Since the original Prince of Persia was released in the 1980s, we have seen not only numerous ports of the original but also numerous sequels, including the severely underrated Prince of Persia 2 for Super Nintendo and the god-awesome Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for the PlayStation 2.
Unlike a lot of franchises, there really hasn't been an abysmal entry in the Prince of Persia series per se. Even though each entry in this series has an altogether different storyline, the main gist remains the same: get from Point A to Point B, try not to die in the process, and take on all comers victoriously if somebody decides to get all up in your grill.
When I first heard about the game in 2009, it was already finally released. It was interesting to know that the review I read for it in PlayStation Magazine gave the game good marks. It would be another two years or so before I finally got a chance to play it.
Not surprisingly...the game measured up. What started as a really interesting game turned into a spectacular tour de force of Brobdingnagian proportions.
Graphics: 9/10
The graphics in this game really capture the mood of whatever environment you're in at the time, whether it's the dark, grimy corners of the Corrupted's territory, the lush brownness and greenness of the healed Fertile Grounds, or the otherworldly dimension where you learn to use the Power Plates, Ubisoft Montreal did a bang-up job here, and it all trickles down to smaller stuff - the soldiers and Corrupted look downright menacing, and Ahriman - when you finally get to meet him - actually looks scary.
My only complaint is that sometimes, when you're using the Yellow Power Plates to execute the Flight of Ormazd power-up, it can be kinda hard to see what's in your flight path at times, which can cause one to run into walls they didn't expect to be there and therefore perform their best impression of Rage Guy.
Sound: 10/10
The music hits the right note in this game - it captures a serious yet accomplished tone with a slight oozing of machismo in the healed Fertile Grounds, and carries a feeling of supposed despair and hopelessness whenever you explore one of the Corrupted's tainted haunts. The symphony of Ormazd's realm where you learn to use the Power Plates is as out of this world as the environment it's used in. The soundtrack for the healed territories will stay in your head for a while...and for the post-N64/PS1 gens of the 2000s, that's notable.
The in-game dialogue is nothing less than a sheer delight. If you're not being taunted by one of the four Corrupted, you'll be laughing or going "Oh, wow, that makes sense," at some of the banter between the Prince and Elika. The fact that some of the humor from this comes from simply pressing a button talk to Elika means that you'll be pressing the left shoulder buttons for more than just three Achievements/Trophies.
The sound keeps the game rolling, whether you're sliding down slopes, hanging off narrow beams, walking on walls, fighting Ahriman's forces or using the Power Plates to get where you need to go. There's a lot of action in this game, and the game's sound keeps track of it all quite well.
Gameplay and Control: 9.5/10
For a game where you're more or less forced to play the game the way it wants you to, the controls actually aren't that bad.
It's pretty easy to get the Prince of walk on walls and jump from one wall to the next, and grabbing rings to extend your wallruns is just as intuitive. As long as you remember to tap the jump button once and not repeatedly mash it while climbing up a wall, you'll be fine.
It still has a few faults, though: sometimes you'll accidentally wallrun on a wallrun path when you want to climb up a wall next to it, mostly because of where you're standing at the time which causes your jump to want to "lock on" to the wallrun path. Also, sometimes you'll be climbing on vines when all of a sudden you can't move and the only way to rectify this is to press and R2/RT to slide down and get moving again - probably a glitch of some sort. The controls are a bit short of perfect in this regard, but they're still good.
The battles are really easy to get through, due mostly to the easy controls - you'll be linking commands together into combos and deflecting and block your adversaries' attack in no time. The only regret I have about the fighting controls is that there isn't a two-player mode to back it up!
Presentation: 10/10
The story here sounds like typical fare: man meets woman, man follows her into temple, man finds out woman is Princess of an all-but-dead ancient people, man is forced into war between the gods of light and darkness of the Zorothustrian religion. Simple, right?
Well, the way it plays out - Elika's knowledge of the city, the Corrupted, and the gods; the banter between the Prince and Elika; the moments after healing lands where Elika and the Prince get to know each other - adds enough complexity to the works to make a unique story out of it. If there were to be a second Prince of Persia movie, I wouldn't mind it being based on this game.
Replay Value: High
Even after getting the Achievements/Trophies, collecting all the Light Seeds and beating the game, there's still enough thrills inside to fill more than one theme park. Even if you';re bored, running through the entiure healed Fertile Grounds of an area of the ancient Ahura in a dominating, systematic fashion makes for a nice time killer. It's pretty easy to have a blast with this game even after all the challenges are fulfilled, and there's even an epilogue available as DLC if you're connected to XBox Live or PlayStation Network.
Final Score: 9.5/10
In a generation of video games dominated by excellence in multiplayer and borderline decency in single-player, this one turns it all around makes it known that a great single-player experience isn't dead. When the words "interactive movie" ever happen to turn up in casual conversation, this game will be the first thing to come to mind.
If there's any game that is either a worthy enough entry in the series that is equal to Sands of Time or worth the time and effort to get the Platinum Trophy or all the Achievements in, this is it. I had a blast with this game, and I can't wait to dig into another game in the series to see what Jordan Mechne's legacy-maker of the original has wrought as much as to see what more magic the rest of this wonderful dynasty has to offer.
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