The Ending of Prince of Persia (Spoilers)

Just in case you're not gonna play the game but wanna know what sorta mindfuck ending Ubisoft Montreal created.

Well, I'm not sure what you know of Prince of Persia... it's basically a fantasy platformer that's sorta presented in this cartoony storybook setting. Even the characters are cell shaded to give it that unique look.

When you first start, you're this guy, who's apparently the Prince of Persia, even though he's more like a medieval Han Solo then an actual Prince. Anyways, he meets up with this girl named Elika, who is running away from her father. It turns out that she's the Princess of this ancient temple that holds the ancient god of darkness Ahriman inside.

Her father the King has apparently gone insane and is trying to weaken the temple so that Ahriman can be freed. The Prince and Elika go platforming around these lands to undo the damage and restore the temple so the angry God will stay inside forever.All these areas are filled with this corruption, which looks like black ooze and is very hazardous to your health. A biohazard, if you will.

As you defeat the bosses in the lands, you'll be able to have Elika use her magic to heal the land and restore it to fertility. Which is a little scene where she floats up into the air, bright magic explodes, and she lets out this orgasmic scream. At least, I thought it sounded orgasmic. Anyways, about halfway through the game, you find out that Elika had apparently died from a fall one day, which made the King very sad and which led him to make this bargain with Ahriman, whereby Elika is brought back to life and endowed with magic, as long as the King agreed to free him.

So the duo eventually heal all the surrounding lands and venture into the temple itself, where they defeat Elika's father, who is completely corrupted. Then they face off against Ahriman himself, which is this giant big dark cloud. After a bit of platforming, The Prince launched Elika inside where she uses her magic to subdue Ahriman. Of course, the final step is to restore the temple to keep Ahriman inside, so Elika gives up her life energy to the temple, and promptly falls dead.

Which I saw comin a mile away.

The game at this point has you leaving the temple carrying Elika's dead body in your arms, where the credits suddently start rolling. And when that happened, I said to myself "This is the worst fucking ending ever."

Fortunately, you're able to hit Esc and procede to lay her body on this marble platform. Looking off into the distance, you see these four trees on top of four pillars, symbolizing the four fertile grounds you'd cleansed. You're able to climb onto the pillars and chop down each tree, which has a sort of freezing effect. Once all four trees have been chopped down, the door to the temple opens and you head inside. All the while, you can hear Ahriman whispering these evil things to you from the hallway. Inside the temple, there's another tree which symbolizes the temple and its power. Obviously, you chop it down, and are rewarded with this bright blue light orb. You carry it outside and place it on Elika's body, giving her life again. She wakes up, asks "Why" and you carry her towards the camera, while in the background the temple collapses and we see Ahriman emerge free and flying towards us.

That's when the credits roll again.

Review: Prince of Persia

Should you buy it? Ehhhhhh.... this is really hard for me to answer. I was one of those who read the reviews and was like, this is just too easy, Ubisoft went too far and this game is basically a quick time event made into 12 hours. At least in Assassin's Creed they let you chose your own missions and fight multiple enemies at once, this game seems more like a movie with minimal input from the player.

While I would still say the game is a bit simplified and easy, I had a great time playing it and really feel glad I decided to give it a try, cause the experience is pretty awesome. The graphics and overall craftsmanship of the levels is really well done. You can tell Ubisoft believed this is a AAA game, cause it is very polished and beautiful to look at. Nothing you wouldn't expect from Ubisoft Montreal, guys behind Splinter Cell. The animations are just as fluid if not more so then Assassin's Creed, and the boss fights feel suitably epic.

The combat's pretty basic in nature and can devolve into quick time events, so it's not gonna be for a lot of people who want a challenge, but I was alright, since I don't play platformers as a general rule. And the no death aspect of the game, which a lot of people have complained about, was actually a game design choice that made sense to me when I played through it. Instead of quicksaving every 5 steps like in other games, you can just die by falling off a ledge and there'll be a quick 3 second animation and boom, you're right back on solid ground before the mistimed ledge jump. It really takes the frustration part out of platforming and sorta compels you to keep progressing. So ultimately, it just gets rid of the F9 quickload and isn't really any easier then other games, it's just presented in a different fashion.

What really stands out is the beauty of the various levels and the interaction between the two main characters, leading to the ending... which I absolutely love. It's powerful and moving and depressing but inevitable and fucking brilliant. Ubisoft was sending a very meta message with that and I like how it makes a complete fool out of all the people who are complaining about it.

Ultimately, I can't really recommend you pay 60 bucks for the game, because the gameplay really isn't deep enough to justify it. The ease and quick time events... let's be honest, this is not Game of the Year material. However, if you can rent it for your console, or... obtain the PC version somehow, you'll be able to play it through in 2 or 3 days and have a very rewarding experience, I feel.

Maybe worth it for 40 bucks, which I hear they've dropped it to.