Review: Prince of Persia (2008, Xbox360)
To distinguish this game from the previous Prince of Persias, Ubisoft decided to not give it a subtitle like the Sands series (Sands of Time, Warrior Within, Two Thrones, Forgotten Sands). The name also bares little resemblance to the game itself – the "Prince" isn’t actually a prince – it is hard not to dislike the game when it is setup to deceive you before you even begin! Ubisoft somewhat gave up after that and it is rather hard to list any distinguishing features that the game has. If I was pressed, the celshaded graphics are the only unique element in the series although not particularly unheard of these days.
Unlike the Sands series, Prince of Persia features a different protagonist, a different story, and fairly different gameplay. I think it is probably important to note the rating that this Prince gets – and I mean from classification boards – PG (Parental Guidance recommended) compared to previous games which generally got M (Mature Audiences). By targeting kids, most aspects of the game have been cut back to make it easier.
So how is the gameplay different and easier? Well, for a start there is no death – if you die, the other character will magically teleport and rescue you. Combat is also missing in action – or at least as good as gone, as the occasional combat comes down to Y, X, X, RT looping until the opponent is dead. Well, dead or decides to run off, as you seem to kill very few bad guys. And finally, a staple of the Prince of Persia series is missing (at least in the half of the game I’ve completed so far) – there are no traps. The game boils down to random/repetitive/unsatisfying combat, jumping with terrible lighting and camera angles so non-death is more often than not, collecting ‘light seeds’ and not much else.
The story focuses on Elika the princess – your NPC companion – and Ahriman – the evil god of evilness. He’s been set loose, its your job to seal him back by making Elika heal the ‘fertile grounds’. As mentioned, whenever you are near death in combat or because you’re plummeting towards the ground, Elika will teleport and save you. Wait, hang on, the princess has magical powers that allow her to teleport (even when she’s caged up) to save you, she heals the lands, and is actually a princess, while you’re a nobody with no powers – why are you needed? While Elika can teleport, use magic in combat, heal the lands, and run circles around you there is one thing she needs you for – climbing on mossy walls. Yes, as soon as you hit a mossy wall, the character freezes as he waits for Elika to climb on his back.
Overall, I only have this game because a friend saw it going cheap ($10) at JB HiFi. If you don’t treat it like a Prince of Persia game or if you’ve never played Sands of Time, you might enjoy it but otherwise it’s a pretty hard sell.
