Prince of Persia (2008 game)
Prince of Persia is a video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on December 2, 2008 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and on December 9 for PC. It is a new chapter in the Prince of Persia universe and introduces a new gameplay, along with a fresh "illustrative" visual style using cel-shading.
The game is set in ancient Persia, although the exact century is not revealed. In the game, the player assumes the role of the Prince, whose name is not revealed in the game. The Prince is accompanied by a girl named Elika, whom he met after a large sandstorm diverted him from his course and he ended up in a mysterious land. Players traverse many different environments using the Prince's acrobatic abilities to scale walls and even crawl on the ceilings. Throughout the journey, players combat various enemies as they attempt to cleanse the land of corruption. The game's storyline and setting borrow heavily from Zoroastrianism.
The gameplay in Prince of Persia retains a similar feel to the Sands of Time trilogy, in the sense that the acrobatics, puzzle solving and combat elements remain. However, the game is non-linear, and hence, the players are given the opportunity to explore any part of the world at any time they want to. The player fights enemies variously as they perform acrobatic feats to get from one fertile ground to another, to heal them.
The game is set in ancient Persia, in an undefined city-state where Zoroastrianism is the dominant religion. At the center of the city-state rests the temple imprisoning the god Ahriman, who was locked there by the god Ormazd. Ormazd locked Ahriman there because Ahriman was trying to conquer the land. At first, Ormazd stepped down, hoping Ahriman would stop when no resistance was met, but was soon forced to take action due to Ahriman conquering a majority of the countries and plaguing them with Corruption. Ormazd managed to imprison Ahriman and his Corruption inside the temple with the help of the Ahura. After this feat, Ormazd departed the world to rest among the stars, humiliated that he lacked the foresight to take action sooner.
A new supporting character, Elika, has a large role in gameplay, in that she saves the Prince from death while in combat or exploring the world. The Prince cannot "die" in this game, as Elika will save him from any danger and bring him back to the last safe point of the game. For example, if the Prince slips and misses a jump, instead of falling to his death, Elika will grab him, and set him back on the last stable platform that the Prince stood on. Elika can also perform many combat moves, some in tandem with the Prince. If the Prince is downed in combat, Elika can protect him as he regains his energy. She also assists him in acrobatics. She boosts the Prince further than he can jump alone using her magical abilities. She is also very acrobatic, performing the same moves as the Prince, with ease. When solving puzzles, Elika plays a role as well. If the Prince does not know where to go next, Elika will guide him in the right direction with a magic compass, however the magic compass points where directed by the player on the in-game map.
Combat largely differs from that in the Sands of Time trilogy, but is similar to that of the original Prince of Persia trilogy. The combat is one-on-one, and there are four main combat options. There is a sword attack, which is where the Prince uses his sword to attack enemies; a gauntlet attack, by which he lifts and throws enemies; a magic attack, by which Elika uses her magic to damage enemies; and an acrobatic attack, which is useful for switching places with the enemy, and performing combat feats in tandem with Elika. All of these four combat options can be linked together to perform combos which do variably more damage to enemies. In later stages of the game, enemies also change state, and can only be attacked using only one of four combat options at a given time, as indicated by the style of the enemy. If the player uses a combat option other than the one prompted, they will be damaged. There are three stages of the Prince's health in combat; healthy, weakened, and grounded. When the Prince is in his healthy state, he is not yet damaged. When an enemy strikes the Prince, he goes into his weakened state. He is more vulnerable to being attacked in his weakened state, but it can sometimes take several strikes to make the Prince go into his grounded state. When the Prince becomes grounded, the enemy makes a swift attempt to kill him. The player will be prompted into a quick-time action, in which they will have to push a button to subdue the enemy and get back up into their healthy state. If the player fails the quick-time event, pushing the wrong button, the enemy will attempt to kill the Prince. Elika, however, subdues the enemy as the Prince returns to his weakened state, but the enemy also regains a fraction of their health as well.
Acrobatics remain largely unchanged from the Sands of Time trilogy, except that Elika now provides acrobatic support. The Prince is capable of running on walls, sliding down walls, climbing walls, and jumping from wall-to-wall. The Prince utilizes his gauntlet as a tool to break the fall as he slides down a wall. Elika also plays a large role in acrobatics. Elika boosts the Prince further than he can normally go, she saves him if he misses a jump, and she herself is very capable and agile. As the game progresses, the Prince can collect Light Seeds.[7] The Light Seeds unlock certain abilities for Elika, which allow her to access various parts of the game world. The abilities activate certain plates, which, when boarded by Elika and the Prince, allow them to perform acrobatic feats that they couldn't otherwise, using magic.