If nothing else, Ubisoft has succeeded in making it very difficult to talk about Prince of Persia without clarifying oneself. It's no longer sufficient to say, "I really like Prince of Persia;" you may confuse the other participants of your conversation. Are you referring to the original 1989 classic? The phenomenal Sands of Time franchise reboot? The enhanced XBLA version? The upcoming movie? Given how many incarnations the title has seen in its nearly 20-year history, it's now necessary to qualify one's praise thusly: "I really like the debut title in the second reboot of the Prince of Persia video game franchise, released in December 2008 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC."

It's true, too -- I really do like this latest entry in the Prince of Persia catalog. Ubisoft's latest interpretation of the acrobatic swordsman and his epic struggles makes for an exciting game, including very pretty visuals, a rich and engaging story, and some utterly delightful characters. Like most games, of course, Prince of Persia stumbles a few times along the way -- its flaws, strangely, drawn from the game's refusal to stumble at times. While still a great game overall, Prince of Persia seems so hell-bent on delivering a smooth and beautiful experience that it frequently shields the player from making his own mistakes.

It's a minor gripe, thankfully, and one that doesn't sour the experience too much. This is good news, because it would be a shame for the rest of the game to be marred by these flaws; Prince of Persia is a delight to behold. The game's scenes cover the full spectrum of classic "desert epic" settings, carrying the player through deep caverns, sprawling wastelands, grand and towering palaces, and ancient cities of stone. Given the series' reliance on platforming and acrobatic movement, of course, all of these areas have extremely vertical layouts: Players can expect to scale impossibly tall towers, climb and run on massive walls, and even reach the sky atop a series of dirigible-carried platforms. They may not be as crisp and shiny as the tall rooftops of Mirror's Edge, but they're extremely colorful and pretty to look at -- and thanks to the unlikely and perilous ways in which one must navigate these areas, there are still plenty of vertigo-inducing moments.

The characters, too, are rendered quite nicely, using an effect akin to cel-shading to let them stand out against the scenery while still providing a high level of detail to their costumes and faces. Their animation is suitably fluid and spirited, and during cut-scenes, their faces exude an appreciable range of emotion, infusing each character with charm, confidence, vulnerability, or menace, as appropriate. More than anything, though, the characters are brought to life through the game's spectacular writing and voice acting.

Prince of Persia's new hero and heroine are two of the game's strongest features, a pair of characters so engaging and enjoyable as to make them instant entries in Ubisoft's memorable pantheon, alongside Farah and the Prince from Sands of Time, or Jade from Beyond Good & Evil. (Incidentally, players can re-skin Prince of Persia's heroes as all of the above characters, through the game's bonus content.) Players take control of "the Prince," a desert-tanned vagabond with a collection of scars, and a smirking, cocky, devil-may-care joie de vivre and snarky tone. His latest treasure-hunting trek runs him directly into Elika, a mysterious woman with a delicate-but-savvy demeanor, a knack for magic, and the fate of the world in her hands. One may rest assured that when these two mismatched kids get together, there will be hijinks.

Elika and the Prince barely have a chance to get to know one another, in fact, before the game's premise is thrust upon them: Ahriman, an ancient, destructive god, is on the verge of escaping his prison, and only Elika has the means to stop him. In order to prevent catastrophe, she'll need to travel deep within the lands he has already corrupted, and purge his influence from a number of key locations, known as the "fertile grounds." This will weaken his hold on the land until he can once again be contained, but naturally these fertile grounds are tucked away in extremely hazardous regions, full of pitfalls and guarded by Ahriman's minions. Elika could sure use a hand from, say, a reckless adventurer/able swordsman.

The interaction between the Prince and Elika is tremendously clever. Practically from the moment the characters opened their mouths, I came to love their well-written dialogue and their witty, well-timed deliveries. Over the course of the game, the two will snipe at eachother, relate their pasts, their hopes and dreams, and compare notes on their current predicament. In an interesting twist on game narrative, Prince of Persia actually lets the player control some of the story's pace: While critical plot points are still delivered via non-interactive cut-scenes, at any time, the player can press a button to initiate a new conversation between the two protagonists, many of which are as long and as interesting as the "full" scenes. It allows players to explore as much or as little of the characters' depth as they please, and to do it at their leisure, letting players decide when they'd like a break from the action -- if they want a break at all. The characters are so charming, though, that any gamer who appreciates a good interactive story will be mashing on the "develop character" button every chance they get.

