The Princess Elika is your constant companion throughout the game, but unlike most game companions, she's excellent company. Not only does she thankfully keep her yap shut as you're jumping, sliding, and swinging your way through the levels, she uses her magic to help swing you across particularly wide jumps or attack enemies you couldn't otherwise hurt. She also saves your neck whenever you fall to your doom or are struck down in combat - which means, no, you can't actually die in the game. It doesn't really make the game any less fun or challenging, though, just less frustrating. If she saves you from falling, she drops you somewhere near where you fell, so that you can try again; if she saves your life during combat, your enemy's lifebar refills, essentially restarting the fight from scratch. In essence, Elika is performing the same function as reloading from a checkpoint, but without the aggravating wait.
I could devote many words to how incredibly beautiful the environments in Prince of Persia are, but instead let me simply sum up by saying I have not one, but two pieces of game art currently being framed to hang in my office and home. Corrupted lands are grim and foreboding, choked with Ahriman's tarry influence; their healed counterparts are wondrous, bright, colorful locales straight out of the pages of a storybook. Only a few areas are available when you start the game, but as you heal Fertile Grounds and collect light seeds, more will become available for exploration. And if the glorious view isn't enough incentive for you to take your time looking around, Special Powers make new portions of explored lands accessible, giving you ample reason to revisit old areas and track down those last few light seeds.
The soundtrack, too, is lush and vibrant, providing the perfect aural backdrop for the adventures of the Prince and Elika. If only their voices were similarly well suited to the game's environments. It's not that the actors providing the voiceovers do a bad job - quite the contrary - but they're woefully American sounding. It's a minor complaint, but the game's aesthetic is otherwise so pleasing that it's jarring to hear someone who could just as easily have voiced Nathan Drake or Master Chief standing in as the Prince of Persia. It's an admittedly minor complaint in an otherwise fantastic game.
Prince of Persia is a welcome reboot of a beloved series that had gone somewhat astray. The platforming is clever and challenging, the visuals are simply stunning, and while the story of the Prince and Elika doesn't exactly blaze new trails (may as well just call them Han and Leia and get it over with), it's rousing enough to get you rooting for the good guys and booing the bad guys. I'm almost sorry to tell you this, but your "Must Have" list of games this holiday season just got one title longer.
This review is based on the PlayStation 3 version of the game.
Susan Arendt wants a donkey of her very own.
