Reviews// Prince of Persia

Any careful camera manipulation to 'get a better view' reveals that it is in fact as semi-transparent as sheet steel. This is entirely acceptable in a game that bears a PEGI 12 rating, by the way, but WTF is the issue with sex in video games? (See end notes for the answer - Ed.)

After the initial excitement and story exposition, the game falls into a groove that is both comfortable and ever-so-slightly tedious. Using the prince's climbing skills and occasionally Elika's magic, you must travel through each of the Fertile Lands and reactivate them. You do this by finding the Fertile Land itself - represented by a glowing magical disc on the floor, which is inevitably in some inaccessible location.

Once you locate it Elika must stand on it and perform a mildly orgiastic magical maguffin of some kind. Then, after much (entirely unnecessary) pressing of the [Y] button, the dead and lifeless Fertile Land become fertile once more. As the fecundity explodes from the centre, a series of lights are illuminated throughout the area you are in - these are Light Seeds. And the prince and Elika must collect them in order to open up further fertile lands for exploration and re-invigoration. This all sounds straightforward, and it more-or-less is.

But like any good tyrannical overlord, Ahriman had a band of toadying henchmen who acted as his generals. Ahriman allowed each of his henchmen to rule a part of the land. Much like when the Normans invaded England and William the Conqueror divided our rightful homelands amongst the toadying nobles who helped him steal our country from us, thus establishing the class system which still hold us in thrall.

Although Ahriman himself is still partially under the control of the temple which had previously imprisoned him, his henchmen have broken free and each has returned to the Fertile Land which had previously been his domain. These creatures act as the level bosses. The prince and Elika must defeat one at each Fertile Land. Each has slightly different abilities, and must be dealt with in a different way. Some can teleport, some are impervious to sword damage and must be tricked into plunging to their deaths, or trapped. Also, as you progress, demons will spawn, and you have to defeat them in battle. The demons are spawned by the corruption that has killed the land. Using the prince's gauntlet-less moves is essential to defeating them.

As you progress through the game, you progress deeper into the (formerly) Fertile Lands, and the landscape becomes more corrupted by Ahriman's evil. This introduces new challenges to the gameplay, as you have to avoid the vile amorphous mass that is encasing much of the landscape. This is easy at first, but later it begins to burst forth from the walls, in the places you most need to go, which introduces a timing element to the gameplay. It is this that saves the game from the slight tedium of the early levels, and once this comes into play, the game becomes much more involving. Unfortunately, this does not happen until some way into the game, and it is possible that many players may have written it off before this happens.