![]() ![]() Mistakes are quickly rectified, and every exotic set-piece is gloriously simple to control, with the flow of the gameplay matched by some beautiful lighting effects. It strikes the perfect balance - a few niggling sections aside, it's challenging without becoming frustrating, as the prince dances balletically across the crumbling palace of Azad, skimming along walls, swinging between chains, tiptoeing over narrow ledges and leaping between stalactites, all the while the palace's defence system snaps sharply at his heels. Even better, the chances are you won't misjudge the distance in the first place, because Ubisoft Montreal has worked hard to eliminate unsatisfying failure altogether - moving the camera so you can line up tricky jumps at odd angles and even painting shadows on the wall so you know roughly where to jump. When you're safe, you stop holding rewind. If you run along a wall, misjudge the distances and leap to your death, all you have to do is hold the rewind button to fly back through the air, run backwards along the wall and regain your footing on the ledge from whence you came. When you enter a complex room and the camera scans around, there's no anxiety at the task ahead, and there's no shame in mistakes. Later on you'll probably end up climbing along a series of narrow ledges, avoiding the crumbling ones and launching yourself backwards just in time to catch another surface, dodging sequences of rotating knives and spike pits along the way. In the first hour alone, you'll find yourself running on walls to leap to adjacent horizontal bars, only to turn around at the top of your swing and launch yourself diagonally upward at the wall again, using your momentum to fire yourself back off the rocky surface at another horizontal bar farther up, which happens to be within swinging distance of a series of crumbling pillars, which you can also leap between just by pointing and bashing the jump button. Prince of Persia is quite simply the most intuitive and dynamic platform adventure of the year.Įvery room sees your fingers weave an acrobatic, death-defying pathway for the prince, as outlandish moves flow into one another effortlessly. But although the TV campaign might highlight the Dagger's potential to keep you happy at the expense of the game's other charms, it's the quality of the construction of the game itself for which Ubisoft Montreal deserves most praise. It's one of the most significant evolutions in platformers since Mario 64. And that you do, in the shape of the Dagger of Time, a magical trinket so powerful that it can freeze and even rewind time to undo your mistakes. As the young and courageous prince, you abandon your father's invading army to scour the treasure vaults of the conquered Maharajah's palace, hoping to secure honour and glory and a souvenir of your first battle. Continue? Quit? Or throw your pad across the room and scream blue murder at the cushions and the coffee table? An ocean in a storm All of a sudden though, you're in the zone! Pixels are connecting precisely, the timing is perfect, your path is almost clear, and then, just as you gather enough momentum and leap victoriously towards the final platform, a scuttling rodent of an adversary wanders into your character's knees, and you stumble sideways into a bottomless pit. Your eyes are narrowed and your blood is simmering as you stab the Retry button for the fifth time in as many minutes. You know exactly what you need to do, but you keep fouling it up and having to start again. You're playing a platform game - it doesn't matter which one - and you've been stuck on the same chunk of the same level for the best part of fifteen minutes. ![]()
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