I’m not sure what I can write about this game that hasn’t been covered by reviews. Part of it is cultural – it’s interesting to see that British reviewers didn’t like Nolan North’s Prince because it felt like an anachronism whereas many American reviewers liked the new character because he’s very much like Han Solo (which is interesting, consider who they cast to play the "real life" Prince of Persia in the new Disney film trilogy). The other part, of course, comes down to the difficulty. No matter how you see it, this is a game that is simply TOO easy and for many people this is its most basic flaw.
Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and I simply don’t have the patience to play a game for 100 hours (Persona 4, I’m looking at you) but I was perfectly happy with the game difficulty and its balance. While you can’t die, you are penalized when you miss a jump or when you are knocked down by an enemy. As many people have mentioned, the game implements quick save into the game itself and quite frankly, it makes it a more enjoyable experience. That said, I do find the actual platforming to be annoying sometimes – it’s so automatic that it runs counter to all of your instincts as a gamer. I jumped to my death so many times because I instinctually pushed a button that I shouldn’t have and it was extremely frustrating. Although, to be fair, for someone who has never played a game before and who doesn’t have that game grammar ingrained into them this automatic nature of the platforming would make the game infinitely more accessible. I’ll also say that if you’re able to hit every jump and grab correctly, it’s very satisfying to go from point A to point B.
With that out of the way, let’s just look at how the story was delivered in the game. It still relies on cutscenes, but a lot of the exposition and character building moments are found in incidental dialog (primarily through your battles with the Concubine) and through the purely optional dialog cutscenes with Elika. Essentially, if you want the story, you can stop and listen to it but if you want to breeze through the game and just play, you can do that too. I admire the choice – rather than force you to sit through cutscenes that you can’t skip (Heavenly Sword), it gives you the choice to experience as much of the story as you want. You can still get the basic plot points by just going through the game, but if you want to discover the characters’ motivations, you can do that too. It’s a design that certainly satisfies both types of gamers. (Incidentally, yes, the Prince of Persia is actually a prince. The game hints at the fact that he has run away from his title and that in the sequel, he’ll have to face his “destiny” and assume the mantle he has rejected.)
In terms of how the main story is told though, it’s pretty standard. While the environments are stunning to look at, other than the plates left behind by Ormazd they don’t really tell a story. There is a feeling of loss because this once vibrant and beautiful land has decayed into disrepair and neglect, but it doesn’t really tell anything more. The game’s highlights are in its small touches – the Prince’s interactions with Elika are so fluid it feels very much like they are working in tandem. Once in a while, you’ll find that she’ll slow you down as you wait for her to catch up but for the most part, there’s an almost ballet like quality to how they both interact with each other and the environment. Even if you skip all the character development exposition, you get a feel for how the characters are bonded to each other. At the very least, it’s probably the first time I’ve appreciated the storytelling possibilities of dance.
The other storytelling highlight is the ending. On a drink fuelled podcast, Greg Miller of the IGN Playstation channel said he was angry that the game forced a decision on him (and actually suggested that GTA4 had a more open ended ending!). I’d argue that all games are linear in terms of their plot – even GTA4 funnels you towards an ending regardless of your choices throughout the game. I just like that they made you play through the ending yourself. In most games, this would have been an elaborate bloviated ten minute cutscene that you’d forget about after the credits rolled. Instead, you are forced to actively participate in the ending – whether you agree with the Prince’s decision or not. But I’m getting ahead of myself; in the ending, you have saved the world but at the cost of Elika’s life. Unwilling to let her die, the Prince makes the same pact with the devil that her father did and frees Ahriman in order to revive her. The game makes you career her dead body to an altar and then directs you to destroy five newly planted trees in the game world meant to symbolize renewal. Each tree you destroy corrupts the land and when you destroy the final tree, you are given a light seed that you can use to revive Elika. For me, it’s a haunting sequence that is meant to invoke Shadow of the Colossus (which is a nice touch, since the Prince/Elika relationship is obviously a reference to ICO). Like that game, here you are choosing to destroy the world in order to save the woman you love. While games constantly refer to each other through conventional artistic signs, this is a rare example of intertextuality through gameplay itself – where a gameplay sequence is meant to invoke the gameplay in another game. A nice touch is the use of achievements to tell you that the story will be “To be continued...”. They even timed it to appear at the right place in the game.
I haven’t played the previous trilogy – I was a PC gamer who avoided console ports – so I don’t know if this game is any better or worse than Sands of Time. What I do know is that this Prince of Persia should be lauded for trying to tell story and develop its characters through the game itself and not through cutscenes or blocks of text or any other traditional form of storytelling. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what they’ll bring to the table for the sequel because they’ve clearly raised the bar for me.
And, on a completely random note – it looks like Nolan North is now the “lead” for two major game franchises. He really is the Harrison Ford of video games!
Also, if Wikipedia is to believed, this is all based on Persian legend. At least we're moving away from knights and princesses and elves. Thank Ormazd!
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