Prince of Persia (PS3 - 9)
Much like I had said with my Paper Mario : The Thousand Year Door review, Prince of Persia in and of itself is a pretty well known and well accepted series among gamers. However, not only does this one in particular get overlooked a lot, when it doesn't get overlooked it's being put down. Could it be because this game doesn't use the main Prince character from the Sands of Time trilogy? Is there another reason? Or is all the hate completely unwarranted? There's only one way to find out, so let's play it.
The Story
The game begins with the Prince wandering through the desert after a sandstorm has hit. He lost his donkey, Farah, in the storm, and is trying to find her when he comes across a girl named Elika who is being followed by a number of men. He decides to help her, and while doing so she becomes fatigued from using her magical powers that the Prince learns she possesses. She reveals that she is headed towards a temple, and he assists her get the rest of the way there. When they arrive to the temple, she reveals that a dark powerful man named Ahriman has been released from an ancient prison of his and has unleashed four agents to destroy the land around them. What's worse is they learn that the person who released Ahriman was Elika's father. Together, the two of them set out to destroy Ahriman's agents and heal all the fertile grounds before it's too late.
The Controls
Prince of Persia's controls are very simple. The joysticks control your movement (left) and camera aiming (right). The trigger buttons double up on each side, with either L1 or L2 controlling your ability to talk to Elika and learn more about where you are, and R1 or R2 controlling your block in combat and your gripclaw during platforming. X is your jump button, O is your action button outside of combat and during combat uses your gripclaw to perform a lift attack, △ interacts with Elika both in and out combat and uses her magic ability, and □ is your main attack button for your sword.
Again, very simple controls, and a little upsetting that the left shoulder buttons are copies of each other as well as the right side, but nonetheless the controls are very effective and get the job done well for the game. So how does the game itself play?
The Gameplay
Just like the rest of the series, Prince of Persia is a platforming combat game. On your quest to heal the fertile grounds, you must run, jump, and climb your way while battling and stopping Ahriman's army along the way.
Your main out of combat abilities are all "learned" right away, meaning your character already possesses them but you, the player, have to learn to use them. These including running along sections of a wall, climbing up walls, hanging and jumping from poles, and traversing over sections of ceiling. These are all done by simply jumping at what you're trying to climb or scale. All of these moves can be extended as well, which is evident by rings hanging in certain areas. Prince will scale the initial section, and once you reach the ring you can press O and he'll use the ring to continue his momentum on the other side of it.
Your in-combat moves are also all "learned" immediately. You have a sword to use, as well as your gripclaw which can be used to grab and hurl enemies up into the air for extending combos. Elika's magic can also be used during combat against your enemies. All moves deal the same damage, but the damage increases per-hit with each extensive move in the combo. So if you have say an eight move combo, a sword slash on the sixth hit will do more damage than a sword slash on the third hit dealt.
Through the game, your main objective is to heal the fertile grounds. At first, there are four main grounds to be healed, which lead to further areas behind each of those grounds. Those further areas each contain five more fertile grounds, four which must be healed before gaining access to the fifth and final one, totaling 32 grounds in all, so six in each of the four areas.
Each area is guarded by an agent of Ahriman. They are The Hunter, The Alchemist, The Concubine, and The Warrior. Healing each fertile ground is prefaced by a showdown fight with each one of these in turn. After you heal the initial grounds (the first one in each area), access to the others is granted by the use of Power Plates. These are special plates mounted and embedded in the walls of the areas, the power of which is unlocked by and used with Elika's magic. Once you activate each plate, some of these use short quick-time events to get you to the next plate and so on until you reach a level platform.
Aside from Ahriman's agents, there are other smaller enemies that are manifestations of the corruption that is eating way at the world. These appear on small platforms, but they take a short time to manifest so if you arrive quick enough you can actually eliminate them before they become a fightable foe. The corruption itself can become an enemy itself, as it becomes an obstacle in almost all areas of platforming in the game.
All in all, Prince of Persia is a pretty fun play, utilizing a lot of the elements that have become popular within this specific series. But is this one a challenge at all?
The Challenge (or lack thereof?)
Prince of Persia has a handful of areas that will put you to the test throughout your time playing it. The platforming, the enemies, and the bosses will all force you to bring out your best while you play this game.
For the platforming, I rate it at a moderate challenge to the player. Most of the sections are short and simple, and you can't actually "die" per-se. If you miss a jump and begin to fall to your death, Elika swoops down and saves you, bringing you back to the last time you had both of your feet on solid ground. But really, all the platforming requires from you is timing. There are segments where the corruption will be sliding back and forth in your way but pretty much if you wait to jump until the corruption has past you, you'll be fine.
Your normal enemies are easy. In fact, they're easier than easy. As I mentioned above, these are the guys that manifest from the corruption, and if you can reach their spawn area before they actually spawn, one swipe with the sword throug the corruption cloud and your "battle" is over. Even if you get stuck fighting them, if you can lure them over to a ledge or a wall and strike them against it (effectively pinning them), you'll be able to push them over the ledge, or run them through with your sword and kill them with a single hit.
The bosses are the hardest part of the game, and they are deserving of a hard rating. At first, all it takes is brute force to bring them down. In the later battles, though, they can surround themselves in the corruption, and the only way to get through it is with a specific move (either a sword attack, the gripclaw, or Elika's magic). The most frustrating part about these fights though, is if at any point they are about to deal you a deathblow and Elika needs to save you (remember, you can't actually die in this game), they can recover a decent amount of their health.
In the end, this game can definitely present a challenge to the player. So, before we make a decision on this one, let's look at what was good and bad about it.
PROS
- Art Style. The visuals are in this game are really well done. It looks like a cross between cel-shading and watercolors, and while it gives off a more cartoony feel than realistic, it's still really pretty and easy on the eyes while you're playing.
- Open Pathways. This is my favorite feature of the game. You can play it out and heal the fertile grounds in any order that you choose. Ultimately you must reach the same ending, so all the forks of the paths converge no matter what you do. Being able to guide yourself completely though is a really nice touch, and it saves this game from falling into patches of boredom with the repetitiveness of your objectives (constantly healing fertile grounds.
- Nolan North. This is a small one, and has a bit of a bias from me as he's one of my favorite voice actors in video games. You may not recognize his name, but if you play a heavy amount of games you've definitely come across something with him in it. He's the voice of Nathan Drake from Uncharted, Desmond Miles from the early Assassin's Creed games, he does Penguin in the Batman Arkham series...see what I mean? He's definitely out there, and his voice talents are well done in this game (he always seems to get the characters that have some sass and wit to them).
CONS
- Lack of Enemies. As I mentioned earlier, you can avoid every single non-boss fight in this game if you have your timing down. It's cool once in a while, but it would be nice to have a bigger variety of enemies to face, and actually face. Only having to fight the bosses gives this game more of a Shadow of the Colossus vibe, and not as much combat as other Prince of Persia games have.
- New Story and Setting. This is the biggest complaint I've heard about this game, that it has nothing to do with the rest of the games it shares a name with. While I haven't played all of the main Prince of Persia games (I've played a bit of Sands of Time and The Forgotten Sands), I have to agree. The story and mythology in those games is just fantastic, and to throw it all away seems insane. While this game is great, it probably could have been better if it existed in the same universe as the others.
The Final Verdict
It may not stand out as the shining star of the series, but this one is still a lot of fun to play. The visuals are very well done, the platforming is incredible, and while the boss battles can be stressful, they're a lot of fun to get into. I would have liked to see a lot more enemy variety, but even so this game is still worth a playthrough. And for only $5 at your GameStop or local retro store, you get more than your money's worth out of it.
