Review: Prince of Persia is smooth and intuitive, but lacks variety

The Prince of Persia trilogy was one the best gaming experiences to be found on the last generation of consoles, so it was a bit surprising when Ubisoft decided to reboot the series with a new storyline and unique visual style. The result is a game that feels fresh and familiar at the same time, though it’s fairly lenient difficulty level may leave something to be desired for some.

Prince of Persia is all about moving about the environment. The Prince has various skills at his disposal, allowing him to climb, slide, and jump his way across almost any terrain. But while his moves may look complicated, actually pulling them off isn’t. The control scheme is surprisingly simple, as only a few button presses can make the Prince pull off astounding feats. In fact, the controls are so simple that experienced players may find themselves pressing too many buttons at first. But once you settle into the rhythm of the game, the experience is streamlined and intuitive.

Though platforming games can often be frustrating due to their trial-and-error nature, Prince of Persia is able to eliminate a great deal of this frustration. Not only are the controls simplified, the Prince is constantly accompanied by a magic using sidekick, Elika. In addition to providing various helpful combat and magic techniques, Elika serves as both a quick save feature as well as a double-jump. When the Prince can’t quite make a jump, calling on Elika will give hom the extra boost he needs. And when he falls to what should be his death, Elika pulls him back to the last platform. This makes the game a very fluid experience.

While past games in the series featured a strong Arabian theme, this entry is more generic fantasy. The Prince comes across a Elika while she is being chased by armed soldiers, and ends up being pulled into a fight for the survival of the world. A mysterious corruption has infected the world, and it’s up to the Prince and his side-kick to bring the planet back to its former natural beauty. And while the writing is generally well done–though the Prince’s dialogue often seems out of place in a fantasy setting–most of it is optional, so if you want to simply breeze through the story you can.

But far and away the most stunning aspect of the new Prince of Persia is its new art direction. The game features a heavily stylized graphical style, that looks almost like a detailed form of cel-shading. Enhancing the games beauty is it fluid animation, which allows the Prince to traverse the landscape with apparent ease. The interaction between Elika and Prince is also interesting to watch, and feels even more natural then their dialogue. Unfortunately, as wonderful as everything looks, the game suffers from a severe lack of variety. There is a great deal of backtracking in the game, and the environments don’t look all that different. The only real distinction that can be made between areas is those that have been cleaned up and those that are corrupted, making everything feel very much the same.

And really, that is the major drawback of Prince of Persia. Though it plays smoothly and looks incredible, there is far too much repetition. You are constantly moving about similar looking locations doing the same actions. The brief combat sequences are a good distraction, but even these boil down to the same combinations of blocking and attacking over and over again. These aspects are extremely disappointing considering how much promise the game holds. It starts out very compelling, but ends up dragging on well past its welcome. That said, it’s a fun experience, and one that fans of the series will certainly enjoy. At least in the beginning.