of dialog recorded to make sure you talk with Elika as much as possible so you can find out more about the world you’ll be exploring and the background story of the game. In fact there’s so much dialog that often the Prince seems to be talking or muttering to himself and it’s these pieces that felt a little cheesy since they didn’t add anything new to the story or even humorous banter between Elika and the Prince.
Value
The Prince of Persia experience could easily be wrapped up in 15 hours which is very good for a platform action/adventure game. Completionists will enjoy trying to find all the light seeds and unlocking all the areas possible since achievements and trophies can be obtained by doing so. Overall, this is the kind of game where once you’re done you could easily pick it up later and give it another play through just for the fun of it. Plus, the stunnig artistic direction of the game puts it in the “keep it in your collection” category of games such as Okami, Bioshock and Shadow of the Colossus, to name a few.
Conclusion
Ubisoft Montréal took an enormous risk by taking a whole new direction with this new Prince of Persia. Although the final product could have included greater difficulty and more emphasis on combat for the non-casual crowd; we can safely say that the risk was indeed worth it. Only Ubisoft knows how to push the envelope even further for the next Prince of Persia game…and we know they can. We look forward to the next installment.Pros
+ Acrobatic mechanics well executed and fun
+ Cel-shading graphics pay off, mind-blowing art direction
+ Elika adds an interesting twist to the gameplay
+ Breathtaking environments, character animations are great
+ Interactive combat moves, cinematic style
+ Camera follows the action, moves very well
+ Puzzles return to add an interesting gameplay detail
Cons
- Game is very easy
- Combat less present this time around
- Very, very, very repetitive
- The Prince’s humour might be too much for some
- Game screams for a difficulty setting
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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