Set in a land rooted in ancient Persian mythology, the Prince finds himself caught in an epic battle between the primal forces of light and darkness: the God of Light, Ormazd versus his brother Ahriman, the destructive God of Darkness. The Prince arrives just in time to witness the destruction of the legendary Tree of Life - an act which threatens to plunge the entire world into eternal darkness. Manifested in the form of the Corruption, a dark substance that physically contaminates the land and the skies, the Prince must partner with Elika, a deadly companion, to heal the world from the evil Corruption...

In Prince of Persia you play a young prince who ends up meeting a mysterious princess called Elika. It appears that Ahriman, the God of Darkness, has been freed from the Tree of Life which was his prison for over a thousand years. Now he's free darkness descends over the land, while black ooze clings to every surface. Your quest is to rid the world of Ahriman and bring the light back to Persia.

Those who enjoyed the previous Prince of Persia games will feel right at home here. This is more of the same - basically jumping and climbing your way around impressive looking levels.

At first your environment seems impossible to navigate, but should you come to a crossroads the Princess will unleash a burst of energy which shows you the way to travel.

While the graphics are as incredible as we've come to aspect from this franchise, the fact that the game play gets too repetitive a little too quickly is almost unforgivable. Also, once you've mastered the controls, and know where to go it does feel a little like going through the motions. It's also not that long a game either - the most determined gamer will finish this before the day is out.

Then there's the fact that all the levels look identical, and that gets old very quickly. Each level basically works like this: Jump and climb your way to a set area, fight the boss, help replenish some greenery to that area and move on to repeat this process in the next area. Every now and then you'll get a mini game of some sort (all of which are rather dull) and then off we go jumping and climbing some more.

Along the way you can, if you so wish, get to know the princess a little better by chatting with her. This helps fill in the back story enriching the gaming experience somewhat, but to be honest as entertaining as this game was I didn't really find it overly challenging and I wouldn't have been happy parting with £50 for the experience.

Fans of the franchise probably won't be disappointed. However, for everyone else, it seems that what could have been this year's must own game ends up being a not very challenging platformer with pretty graphics.

7

Pete Boomer