Forget the Sands of Time trilogy: It's time for a new Prince in a new story. This isn't yet another Arabian Nights-esque story, but it's a well-crafted one regardless. The new Prince isn't even a Prince, but more of a mercenary vagabond, where-I-lay-my-head-is-home kind of guy. By meeting Elika, a princess possessing magical powers, he gets caught up in a quest to restore life to a dying land and imprison Ahriman, an evil god.
While the story of the previous games has been entirely discarded for this reboot, the acrobatic gameplay the series is known for is still present, with a few changes that have a big effect on how the game plays. Firstly, there's the hotly debated "death" mechanic, quotes because there is no actual death in the game. When you fall off a cliff, Elika saves you with her magical powers and puts you back on the last solid ground you stood on. It's essentially a checkpointing system integrated into the story of the game. A lot has already been said about this and you might have already made up your mind about it, but consider this: If the game had said "Game over" and reloaded before putting you back at the same spot, would it have been criticized half as much? Personally, I think it's a good way of minimizing frustration and keeping your momentum going.
However, there is also little challenge in the actual platforming mechanics, because the game basically steers you in the right direction through each section, and as long as you press the appropriate button at roughly the right time, you'll end up where the game wants you to go. So while the swinging from poles, running and jumping between walls and sliding down slopes may look tricky, it's actually very easy to perform. There are a few environmental hazards here and there but these are also easy to avoid if you watch for their patterns. The platforming stays mostly the same throughout the game and will rarely get challenging, with the exception of a few somewhat aggravating, prolonged sections involving Elika's magical powers where failure means restarting a minute or two's worth of platforming. It's a shame that the developer failed to really find a great balance between minimizing frustration and delivering a challenge, but they erred on the side of caution if anything.
What has changed most significantly from the last Prince of Persia games is the combat system. Instead of using acrobatics and swords to fight multiple opponents, the focus is now on one-on-one (or two-on-one, as you have Elika with you) encounters against one of Ahriman's four lieutenants. You will encounter one of these lieutenants once per area, culminating in a sixth and final showdown for each of them. You can chain together combos by linking together acrobatic moves, grab moves, sword attacks and Elika's magical attacks. The combat is more challenging than the platforming, and there is an actual penalty for dying, namely that the enemy recovers a hefty amount of health. Fights looks very graceful and cinematic, cutting to dramatic angles at appropriate times. You'll have to adapt your strategy to the enemy you are fighting and watch out for visual cues that let you know which moves are most effective at a given time and occasionally react quickly to button prompts to avoid attacks. While the combat also suffers from the same slightly stiff, mechanical feel of the platforming, the visual payoff for these fights make them entertaining regardless, and the bosses all have unique personalities which can make fighting them quite satisfying.
Between fights against the bosses and acrobatic shenanigans, you'll have to go around and heal the land with
What really kept me playing was the game's great sense of character. The Prince has a cavalier attitude that struck me as cliche at first, but the more he talked with Elika, the more I warmed up to him. You get a sense that he has a history. Similarly, Elika isn't your average stereotypical devout girl. She is devoted to her religion, but she can be pretty sharp from time to time. Much of the dialogue in the game is optional, which can be triggered by pushing a button at most any given time to talk to Elika. It does a great job of giving the game and its world a sense of place and back story, that there is actual lore for the game world. It's a shame that the environments don't really feel like the actual places people would live, as the game would have you believe, because they are so gamey, for lack of a better word, as they are clearly designed for you to do your acrobatics in. The story has a very surprising ending that you probably won't see coming, and it also brilliantly calls into question a lot of the things you assumed throughout the game, and is without question one of my most memorable gaming moments in recent history. You'll be surprised.
Prince of Persia certainly isn't a very challenging game. It's a beautiful game to look at with a great sense of style and character and a very surprising endgame that had me thinking about it for a good, long time. If you play games to experience them and soak in the atmosphere and story, there is a lot to love here, but if you're looking for a challenge or something that raises the bar for platform games, you won't find it here.