50th Post! Also, PoP...

Yeah, so I haven't updated in forever. Sorry. Real life/work/family/Thanksgiving all got in the way.

So, on to the good stuff:

Prince of Persia landed on shelves a week ago. It is awesome. Seriously, I had been doubting how amazing it would be (so it looks pretty, big deal) but it has some incredible level design and strong characterization, which I'm a whore for.

You play as the mysterious "Prince", though he's actually a grave-robbing orphan with a rakish demeanor and a "roll-with-it" attitude. He's incredibly fond of chasing pretty faces with little thought beyond that. This is how he teams up with the equally enigmatic Elika, a pretty face with something more beneath the surface. Like magic.

The story is a bit flimsy (stop evil Ahriman and his followers by changing the corrupt fertile lands back into fertile lands) and the fighting, as always in the PoP series, can get repetative. The combat system itself, though, is much improved and fun to use. You have your sword button, your gauntlet button, your Elika button (where you throw her at the enemy) and your acrobat button (helps you roll to/from/around enemies). You can chain combos pretty endlessly until a gimmick the enemy pulls (where you can only approach with a specific attack) and the ever-annoying-quick-time-events should you fail to read your opponent correctly. Enemies do not randomly spawn and you only fight one at a time. If you're fast enough you can cut them off before they spawn! Bosses, on the other hand, you can never avoid and you will fight them numerous times with little difference between battles. Sure, sometimes you're forced to do a different gimmick (use environment, can't use magic, etc.) with the same boss in different battles, but most moves never change and you'll find the fight repetitive and sometimes irritating.

Also, you can't die. Which is sweet. In the series of old, if you died you were forced to re-do from whatever arbitrary checkpoint the game came up with, or worse, your last save point. I can't tell you how many times I was forced to re-do that stupid puzzle before the elevator in Azhad in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time because of that stupid elevator fight in which large groups on enemies re spawned three times and Farah kept dying. (I had to do that fight like 32 times or something. I had a tally at one point.) Not so in the next-gen game. With Elika you get the "Save Me" move where she pulls you from death and lands you on the last stable platform you were on in about three seconds, sometimes followed by witty (read: fun but cheesy) dialogue. No reload screen, no game over screen, no waiting. Sure, the "save me" is unstoppable, but it lasts two seconds. So while you never die, you still know that you screwed up. Quite frankly that's actually preferable. Doesn't make the game less challenging (hell, you goofed in the first place) either. In battles the penalty is more if Elika saves you, such as if you don't hit the quick-time buttons fast enough then the enemy's health is regenerated.

Elika's AI is incredible. One major plus is she won't die on you and the game doesn't end if she's knocked out (which she can be). She also never hurts you in battle or ever gets lost platforming, and can be used in battle to chain combos and deal actual damage. As much as I adored Farah (and I truly did) it got annoying that she couldn't actually keep lasting damage on enemies (except for those sand raven/bird/things). Elika helps to finish off enemies. Also, she keeps up with you on platforming and helps with the Power Plates (silly magic gimmicks) and long distances as well as providing a compass. Plus, she's a real character that reacts like an actual human being instead of your typical vapid JRPG princess or supercilious bad-ass-cold-hearted-action girl that populate a lot of action games.

Elika and the Prince (who is heavily modeled off of Harrison Ford-variety action heroes) have great chemistry, unlike most ridiculously shoe-horned love interests. While I'm sure a lot of people appreciate that the dialogue in this game is optional (except during cut scenes), I long for more of it. I swear, if I were playing the characters would spend too much time talking to each other rather than platforming. They even play "I Spy"! I love the optional dialogue as both Kari Wahlgren and Nolan North are incredibly strong actors. Their voices are just nice to listen to.

For all that praise and excitement I just heaped on Prince of Persia, I will say there are some annoyances. The game is definitely padded. After healing a ground, you have to re-explore to gather Light Seeds, which you then trade in for a Power Plate power (there are four plate powers). It's annoying. Sure, the platforming is fun, but being forced to collect these things is irritating. You don't have to collect all of them (forty-five in each area), but there are achievements for doing so. Big whoop. Also, combat is repetitive (no surprise considering Ubisoft made the game, but still) and the story itself is rather thin. Also, your boss characters are incredibly irritating as they don't really vary attack-wise and will often spout the same nonsense over and over. The level design is gorgeous, but they definitely dumbed down how to solve your path so that the platforming flows for anyone with two working hands. Not like that's awful, but most of the challenge is gone. As much as I lamented my almost-constant splatter-death in Sands of Time, I still felt awesome for achieving it when I did on the first try. Also, the puzzles are lacking in this one. They're still there, just more annoying and less charming.

Still though, it's a great game with strong characters and beautiful cell-shaded graphics to resemble a moving storybook. I'm completely enthralled and beg you to join the experience.