Prince of Persia Review
- Posted December 15th, 2008 at 12:41 EDT by
- 12,200 views
- 30 Comments
Review Score
- PSU Review Score
- 9.0
- Avg. user review score:
- 8.1
Summary
Ubisoft Montreal continues its successful development with the Prince of Persia franchise.
We like
- Elika is the best AI partner ever created
- Unique combat system
- Platforming animations are brilliant
We dislike
- Compass ball sometimes goes in circles
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
(continued from previous page) ...assaults, R2 allows you to block and triangle gets Elika involved in some high-flying magical attacks.
Combining any of these buttons into a combo is a simple process and results in the game displaying impressive sequences of combat. Stringing together a simple button score can end up with your sword sliding straight through your opponent, which has the ability to end a battle much quicker than usual. On top of this, if you have solid momentum while platforming, you can get to enemies before they materialize in order to strike them before they even exist. Of course, this is easier said than done.
The aforementioned platform elements in Prince of Persia are exactly what you’d expect them to be. You’re able to jump, wall run, climb, pole-slide and combine any of these maneuvers to form a seamless pattern of movement. A lot of people may see the animation on screen as a masked QTE, but they’re greatly misinformed. The reason the animation looks the way it does is due to how many additional branch animations were included in-between each button press. This allows the game to achieve the fluidity experience while performing such maneuvres. As such, acrobatics such as wall all runs move seamlessly into wall slides and everything fits together like a perfect puzzle.
Something that does come in handy during your platforming endeavors is the compass that Elika provides. By pressing Triangle, Elika releases a small glowing orb that shows you the way you need to travel. Sadly, while this is a good addition, it sometimes leads you in circles. I’m unsure why it does this, but it can lead to frustration once you realize you’ve gone in circle two to three times.
The main objective to each region of platforming is to reach the cure well, which allows you to remove the darkness from the area. Unfortunately for you, the cure wells are guarded by bosses that Ahriman has unleashed from within the darkness. Of course, each boss has their own history as to why they’ve come under Ahrimans control and you learn these stories as you progress. Once you’ve defeated each one, you’re able to walk to a cure well and tap triangle to unleash the light and suck in the darkness.
Once the region has been cured, Light Seeds make themselves visible throughout the land. These scattered balls of light help rejuvenate Elika and enable her to power up some of her abilities. While there are four abilities in total, our favorite is the wall running ability that is related to a green launch pad. In order to unlock each of these abilities, a certain amount of Light Seeds designate what is required to attain them. This also prolongs the story because certain areas of the game can only be reached when you have unlocked the corresponding ability. Further expanding the game’s longevity is the ability to play through the title as Altair, the protagonist of Ubisoft Montreal’s hot-seller, Assassin’s Creed.
As I’m sure many of you have noticed Prince of Persia is as visually appealing as any game out there. The creatively dubbed “illustrative” art style has allowed a fresh look into the world of Elika and our Prince. With refined details to each piece of clothing and powerful backdrops, Prince of Persia can go toe-to-toe with any title on the market in terms of sheer brilliance in the art department. Quite simply, we rank it up there with Valkyria Chronicles as one of the best looking games this year.
All of these elements come together and synchronize perfectly with the chosen voice cast behind the game. Nolan North and real-life buddy, Kari Wahlgren, share genuine chemistry between them that isn’t found in many other titles today, further adding to the immersive qualities of the title. North has taken his work as Uncharted’s Nathan Drake and transformed into a rugged performance as the Prince, while Wahlgren, who has lent her voice to many titles over the years, fits in perfectly as the princess of our story, Elika.
Baring some quibbles regarding Elika’s compass functionality, Prince of Persia is otherwise a flawless title that offers up an ... (continued on next page)
Comments
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fareye765 |
fareye765- 12:51pm GMT - December 15th, 2008
- 1
sounds brilliant. I might actually buy it even though i swore to myself i would never buy another game that it only singleplayer...... EXCEPT UNCHARTED 2!!
oh.... and did you know, the dude who does the voice of the prince also does the voice of drake in uncharted!!! I LOVE HIS VOICE!!
