Now with that story arc closed and the power of the current generation systems, Ubisoft Montreal once again is out to exceed fans expectations with a new series but will they succeed?  We review Prince of Persia for the Xbox 360 from Ubisoft.

Prince of Persia is a classic old franchise that is nearly 2 decades old. Its first release was in 1989 on the Apple II but was quickly ported to a myriad of other platforms, including consoles like NES. In the next decade came Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame and Prince of Persia 3D. The latter was the series first foray into the three dimensional realm and didn’t turn out as well as the previous games. Then Ubisoft acquired the rights to the franchise and popped out a little known game called Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and they haven’t turned back yet. The game garnered such a response that it became a trilogy and could possibly be turned into the first good movie based on a videogame. Now with that story arc closed and the power of the current generation systems, Ubisoft Montreal once again is out to exceed fans expectations with a new series but will they succeed?

You start the game as a nameless adventurer fighting through a sand storm looking for his donkey when he falls onto Elika, who is running from several guards. You chase her through the cliffs and embankments helping her escape and getting into the Ahuran temple. Upon reaching the Tree of Life, Elika’s dad chops it down with a single swipe of his sword and unleashed the powerful god named Ahriman upon the lands. What color existed in the land has been swept away to mere grey. From here the choice is yours to purify the lands. A generic beginning but the story gets fleshed out through an innovative conversation system where you can strike up conversation with Elika at any time. From beginning to end the conversations between Elika and you work marvelously from comical to serious. The facial expressions and voice acting pull through very well. The back story is rich and deep but this story arc is quite simple and I would’ve liked a little more.

The gameplay is quite simple and always follows the same pattern. Go to a corrupted area, travel to the fertile grounds, fight the boss, heal the area, collect light seeds and move onto the next area. Getting around is quite easy, you can jump, run on walls, and use the environment to get to your destination. Elika comes in when one of those jumps fails. She saves you and brings you back to where you fell from. The mechanic works very well but watching the same save sequence over and over may get annoying if you keep failing. Also the controls work pretty well and you can get a nice sense of flow which has been popularized by Mirrors Edge. When you’re doing well you know it and when you’re doing bad, you definitely know it. Some minor control issues though do exist though, when you’re grasping on columns it’s hard to adjust your position to jump and since running along a wall or up a wall is gesture based, you will find it not doing what you want from time to time because of how the camera is aligned. There is also a slight delay caused by Elika which can add to this or make you wait a couple seconds with pushing a lever. Collecting light seeds once you purify a land eventually gives you access to using different colored plates around the land. Using the plates is really cool and let you access parts of the world that you ordinarily never be able to reach. And depending on which plate powers you decide to get first will drastically change how you approach cleansing the corruption from the world since you can pick and choose where you want to go. The light seeds are pretty easy to get and most land on paths you’d normally take and can get a little addicting to collect but after unlocking all the plates, which only requires a little over half the light seeds in the game, there is no more purpose to getting them other than the achievement. Therefore when you’ll a couple hours from the finish line, you’ll probably opt to not go out of your way to get light seeds anymore. Then the game boils down to just purifying the lands and combat.

The combat in the game is a mixed bag, at times it will be downright annoying and other times you’ll be in the zone, pulling off combos left and right and it becomes decent. You can block, roll out of the way, attack with sword, your gauntlet, or Elika. Then you can put these together to make some simple combos and later in the game can each defeat a type of corruption in bosses. You will only fight one person at a time and in the event you “die” Elika will of course save you which will typically add more health to the enemy as well. The fighting is largely a defensive one and will largely result in you mashing the buttons until they die or get pushed off the side. It is disappointing that for such a fluid acrobatic game that you are so grounded and slow. And Elika is sort of a ranged attack because you throw her at the enemy but you have to be insanely close to use her. Throughout the fight you will have numerous repetitive quick time events which can get annoying for button mashers and break the miniscule amount of flow in combat. Overall, the combat is okay at best. Luckily for the lesser monsters, you have a small chance to kill them before they spawn.

Reading this all you might think that the gameplay is repetitive with not so great combat. And it is, you’re spot on. But I would like to iterate that the gameplay lasts. The game is fun from start to finish. There are times you might get frustrated with the combat or the platforming but overall you’ll never hit a point where you’re bored or have nothing to do. It might also seem really easy but if Elika did not exist, this would be a pretty challenging game because you will fall a lot and since you can always count on Elika, the game can be quite relaxing and peaceful at times.

The graphics are phenomenal. We have always spoken of the fabled era where paintings would come to life and this game seals the deal. The cell-shading style which was popularized last generation is at its peak in Prince of Persia. The animation work is excellent, rarely missing a beat. What surprised me the most was that subtle emotion conveyed on the character’s faces. It looked natural and helped connect you to the characters. The transition between corrupt and purified lands is amazing and makes the area you just played feel fresh and new, even if you’re going to traverse it again. The entire game is dominated by this light and dark theme which makes every place you go feel eerily similar. The level design doesn’t help much because similar platforming elements will always reappear. Thankfully this doesn’t drag it down much because the game never feels old or stale.

Before I received the game, I watched some of the promotional videos and was generally excited for the game. But there was one sour thorn in the side of my excitement. The voice for the prince didn’t seem as iconic or badass as I hoped. Playing the game I was still a little off but let me tell you, once you see the personality of the prince hits you, the voice actor is perfect. The voice actor for Elika is perfect. There aren’t many characters in this game but for the ones that exist are very well done and add a lot to the experience. The environmental effects of the crumbling cities are well done and pack a nice sense of weight behind everything. The music blends into the background mostly but peaceful melodies grace the light side and its opposite in the corrupt and combat works well but largely passable.

After playing the game for an hour or so, I already could anticipate the next ten. It was easily predictable. But what I didn’t predict was how enthralled I would be in the story or how much fun just collecting light seeds would become. Sure, it’s not perfect. Combat can be quite annoying and sometimes you’ll be taken in a direction you do not wish to be but they are few and far between. On the positive side, all the frustrations with platforming in general is gone because Elika will save you after every fall, and you will fall, a lot. You also get a nice sense of flow when everything is going your way, even in combat, and you consistently strive to attain it. The story is good and can be as engaging as you desire it to be with the innovative conversation system. With all of this gameplay, you have it packaged within a gorgeous cell-shaded world that nearly looks like concept art. The voice talent is top notch with the small amount of characters in the game. The music on the other hand blends into the background and is passable. The hardcore might jump in and scold it for being too easy, too repetitive, and not being a duplicate of its predecessors but what everyone will admit it is fun and relaxing. It doesn’t frustrate you. It’s easy enough for casuals to jump in and understand while preserving a lot of the greatness that the series stands for. The game has recently dropped to $40 and with the promise of significant DLC en route; Prince of Persia is a worthy buy.

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