Unfortunately Prince of Persia may be the disappointment headliner among revived franchises for the PS3. It does have some pretty graphics but nothing breathtaking or as deep looking as some of the other show off games like Uncharted or Heavenly Sword. This game poses a double edged sword against the game player. If you enjoy lots of jumping and found the old platformers to be what you crave, you may enjoy this. It does take the much loved Prince into an almost fully 3D world. But at the heart of it, the game does not let you have full control of the character. Unlike Tomb Raider you can’t choose what motion your avatar makes. You can’t even draw his sword unless the situation requires you to use it.

In exchange for this you are given a very forgiving control system that permits you to flub the flying wall climbing that is integral to the game. There is a learning curve to this, where I discovered that I was making too many button presses, and that all I needed to do was to let the Prince’s animations take over. When unable to even draw a weapon, or move without being prompted by the game, the reason for playing it dissolves. Those two factors were so incomprehensibly bad that it spoiled the point of playing it.

The fight sequences themselves left much to be desired. Again it is more of a twitch control game rather than an action / fighter. It was tedious and had too much backtracking. With a map system that is led by an ethereal zephyr your sense of direction isn’t helped at all by a wisp of smoke that undoubtedly looks good but leads you on nothing but wild goose chases. The Prince is the best at wall-running that I’ve played better than Ninja Gaiden and possibly Mirror’s Edge. But he does it independently of whatever you do, too much was sacrificed. It feels like it’s on autopilot.

Prince of Persia never dies. When the Prince falls down chasms or gets sliced and diced up. Elika manages to save him. In spite of his inane swaggering chat that is unleashed by the L2 button, he is treated in the game more like a fainting little Princess than she is. It’s a reverse baby sitting game. Because Elika is always there with a glowing blue power to boost him up. To some extent the game would be even more tedious if you have to wait for load screens and animations every time. Other games like Evil Dead Regeneration’s a few years ago made it fairly easy to make a come back after a fall down a cliff which speeds the game along and keeps it flowing. So I am all for that within moderation. But too much again makes it seem annoying in a different way.

In a lost opportunity they should have kept the floor spikes and lava from the old versions of the game. That was part of what made it funny and the Prince more of a hero. It would have added to the humor and interest in the game. One of the thing I enjoyed most in games was the way that Drake falls screaming to his death with several different voice overs, or the way that the character goes splat against the targets in FlatOut 2.

The game – play is too simplified. All you have to do is press the right button for each scenario. Are you playing the game or is this game playing you? You have to run a certain way and then you just watch the Prince play it.

Elika has to backtrack through all the areas to collect orbs. If you were frustrated the first time you went through some of these levels you won’t appreciate doing the same exact moves another time. The other problem is Elika herself. Why isn’t she just a selectable playable character? In some battles you can use her to a limited extent, but you almost no real control of what she does either. She is a powerful Priestess, yet you can’t play the game with her. This is another washed up opportunity. Instead of having two strong independent characters, you get neither.

I give Prince of Persia 6 unsheathed swords out of 10.