Prince of Persia (2008)

            Their have been many games throughout the past thirty years that have been considered masterpieces and others that have been considered horrible abominations that should have never seen the light of day. 

The Game

            For my first review I am going to do one that had mixed responses at the time of its release.  I am referring to the 2008 reboot of Prince of Persia.  Of all the games I've played I don't think I've ever seen people so divided on a game.  Some people think it should have won a Game of the Year award while others think its the worst Prince of Persia game ever made.  All I can do is give you my opinion and you can decide for yourself whether or not you want to play it.

The Plot

            The game starts out with the Prince wandering the desert in the middle of a sandstorm looking for his donkey, Farha when he falls into a ravine that leads to a hidden kingdom.  He then finds a woman, named Elika, running from armed men who turn out to be working for her father.  Long story short he saves her and she reveals that she is the princess of this land and the two of them have to save the land from a dark corruption by collecting these things called light seeds and revive a dying tree that is holding the Demon God Ahriman in prison who will bring about the end of the world if released.  In order to do this they have to save four different parts of this land from the corruption guarded by four different creatures, hell bent on killing you.  In this sense, it is very similar to the plot of The Elfstones of Shannara where the two main characters were working to stop demons from storming the earth.  All around, the plot's a little cliched but its executed in such a way that makes you forget it.

The Game Play

            Like the previous Prince of Persia titles the game play focuses more on environment obstacles rather then combat.  However this is where the game has serious faults.  Where in other games you would have to hold down the buttons in order to run along a wall the obstacles in this game seem to be nothing more then timed button sequences. For example, on the X-Box 360 if you just pressed the right trigger button at a wall, it would automatic run along the wall for you or if their was a wall with a number of grip areas that went straight up you could just press the button once and it would take you right up to the top.  You never fight more then one foe in combat and the ones you fight don't have much of a variety to them.  Another issue I, and most people, have with this game is that it is impossible to die.  For example, if you fall off a cliff, Elika appears, grabs you by the wrist and you both reappear where the obstacle began.  This part is where the game is weak and causes it to blend in with the rest of the crowd.

The Characters

The Prince from this game is reputably not the same character from the Sands of Time Trilogy.  This Prince apparently has more in common with the original Prince from the very first Prince of Persia game, who was nothing more then a street urchin in his youth.  He is a thief, a grave robber, vain and arrogant where as Elika is noble selfless.  The two are complete opposites yet it makes the dialog between the two entertaining.  The only other character worth noting is Elika's insane father who works to release Ahriman for unknown reasons.  The characters are memorable but there is nothing remarkable about them until the end of the game.

The Verdict

            All around this is a decent game.  It is by no means a masterpiece but its not as horrible as many Prince of Persia fans believe it to be.  It's absolutely worth playing through but you probably would never look at it again after you beat it.

All Around

7.5/10