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Prince of Persia Review and Gameplay Video

JudoChinX

June 18, 2010

Prince of Persia has seen its fair share of changes to the series' style. After the Sands of Time trilogy, Ubisoft was ready for a change and decided to reboot the series. Some changes were hits, while others were misses. So what changed and why should you pick this title up?

The first thing you're likely to notice is the change in the game's visual style. Prince of Persia has never been an overly realistic looking game, but it's always had a warm and lush palette of colors that we've come to know and love. Prince of Persia takes this to a whole new level, introducing lovely cell shaded visuals to accent the vibrant and inviting world and its characters. It looks like a well drawn graphic novel. This is somewhat of a trade off however, as textures are almost non-existent. Even though textures are lacking, the game is good looking and creates a style of its own.

The next thing that caught my eye, or ears rather, is just how vocal the prince (he has no actual name) has become. If you've ever played either of the Uncharted games, you'll probably recognize his voice immediately. Nolan North, most famous for his role as Nathan Drake, plays the prince. At this point in time, it feels like Nolan may be a bit over utilized. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely adore him in his role in Uncharted, but hearing him in parts that don't quite suit him as well is a bit awkward. His character in Prince of Persia is, to put it gently, pretty unlikeable. He makes lame quips, and seems to prefer douchebaggery over chivalry. This wouldn't be too terrible had this character not spoken as much, but he can't seem to chat enough. He has his opinion on every little event in the game, and whether or not you like it, you're going to hear about it. The princess Elika isn't much better off, except that her voice actress doesn't have the Nathan Drake pedigree under her belt. She's pretty bland herself, but I can't help but feel that the game's writing is mostly to blame for these lackluster performances.

Speaking of the story, it's almost non-existent. Sure there's some pretense of having to rid the land of evil due to some great sacrifice the king made to save his daughter. That's pretty standard fodder for videogames, which like the voice acting, wouldn't be an issue if the game didn't seem to focus on it so much. It's as though the game's creators were completely unaware that the characters and story they made were both uninteresting and unrelatable. Instead of glossing over the story segments like many games in a similar place would do, they bash you over the head with things you don't care about. I'm not going to spoil the ending for you, but let's just say that it was very unsatisfying and unrewarding, and drags on for what seems to be an eternity.

Thankfully the gameplay more than makes up for some of this game's flaws. Platforming feels as great as any other game that comes to mind, and is where the game shines its brightest. Those familiar with the Prince of Persia series will know what to expect. There's a lot of running and jumping, but it's pulled off so precisely and feels so good that I could have left the rest of the game behind and would have been satisfied. You'll be pulling off visually impressive yet technically forgiving maneuvers throughout your entire stay. To help make the platforming feel even better, you're never left wondering where you need to go next. Just open your map, set your destination, and at a press of a button, your princess companion will show you the right way.

Healing the world is as simple as going from location to location (by running and jumping of course) and completing a minor boss fight. Once that's done, the world is healed, the darkness is forced back, and glowing seeds are placed around the world that need to be collected to earn new powers, which are required for progression. This is the part that frustrated me. The game's length felt artificially extended as you had to go through each area at least twice in order to get enough of these seeds to continue to new areas. Doing this systematically as I did meant that I would go through a level, heal it, then go through it once again to get collectables. The journey through each location was great the first time, but having to do it a second time was unappealing.

Combat in Prince of Persia is also something that seemed to wear out its welcome as I neared the end of the game. Initially, fighting felt really good. It appeared to provide a good amount of depth as I parried, countered, and combo'd my way to victory. Oddly, the game doesn't really have any progression for this at all. You never get new weapons, you never see new abilities, and enemies are defeated in pretty much the same way for the duration of the game. Earlier I mentioned that you have to collect seeds to earn new abilities, but these abilities are never actually used to mix things up at all. Instead, they merely provide you with the ability to travel to new locations. They may look impressive, but they do almost nothing to add to the game.

I realize this review sounds somewhat negative, but I want to stress that in the end, I really did enjoy the game. The good points of the game outweighed the combined problems of everything else. Deduct the bad and you're left with a very enjoyable and solid platformer that will provide you with a fun time assuming you have a little bit of patience. This game is currently available through the Xbox 360 value bin and is cheap. If you've not yet had a chance to enjoy this often overlooked title, give it a shot. Prince of Persia is well worth your points.

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