Prince of Persia (2008)

Beautiful and Zen

“Don’t tell me I gotta jump ‘cross there, nuh?”

I know this game was divisive at launch, but it’s perhaps my favourite Prince of Persia entry.

I enjoyed the humour throughout and the fact that there was no permanent death. I was at University at the time and was becoming more and more sensitive to games "wasting my time", i.e. if there weren't manual saves and they made me backtrack for miles or they made things too ridiculously difficult (I had nothing to prove at this point), being forced to grind, etc. Been there, done that, haha.

The combat was fluid and interesting to me, combined with an NPC companion who wasn't a complete waste of time or a literal burden, lol. The banter was great! I many times wish that Prince of Persia movie was just this game (though I understand the banter between the leads was inspired by this game).

I'm a big fan of the art style, and themes, to be honest. This was what introduced me to Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest organised faiths.

The music was also lovely. It was the trailer for this that introduced me to Sia. I thought her track "Breathe Me" was beautifully haunting.

Alas! It's on my (unfortunately growing) list of games I need to finish. Who knows, maybe I'll get back to it this year?