After a fantastic start with The Sands of Time, the remainder of Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia series took a darker turn. Warrior Within’s overly emotive prince, horrible Godsmack soundtrack and female protagonist’s metallic g-string drew the ire of fans, though The Two Thrones provided a satisfactory conclusion. Now Ubisoft is rebooting the franchise, taking us to a more fantastical Arabic setting with a beautifully designed aesthetic. The new Prince of Persia is stylish and ambitious, but Ubisoft forgot one vital thing; difficulty.

The new Prince of Persia begins with the titular prince, whose royalty is never really explained, and may be entirely dubious, walking through the desert with his donkey Farah, who is apparently carrying a load of gold. He crosses paths with the young princess Elika, who is running away from her father. Everything hits the fan when Elika’s daddy unleashes the evil god Ahriman, who had been sealed underground for many years, resulting in an evil shroud covering most of the land. Together the prince and Elika must use the latter’s powers to restore a series of fertile grounds, which will help to banish Ahriman’s corruptive influence and weaken the god, so he can be defeated.

Our new hero is not prim and proper (or emo) like the previous prince; he’s a braggard – brash, irresponsible and selfish, and only in it for the money – almost like a desert version of Jack Sparrow. This contrasts with the character of Elika, a warm, compassionate and charming lady, acting only for the good of the world. Their difference in ideologies leads to a lot of bickering, but both characters are likeable. Much of the dialogue is optional – outside of the cutscenes, you get as much or as little story as you want, since conversation between the two characters occurs at your discretion.

The first thing that will strike players upon loading Prince of Persia is the beautiful visual style of the game. The game offers up some amazing cel-shaded models and impressive environments. There’s a sharp contrast between the luscious vegetation of the healed areas and the dark, lifeless corrupted areas, and seeing one transform into the other is a really fantastic sight. The character designs are great, and the level of detail in each model is divine. It’s not perfect though – some areas suffer from a noticeable slowdown, but it’s not really enough to really take away from the game’s overall beauty. This new Prince of Persia is trying to appeal to the artsy crowd, not just with its gorgeous graphics and amazing atmosphere, but with the relationship between the two main characters. The game seems to be inspired by ICO, but exchanges the damsel in distress Yorda for the more than capable Elika. While the prince is obviously the driving force behind the offensive, Elika spends a lot more time saving him from danger than he does protecting her. It’s an interesting dynamic, but it leads to the game’s biggest problem.

Thanks to Elika’s supreme powers, the prince cannot die. No matter what you try to do, be it leap of faith or sword to the face, Elika will save you at the last second – you will never see a Game Over screen in Prince of Persia. It removes virtually all real challenge from the game – every platform is its own checkpoint. Heck, Elika even serves as a navigational system, firing off a blue orb that will show you exactly where you need to head next. The game’s control is so simple that it makes even the most advanced moves seem pedestrian. The strange thing about Prince of Persia is that despite its total lack of challenge and blatant simplicity, the game still plays remarkably well. Level design is one of the game’s greatest strengths; each area flows into the next seamlessly, the architectural design is fantastic, and many areas require players to use the full extent of their platforming abilities, which (although simple) looks fantastic in action. The prince’s gauntlet is a really cool addition to the series, allowing players to extend some of the more impressive moves, such as wall-running.

Prince of Persia follows an open-world format similar to last year’s Assassin’s Creed, rather than the tightly controlled flow of the previous trilogy. The structure of the game basically requires you to heal the areas which have been corrupted by Ahriman’s influence. Before you can put Ahriman back in his place, you’ve got to take care of his four cronies. You can’t walk just walk up to these guys and tell them to bugger off either – five nearby areas must be healed before you can take them on. After you free an area from its dark influence, light seeds will be scattered across the level – collect these seeds, and go onto the next bit and repeat.

Light seeds help you to unlock new powers for Elika, which are required if you want to get further into the game. You need at least two powers before you can knock down any boss, so if you don’t have enough light seeds, you basically have to revisit the earlier stages to clean up any you missed before you can move on. Elika’s new powers allow you to utilise coloured plates spread around the levels. Red and blue plates propel you forward toward the next platform or plate, green ones let you climb up walls and along ceilings and yellow plates trigger a sort of on-rails flight sequence.

Combat in Prince of Persia is quite spectacular, though isn’t particularly deep. Rather than having a specific life bar, victory is earned by taking over the momentum meter. The prince has four basic attacks at his disposal – sword attacks, gauntlet attacks, magic attacks (courtesy of Elika) and acrobatic attacks, which can be mixed and matched for some pretty spectacular combos. The occasional quick-time event is thrown in for good measure, and thankfully doesn’t aggravate. Combat against smaller foes is infrequent; you generally only go into battle against bigger enemies and bosses. You’ll be exposed to a lengthy dialogue before each boss fight, which will explain parts of the back story and how each one came to be in Ahriman’s service. Like the platforming, if at any time you are in trouble, Elika will bail you out.

Most players will finish Prince of Persia in around a dozen hours. There are a few things that will have some players coming back, like collecting the light seeds (there are over a thousand) or unlocking the bonus costumes (including the last generation prince and Beyond Good & Evil’s Jade), but no substantial incentive to replay the game. The game’s Achievement/Trophy set is focuses on players collecting all of the light seeds, reaching certain locations in a specific time and beating the game in less than twelve hours. It’s a nice mix of easy and challenging objectives.

Prince of Persia is likely to be remembered for featuring one of the most visceral visual designs of 2008, but lacking anything remotely resembling challenge. Challenge is a vital component of a video game, and Prince of Persia would have benefitted greatly from it. There’s some really impressive gameplay on offer here, but it’s overly simplified. If Ubisoft can introduce a bit of depth and challenge into the inevitable sequel, then they’ll be onto something big.