A fresh new twist to the Prince series
User Rating: 9 | Prince of Persia PC
1. Gameplay - Well to start off I would like to bring to your notice the crappy controls of the other games in the Prince of Persia:Sands of Time trilogy (now Quad-logy with the game Forgotten Sands). This game quite remarkably doesn't suffer from that at all. The primary protagonist of the game is a John Doe, so we really don't call him anything (I will refer to him as Prince through the rest of my review). And he is not a Prince as the title might suggest (I might say however, that he seem like some kind of thief or robber, but Prince of Persia sounded a better name than Robber of Persia). The game focuses exclusively on platforming, with very little of puzzle solving and practically non-existing combat. The prince is assisted by Elika, who assists him in his platforming and combat situations. Unlike before, the Prince has no magical ability and hence relies on Elika for the same. Similarly, Elika is weak in any form of combat and hence does not perform any combat action; that is the job of the Prince. The game's primary antagonist is a character called Ahriman, though he doesn't even come back to life before the end of the game. The primary fights are with 4 of his, well, subordinate minion bosses - the Hunter, the Alchemist, the Concubine and the Warrior. The primary goal of the game is to stop Ahriman for resurrecting. The entire map is divided into 5 areas - the Ruined Citadel, home to the Hunter; the Vale, home to the Alchemist; the Royal Palace, home to the Concubine; the City of Light, home to the Warrior; and the Temple, where Ahriman is trapped inside the Tree of Life. The temple is also where you will be fighting Elika's crazed dad. The temple consists of a vast desolate plain with 4 withered trees in four orthogonal directions. As the name suggests, this area is landmarked by the Temple. This area is also the central hub for reaching all other regions. Thus all other 4 areas are centrally connected to this area. Each of the area, other than the temple, has an initial entrance region. Following that are 4 other regions in the area and the final region where the boss will hold his final ground. Thus each are consists of an initial entry region, 4 internal regions and 1 final region. Each of the regions holds a plate called the Fertile Ground. This will be guarded by the boss of the area, to which the region belongs to. One more thing that needs to be mentioned is that nearly all the regions are filled with a black substance known as Darkness. Touching it will kill the Prince. However, the Prince or Elika cannot die. Elika herself is invincible and she will save the Prince from any danger, whenever he is mortal peril. So basically the Prince is semi-immortal as well. At the fertile ground you'll have to defeat the champion of the area. If you are not at the final region in the area, the boss will simply escape the area at the end of the fight allowing you to heal the fertile ground. Once a fertile ground is healed, the region will be rid of all evil and darkness, and will be filled with light seeds. You are supposed to collect these light seeds. Now one thing that needs to be mentioned is that only the initial region to the areas can be accessed right from the beginning. However all regions beyond that will require certain "special magical skills". There are 4 such magical skills – Hand of Ormazd, Breath of Ormazd, Step of Ormazd and Wings of Ormazd. Each of these skills unlocks 4 regions among the 16 internal regions of the 4 areas. Healing the initial and all the other 4 internal regions of an area opens the gateway to the final region. Now these skills can be learnt by Elika alone (remember that the Prince is not magical and these skills are magical). And Elika can "buy" these skills at the temple with adequate number of light seeds. So collecting light seeds is essential. Now we focus on the combat part of the game. The game seriously lacks combat. Besides the bosses you'll hardly face any other opponents, and even they can be easily killed if timed right. Whenever, you are in an unhealed region, sometimes, you'll see a swirling black mass of cloud. If you can reach there quickly enough, you can stab the cloud and kill the enemy before it forms. However if you cannot time it right, you'll have to fight it. Each fight takes a lot of time. Unlike the other Prince games where you can simply swipe once to kill your enemy, the enemies here are cunning and deceptive and extremely strong. Killing one enemy in this game should take about the same to time to clear away a room full of enemies in any other standard Prince games. To counter that, the number of enemies you'll be facing will be very less, possibly so less that you'll be able to count how many you have killed. The prince has three attacks. One is his sword attack, one is a magic attack using Elika and one is using a gauntlet that he wears. The gameplay experience is rich and entertaining.
2. Story – The game starts off with the Prince looking for his donkey named Farah. Soon enough he runs into Elika who is fleeing from some guards set on her by her father. Elika tells that she is a member of the Ahura, the people following the religion of Ormazd, the God of Light. Ormazd and the Ahura captured the Lord of Darkness, Ahriman and trapped him in the Tree of Life. Now, his father has cut open the tree and released Ahriman as per a deal that they made. Elika however refrained from detailing the deal too much. It is also revealed that Elika can use her magical powers. She tells that now that Ahriman is escaping, they need to heal the fertile grounds and defeat the Champions of Ahriman. The Hunter, was once a prince who loved hunting, but got so bored that he sold his soul to Ahriman in exchange of the hunt of his life. The Alchemist was a scientist on the verge of discovering immortality, when he became terminally ill. After Ormazd refused his plea to extend his life, Ahriman gave him his want in exchange for his soul. The concubine was once defeated by another woman at wooing a man and was stripped of her beauty and position. She sold her soul to Ahriman in exchange for the power of illusion. The warrior was a king whose Kingdom was falling into the hands of the enemy, when he sold his soul to Ahriman in exchange for his people and land's peace. These 4 champions had to be defeated so that they could heal the land of the darkness spread by Ahriman, and finally defeat him. As the game progresses, the Prince and Elika grow a liking for each other, and time and again they face the now crazed King, once father of Elika, who wants to thwart the duo's plan to stop Ahriman. Soon it is revealed that Elika had died and in grief, her father the king, released Ahriman in exchange for his daughter's life. And that was how Elika came to hold the magical powers. Finally the Prince and Elika manage to heal all the lands, and go back to the temple to fight Ahriman. After defeating Elika's father, they battle Ahriman and finally manage to seal him within the tree of life once again, though at the expense of Elika's life. The grief-stricken prince first feels remorseful, but then proceeds to destroy the tree of life, releasing Ahriman and using that energy to bring Elika back to life. The game ends with the Prince walking away from the temple, cradling Elika in his arms, while Ahriman rises from above the temple with a menacing figure of black cloud, engulfing the entire background.
3. Graphics – The graphics of the game is pretty good. Unlike other prince games however, the graphics engine gives the game a classic artsy look. It is hard to describe how the game actually looks like but I would recommend you to play this game.
4. Sound and Music – The music of the game is awesome, and simply put it is great. The sound effects are also great. You'll also encounter some great voice acting.
A great game I would recommend to everyone. A must have for all Prince fans.
