Prince of Persia is a stylish, repetitive, and shallow follow-up to the Sands of Time trilogy.
Prince of Persia (POP) has no connection with the Sands of Time trilogy instead opting to reboot the series with a new main character and a somewhat different setting. The main character starts off lost in a sandstorm when he stumbles into a lost city state ruled by people known as the Ahura. It would seem that the Ahura were charged with the task of watching over an ancient temple which happens to be the prison of a dark god by the name of Ahriman. As you can imagine his seal is broken and it's up to the prince to make sure he doesn't get out and predictably destroy the world. Luckily he is not alone as he has the company of Elika who happens to have magical central to the story. Together they jump through all the necessary hoops to put Ahriman back in his cage.
While the story for POP doesn't have any connection with any previous titles in the series it still offers a similar experience primarily focused on acrobatic platforming. Like previous POP games the main character can do all manner of climbing, wall running, and jumping along with some magically enhanced abilities courtesy of Elika. The game world is divided into four areas connected by a central hub leaving you free to complete them in whatever order you choose. Each area is then split into four sub zones with the goal being to lead Elika to a certain point in each zone so she can heal the land. After a zone has been healed your free to search for collectable light seeds which you spend on new powers for Elika that in turn allow you to access other zones. Each area is controlled by one of the four main enemies and in order to heal a zone you must fight them off. POP makes a pretty good first impression and is highly enjoyable but the longer you play it becomes repetitive with you fighting the same four bosses a total of six times each. This wouldn't be as bad if combat were enjoyable but sadly this is not the case. While combat has generally been the weakest aspect of any Prince of Persia game this installment feels particularly weak. Combat has a clunky feel that is mostly bent around your countering attacks with quick time events thrown all over the place. While it feels clunky the combat is enjoyable to watch as you and Elika attack your enemy with a variety of flashy acrobatic attacks. You'll eventually notice that platforming is very similar to the combat with you initiating a jump and then all you have to do is press the appropriate button to keep you keep moving. It's like a long quick time event, the only thing that masks it is that the button you have to press isn't actually shown on screen.
Perhaps the biggest flaw POP has is that it's too easy. There are no consequences for messing anything up and since your free to tackle the four areas in any order they all offer the same level of challenge. If you misjudge a jump, don't press the right button during a combat quick time event, or anything else you'll find yourself saved by Elika. If you fall to what should be your death she drops you back at the last safe platform, in combat she just stuns your opponent so you can get back up while they get a bit of their health back. On one side this eliminates frustration but it also kills any satisfaction you might get from doing things right. Basically the game holds your hand from the moment you select new game and doesn't let go till the credits roll. Your never left wondering where to go, what to do, and there is no reason to fear doing something wrong. Some players might enjoy this while those seeking challenge will abhor it. In the end what POP lacks is depth beyond it's stylish and attractive surface.
Visually POP is like the rest of the game in the sense that it impresses out of the gate with an enjoyable art style and sharp visuals. Unfortunately the longer you play you realize that despite each zone being set up differently they all end up looking alike which is mostly due to a rather limited color palette. Each zone is dark, drab, and gray before healing; after which it becomes sunlit with lots of brown and dull greens. The music fares much better with a sweeping orchestral score spiced up with an Arabian feel. The voice acting is reasonably well done but suffers from a mediocre script. You'll get a chuckle in here and there and there are a number of good moments of between the main character and Elika but a lot of it just feels forced as they restate things you already know.
POP is fun for the first few hours but as mentioned above once you've gotten used to the platforming and combat mechanics you realize that it is in fact a very shallow and repetitive game. This is compounded by the fact that it's all over in ten to twenty hours and (without giving anything away) ends in an unsatisfying cliffhanger. The amount of time you spend with POP depends on if you feel like collecting all of the one thousand light seeds as there really isn't anything else to do once you've healed all the zones. If you put in the time to hunt down those light seeds most players will still clock in before the twenty hour mark; otherwise the game can easily be beaten in under ten hours. If your the kind of person that is new to or isn't very good with platformers you may find POP rather enjoyable. However if your looking for something with depth and a challenge you'll likely be put off by POPs tendency to hold your hand while not pushing you in any way.