There are also plenty of contextual conversations to be triggered, in which Elika and the Prince will discuss the world around them, and its current status -- each area changes in appearance over the course of the game. When a zone is first explored, the area shows the effects of Ahriman's contamination: The structures are cold and decaying, the sky is dismal and dark, and a lethal, omnipresent black ooze -- the physical manifestation of Ahriman's corruption -- coats much of the world. When Elika manages to heal the area's fertile ground, however, the corruption is driven back by the light, greenery returns to the earth, and bright colors once again pervade everything around you; it's a very Okami moment. In addition, floating orbs of light begin to dot the landscape; the Prince must collect these "light seeds" in order to enhance Elika's magic and explore new areas. In essence, each zone of the game's open world must be traversed at least twice: Once in a straight line to reach the fertile ground, and a second time along the scenic route to find and recover the light seeds. The game treads the edge of repetition in this regard, but since the light seeds are only sometimes along the same route used to reach the fertile grounds, the added exploration helps keep things fresh.

While the characters and dialogue are practically worth the price of admission by themselves, the Prince of Persia franchise has a long legacy of beautifully rendered action, with highly creative platforming sequences that challenge players with tricky puzzles and spectacular, acrobatic solutions. At first glance, this latest game has the series' iconic action in spades: The Prince has all the flashy moves of his predecessors, including wall-running, long leaps, swinging from bars, balancing on beams, shimmying up poles, and so on. He's even picked up a few new tricks, such as a clawed gauntlet to safely slide down walls, and the ability to briefly do ceiling-runs.

Elika, too, is no slouch when it comes to getting around. Not only can she match the Prince, move for move, but her magic comes in quite handy as well, allowing her to zap from place to place. She can use this handy ability to give the Prince a mid-air boost during a jump, and later in the game, new areas are unlocked by enhancing Elika's magic, allowing several new vertical moves. Most importantly, though, Elika's magic is the source of Prince of Persia's hotly debated "no death" gameplay: If the Prince should happen to miss a jump, he will begin to plummet to his demise, saved at the last moment by Elika's timely intervention, snatching him out of mid-air and returning him safely to solid ground. There is no limit to this power, nor will it ever fail you; Elika's magic grants you an infinite number of do-overs.

This is not to say that failure is without penalty in Prince of Persia -- when Elika restores you, she places you back on the last instance of solid ground you happened to reach, which may have been a while ago. Later in the game, in fact, the Prince will frequently need to string together a long number of maneuvers in order to get from Point A to Point B. Certain areas may see our hero scramble up a wall, leap backwards to a bar, dismount into a wall-run, leap from the end to another wall-run, jump from there to slide down a slippery slope, and so on -- and if you should happen to miss the very last jump, you'll be put right back at the beginning, even though you were technically "safe" while climbing that pole about halfway through the routine. The player will come to appreciate the times when the Prince is simply standing still on a flat surface, because those are technically the game's checkpoints.

Conferring immortality onto the player is not a detriment to the gameplay. There are some who may fear that removing a consequence for failure strips the game of its challenge, but really, in this instance, what has been lost? The platforming sequence remains at the same level of difficulty as before; nothing changes about the original challenge. If the Prince were allowed to die, what then? The player would reload the game, navigate all the way back to the challenging spot, and give it another try, eventually succeeding after a bit of practice. All Elika's magic is doing is saving players a trip to the loading screen before they make their next attempt.

There is some room for abuse of Elika's life-saving power, though. In collecting the light seeds, players may find a few orbs in seemingly unreachable spots, perhaps requiring some creative exploration to properly attain. However, one soon discovers that Elika's "do-over" power does not reset these collectibles -- if one can get close enough, it's often possible to just leap out and grab a light seed without caring about a proper landing, since Elika will save you, and despite her admonishments of your dangerous lifestyle, you'll still have your treasure. On the other hand, Ubisoft has created an achievement for completing the game without being saved too many times, so hardcore players can still challenge themselves.

Ironically, Prince of Persia's main downfall is not its prevention of death, but how surprisingly difficult it is to "die" in the first place. While previous entries in the franchise would establish only point A and point B, allowing players to puzzle out the route between the two, this latest game practically holds your hand the entire way. The level design, while very pretty, is often somewhat linear, such that there is very rarely any potential route other than the "correct" one. The game is also filled with blaring visual cues as to where that route lies -- instead of creatively analyzing a space and plotting a potential path, players need only glance around for the immediately visible hooks in the wall, obviously climbable surfaces, and so on -- even the walls, almost without exception, are visibly scuffed in the intended wall-running spots.

