Test carried out from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions
We will have to mourn: Farah is no more, or almost. Prince of Persia shows such a desire to stand out from its predecessors, that it does not hesitate to reduce the ex-princess to the role of donkey carrying gold and misery. We have known much more amicable divorces. Crushed by a sandstorm that has become Ubisoft Montreal's best friend in recent years, the desert gradually reveals a Prince of Persia who will soon measure the magnitude of the task awaiting him, despite a loss of charisma. irrefutable. In the company of Elika, he will have to curb one by one the dark forces of Corruption, all revived by the rebirth of Lord Ahriman. In fact, the scenario of Prince of Persia is based on Persian mythology and its divine figures known to followers of Zoroastrianism. If evil is embodied by the demon Ahriman, order and peace are here represented by the god Ormazd and the Tree of Life. Without saying too much about the storyline of Prince of Persia, which is far from deep, the two protagonists will have to face successively The Alchemist, The Hunter, The Warrior and The Concubine, the four faithful servants of Ahriman who have agreed to exchange their soul for immortality. Beginning on a rather calm rhythm, the title then prints a slightly more lively pace, unlike Assassin's Creed which began in the spectacular before ending in pain; we hardly exaggerate. Prince of Persia is smart and clever enough not to burn all his cartridges from the start, and even manages to surprise us with a fight against the end boss sympathetic. And at the time of the end credits, we dare to believe that the developers of Ubisoft Montreal will be able to ramp up throughout a trilogy which already seems to have enough material - at least on paper - to create an immersive adventure. . Which is unfortunately not the case for this first episode to be honest.
"This is Persia !"
In terms of achievement, Prince of Persia was clearly oversold. Not that it's ugly, far from it, but it's by no means the big show promised by the game's creators. adventure that we are entitled to some visual delicacies absent until then. One thinks in particular of the flames that ignite The Warrior when he returns from the bowels of hell, or even of the open horizons that one can admire in the ultimate areas to explore. Prince of Persia therefore has charm, but is sorely lacking in personality. If the collapse of the kingdom under the battering of Ahriman will succeed in flirting with some retinas, we must not forget either that a work such as Shadow of The Colossus had already tried this kind of exercise a few years earlier on PlayStation 2. As well as the pastel tones of the environments, as well as the very artwork design of Prince of Persia will refer directly to Okami and his kindergarten brushes. Ubisoft Montreal hasn't invented anything from a visual point of view, but has still slammed a Prince of Persia and an Elika rather well done, it must be recognized; despite the deficiency of pectorals and breasts. The demonic big four and their evil daron validate Canada's mastery of cel-shading, although the colors tend to bleed at times. Failing to be exceptional, the animation of the characters remains, for its part, of good quality, even if we ultimately regret that much greater care has been taken in their outfits. On the focus, and even a little further, we can see the fabric floating on their bodies, the kind of appreciable detail that contrasts radically with the interstellar void that reigns in the sets. It will not be necessary to seek the exploit on the side of the level design, and to be satisfied to eat cornices and beams all the time. Finally, Prince of Persia still flirts with shame when accessing a new spell from Elika, with a monochrome rendering of the worst effect. Generally, the torture is brief. Phew.
In terms of achievement, Prince of Persia was clearly oversold. Not that it's ugly, far from it, but it's not the big show the game's creators promised."
