Frustrating bits make the new Prince of Persia a few steps short of being a timeless masterpiece.
As I said, there's not a single shred of the Sands of Time storyline (apart from your lost donkey, named Farah). And the new plot involving the eternal struggle between two Babylonian gods (Ormadz, god of light, and Ahriman, god of darkness) is slightly confusing at first. Yet, that cannot be considered a flaw, as it's only presumable that with an introduction to a new series (trilogy, so I've heard), slight confusion will always happen. The story, at first empty, will develop around the two main characters: the Prince (not really a prince), and Elika, the most charismatic female character in the series so far. Their tale, their humorous bickering, their arguments and their (of course) growing affection for each other guide each and every turn of the story into its innexorable final chapter. We all see the end coming with about 2/3 of the game played, and as I watched the credits roll, and saw the additional play, my mouth opened wide, as I witnessed the most fantastic ending to ever grace my computer screen. If to some the graphics and lack of blood through the entire game was a move towards child-like mainstream culture, the final developments and its endings are more adult, more mature than any other presented in the Prince of Persia frachise. I'm used to feel 'moved' (don't take the word in the wrong context) by a game. Satisfaction, excitement, sadness... I've witnessed them all in a game. They all pale when compared with the punch this game throws at you. It leaves you bitting the end of your fingernails in anticipation and looking at the Ubisoft website in hope to see any news of a sequel.
And with such, it would have been a masterpiece, had not for some minor, but irritating gameplay and camera problems. Out of the many plates you unlock throughout the game, each giving the Prince and Elika some kind of power to help them reach different parts of the puzzle-like environments, the flying one is the one that really kills you. I fail to imagine that in testing phase someone at Ubisoft failed to see that without a centered cameral it takes a lot of effort to see which direction you should dash towards to avoide obstacles, or that you even need to do so in the first place. The Prince crashed his head in columns and walls many times during my game.
Also, during fights, the camera is fixed and that leaves you with two problems:
1) In certain scenarios (particularly with the Alchemist), you'll face the main boss in an arena-like structure with column at its center, which occasionally obstructs your vision from the actual fighting (if up-close).
2) What always happen when there is a game with colorful and bright combos: some times, the glowing of the sword slash blinds you.
You won't die from any of them, though. Perhaps because you can't die at all. Since this isn't Sands of Time, game developers had to invent a way to give the player a second chance, as most of the in-game stunts (from hanging from columns, through wall runs, 'double jumps', all the way to ceiling crawling) are rather challenging (particularly if you're playing with your keyboard). Instead, Elika, your lovely partner, will always come to your rescue. In fights that means getting your opponent off you (always giving him some of his energy back in return), and in stunts, that means grasping your wrists and flying you back to your previous fixed platform. That makes the game very easy, but what Prince of Persia lacks in challenge (though you'll get that enough from the plates) it more than makes up for in entertainment.
Every piece of land is reached either by Elika's double jump or by the Prince's many stunts, and that makes simple travels across the beautiful scenery masterful flows of movement that would make Altair, from Assassin's Creed (an unlockable skin for the Prince), die of shame. And the occasional fight? (and I do mean occasional, for there are few enough enemies in the game) Well, they're dealt with either by magical attacks from Elika, or sword slashes from the Prince, and preferably both. The combo combinations are fantastic and beautiful, though, as with everything in the game, easy to execute. E-E-Space-E-E will be enough to cause a serious damage to your foe, all with beautiful acrobatic maneuvers and jumps.
The Prince's interactions with Elika are one of the highlights of the game. The new PoP is quite possibly the most cooperative single player game out there. After half an our of play, it's become instinctive that a long jump must be done with Elika's help, and that while hanging from vines the Prince will always wait and help Elika up his back. They work amazingly well together and your charming female companion breaks the rule of sidekicks, in a way that she's considerably stronger than the actual Prince, and instead of hindering your progress (like your character taking damage in an attempt to save the sidekick), she helps you every step of the way. That, combined with some of the most humorous pieces of dialogue to ever be present in a game, makes their interaction, as I've said before, the central pillar around which the game revolves.
The gameplay is mouse/keyboard based and it unfortunately does not escape some of the mistakes currently occuring in newest generation gaming consoles. At times you'll be asked to press a button to save your skin, and that button will flash briefly (and I do mean briefly) at the bottom of the screen. The button can be one of four different images to appear: a jumping man, a claw, an open palm and sword, each representing different keys you need to press, occasionally repeatingly. In my 360, it'd be easy, every button being within the reach of my thumb, and each the color of the joystick button (I imagine it to be so). On the keyboard, it's harder to tell which is which (an open hand resembles the gauntlet), and it's somewhat irritating to press repeatedly the left mouse button when in a contest of strength.
Still, as I've said, it's nothing that hasn't been done before (or rather frequently, actually), and in no way get in your way to enjoying the game. None of it does, frankly, and if you take those games as standards, Prince of Persia (2008) is a class above them all. What stops it from being a perfect 10 is that those common mistakes were not fixed. The Prince, unlike the official Gamespot reviewer says, is not a let-down. He's in reality a much deeper character than that of the Sands of Time trilogy, completely human and nowhere near being a hero. His flaws are part of the game as much as Elika's powers, and in the sequel, I expect him to be the main focus, instead of Elika (for reasons you'll understand once you finish).
It's not a masterpiece, but it goes pretty close to being one, for it takes the franchise to new grounds and thrives. Apart from a bit of slow down (which had me, and my GeForece 9600, turn the graphs to medium) in some of the wider scenarios, the game flows fast and fluently, with no loading time and non-stop fun.
It will take the name Prince of Persia to darker, more mature grounds, and like its ending shatter everything that was conventional and expected.