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C0SM0NECR0
- 5:06pm GMT - December 15th, 2008
- 9
Heard mixed things about this one. If I had to look at it from an external perspective (graphically, game mechanics) I'd definitely buy it. But, having the game helping you too much takes away the challenge and replay value for me. Don't know. Just don't know yet. Maybe a renter.
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GunsOfLiberty |
GunsOfLiberty- 6:08pm GMT - December 15th, 2008
- 10
Got it 3 days ago and I think it's really good, it's somewhat fresh...
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jinxk
- 6:33pm GMT - December 15th, 2008
- 11
#9
don't think of it so much as the game helping you. think of it as the game getting rid of unneccesary "game over" screens and "try again?" screens. if elika didn't "save" you from falling to your death, it would end with you actually falling to your death and being subject to said "try again?" screens. if elika didn't take that final blow, you would be rewarded with a "you have died!" screen and then forced to reload from a previous checkpoint/save.
this actually saves a lot of time for some people, and it's really not the game "helping" you; just getting rid of extra waiting time between play sessions.
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Snowspader |
Snowspader- 6:46pm GMT - December 15th, 2008
- 12
one question prevents me from buying this game right now....
how long is it? coz like #1 im not buying only single ply games unless theyre epic
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PS3-The Ultimate Machine
- 10:27pm GMT - December 15th, 2008
- 14
Hopefully,this game will look better on a my ps3(when i get 1 next year),than it does in pictures,becuz like it or not,this game still looks like Naruto on ps3,the reason i fell in love with the PoP series,was in part due to the sumptuous,exotically realistic graphics this series possessed.I'm really hopin' i'm not dissappointed by this game.
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woodcock_ps3 |
WALL-MARTshinobi- 4:03pm GMT - December 16th, 2008
- 17
no way dave... i dont think this game comes close to 9.0, iv checked other sites and there review scores landed in the 8's.. i dont see how the platforming is fun, it gets repetitive, and generic after a while.. its to easy and built soley for the casual gamer..im not diss'ing in any way but this site has the weirdest review scores out there. i mean i can see R2 getting a score in the 8's but this game is just a little above average its not a AAA quality title...
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sup-a-hero |
Flame-Kid- 11:48am GMT - December 19th, 2008
- 19
@ 17
Erm so what is fun in your eyes? First person shooters? If so then you can say the exact same thing about FPSs aswell, the fact that they get repetitive too after awhile.
I dont see your logic; enlighten me.
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Maxkiller |
Maxkiller0- 8:52am GMT - December 20th, 2008
- 20
I got this game and i have to say it is good but its not where near as good as the old ones the PS2 ones was way better then this when it comes to story and fighting the combat in this game is one of the things i hated most one vs one ?? what the ??? really i love prince of persia but this one just was not the best it is good but i don't even think its that good to get a 9 like it has a 8.5 or so yes and i don't think im the only one who think that they took off way too many good things that the old ones had like fighting more then just one person to start lol but hey i had fun but i do hope the 2nd one won't be 1 vs 1 its ok but i think like fighting like 5 at a time was way cooler then this lol :D
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liquidus118 |
liquidus118- 7:49pm GMT - December 20th, 2008
- 21
This game is absolutely awesome, really refreshing, I haven't played a game that I enjoyed like this for over a year, if you like engrossing and magical single player experiences then this is vital, it's genuienly one of my favourite games of the year...And the ending is a real surprise and has me pumped for a sequel
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lordAlucard |
Sympozium_666- 2:40pm GMT - January 1st, 2009
- 25
Online games fail seriously single player is way to me
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AnalogueAutomat |
AnalogueAutomat- 9:32pm GMT - January 2nd, 2009
- 26
this game just makes me mad. that's not what i'm looking for when i wanna have fun.... nice graphics and animations and all, but rather lame sword fights and several controller issues.
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osmod
- 5:20am GMT - February 9th, 2009
- 29
really small game finish it in 2 days and the story wasn't very good i mean we fight so much time to stop arhiman to get out and in the end we are the one's who realesed him i hope the next PoP will be more good,anyway my opinion is tha PoP next gen gets 7/10 rank:)
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spacebondy
- 7:51pm GMT - March 15th, 2009
- 30
im a realy big fan of all the games and i was so devo to find out that the whole game was it this sort of paint format does it change the game that much or should i still get it
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