Prince of Persia gently introduces the commands with which you will have to slip into the skin of the Prince of Persia. Unlike other titles of the same genre that rely on a gradual evolution of the character, Elika's companion is capable of anything from the start. Her physical abilities, similar to those of Faith in Mirror's Edge, allow her to tame any ledge, cling to beams, run on walls and smurf along walls, insulting the laws of physics. Getting started is intuitive and even exhilarating, and you even find yourself setting yourself imaginary challenges, trying to chain jumps without any downtime for the beauty of the gesture. It's a pity that a sprint, which is always useful in large desert crossings, was not thought of, which would have made the countless round trips less tedious. To reach total plenitude with the Prince of Persia, it will be necessary to acclimatize with the small additional vertical step that he systematically performs before taking his support. A bad habit at the origin of some not very bad jumps in the void, since Elika is always there to catch him by the hand. That said, it does not allow you to escape death, which is indeed there in Prince of Persia. Indeed, each time we miss a jump or stumble off a cliff, the princess sends us back to the nearest checkpoint. The notion of challenge therefore still exists, in the old fashioned way, but less brutal. Therefore, Prince of Persia does not appear as an exception to the Game Over rule, except during fights during which the theory applies differently. Instead of providing the Prince of Persia with a classic life gauge, the developers at Ubisoft Montreal preferred to approach the problem the other way around, by healing the enemy's vital bar with each of his successful attacks. Destabilizing at first, the idea later becomes attractive, and even makes Prince of Persia less docile in certain situations. We naturally think of the bosses against whom the slightest hesitation is likely to tip the fight, even if ultimately the blows of the blade are no longer as deadly.
The little Prince
Prince of Persia's fights suffer from the same ills as Assassin's Creed: repetitive, sluggish and monotonous. Basically, the system itself is not so bad, with combos that can be executed alone or with the help of the tireless Elika. The Prince of Persia's attacks can be initiated in four different ways. The first type of attack, traditional, relies on the hero's sword (Square / X) that you learn to handle from the first minutes of the game. You can also choose to attack your enemy by throwing him in the air (Cross / A) while cutting it with class. The third way is to use the gauntlet (Round / B) to increase the power of his blows. Finally, the Prince of Persia will also have the opportunity to count on the support of Elika during the clashes, since they will be able to combine their attacks (Triangle / Y) for maximum efficiency. To tell the truth, the fights do not occupy a dominating place in Prince of Persia, the number of enemies present in the game being counted on the fingers of one hand. Ahriman's minions only spawn on open areas, greatly reducing the surprise effect. We can even slit their throats before they even have time to hatch, that is to say. Limit the number of fights so that, ultimately, they lack dynamism and bull hormones; find the mistake. To spice up the debate a little more, Ubisoft Montreal has nevertheless thought of integrating some rather nice but not stunning subtleties. Starting with the successive metamorphoses through which the adversaries pass in one and the same fight. Depending on the current configuration, we can only hit the creature with one type of attack. We then realize that it is still necessary to take a minimum of risks to send Elika to the coal when only magic hits the mark, the young lady not having the same extension as Satan Little Heart. We also know a few moments of panic when we are forced to stick slaps with his gauntlet, which often turns to the adversary's advantage.
Prince of Persia's combat suffers from the same ills as Assassin's Creed: repetitive, sluggish and monotonous."
With a minimum of skill and composure, we still manage to find irreversible flaws like the counter-attacks that we distribute to the eye. Apart from the small drops in framerate that we observe here and there, it is above all the fact of systematically using the same attacks that challenges. With enemies that never change their attack strategy, it becomes easy to bring them to their knees in just two minutes. A few well-placed QTEs will seriously make you sweat, but it's obvious that Prince of Persia doesn't have the typical insurmountable game profile. One of the positive aspects of the combat system, however, is the interactivity of the scenery, which has a direct impact on the behavior of the Prince of Persia and the monsters he fights against. Pinning his vis-à-vis against a concrete pillar will provide a definite advantage, just as pushing him back to the edge of a platform will eliminate him in one fell swoop. Prince of Persia leaves a certain freedom of exploration to the player, so that it is possible to visit the zones of the kingdom in the order which one wishes. However, in order to maintain a minimum of consistency, spheres of light will have to be collected to both increase Elika's strike force, and allow her to access new powers essential for exploring certain places that are usually inaccessible. We let you discover them, it's heavy. Regarding the lifespan of Prince of Persia, it is artificially inflated by the harvest of these famous luminous pearls; 9 hours of play will have been necessary for us to complete the adventure, with 643 balls in the pocket. All in a musical atmosphere that manages the feat of reminding us that Prince of Persia is from the Middle East. Yes, we had forgotten that.
