Bush Mackel

If you don’t know, I’m a big fan of the new Prince of Persia. And when I say that I’m talking about the Prince of Persia, Sands of Time trilogy for XBox (even though the first was the best in the series) and then the new addition to the franchise, Prince of Persia for the 360.

Sometime in the last week or two, I finally went back to the game (I had beaten it once already) and cleared it out again since I missed a few achievements on the way up – Most notably the ones for beating it under a certain amount of time and having Elika save you under 100 times. Have to say, the same was surprisingly enjoyable the second time through especially since I didn’t have to worry about getting every light seed which really drew out the hours the first time through.

And after I beat the game again and got the 1000 out of 1000 on achievements, I remembered the DLC for the game, “Epilogue” which is supposed to really setup the next game and provide a better ending for the first. Well if you couldn’t tell from the title, I thought the DLC sucked! If I had gotten it for 400 pts I think I would’ve been fine with it.. But for 800 pts?!

Don’t do it kids. Don’t do it.

I Feel Cheated
I’d like to think that when it comes to games that I’m pretty in touch with what’s hot in the streets (even though I don’t own a copy of Modern Warfare 2). Point being, I could’ve swore that the Prince of Persia Epilogue DLC was heralded as a great experience with new gameplay including an additional new power for Elika. Well let me tell you that those claims are BIG stretches! In fact, I can’t even break that stuff down into separate paragraphs for the most part because the additions to epilogue were so minimal and passable it barely warrants mention much less a full explanation. So let me tell you what they added…

In combat, the prince can now dash towards opponents by tapping the A button and then in the ensuing clash, if you push the right button that pops up, your opponent is dazed for a second. Amazing isn’t it!? (Oh and on an aside, the bosses you face are the same ones from the main game and they take less imagination to beat than the first time around [if that's possible]). Also, it seems that the developers made a decision to make traversing the Epilogue as frustrating as they could, replacing intelligently planned out puzzles for corruption and darkness everywhere and at least one giant puzzle that you solve by mostly dumb luck.

A New Power is a New Lie
Continuing on, Elika has a new power plate that when activated has walls appear out of nowhere so that you can continue dashing and jumping and so on and so on. Even though I love Prince of Persia, I got the distinct impression while playing the game that the developers thought we were idiots. Here’s why – They say Elika has 4 powers right? Wrong! I’m calling shenanigans! The green one that has you running up walls, fine. The yellow one that has you flying, I’m good with that. But let’s be serious, the blue one and green one just jump you to another platform. To say it another way…

They’re exactly the same powers w/ slightly different animations!

And now they’ve done it again with this “new power”! You know what this new power is like?.. You know when you beat a boss in the game and have to escape from their land and you’re on some huge slide when the ground before you “just happens to break” so you have to Elika-jump over it? It’s the freaking same thing as the “new power”! – You hop into this power plate, you start wall running and in the middle of the run SOMETHING HAPPENS requiring you to jump. BLEH.

The Ending – To this Review and to the Epilogue As I’ve grown older, story and narrative have become paramount to me in movies in video games. And in regards to Prince of Persia’s main game, I thought the storytelling was pretty good especially with all the dialogue between Elika and the Prince which basically allowed you to get more details on anything that was currently going on in the game. Well that does NOT happen in the Epilogue. Elika is pretty mad at you so she basically says one of two things: 1) I’m mad at you don’t talk to me. 2) The world is going to end. And the ending to the Epilogue is equally as bad since it ends in about two sentences and (imo) sets up the next game as well as the original ending did. Conclusion : It sucks, don’t buy it.