Alright, here it is, I finished it. I want to write reviews and gaming criticism, but it always takes longer than I think it will. Before I know it, I’ve got 1400 words and almost 2.5 pages. I wish I could do that with my research papers…
Prince of Persia Review: “Because, you know, gravity never killed anyone.”
By Pat Trouba
Upon thee, O Ubisoft, do I bestow credit for Prince of Persia. Giving credit to someone for something is one of those lukewarm responses, like a handshake between old acquaintances. It’s not quite a hug, but neither is it a burning look over a frosty shoulder. Such is the reception I give the series’ latest iteration. It tried something new, it set itself apart from its past. In the end, you might even be glad you bought it. But it doesn’t quite capture the spirit of its predecessors.
I should qualify that. Predecessor. I’ve only played The Sands of Time all the way though, and I loved it. Warrior Within spiked my drink with so much confusion and angst that I was throwing up on my gamepad after only a fraction of it. I didn’t even consider The Two Thrones after that. And just forget about the classic 2D entries. What you may get here is a game reviewed in the light of those happier, tower-climbing, time-rewinding days of The Sands of Time.
Prince of Persia, which is not to be confused with the other, oh, I don’t know, six or so games of the same name, stars a man who may or may not be a prince in a place that may or may not be Persia. He meets up with a princess, Elika. Elika is putting some distance between her and her father the king, who failed his morality exam. Now, a very bad god is redecorating the land once populated with artistic city planners.
After the intro sequence is done, the player will come to understand that this game will follow a very different format than Princes of the past Persias have traversed. You have your pick of one of four different locales, each with about five different sub-locales, which are marked (by the sky!) with something called a “Fertile Ground.” These are places where Elika can unleash her near-boundless magical energy, and upon a crummy, dilapidated world the vast powers of Crayola will burst forth. You have healed the land. Go forth and do this about nineteen more times. Kthxbai.
Alright... *huff* Almost made it to the beach...
See More Prince of Persia Screenshot at IGN.com
The open world aspect is not the only interesting part about the game’s arrangement; finding and activating the Fertile Ground to heal the land will actually occupy only a fraction of your exploration time. For the rest of your stay you will be served Light Seeds, scattered liberally about the area. Try not to spill any.
Reaching Fertile Grounds and collecting Light Seeds comes with learning the various set pieces of the game’s world. If you’ve played game where parkour-style movement is the feature, none of what Prince of Persia does is going to seem particularly revolutionary. You climb things (like vines), you swing off things (like poles), you wall-run off things (like… walls). The Prince’s single gauntlet is will let you perform a maneuver called a gripfall—much like rappelling, but without all those pesky ropes and safety gear. The gripfall works fairly well as a game mechanic, and stops just short of sounding like a steel-tipped dagger on a chalkboard. All in all, parkour gameplay might feel ever so slightly formulaic and repetitive to a seasoned gamer, but when you’ve found your rhythm, it’s… relaxing. Like, “I’ve had a rough day and I need to go swinging though the ruins of a middle-eastern kingdom” relaxing.
I suppose it slipped my mind to tell you the purpose of finding Light Seeds in the first place (that’s a lie, I just couldn’t find a better way to organize this article). Collect enough Light Seeds, and you can acquire one of four powers from the central temple (again, the order is your choice). Once you get one, you can use a certain colored power plate you’ve probably noticed sitting around looking pretty in the game world. Obtaining powers is going to feel much like pouring too much creamer into your coffee; after your third dose of a mandatory four, that hazelnut taste is going to pervade your mouth. Two of the powers are essentially indistinguishable from one another, each flinging you to places you couldn’t reach otherwise. A third sends you running up or around a wall, letting you steer so you don’t run into obstacles. The fourth, the power of flight, is the most irritating of all. You’ll see yourself doing loops around your destination on a predetermined flight path, purely so the game can put you though its little obstacle dodging mini-game, or perhaps because there are Light Seeds conveniently located along the flight path. I’ve provided a chart to demonstrate what I’m talking about:
The powers are especially disappointing, not because certain ones are required to get to certain Fertile Grounds, but because the path to so many of the Fertile Grounds is almost entirely constructed from power plate jumps. One power plate will fling you to a distant wall, where you’ll wall-run… onto another power plate, and so on, until you arrive at the Fertile Ground. This is not what anybody plays Prince of Persia for. I came to feel like an Arabic acrobat, but the power plates are driving that exact opposite feeling.
It’s just difficult to figure out what the intention of the powers is. Is Ubisoft trying to make an easier game? Given Elika’s powers (soon to be discussed), that’s not really an issue. Are they trying to add a sense of, say, “upgradability” to the game? That’s fine, just be careful not to make the upgrades the game. Fathom this, I cannot.
While I’m up and facing this way, combat in Prince of Persia earns the dubious honor of “most paradoxical.” Fights will actually follow a formulaic pattern of smacking, getting smacked, and then not failing your quicktime sequence. The smacking, on the other hand, is surprisingly deep. There are an incredible number of combos you can pull off using your sword, gauntlet, princess, and ability to hop over people. It’s a facet that, sadly, I never explored to its fullest extent.
Sword... beats... scissors!
See More Prince of Persia Screenshot at IGN.com
I couldn’t complete this without talking about our pretty pretty princess, Elika. I remember that in The Sands of Time, the Prince had a partner too, but this game takes it to a new level. She’s one of those partners who never gets in the way, indeed, you’re controlling her too, if only indirectly. With Elika, you don’t really have anything to fear, ever, because she will always save you. Jumped off a cliff? Elika will save you. Landed in evil goo? She’ll pull you out. Missed your quicktime sequence in combat? She’ll panic and explode with magical energy. It means you live, but your enemy will be able to recover a lot of health. One might see this as taking all the challenge out of the game, and I’ll call that one interpretation, but I think what you have here is a more “to the point” Prince of Persia. Elika never helps you advance by herself; think of her as an advanced form of checkpoint. Yet she never feels like a tool, or just someone there to be used. The Prince will move so as for her to move with him. She, in turn, helps him make the long jumps. She is so pulsing with magic one wonders why she doesn’t just go save the kingdom herself.
Well, we know the answer to that. You couldn’t have a good romantic-comedy style relationship without the wise-cracking Prince. The formatting of the duo’s character development is one of the more intriguing aspects of the game. They will open up more and more as more lands are healed, but the player also has the option to initiate conversations in the middle of the game. This will reveal far more, and the game is at its most thematically fascinating in the conflict between Elika’s steady faith and the Prince’s hard “realism.” It is light and even-handed, so you’ll never feel oppressed or preached to. The ending to the game is something you’ll want to see; the reality of their relationship is there, and it brings into question everything you’ve worked for.
Sometimes I love concept art.
See More Prince of Persia Artwork at IGN.com
Prince of Persia is a good-looking, interesting game that I think could appeal to a variety of people. It has a few pitfalls; while this is “to the point” Prince of Persia, this is also sometimes “Prince of Persia lite.” If you can get it for a good price, think about it. This is one of those games that whispers hints to you of where games can go and, indeed, are already going.
Played on Xbox 360. Completed story mode.
