This accomplishes two things: It reinvigorates the excitement of the best of these, after the less-than-stellar "3D". And it succeeds in doing what that one intended to: bringing them into the third dimension, maintaining the fun and smarts, and even updating it some. Don't get me wrong... they had the right intentions. They may have lacked the tools and technology, and there was an important lesson that this one proves well: You don't need to make the follow-up a carbon-copy(to the extent you can, anyway) to not stray too far, the key is to stay true to the feel. At its core, this is an upgraded Prince of Persia, by which I'm referring to the original that started the franchise. This is faster and more dynamic than the previous ones. It is also, in ways, bigger. They fit in quite a bit, without this being overly long(it took me around 12 hours). The amount of enemies that you fight through all the first three are reached and surpassed not very far into this. The majority of the battles are multi-combat. That's one of the numerous places where this shines: The fighting system. It's amazing, speedy and efficient, and available right at your fingertips. That goes for the acrobatics, as well. While you can move like lightning, and the functions respond the same as that, the swordplay(this guy is kick-ass, he has exceptional skills, and he's got defending himself *down*) and tasks are still the combination of thrilling and demanding that they should be in this series. Let me tell you right now: If you do not have patience that is almost unlimited, finger coordination and reflexes like a cat(this takes longer strides of the latter two, on a regular basis, and split-second timing en masse), this is probably too much. It can be mighty frustrating. This Prince can run across and up walls(I don't believe this is the first game to utilize those two from The Matrix, but it's one of the ones that did it with the most luck), but he's still the same where it counts(...and he continues to go unnamed). The puzzles are intuitive and cool brain-teasers. There aren't too many of them, the large part of this is navigating, the fencing second. It all evens out well, I was never tired of any of it. The plot is magnificent and interesting, and goes somewhere new(thank goodness... how often do you need to have someone else cast you out, typically straight into a dungeon, attempting to marry your princess, before trying something else out?)... just for the record, I don't see much relation between this and the earlier entries, as far as this goes. The concept is rather well-thought out, and also helps supply you with a couple of powers at your disposal. The idea of time is explored. The camera is fantastic, and in addition to the regular one that you can turn and zoom somewhat, you have a first-person one that you can use provided you're standing still, and the panoramic angle which can aid, as well as put in perspective where you currently are. These are all great, and the only negative to this is the fortunately relatively rare occasions where the... let's call it "course correcting", happens. You do need to work with the way the directions change when the view does, which is something you won't always see coming. This only takes you through one overall location, basically, the plenty of areas of that, and all the enemies, whilst all done well and using sufficiently different attacks to be entertaining to face, are essentially variations on the same type. That isn't necessarily bad, it depends on what one wants from this. I would say it all comes together well and the choice can be argued as the right one. The difficulty is fairly high, and there are no settings for it, save for perhaps making the Tutorials(letting you know how to do the things that Mr. P. is capable of, as they come up) be active or not. It does start out soft. The graphics are astonishing. A few cut-scenes are CGI, and simply gorgeous, however, all others are in-engine, and this doesn't hurt them at all. This allows for remarkably articulated and smooth facial and body animation, and there's not a thing in this that doesn't look excellent. The lighting is beyond reproach. The realistic water and dust effects are impeccably well-done. This has next to no bugs or glitches. Saving takes place at checkpoints, with a number of "main" ones, where you choose to, and can return to that spot, and some "auto" ones, where you lose the progress if you quit. The AI is nice, programmed well. Replayability is based on personal preference, there is no High Score table, I don't know of anything that you get by going back to this, other than the experience. Storytelling is nice, you get "flashes" and some narration(that makes the whole thing come together well). The voice acting is spot-on. Sound in general is another strength of this. The music goes towards rock, without forgetting the beautiful Persian-style score. The characters are well-written, if arguably not the deepest ever seen. The dialog tends to be clever and well-delivered, and certainly all goes for being both. The level design is unbelievably well-done. This does have little in the way of Bosses to defeat, but they are awesome. As far as censor-worthy material goes... this can be enjoyed by any teen, and there's not exactly a ton keeping it from being OK from even younger audiences. There's barely any blood, no gore(compare this to the '89 version, and The Shadow and the Flame, for example). The nudity, however, well, there's technically none, but they sure go as close as humanly possible. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a challenge, in the form of an intense(note: Not as a result of violence), thoroughly well-done and through and through expertly put together adventure action title. 10/10
