Before I start talking about Prince of Persia, it’s only fair to mention that I am a colossal fan of the older titles. Sands of Time sits firmly in my top three Best Games Ever Made, and while Warrior Within and Two Thrones drifted away from that level of stunning achievement, they’re still good enough that I’ve played them all at least twice.

You can imagine then the kind of impact that the teaser trailers for the new title had on me. The visuals were achingly beautiful, gameplay was obviously just as smooth and intuitive as ever, and the new mechanical elements looked intriguing. But one little line in the press releases made me very nervous: non-linear gameplay.

Non-linear gameplay is a big fad in the industry these days, as everybody wants to cash in on the success of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Unfortunately, Free-Roam and Non-Linear can really mess up your game if you don’t implement them right, and since Ubisoft hasn’t actually done a game this way before, I was worried they were going to screw it up.

Sadly, that’s exactly what happened. The game starts by introducing you to your companion Elika, a mysterious princess with magical powers who has a Dark God problem she’d like you to help her solve. The game opens up immediately into a section of five zones, each with four levels in it. The first zone is open right away, and clearing the four levels within allows you to accumulate Light Seeds, which you can use to purchase new magical abilities for Elika that allow you to traverse previously unavailable areas.

There are four of these abilities to purchase, and which order you buy them in determines what order the various zones and stages within them open up for your exploration. Each zone has its own boss, which you will encounter several times, and which order you beat them in is likewise dependent on what order you buy abilities in and which zones you clear.

This is all fine and dandy, but the problem is that which order you clear things in has no real impact whatsoever. Each stage is completely self contained, it doesn’t matter which levels you’ve done before or which bosses you’ve already beaten; you still get the same dialog, the same cutscenes, and the same level. Ubisoft makes a big deal about how you can play the game multiple times and have it be different every time, which is technically true, but it’s not really a different experience if all you’re doing is rearranging the cutscenes.

Score:

Playtime: 16 hours

Replay Value: Low

Favorite Boss: Hunter

Best Combo: 11 hits.

The other problem this approach causes is that it prevents any possibility of a dramatic arc in the story. With a linear plotline, the game designers can increase the challenge and dramatic tension in the story gradually as the game progresses. Ubisoft’s approach means that both the story and the gameplay challenge remain completely flat through most of the game, weakening the player’s investment in proceeding. Unlike any previous Prince of Persia game, about two thirds of the way through, I started feeling less and less excited about continuing, because I knew that I wasn’t going to see anything really new or interesting till the very end.

It’s worth noting that a lot of games combine free roaming sections with a linear storyline to overcome this problem. Grand Theft Auto 4 and Mass Effect both did this fairly elegantly by having a linear main story arc that branches off into multiple paths and then gathers up again later. Designing a game this way takes more work, and I have to wonder if Ubisoft just got lazy.

Combat is also very different in this outing than in previous ones. You encounter enemies rarely in this game, and only one at a time. Every fight is a two-on-one assault against a powerful foe that requires very careful timing for success. The Prince moves slowly, and the enemies are quite clever so you have to be very careful about setting up your attacks. That said, a successful combo can eliminate an enemy outright in a single pass, and even bosses can be taken out in swift and stylish fashion. It’s a very different kind of experience and I think it could have been brilliant, but it feels unfinished. It’s not quite smooth in the way the platforming gameplay is, and because the fights are so rare, it’s hard to get enough practice to really feel competent.

At its core, Prince of Persia has always been about flinging yourself headlong through meticulously crafted platforming gameplay against beautifully imagined scenery and architecture. Here the game succeeds brilliantly. The platforming elements are even more refined and smooth, allowing you to proceed with even greater speed and fluidity. The game is nothing short of stunning, especially with the addition of Elika. Where previous companions just followed the Prince around and fired the occasional arrow or pulled switches, Elika is right next the prince every step of the way. The two characters move through the game together in a way that is like watching really superbly choreographed martial arts or dancing routines.

The level design is no less impressive. I’ve always felt that the push for greater and greater realism in game graphics was a move in the wrong direction, and PoP shows just how pretty a game can be when you let artists do their thing without loading them down with gritty filters and ultra-high definition texture maps. The last game I saw that did this so well was Okami, which used a similar “make it look like a painting” approach.

Overall, the game really just scores a B grade. No matter which course you plot through the game’s stages, it just starts to run out of steam about halfway through. By then you’ve seen just about everything you’re going to see in terms of platforming, character development, and scenery. The rest of the game is just more of what you’ve already done in slightly different ratios, and it’s hard to maintain excitement through something like that.