The story is then simple; travel round the palaces diseased ground then fight a boss at the centre so Elika can heal the land. When all the land is healed the dark God will be returned. The story is nothing special but is definitely entertaining; the real gem is the platforming although it is not without its issues. The gameplay of Prince of Persia is very easy, platforming is done with two buttons only and the Prince can do a lot by himself. There will be points when chaining together some moves to progress to the next platform that you will actually press too much. Sometimes you just don't realise that at the end of one of the Prince's animations he will jump up to something by himself; you trying to do this just make him leap into infinity. The platforming is admittedly easy, but it is really fun. The Prince is well animated and the acrobatic leaps and jumps look great and are easy to pull off. The platforming has a lot of variety though so boredom is never at hand. Not far into the game you start unlocking new powers, these powers activate colourful pads that mix up the gameplay. There are four types of pads that pretty much just hurl you around maps either from pad to pad, up walls or onto the next feature. Each pad is different but there are some that are very similar, the only annoying one being the on the rails flight sequence. You are hurled through the air and you are guided to your destination but you can move slightly, meaning you have to dodge things. Working out what to dodge can get annoying because you may see an obstacle go to dodge it but the guided flight may turn you before that and leave you hitting a hitherto unseen obstacle instead. Not knowing quite where your going makes it hard to know what to dodge, however it is easy to memorise where to go after a try or two and you do get used to it.
The platforming in Prince of Persia really is great, it feels effortless, looks awesome but most of all it is really fun. However these don't all apply to the combat. This game is obviously not based around combat and the combat system isn't very deep; different buttons do different attacks and you chain them together to do combos. The problem is combos can be hard to pull off and you will just end up repeating the same moves until the enemy dies, this becomes even more common later when enemy states affect what moves you can do. The main problem with combat however is movement. Prince of Persia gives you so much freedom of movement in the platforming but in combat a poor camera and poor movement control take away all of that. The Prince just walks around slowly, that is all there is to movement, this feels very backwards and is too much of a contrast. The combat also uses quick time events very poorly; they sometimes just appear out of nowhere and when your attacking it is easy to not realise and just mess up. Also all the cool looking moves are quick time based, I would prefer to be able to fight like that in gameplay rather than just watch and tap buttons. Sadly once more, the combat isn't very hard and it is avoidable, except for boss battles. Boss battles however are very frequent but are actually quite fun. They provide enough variety to keep you entertained but the combat never really reaches its full potential. It came be fun but it is usually just a minor irritation.
The thing that makes the platforming and the combat even easier is the fact that you can't die. Elika your companion was given magical powers and will save you when you fall or are about to die (you can also use her to jump further and overall she is a great addition). This does make the gameplay easier still but even without it there is little challenge. During platforming it is basically just a really forgiving check point system. When you fall you are picked up and placed on the last platform and are able to do the section again. Platforms are usually generously placed, sadly this just makes it a bit annoying when they're not. But this is of course because by the end you take it for granted and will be nowhere near as cautious when pulling off death defying acrobatics as you would be in other platformers. Combat is similar also, when you should be killed Elika saves you and you are restored to a check point, these occur when you take away a certain amount of health and are a near addition to boss fights especially. The game may be overly forgiving but it is consistently fun.
The last point you can bring up about the game are its visuals, which are stunning. The game sports a heavily stylised look and is extremely beautiful and fits the light-hearted feel perfectly. The look of the game is simply magical and it makes playing through the game and exploring your surroundings even more enticing. Overall Prince of Persia is a great package; it has great visuals and great fun gameplay. The only downsides are some repetitive gameplay and a boring combat system. The game may take a while to grow on you but it is worth seeing through to the end, not because of a deep story but because the gameplay is really great. Once you have worked around some of the slight problems it becomes a truly great gaming experience and one not to be missed.
Rating: 8/10
Difficulty: Easy
Time Spent: 10 to 20 Hours
The Bottom Line: "Just plain fun"
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