Ed. Note: Introducing the new "Bite-Size Review". In order to ensure more frequent reviews covering many more peices of entertainment, this new form of review is intended to be short and easy to digest (and subsequently, less time-consuming to write). That does not mean that full-length reviews will be going away; expect those on the bigger products out there, or otherwise the "Bite-Size" version will appear instead if I have merely been behind in writing it, such as the review below. Read, enjoy, and let me know how you feel about it.
PRESENTATION
In short, Prince of Persia is absolutely stunning. It's cel-shaded art style has a tremendous amount of depth not commonly associated with the style, while animations are extremely smooth, camera movement is intuitive, and the world just simply comes alive from the dreary corrupted areas to the vibrant healed worlds. The voice-acting comes off as awkward at first (why does a Persian Prince have an accent that sounds like its from any generic American town?) but you quickly warm up to what turns out to be very good sound direction.
GAMEPLAY
The game has been categorized as "too easy", but while not really a challenging game, it is by no means a breeze. In fact, what the team at Ubisoft Montreal has done is merely give some tangible reasons for common gameplay conventions. It is true that you cannot die-- but your partner Elika saving you from a mis-timed fall is exactly the same as a common checkpoint system, albeit without obtrusive load times (in other words, PoP's method is much preferred). Combat is relegated to only one-on-one encounters, and while the "common" baddies can somewhat easily be thrown off ledges, boss battles take much more patience, timing, and pattern recognition. Again, you cannot die, but if you need Elika to save you the baddie regains a significant portion of health, and feeling exasperated at having to chip away a third of a boss's health again is just a more fluid way of forcing you to reload a save and redo the entire battle.
STORY
This is where the game really shines, true to Jordan Mechner's original series. At first the story seems like a backseat excuse for allowing certain ways the game is played. For example, the main crux of the story centers around the Prince and Elika's quest to systematically purge the world of "Corruption", vanquish the guardians of the game's four regions, and ultimately seal the dark god Ahriman once and for all. The game focuses a lot on the freedom of the player, allowing you to choose in what order you want to tackle each region and even relegating about half of the Prince and Elika's dialogue to a completely optional conversation button. Though you get the jist of the story through post-fight unskippable conversations, the relationship between the Prince and Elika really comes to fuitition through these optional sequences. The writers have done an excellent job in establishing these two characters and participating in these optional conversations makes the ending infinitely more powerful.
THE ENDING (spoiler warning!) and What it Means for Games
And the ending is what truly elevates Prince of Persia, already a pretty good game in its own right, into one of the most memorable, controversial, and lasting endings ever in a video game, second perhaps only to the mind-numbingly philosophical BioShock. Basically, Elika sacrifices herself to seal Ahriman, a fact that she does not tell the Prince until the very moment it happens. The final sequence is incredible for both its simplicity and impact, and you steadily control the Prince in carrying Elika out of the temple, and then re-release Ahriman in order to take advatange of an ancient power and revive Elika. In essence, you undo everything you worked for in the entire game. Pointless, you ask? Not quite. See, the ending gives you no other options because the Prince is not your character, the Prince is a character. That means no matter what you as a player don't want to do (i.e. undo all your work and release Ahriman anyway), you do it anyway because its the only choice the game gives you, because its what the Prince wants to do. After going through this and reflecting back throughout the game, you as a player can see the seeds of the this as the relationship between Elika and the Prince slowly evolves and as he questions his blind allegiance to a seemingly noble cause. The end sequence is a culmination of this evolution in the Prince as a character, where it becomes clear that his priority has become his love for Elika and not altruistically saving the land he just fought to bring back. It's very powerful, it makes you think, and it really transcends the game itself--all while conveniently laying the groundwork for an inevitable sequel.
(end of spoilers!)
Conclusion
So, so much for the first bite-size review. The short-form review is a work in progress so expect it to improve an the length to significantly shorten. As far as Prince of Persia itself, it's definitely one of those games that needs to be experienced itself. If you have your reservations, at least give it a rental because you can beat it within a week. You won't be disappointed, and at the very least you'll get to see one of the stronger arguments for video games as a narrative art form in one of the most intelligent narratives in entertainment.
Overall Grade: A
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