Prince of Persia ... / Steampunk / Final Fantasy?

It's finally here! The new "Prince of Persia" is on the market, and of course I immediately threw myself on this fresh product made by Ubisoft Montreal. After the "Sands of Time" trilogy, the standards were quite high, and many fans were at an early advance aback at the sight of the cel-shaded looks, representing a gross deviation from the far more realistic presentation style.
So let's look at what has happened since "The Two Thrones".

Let's start with the story.
Some people wondered if the story the last PoP trilogy might continue; the answer is a very definite no.
The first shot shows us a vague vision, followed by an introductory monologue (again in stories-narrative form). And the presentation of the Prince The second protagonist of the game, the mysterious Elika, falls almost out of the blue sky directly into the lap of the prince: she's on the run from masked captors (in this way is the tutorial right into the story involved in a known PoP-style).
The route leads the two heroes to an ancient temple, which serves as a prison for Ahriman, the god of darkness, which is just released from an accident in the heat of battle once again to the world, including his henchmen and generals. The Prince and Elika must now try to find the forces of Ormazd, the God of Light, and Ahriman to bring back under lock and key.
During the adventure you have the opportunity to learn about the scope of the story out more about the background of the two protagonists; the interaction between the two loosens the serious events in pleasant, gives elsewhere in the action but also adding depth - in short, it pays to play the optional dialogues.
The game ends on a very serious, almost tragic note; it is already clear that at least one sequel will be released (probably it will be a trilogy again).

Now to gameplay. Here things have changed!
The basic concept of the new "Prince of Persia" is, of course, remains the same: it is a platformer platformer with lots of breakneck acrobatics, as we know it from the last trilogy. Nevertheless, one must now slightly different calculate the timing of the individual deposits, the movements seem matched physically realistic than before (apart from being a Wall Run or Roof-Run is not just a realistic movement).
The basic stunts like the vertical and horizontal Wall-Run are back, as well as moving to large stakes, poles, beams and placeholders (in this case, big round knockers that are anchored everywhere in the walls). Sliding on sloping surfaces and the Roof-Run are news, as is the case Grip: The new prince was sliding down a glove with metal claws, which allows him, braked on each surface.
The amount of real puzzles (ie with rotary or wall switches) has in my opinion, taken in comparison to its predecessors, but that does not really hurt.

What has definitely changed a lot, is the combat system. In "Sands of Time" and "Warrior Within" the prince with a whole bunch of sand monsters had to grind out simultaneously, in "The Two Thrones" a stealth aspect was introduced. The new "Prince of Persia" is waiting exclusively on duels, that the Prince and Elika against a single opponent. The amount of fighting has decreased, but they are also much more difficult: here you would have to use his brain effort and just pull the right combos, to avoid being duped. Thanks Elika help the prince can not really die, but if it has to intervene, the opponents regenerated a third of its HP, which can be annoying as hell, especially in the Boss battles. The combos look great and are not particularly difficult to set up, but you have hinlangen with the right timing, otherwise you will only abgeschmettert and beat with a counterattack.
To and simply give a game of this genre replayability that certain 'something' to, you need not only a cool protagonists, but also cool antagonists. The dark god Ahriman occurs as a threat not really in the foreground, his four generals but very comfortable. The hunter, the alchemist, the concubine and the warrior you get very responsive bosses served, each and distinctly fighting style, design and personality; these characters are so authentic that they are not simply bosses, but are a seamless part of the fantastic story. Kudos to the character designer!

The non-linear game structure requires the player (each consisting of four sub-areas) of Ahriman to free the four arranged around the temple areas influence. For this one travels in a respective sub-region, can climb there by the landscape and by some traps (nothing special, the traps are less and lighter) and then spanks the Boss. Has the villain withdrawn, Elika heal the power of nature in the affected area of ​​the shadows and bring back the light of Ormazd; From now on, you can switch between already healed areas and herteleportieren. Now you can explore to disturb the subarea without enemies and collect the newly released Light Seeds (bright glowing balls of light). If you have enough Light Seeds collected, you can beam back to the temple and activate one of the four forces of Ormazd, which gives access to a new sub-regions; the order does not matter, nothing changes on the story (which I can recommend to activate the yellow plate as the last, because the story is probably driven most significantly by this seemingly Vision). Finally, it should be noted that the four forces are animated great to use and break the game graphically and technically enjoyable.

What can be said to control? After a few minutes of familiarization time she goes quite smoothly from the hand and is a total nothing special, but not bad either. The camera control is not responding to an extent that would justify deductions for my taste a bit sluggish, but.

Graphics and sound are somewhat more special.
To the soundtrack to the new "Prince of Persia" has once again taken care of the in-house composer of Ubisoft Montreal, namely Inon Zur. A note in the margin: There are a limited edition of the game in which, among other things, the soundtrack is included as a separate CD ... but apparently Ubisoft thought that Europe has this edition probably does not deserve. Grrr.
So who has the sound like in "Sands of Time", which also will appeal to this: soft and / or dynamic oriental sounds which convey an atmosphere that is somehow night between Final Fantasy and Thousand; on rock guitar on the soundtrack was time necessary unless I've taken care of properly.

The graphics are as I said prepared with cell-shading, this time, which did not look particularly well on some screenshots; However, in the liquid flow within the game this style achieved exactly what the graphic designers have promised a slightly comic-like look, the feel of moving concept art conveys - and who knows the concept artists from Ubisoft's PoP team knows how good they look like drawings.
For design of the characters and levels I remember especially one on: is this time to something fundamentally different than in previous games. Certainly, the environment looks beautiful and impressive - but how Persia does not affect the. Just look at the magnificent architecture of cities and palaces of Azad and Babylon in "Sands of Time" and "The Two Thrones" - This sets a setting of the Thousand and One Nights before. The new "Prince of Persia" comes up with a whole range of seemingly impossible buildings and installations that look great but take rather the design grade of the company Square Enix (ie Final Fantasy). An entire area is also built around the theme of water and steam-powered machines oversized with unnecessarily many gears - you can not just help but to Steampunk movies and think -Literature. Even the design of the prince himself is strongly reminiscent of costumes of characters of the "Final Fantasy" series (since FFX).
In short, between one wonders from time to time why the game "Prince of Persia" is, especially when you stand on a high platform and the bombastic views enjoying - for the simple reason, because the entire part does not seem to Persia. Nevertheless, this is good for the game as a whole at no harm.

Conclusion:
Who likes to play Platform platformers with great design, appealing characters and a sophisticated story, is perfectly served with "Prince of Persia". Graphics and sound are as always a matter of taste, I can do both but recommend. Fans of Prince will anyway not be able to avoid making a purchase, but also all other, I can say: this game is worth every penny!