Prince of Persia 2008 was the first Prince of Persia game I've played. It was one of four games that came included with my 120 GB 360 Elite. This game I'm guessing, hence it's name, was intended to reboot the Prince of Persia franchise. The game's story revolves around two characters: one random guy, a drifter, whose nickname is "The Prince," and another, a woman, whose name is Elika. The game starts off with them running into each other, both of them looking for something. The "Prince" for his donkey, Farah (a nod to the female companion of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time), and Elika for a temple. How it came to this point is slowly revealed through flashbacks interspersed throughout the game. You, as the Prince, assist her in finding this temple, where an incident occurs that awakens a thousand-years dormant god, Ahriman, who plunges the entire world into darkness. So... now that the entire world is shrouded in darkness, whose job is it to clean up this mess? Take a guess.
As the Prince, you ally yourself with Elika to heal the various "fertile grounds" that pepper the landscape. There are four that you can heal initially, all others require some sort of power. Of course, before you can heal the land, you need to get rid of the boss guarding the fertile ground. There are four main bosses in the game, all of them corrupted servants of Ahriman: The Warrior, the Alchemist, the Concubine and the Hunter. Each of these guard some of the fertile grounds throughout the world. Once you beat a boss for the first time, you use Elika to heal the fertile ground the boss was guarding. With that patch of land now healed, you simply move on to the next one, defeat the boss waiting there, heal that land, and so forth.
Also, once a patch of land is healed, 45 objects called light seeds are released into the vicinity of the fertile ground. There are 45 of these in each area, and there are a total of 1001 light seeds in the game (1001 light seeds, 1001 Arabian Nights, get it?). You'll need to collect a specific amount of these, and once you do, you'll return to the temple so Elika can gain a new power to help you access new areas, which includes more corrupted areas of land. You can use these powers on special plates, called power plates (awesome name, eh?). There are four different colors of power plates: blue, red, green and yellow. Blue and red power plates basically function the exact same. They warp you between plates. Green power plates allow you to do a gravity-defying wall run. That wall run is one of my favorite moves by the way. The yellow power plate allows you to fly, simply put. The flight is on rails, so you can only move left or right. These power plates, as said above, are needed to access the later areas in the game, and if you're a completionist, they're also needed to collect all 1001 light seeds.
The controls in this game do the job. The Prince on his own, can jump, run across walls, run up walls, slide down walls, crawl across the ceiling, engage in sword combat, etc. Most of the above actions (with the exception of utilizing the sword and sliding down walls), are pulled off with a press of a button (the A button) and a tilt of the C stick, depending on which of the above situations you are in. If there is ever a time where you will need to slide down a wall, just use the R trigger, and use the C stick to direct your descent. You use the X button to use the sword, but only in certain circumstances, which will be described further on. The start button is used to pause, and the select button is used to bring up the map. On the map, you can use the C stick to move the cursor onto any area you have or haven't visited and check its stats (number of light seeds collected, the power needed to progress, etc.), and press A on any area to mark your next destination. The Y button is used to perform Elika's actions. If at any point you get stuck in the game, you can simply press Y to have her show you the way to your destination (which you can mark on the game map). You can also press Y in midjump to call on her and perform a double jump. You can also press the L trigger to make conversation with her, a good way to find out more about the world you're supposed to be saving.
The gameplay is entertaining and fluid. No matter what you find yourself doing in this game, the framerate stays up. You'll find yourself using all of the moves listed above to get through each area in the game; none of them are just for show. The game's mostly made up of platforming, which means jumping across some platforms, climbing up walls, crawling across ceilings and the like. One thing that's different from platformers in the traditional sense of the word is that death is impossible. You can't die. Whenever you make a wrong move, sure you'll fall, but Elika will always be there to pull you back up. She'll take you back to the last piece of solid ground there was, which I suppose can be taken as a checkpoint. You can start from that checkpoint as many times as it takes you to succeed and get to the next piece of solid ground. And you're going to find a lot of ground to cover in this game, as the environments are massive.
The other part of the gameplay (the part that isn't platforming) is combat. Unlike the Sands of Time games, where you face multiple enemies at a time, here you face only one at a time, which harkens back to the original Prince of Persia games created for the Apple II by Jordan Mechner. When you enter a combat sequence it will be against one of Ahriman's soldiers or against one of the bosses in the game (which I mentioned above). The only part of the game where this isn't the case is the beginning, where you're fighting some human soldiers just to get the hang of things. In combat, you can press the X button to pull off a combo with your sword, the B button to pull off one with your gauntlet, and the Y button to do one with Elika. You could also mix things up and do a combo that combines all three of these (there is, in fact, an achievement that tasks you with finding all of the possible combos in the game).
There are multiple paths you can take throughout the game, as you can choose which fertile ground to go for at all times. Once you heal a couple and get a set number of light seeds, you can choose which power plate you can access (red, blue, green and yellow), and those will allow you to access more fertile grounds. The way you play through the game also determines how much difficulty you'll have getting to the boss on the fertile ground (you'll know what I mean once you play through the game a couple times).
The art style used in this game is cel-shading, and this is the game in which it looks the most impressive. Many times I felt I was watching a movie (but, I guess that's what people have come to expect from an HD game console such as the 360).
The music score in this game is done by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood (who has done the music for Sands of Time). The score is amazingly done, and adds to the atmosphere of pretty much every area in the game. And I do mean every - the same three songs play in every area in the game, that is, if that particular area has been healed. And yes, in my opinion, they do get somewhat repetitive. However, they're still awesome. The voices are also well done. Nolan North voices the Prince, while Kari Wahlgren voices Elika. They both do an excellent job. The others, while I may not know who their voice actors are, are just as fitting for their respective characters.
This game is one of my favorites. However, it is not really that challenging. It does, however, look beautiful, and the various things you find yourself doing in this game, whether it be climbing up walls, or putting the hurt on Ahriman and his goons, are made better because of the cel-shading art style. Once you have a chance to play it, maybe you'll feel the same about Prince of Persia. I hope they decide to make a sequel to this game. I feel it deserves it.
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