[Gerrard Rules]

“All I wanted to do was to get my donkey and go home…Instead, I’m roped into some crazy religious war! Yeah, and I’m the lucky one!”

Developed By: Ubisoft Entertainment
Published By: Ubisoft Entertainment
Genre: Action platformer
Features: 720p/1080i/1080p


Yes everyone, Prince of Persia is back! However, if you have doubts about inviting royalty back into your home, or are just new to the scene, this review should give you the information you need!

Prince of Persia has been around for years, known as the original platformer! Now it’s back, and it is out for xbox 360. Continuing the series as another standalone game, Prince of Persia so far seems to be fighting fit and ready for the latest session!

Playing as ‘The Prince’, a man without a title – a drifter – you first find yourself in a canyon, in desperate search for your donkey, who is loaded up with gold that would keep your life happy for a good few years. After bumping into some trouble, you soon run into Elika, a young woman who is mysterious and seems to be hiding something from you. Soon, you begin to follow her, discovering slowly that she is fighting a battle against the King of Darkness, Ahriman. Soon, finding yourself wrapped up in Elika’s charm and her desperation to save her city, you begin experiencing a whole new adventure, involving fertile grounds, power plates and all sorts of strange things.

Involving features and controls, Prince Of Persia is very easy to get to grips with. Simple fighting controls spread sword attacks, grabs and magic attacks over just three buttons, combos are simpler and fighting is made into a more fun experience. Sword attacking is a simple X button press, hitting the B button (if you are close enough to your opponent) will show The Prince throwing his enemy into the air. Y allows you to unleash Elika’s magical attacks upon the beast in question. Another feature Prince of Persia adds is state changing enemies. If an enemy changes state, only a certain attack will bring it out of this state. These are things like when the corruption takes over an enemy completely, or they draw power from an unknown source.
Also, with fighting, there is not a lock on system, but you fight just one enemy at a time, rather than being overwhelmed by lots of enemies. This means that, again, fighting is not so stressful.
One strange thing about the smaller enemies are that there are times when, if you reach them fast enough, you can destroy an enemy before it has even spawned properly!

Also, getting around your new world is easier than expected, too. Involving what sounds complicated – wallrunning, gripfalling and grabbing hoops to move – the system handles everything easily. Using A to jump, you then tap A again to allow yourself to either spring off of a wall, dash along a wall or jump off of a vine or pole. Holding the right trigger will allow you to slowly slide down a wall. The buttons are easy to understand, and the game gives you a small tutorial at the beginning of the game.

There are also power plates to tackle. Being given the choice of four different powers at the beginning of the game, you can choose either the hand, breath, wings or step of Ormazd. Each one will give you a different ability, and to unlock each plate, you need to collect a certain number of light seeds, which appear after you heal a land. The green plate is breath, which allows you to run up and along walls, defying gravity. The red plate is step, which gives you super powered jumping, allowing you to fling yourself from place to place. Breath – the blue plate – allows you to swing on a magical rope to swing like Tarzan from plate to plate. Wings is the yellow plate, which is similar to breath, allowing you to fly a certain distance. With both breath and wings, you need to move in certain directions to avoid hitting objects, which will mean you have to start the sequence again.

Using each power merely involves unlocking it and finding a power plate, after which you hop onto it and hold down the Y button. Simple! Timing in these sequences is essential, however, because if you do not hold Y fast enough, you will fall from the power plate, and when running or jumping from plate to plate, falling is a bit of an issue.

One brilliant aspect to Prince of Persia is that you can never die. If you fall, or are defeated in battle, Elika simply uses her magic to heal you, or pull you up from the depths of the latest abyss. This means that you can experiment with jumping long distances, and makes the game a lot less frustrating. A rather unimportant, though quite cute fact to Prince of Persia is that, because Elika follows The Prince closely, if you drop onto a ledge, the Prince will help her down, or up onto vines.

The music to the game is very benign when you are exploring the land, collecting light seeds or just enjoying yourself by wall running! However, there is a dramatic change to the pace when an enemy makes an appearance. All throughout the fight scene you are met with sounds of blades, taunting and music to fit the scene. The music adds a nice touch to the game.

Graphically, the game looks fantastic. Done in a unique style, the shading, textures and even the scuffs on the wall look very real. Using lighter shades of the brick indicates wallrunning sections, and there is even different effects on the Prince’s sword as he fights. Using these techniques adds to the realism of the game, allowing you to feel like you are in the game – if you want to be running on the ceiling with only your lucky scarf and a girl you don’t know to protect you!

The game itself is not too difficult, although timing can be a bit of an irritation in certain parts of the game. Usually, I would say this makes the game too much of a one-time play, but when achievements are offered for getting from A to B, or for collecting a certain amount of light seeds, a player is almost dragged back into the game. Also, with new places to find you will probably find yourself longing to go back.

In conclusion, the game is great fun, and isn’t stupidly difficult either. Although certain bosses can become repetitive, the game as a whole is definitely very good.

Rating: 8.5

This post has been edited by Gerrard Rules: 15 January 2009 - 09:35 PM