So, in a previous post, I mentioned how only a few games have truly surprised me. Well, the 2008 version of Prince of Persia was one of those. I enjoyed the previous Sands of Time trilogy, but this game was a few notches higher in terms of quality. The story is extremely simple, yet enjoyable in its simplicity. For reasons which are fully explained later in the game, a young princess named Elika is running away from her own father. Her father has somehow brought back a great evil god named Ahriman, and Elika has magical powers that can stop him. You play as the Prince, a thief who isn’t actually a Prince, and Elika together as they try to free the land of the influence of Ahriman and that of his minions. Oh yeah. And the Prince has a donkey named Farah. Awesome!
So, you run around as these two characters, doing all sorts of death and gravity defying stunts that involve running along and up walls, running upside on ceilings, jumping across huge chasms, and all that stuff. Whenever you jump, you press the handy dandy Elika button, and she doubles the distance that you jumped. Great! You run around on these obstacle courses and occasionally fight one-on-one battles with monsters that involve a complex combo system, which includes the Elika button for magic. Sure, you don’t get the crazy battles that you got in the trilogy, but they’re pretty dang fun. Eventually, you reach the end of the level, face off against the boss of the area (who escapes afterwards), and you heal it. Then, you collect Seeds of Light, which eventually allow you to unlock more magical powers! Nice and straightforward. And it’s all so fast paced and fun that you can’t help but enjoy it.
My only complaint is this: whenever you die, Elika saves you. Therefore, you can’t actually die. That kind of takes away some of the incentive to not lose battles or fall off large cliffs, if you know what I mean. But that’s really it. This game also sports absolutely gorgeous graphics with some of the best locales and breathtaking views I’ve ever seen outside of a Final Fantasy game. The English voice acting is also surprisingly good. Kari Wahlgren, a regular in the voice acting business, does a great Elika, and Nolan North does a superbly snarky Prince. Okay, so I have one other complaint, which is rather minor. The music is good, but not great. It’s the only thing in the game that ISN”T great. Anyway, if you have a PS3, Xbox360, or a PC, GET THIS GAME! It’s just so much fun in a thrilling kind of way!
Story: 9.4 Gameplay: 9.6 Presentation: 9.4 Soundtrack: 8.5 Acting: 9.4 Overall: 9.4
