Some random, reckless adventurer(apparently not a prince... well, it's his nickname, for some reason) with absurd-looking abs stumbles upon a forgotten land in the desert. Buried under the Tree of Life is Ahriman, the god of darkness, and he's being let out. Our lead has to prevent this, of course, and it's by healing the areas, restoring nature(and you can really tell if you're in an area you've taken care of or not) with the use of magic(wait, what? Guys, you're channelling the wrong animated Robin Williams flick!). Who can make this happen? Why, the resident brunette tanned Meg Ryan, Elika. I hope she understands that it's nothing personal, I have to call them as I see them... she is the bane of the game. If you're in danger, she'll save you(in place of the Sands of Time), anytime, including in combat(all that'll happen is that the opponent will regain some health). The compass power can be useful, however, as it shows you exactly what direction to go, it takes away having to find your way(you can even teleport between places where you've gotten your Ferngully on... yes, there's a lot of (open-ended)ground to cover; there didn't need to be!). While these two might not sound that bad, they effectively take away all the risk. Yes, you will have to redo a brief portion if you mess up, and that's like in the other ones. And no, I realize that the fact that you don't "die" shouldn't make that big of a difference(I get it, they wanted to do away with loading, make it smoother)... guess what, it does. Add to that the taking away of a lot of freedom of movement(you'll usually hit the mark whether you're trying to or not), and we're left with an excessively streamlined production that feels like a slightly interactive film. Honestly, you hardly need to touch the keyboard for parts of this! Before, exact precision, coordination, timing and figuring out where to go were vital, and if you couldn't live up to those, you couldn't complete them. This tries so hard to satisfy and coddle us that it forgets to be exciting. There are next to no puzzles at all. We get new acrobatics(thus allowing for different agile stunts), such as the rings(allowing you to continue on your path, regardless of what move you were in the middle of) and the Roof Run. Yes, you run upside down. Part of why this was even made was clearly to raise the middle finger even more towards poor little gravity, as we can see by the four abilities. Two of them are pretty much "launching you in the opposite direction"(one has a "swinging on a vine" style to it), then we have flight(you only get to affect where in the "screen" you are, not where you go), and my favorite, running on any surface(it's the most challenging, as you have to dodge stuff in your way, if it remains a breeze; you get these by collecting Light Seeds, a practice that seems to lose all relevance once you do have the whole quarter). You execute the wall-run by jumping into the surface, and slowly slide down(further taking away the threat of falling... you can't use it everywhere, thankfully), both on account of our still nameless hero having stolen Freddy Krueger's glove. This gauntlet can be applied in the fencing(you grab the other to throw them), in addition to the sword that's literally as long as he is(compensating for something?), a physical move and the aforementioned supernatural assistance(they pulled an Assassin's Creed on the controls, by the way... the four aforementioned are all bound to their specific key, regardless of the situation where you use it... there's also a "talk to her" thing(she'll explain background, and they have dialog... well-written, at times playful and fun), and you can bring up/dismiss the map that gives you a good overview, so you can sit down and play this within mere moments, not a lot to learn), and these can be chained into combos, and the enemies sometimes guard themselves from all other than one type of approach(why yes, it is like an RPG in that way). Yes, there is some "quick chess" to this slower, one on one thing, like the '89 one and SoT(making you wonder why you go up against so few foes in this... and yeah, it can be intense, as can sliding downwards be, and the maneuvering does have moments(not enough)). You're trapped in the arena until the fight(most of them are against bosses, and you fight the same 4 – the concubine, the alchemist, the hunter and the warrior – several times... they tend to be frustrating or easy; the "click this now" thing isn't bad(it's got nothing on The Two Thrones, though)) is over. Block at the correct fraction of a second and you'll deflect, and have a chance of hitting the other. They get repetitive and kind of annoying, as you usually have only one thing to do, and you spend excessive amounts of time just waiting for the other one to get done with their blows so you get an opening. Let's talk graphics, obviously the real raison d'etre of this. They are beautifully done, and the cel-shading looks nice. As far as gorgeous horizons, plant life and the like go, this is this medium's answer to Avatar. The leads are well-done and the level of expression is marvelous... well, hers is, he only looks right when he smiles. The lipsynching is off at times, too. There's no replayability to this... there are alternate skins for the two protagonists and a handful of galleries, that's it. Only one difficulty setting. The ending is weird and a letdown. Visually, "the corruption" is cool, a Venom quality to it, it oozes and tries to reach you. You can save anytime. There is mild violence and suggestive content in this. I recommend this to fans of the franchise not looking for anything tough. 6/10
Review of Prince of Persia
