Prince of Persia

Description

    Prince of Persia is a video game that was released for the PS3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft windows on December 2 of 2008.  Prince of Persia was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and was also published by Ubisoft.  It is an Action-Adventure game that is set in ancient Persia.  Here in Persia in the center of the city lies the Temple, where the king and his daughter Elika live.  Also the Temple acts as a prison cell for the evil god Ahriman.  Ages ago Ahriman was imprisoned there by his brother Ormazd after attempting to conquer Persia.  Ahriman was plaguing Persia and its surrounding countries with "Corruption".  "Corruption" in this game can be described as this black gooey liquid that will kill you if you come in contact with it.  After Ormazd imprisoned Ahriman he fled the land and never returned.

  With that being the prelude the game begins when the main character, "The Prince" (who actually is not even a prince) meets the princess Elika while trying to find his donkey that is carrying his ransom money that he collected.  Elika is running from guards that after you defeat she asks you to return to the temple with her.  The Temple is a very large building with a massive tree engulfing it, the tree is the Tree of Life which keeps Ahriman imprisoned there.  When they get to the temple Elika finds out along with the prince that the tree of life has been destroyed by Elika's father, in turn releasing Ahriman who begins to continue where he left off ages ago by plaguing the land with corruption. 

     Later on you do find out that Elika and mer mother both dead.  With the king in mourning he made a deal with Ahriman that said if Elika was brought back to life he would gain his freedom.  So Elika was brought back with these healing powers but Ahriman has been released.  Elika then tells you that surrounding the temple are this Fertile Grounds, that if healed can bring life back to the tree where they can trap Ahriman again.  So you travel to these Fertile Grounds healing them all.  After you have done this you return to the temple to fight Ahriman and finally imprison him once and for all.  During the final battle with Ahriman, Elika finally heals the tree and you trap Ahriman but to seal Ahriman in the tree Elika must sacrifice her own life and she does.  The prince with all of his grief destroys the tree and uses its power to resurrect Elika once more but in turn releases Ahriman.  The game ends with the prince carrying Elika into the desert away from the destroyed temple.

Analysis

     Prince of Persia is an Action-Adventure game in which you run around healing these Fertile Grounds.  But when Elika heals these Fertile Grounds she is drained of all her power but, when you heal the ground these light seeds are released.  Light seeds are these small balls of light that when you collect them in gives Elika some of her strength back.  There are 45 light seeds released after every healing and there is a total of 1001 in the game.  The whole game revolves around you running, jumping, sliding, and flying around these lands to collect these light seeds.  The light seeds are the main focus of this game.  The combat is a combo based one on one combat.  You can create all sorts of combos using Elika's light powers, grab attacks, throw attacks, and sword attacks.  There is also a limited interactive environment when fighting enemies.  If you or the enemy gets pushed to a cliff edge a button mashing game will begin where who ever wins will either push the other person off of the ledge or dodge the other person attacks and roll past them back into the middle of the fighting grounds.  Also in this game that helps you get around are these Power Plates.  

     There are four different powers in the game total all plates in the game have a specific destination.  The Step of Ormazd which is a wall jump that sends you to another location.  The Hand of Ormazd which is a Grappling swing.  These two plates you can not control what so ever they have an exact location in which it sends you too.  The Wings of Ormazd is a Track guided flight that has a specific destination but you can also move around a bit during flight in order to collect light seeds and dodge obstacles.  The Breath of Ormazd is the last type of plate that gives you a wall running ability.  Again just like the wings of Ormazd it has a specific destination but you can slightly change the direction of your run to collect light seeds and dodge obstacles.  IN order to obtain these Power PLates you will need to collect a certain amount of light seeds.  The minimum number of light seeds you have to collect to complete the game is 540.

     In this Prince of Persia it is literally impossible to die.  If you blatantly jump off of a cliff your screen will turn white and it will show a short cut scene of Elika's hand grabbing yours and pulling you up onto the last solid ground you were on.  If you fall or jump into corruption again it will show the cut scene of Elika's hand grabbing yours.  When you are in combat and its pulsing red around your screen and an enemy hits you again you will go on your back and it will go into an interactive slow motion cut scene of the enemy making a final blow and an icon of a controller button will appear on the screen.  If you hit the button you will dodge the attach and begin fighting again.  But even if you miss the button or press the wrong one Elika will jump in and force the enemy back with her light powers.  Sometimes during the game Elika will be thrown by your enemy and you will have to go over to her and save her.  But even if you do not and you are being killed by the enemy she will come and save you.

     In Prince of Persia everything looks fantastic.  The artwork is fantastic and the character design is impeccable.  The graphics have this sort of drawing look about them that makes it look like a cartoon.  Each land also has two looks about them throughout the game pre-healing and post-healing.  Pre-healing has this dark dreary look about it where it feels very cold where as the post-healing has this very colorful warm feeling about it.  There are also four bosses in the game besides Ahriman.  Every character in the game including the four bosses and Ahriman look fantastic.  They all especially the four bosses have these intricate and detailed costumes that look really cool.

     In the game there is also a button that you can press to talk to Elika whenever you want.  She will tell you all sorts of different things depending on how far along you are in the story.  You can learn all about her past and the characters also talk about their futures after this is all over.  There are also hints throughout your conversations with her that there is a romance sub plot between Elika and the Prince. 

Interpretation

     Prince of Persia had a pretty good story line until the end.  I just do not agree with the way they ended it.  Why would two characters fight all this way to imprison a guard and have one of them be sacrificed just to have the other one release the god and revive the sacrifice and undo all the work that they previously had done.  It just does not make much sense to me at all.  I feel that they could've gone a much different direction with the ending and should have.

     The way Prince of Persia looks is absolutely phenomenal, especially on an HDTV.  The environments whether dark or light really set the mood for the game and if its a dark atmosphere you feel very dark and depressed where as when its a healed land you enjoy running around it and staring out over the other cities.  The character design as stated above is also very good and creative.

     The gameplay in Prince of Persia is okay at best.  I think the game would play a lot better if it was more combat based and was not a one on one fighting system.  It would also be a ton more interesting to fight multiple enemies at one time.  Maybe in the next they should implement a locking system where during a multiple enemy battle you can lock onto one person and fight them.  Also running around for 1001 light seeds gets extremely boring and repetitive along with the lame combat.

Judgement and Evaluation

     Prince of Persia overall is an alright game.  If they game did not look the way it did i feel that it would be a terrible game because there would be nothing to keep your interest after the third healing.  The combat is boring and just like Ubisoft's other creation Assassins Creed this game is Extremely repetitive.  Although through the first boss fight with each different boss and the use of each different power plate it is fun and is an easy relaxing game.  But after that it is just hands down boring.  To sum it all up Prince of Persia is a fun and easy game with no frustrations but ultimately the repetitiveness is its downfall.