About the game
Prince of Persia is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the seventh main game in the Prince of Persia series and the second reboot, starting a new continuity separate from the others. It was released in the United States on December 2, 2008 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and on December 9 for Windows.
You play a nameless adventurer who ends up in a mysterious land after a sandstorm. There he meets a princess named Elika, and the two work to lock the evil entity Ahriman away again after Elika's father released him. The story and setting borrow some ideas from Zoroastrianism.
The game is built around acrobatics, combat and puzzle solving. You heal specific areas of land, which clears them of Ahriman's Corruption and its traps. The world is open, so you can go to any spot at any time. You cannot die in the usual way. When an enemy is about to land a killing blow or you fall, Elika saves you, and there is no limit on how often. Combat is mostly one on one duels rather than fighting hordes.
Proof of concept art leaked in September 2006, and Ubisoft announced the game in May 2008. The game uses a heavily modified version of the Scimitar engine, also used in Assassin's Creed. Producer Ben Mattes said that playing with an AI partner was the hook meant to replace the Sands of Time idea from the earlier games.
The game was well received. Review aggregates came to 81 for Xbox 360, 85 for PS3 and 82 for PC. Many critics said it was too easy. It sold over 2.5 million copies by November 2009. A downloadable epilogue, Epilogue, came out on March 5, 2009 for PS3 and Xbox 360 after a one week delay, with new areas, enemies and a new power for Elika. Ubisoft did not release it for PC.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 81 out of 100 (Xbox 360). Individual reviews: IGN 9.3/10, Game Informer 8.8/10, GameSpot 8/10, GameTrailers 8.7/10, GameZone 9/10, Electronic Gaming Monthly 8/10, Eurogamer 6/10, Edge 5/10.
Extra content
One story expansion, Epilogue, was released for PS3 and Xbox 360. It has its own achievements.
- Epilogue: New areas, new enemies, new combat moves and a new power for Elika, set after the main story. Ten achievements in the Xbox 360 list are for it.
Good to know
- The Prince cannot die. Elika saves you from every fall and killing blow, and there is no way to die in the usual sense.
- Be gentle with her is worth 100 gamerscore, the biggest single award in the list.
- The list has 60 achievements: 50 for the main game and 10 for the Epilogue expansion.
- The Epilogue was not released for PC.
- Light Seeds have an achievement at every 100, from 100 to 900, and one for finding all 1,001.
- One US retailer's pre-orders came with a code for a classic Prince character skin.
Made by
Director Jean-Christophe Guyot, Producer Bertrand Helias, Producer Ben Mattes, Designer Thomas Delbuguet, Designer Kevin Guillemette, Programmer Charles Jacob, Artist Mickael Labat, Writer Andrew Walsh, Composer Stuart Chatwood, Composer Inon Zur.
