Prince of Persia (2008) Review
The "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time" is arguably the most successful gaming revival in history, spawning two sequels and an upcoming film. Fortunately, unlike many companies, Ubisoft knew when to quit, ending the trilogy with the relatively successful "The Two Thrones."
However, they're not stupid, and knew when to keep a franchise going too. As such the only real option was a reboot.
New Prince, new setting, new plot, new world, new gameplay. In fact the only thing retained really is the fact the main character is a prince (thought this is never mentioned) and there is platforming gameplay, but even that is changed.
The story throws a lo of stuff at you quite quickly. You start out in a canyon when a girl named Elika falls on you. Literally. It turns out she's being chased by her father for some reason and he unleashes the evil god Ahriman. Its now up to Elika and the Prince to save the world by healing the "fertile ground" to allow the land to thrive once more and reseal Ahriman in his prison.
It's a simple story, not dissimilar from the "Sands of Time" except this time it's the girl's dad who fucked up the world, not the Prince himself. The characters however, are quite different, whereas the Prince of the SOT trilogy was a somewhat arrogant and narcissistic but humanly flawed in spite of his royal upbringing, the new Prince is much more of the Han Solo/ Indiana Jones school of adventurers, happy-go-lucky rough-and-ready rogue.
It's certainly a change of pace, and if you're used to the old Prince it can be a tad jarring, but once you come to appreciate the new vagrant Prince as a character in his own right he is rather loveable in his own way. Elika, on the other hand, is kind of a plain Jane. She's similar to Farah from SOT but lacks any of the real chemistry with the Prince and ends up coming off very generic. She's not a terrible character but she fails to generate any real interest, since she seems to be just a plot/gameplay device more than anything.
The gameplay involves you exploring the areas of the land to fight back the Corrupted (Ahriman's followers) and restore the lands to life. The order you do the lands in is up to you, but frankly the point of this is lost on me, since it doesn't make a difference and you have to do them all anyway, so why bother? Anyway, the manner you find your way to your destination is this glowing magic sperm that Elika shoots out which flies in the vague direction of your destination staggering all over the place like a drunk camel. It's a nice touch though, and I certainly applaud the implementation of this kind of compass system instead of an onscreen arrow screaming "GO THIS WAY RETARD." It feels more natural and less obtrusive to the player if such a thing is not clogging up the HUD. (For other examples see "Dead Space" and "Shadow of the Colossus")
Visually the environments are very impressive when they've been re-greened, and the characters are very expressive when talking to each other. The voice acting is sound and Nolan "Nathan Drake" North is a great choice for the new Prince.
The platforming gameplay is just a running, jumpy, climby but it's a bit more automatic. You'll find hitting A at the right time is about all you need to do, and considering you cannot die, you'd think that would take all the fun out of it, but it still manages to be a compelling adventure. The new Prince, much like his character, is a lot less graceful and acrobatic than the SOT Prince, with a more urban, parkour style of platforming. As such it doesn't flow as smoothly as SOT but it's a unique dance in its own way.
As for the combat, gone are the multi man fights of old, where the agile Prince had to take on 5 guys all on his lonesome, now the combat sections are more akin to duels. The camera locks onto an enemy and you edge towards them to engage in combat. The combat is massively watered down, your options are sword attack, acrobatic attack and grab (which then must continue into either a sword or acro attack). Again, despite being much more streamlined it still manages to be fun in its own way.
I feel it important to note that I have used the phrase "in its own way" a lot and heavily referred to previous Prince of Persia games. Frankly this is unfair of me, since this is an entirely different take on the character and franchise and thus should really be reviewed as a separate game in its own right. However, a reboot, as with a sequel, will always have the curse of being compared to its predecessors, whether that's fair or not. To me "Prince of Persia" is like a Hollywood adaptation of a favourite book. No matter how good it is, and how much you can appreciate the new and equally fun direction they have taken the story, you'll always prefer the book, simply because that's where you started. It's a great game, with a few issues with repetition and relative ease, but it's different enough that you'll have fun with it without calling it a rehash of the previous games.
Graphics: 9 Very pretty, and nice animation
Sound: 9 Nice effects and music is oddly reminiscent of "The Mummy" film series
Gameplay: 8 Can be a bit like playing on autopilot but a fun ride
Overall: 8/10
Best Bit: The fairytale adventure feel
Worst Bit: The somewhat samey levels