The Prince of Persia Review for Xbox 360
I received this game at Christmas after reading many glowing reviews about it. IGN gave the game a whopping 9.4 out of 10 score with Gamespot following not too far behind with a healthy 8.0. I should have remembered not to trust any website that would give Grand Theft Auto a perfect 10 – sure it’s a good game, but let’s be honest, they both got a little excited over that one. Anyway, that’s another story.
I have heard the new Prince of Persia game being compared to a jar of Marmite: you either love it or you hate it. For those of you that don’t know what Marmite is, it’s a yeast based spread that looks like poo but tastes surprisingly good, although rather salty. I think the analogy works best in reverse – this game looks fantastic but there is no depth to it, it plays like poo. After you have been wooed by the lovely visuals there really is not much left to do. Jump. Jump. Jump again. Avoid some black goo stuff. Jump. Fight a predictable boss, then more jumping. Sound familiar? Mario used the same formula, but it has to be said that all of the Mario games were much more fun and satisfying than this one.
Another major problem with this game is the fact that there is no learning curve. The game does not get progressively harder and so you do not feel like you have achieved anything. If you can beat the first level you can beat the last one (although I still have yet to beat the game out of sheer boredom and frustration).
You cannot die on this game. That’s right – you don’t die, well it never happened to me even though I did try. You see, the whole point of the original Prince of Persia game, and in fact the following incarnations, was to avoid falling to your death by jumping about over platforms. If you take away the ability to die then there is no challenge as it just doesn’t matter how careful or skilled you are with jumping, it’s just a matter of time before you manage to get across. A monkey could do it. Oh, by the way, the reason you don’t die is because Annika, your annoying American sounding side-kick will use magic powers to stop you falling…
There is no multilayer or additional game modes to save this game. You just jump about.
All in all I would say that it’s best to avoid this game. Some people think it’s great, but I have no idea why. The game does boast beautifully rendered graphics based on the the Assassin’s Creed engine, but it is nowhere near as good a game. I have the special tinned edition of this game, which you would think has a lot of extra goodies inside it, but instead you can download a single extra skin (which makes you look like an Assassin), but only after registering with Ubisoft. Waste of time.
My score 4.5/10