In case that isn't obvious enough, Elika has a magic power to actually show you your route, should you wish to use it. Since Prince of Persia takes place in an open world, steps have been taken to ensure that the player does not get lost. Similar to the "beam of light" compass from Shadow of the Colossus, a button press will cause Elika to let out a glowing orb, which will fly swiftly towards the player's next destination. But, again, rather than just give you a direction and allow you to take it from there, the orb will actually zip through each obstacle on your route, bouncing from wall to wall, flying up poles and along beams, and so on. While players are never forced to use this hint, the compass is actually a valuable tool; it would have been nice to be able to ask directions without getting a detailed walkthrough.

To top it off, the controls have been nearly idiot-proofed in most areas, going so far as to prevent players from failing due to any minor mistakes on their own part. This influence is subtle at first, and initially, I was even prepared to praise it. When leaping from a ledge to a pole, the Prince will realize your intended target, and change direction slightly so that he doesn't miss the grab. I was pleased to see this -- no longer would I be penalized just for being a few degrees off on the analog controls. As the game progressed, however, I started to realize that the Prince was correcting more and more of my moves, his motions and maneuvers going just a little too smoothly. Regardless of my timing or direction, I was always hitting the wall at just the right angle for the wall-run, hopping up the wall precisely towards the handhold, and always leaping with utterly perfect timing to catch the next pole, bar, or consecutive wall-run.

Halfway through an extended series of acrobatic moves that took me in all directions, I let go of the thumbstick entirely, yet the Prince handily completed another 20 seconds' worth of multidirectional maneuvers, simply with occasional use of the jump button. Prince of Persia, for all its spectacle and excellent presentation, is largely an on-rails platformer. This isn't always the case, of course -- there will be times when you do need to guide the Prince's next move, or manage your timing properly to avoid a roaming hazard, but there are also definitely times where the game is largely playing itself. It's not the immortality that spoils the challenge, it's the rarity of failure.

However, while the platforming was a mixed experience, I thoroughly enjoyed the game's combat. Fighting in the latest Prince of Persia has shifted its focus entirely to the "grand duel" style of play, allowing each battle to feel like it truly matters: You will never fight more than one enemy at a time, there are only 35 or so fights in the game, and 95% of your fights are boss battles -- epic setpieces against tricky, aggressive, powerful foes. The Prince, too, is an impressive combatant; for all of the oversimplification of the game's platforming controls, combat in Prince of Persia allows for a broad variety of attacks, strung together in dozens of potential combos, and this time around, the player is in total control, save for the occasional God of War-style quick-time event.

The art of combat in Prince of Persia relies on careful timing, waiting for or forcing an opening, and then exploiting that opening for all it's worth. The game's enemies fight hard, and only a few of their attacks can knock the Prince on his ass, triggering one last do-or-die quick-time event. If this event is failed, Elika is right there to save you as always, but the consequences are a bit harsher: While Elika is magically healing you, the enemy also gets to heal, restoring as much as 1/4 or 1/3 of its health -- a significant setback in some of the later battles.

Defeating an enemy can be a difficult affair if one attempts to simply slash their way through with repeated sword attacks, which will whittle the enemy down bit by bit, but will be blocked or counter-attacked as often as not. Instead, through creative combinations of the four different move buttons, a clever player can stagger their foe with a couple of sword strikes, rush in to toss them into the air with the Prince's gauntlet, juggle them with an acrobatic kick, call on Elika to give him a few magic zaps on their way down, and finish it off with a great big slash -- a spectacular, satisfying combo which leaves the enemy reduced by quite a bit of health. Once a combo has begun, the timing gets about as easy as the platforming, but it's getting in there to start the combo -- often relying on a few difficult deflections of an enemy's attacks -- that's the hard part, which makes that massive combo so much more enjoyable when you finally pull it off.

Right up until the end of the game, the combat feels epic and meaningful. Long after I had realized the ease of platforming and was barely paying attention during the Prince's 100th wall-run, each battle still made me sit up and take notice. I understand why the fights are few and far between, for the sake of keeping them exciting, but for the first time in a Prince of Persia game, I wish the platforming/combat balance gave more emphasis to the latter.

Between the great combat, the pleasing visuals, the wonderful characters, and even the surprising end to the story, there's still plenty to love about Prince of Persia. Even after the platforming stopped challenging me, the Prince and Elika kept me smiling, and their game is still well worth the journey, simply for the privilege of meeting them and their beautifully-realized world. If Prince of Persia had been as much fun to play as it was to watch, I'd be ready to call it a must-play -- for now, it'll just have to settle for "pretty damn good."

Prince of Persia is available now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

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