Review: Prince Of Persia (360)

Prince of Persia is a series that’s no stranger to 3D relaunches, as this is the second major reboot (if you don’t count the utterly abysmal Prince of Persia 3D). Now the last occasion – Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – was an extremely strong relaunch, and went on to produce a trilogy that produced among our favourite games of the last console generation (yes, even Warrior Within, in which the Prince apparently went off his angst medication).

So with this game being yet another series reboot, can it match up to the legacy of its predecessors?

First of all, the title is very misleading, as this game recasts the Prince as a hobo drifter and sarcastic thief. In trying to help the Princess Elika one day, he is drawn into battle when Elika’s maddened father threatens to release the ancient evil god Ahriman upon the world. The Prince and Elika must travel to places called the Fertile Grounds and restore life to them to prevent Ahriman from being released.

It soon becomes immediately apparent that the story has much more of a fantasy focus than even the Arabian Nights-style trimmings of the Sands of Time trilogy. That wouldn’t be so bad, but the fantasy is more out of the Final Fantasy school than Arabian Nights, and unfortunately the characterisation is nowhere near as strong as it was in The Sands of Time to carry it off. The Prince is your stock sarcastic teenage hero with really stupid attire and no real development, and while Elika is much better-developed the attempts to replicate the Prince/Farah dynamic just come across as awkward.

Mercifully the gameplay and graphics are generally stronger than the story and characters. In spite of some odd moments of clunky controls, the athletic platforming is as elegant as ever; with some practice it’s possible to seamlessly move from end of the environment to the other flawlessly. This is due to some generally fantastic level design, with each environment having real flow to it, making you even more eager to use that athleticism to explore all over the place. What helps is that the camera generally behaves itself, giving you the best view as you wall-run, swing from poles and negotiate narrow beams. It’s as wonderfully liberating as it was before. If only the athletics were all you needed to do to traverse the environments...

You see, where the platforming falls flat is whenever you need to use one of four magic abilities to progress further. These are activated by finding enough light orbs scattered throughout the environments after you’ve cleansed them, and enable you to use power plates to use some really odd moves like running along walls for extended periods and even flying. Not only does this throw you out of the experience constantly, it also removes all sense of accomplishment. In the earlier games, when you scaled great heights you knew you’d fought tooth and nail to do so and could be proud, but in this you traverse great distances with next to no skill whatsoever.

The combat is also more frustrating than enjoyable. There’s not enough of it for one thing, limited to boss fights and a couple of random encounters that can be avoided if you’re quick enough. The controls in combat feel so stiff, and while there are many combos that can be used they don’t feel fluid to pull off, and also give way to visuals that are more suited to an animé than a Prince of Persia game. They’re also infested with Quick Time Events, something which we really hoped developers would cut back on.

All of this is compounded by the game’s biggest failing; it’s impossible to lose. In the Sands of Time trilogy, the ability to manipulate time made the platforming hugely enjoyable, allowing you to try again if you mess up, but that still required skill and effective resource management. In this, Elika always rescues the Prince when he falls off a platform or is about to die in battle. This would actually have been a nice feature if Elika’s powers were limited, but they’re not; they can be used constantly. As a result, the game molly-coddles you and makes it impossible to fail even if you try to. Frankly, it feels utterly patronising and makes the game feel more like an interactive movie.

The game also follows a pretty standard formula after a while; go to a Fertile Ground, defeat the boss, heal the area, gather light orbs to get one of the stupid magic tricks you need later on, rinse and repeat. It gets rather repetitive after a while since there’s nothing to do besides that. This is compensated slightly by the game having a slight free-roaming element, where you can save the environments in pretty much any order you wish as you gather the magic of your choosing.

The graphics are absolutely gorgeous; the slight cel-shading used gives the game a very atmospheric, almost hand-drawn look, and there are some truly spectacular vistas on display. The environments actually feel alive and just beg you to explore them. There are moments where the art direction feels off, however; the steampunk environments, for example, just look completely out-of-place in the setting, and the more abstract environments will not sit well with those who preferred the semi-realistic stylings of before. Sound-wise, the music complements the dream-like atmosphere nicely and there’s some decent voice-acting which is easy on the eardrums.

If it sounds like we’re ragging on this new Prince incarnation, it’s more out of personal disappointment than this actually being a bad game. As a game in its own right it’s entertaining, well-constructed and does retain flashes of the old Prince brilliance. It’s very short, though that still means it makes an excellent choice for a weekend rental. If you want a truly great 3D Prince of Persia experience, however, we’d recommend tracking down a copy of The Sands of Time instead.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Drew Middlemas