About halfway through Prince of Persia, I found myself standing on a platform that towered over the area below. A terrifyingly narrow little plank pointed from the edge. With nowhere to jump or run from its tip, I stepped out on it anyway. I just wanted to take in the scenery. And for that, the fine folks at Ubisoft Montreal awarded me an achievement. All I had to do was wiggle the right thumbstick. Aside from the time I earned the Irony achievement for just following by base sociopathic instincts in Bioshock, those were the easiest gamer points I ever scored.
And that about sums up the experience of playing Prince of Persia. The first thing you notice after firing it up is also its best feature. Namely, the thing is gorgeous. (Okay, if you're an Xbox owner like myself, the first thing you notice is that it hasn't red ringed your system. Unless it did. In which case, bummer.) I've seen the world "painterly" used to describe the games graphics. It skirts a line somewhere between the cartoonish cell shading of The Wind Waker and the grimy grays and browns of Grand Theft Auto IV. It's closest graphical cousin may be Okami, though considering how dismally that game sold on the Playstation 2 and Wii, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. (Seriously Wii owners, you ignore a masterpiece like Okami and spend your hard earned cash air hula hooping? Have you had your frontal lobe scanned lately?) Anyway, PoP's colors do blend and merge like brushstrokes, but this isn't a static world you're presented with. Sure, the game looks great in photos, but it looks even better in motion. It's a world of rocks and vines and rickety wooden jungle gyms left to bake to a golden tan in the sun. There are towering Arabian spires and delicately tattered windmills. Also, balloons. I have a thing for balloons.
But there's no denying that PoP breaks one of the cardinal rules of gaming in that it doesn't really provide a challenge. This is where it will be maligned by a sizable chunk of gamers, and I can't say I blame them. The rumors are true: you can't die in this game. Your magical companion Elika will use her mojo to grasp your hand and pull you back from a free fall, and she'll use her shimmery fingers to knock an enemy across the room before it can deliver a killing blow. Of course, this isn't instant gratification. When pulled back from a rocky squish of doom, you might find yourself at a checkpoint dishearteningly far away from where you were when you took the plunge. And if you need your girlfriend's help to keep the scary monsters off of you, you'll trade your life for a refill of that scary monster's energy bar. But with patience and a modicum of skill, you'll always succeed. And you'll have a hot sorceress by your side while you do it.
So your enjoyment of PoP boils down to how much you're willing to invest in the experience. I loved running along walls, swinging off of poles, and flying across chasms in one fluid move. But in order to give you such fluid lines of acrobatic awesome, the controls have been simplified to something approaching rhythm game button pushing. If you jump towards a wall at an angle, you'll scurry along on autopilot until you lose your momentum or hit the jump botton. If you're climbing up a ledge and see a conveniently placed brass ring above you, one push of the B button will grasp the ring, propel you up, and keep you in motion for several feet. Given a long line of platforms, planks, poles, and other implements that begin with "P", you can conceivably bound across an entire area with only the occasional button tap.
But its this ease of use that also makes PoP such a breeze to soak in as entertainment. Fans of the series will definitely want to compare this outing to the famed Sands of Time, last generation's platforming masterpiece that wasn't just the high water mark for this series but for games in general. In Sands, it was all about meticulous jumps and giant environmental puzzles. But the new PoP is just a different game. Timing a leap or aiming for a pillar won't be that taxing, but in the meantime you'll be able to appreciate the beauty and the history of this world. And whenever you want to chat with Elika, she's just a trigger press away.
In the game mechanics department, there is one area where the new PoP has Sands beat. Combat this time around is more exhilarating than ever before. You won't face rooms full of undead sand soldiers. In fact, you won't face any enemies at all through most of the game. Your battles are always one-on-one against any of the four bosses enthralled by the evil god Ahriman, who's the central antagonist of the game. Like in the platforming segments, combat is all about timing and spacing your attacks rather than mashing buttons to rack up hits. It's sort of like the rhythm-based fighting in Assassin's Creed, though your move set and combo options are much broader here. You use one button for your sword, another for your spiny gauntlet, a third for acrobatics, and a fourth for Elika's magic attacks. These can be mixed and matched to different effects. And while it may sound limiting that all fights are mano-a-princo-a-magico-girlfriend...o(?) and ultimately in enclosed arenas, this actually adds to the immersion and tension of the fights. The camera doesn't have to worry about watching your back, so it can zoom in for dynamic angles unlike anything you'd expect from a simple platformer. Combat in PoP is almost like a fighting game, only with characters you care about and no sweaty friends throwing controllers at your head.
But combat isn't the focus of this game. When you defeat one of the bosses, a fertile ground is healed and an area is cleared. This means that Elika washes away the evil stink and glowing blue orbs called light seeds spring up all over the place. You'll have to hop and swing all over the area to collect the seeds and unlock new magical powers that you and Elika can use to access other territories. This can mean backtracking through a newly beautified area you've already explored or going off on your own jaunts. In essence, this is the tried and true collection mechanic you'll find in every 3-D platformer since Mario learned to butt stomp. But the beauty of the world and the excitement of the acrobatics on display as you flip and slide from light seed to light seed is what this game's all about. If you don't get it after the first few boss fights and fertile ground healings, you probably never will. And you've probably sold your soul. I just hope you traded it for some rocking guitar skills.
The Game
Prince of Persia is a classic. It's no Sands of Time, but it isn't trying to be. This is a new story with new characters in a new world with a new look and focus. Let's hope the solid foundation built here isn't squandered in the inevitable sequel. If the thief/prince from this game sports a greasy mullet and rocks out to Nickelback in part two, I'm going to have words with some of the cheese-eating Quebecois responsible. (8.5/10)
The Time
The whole game will last you 10-15 hours if you stop to smell the light seeds (oddly, they smell of cumin). But if you love it like I did, you'll want to play through again and again. Plus, Ubisoft promises downloadable expansions of some sort in the future. It's a decent time investment, but the structure of the stages allows you to pick it up, play as much as you want, and save anywhere you need. In short, you won't feel cheated in the value department, but it doesn't demand all night gaming sessions that dry your eyes and alienate your loved ones. (9/10)
The Verdict
The holiday season of 2008 will probably go down in history as the deathknell of giant end-of-year release jams. Since September, we've had Fable II, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, and countless other huge profile games raiding our wallets. Reportedly, titles like Dead Space and Mirror's Edge got lost in the vortex and will end up costing EA a pretty penny. And if the sudden and swift price cut of Prince of Persia is any indication, sales for this wonderful game may have been a little soft as well. If you've been hesitant to sell your first borns for this game, I'm here to tell you to go ahead and put little Billy on the black market. If you're willing to put down the chainsaw guns and molotov cocktails and slip into something more fantastical for a while, you won't regret picking up Prince of Persia.
No comments:
Post a Comment