Then again, it's been ten years since he first took to adventuring, so perhaps we should give him a break. The motion-captured animation looks great, except when the prince runs up stairs or ramps, at which point he looks like an old man who just doesn't have it in him anymore. That's not to say they look bad (except in the cutscenes, in which the disproportional bodies and strange faces of the characters can look downright ugly), but they don't look particularly special either. The levels also look quite stunning and are filled with big, exotic architecture and wondrous gadgets and machinery.īut while the levels themselves look great, the characters that populate them don't. The game is well paced it has just enough enemies so combat doesn't get tedious, enough exciting moments to make you want to keep playing, and enough puzzles to keep things interesting in between. The excellent level design in Prince of Persia 3D makes such stunts commonplace. During the course of the game, you'll find yourself swinging from ropes across wide chasms, leaping off high ledges to slide down rising drawbridges, and other exciting stunts. Only a handful of games have so successfully created the feeling that you are capable of such daring feats. In fact, the trap-jumping, guard-fighting gameplay of the original translates nicely to 3D, and the best part of the game is how effectively it utilizes these elements. That Prince of Persia 3D is essentially a three-dimensional version of its predecessors is no criticism. But once again, the prince has been imprisoned and left for dead, and he must escape the clutches of the villain and rescue his fair maiden. Prince of Persia 3D follows this formula exactly, only this time the game is in 3D, and the prince and his princess are married. In them, you controlled the prince as he climbed ledges, fought guards, and jumped over and crawled under traps, all in search of his beloved and imprisoned fiancée. The previous two Prince of Persia games, the first from 1989 and its sequel The Shadow and the Flame from 1993, were both side-scrolling action games. Yet this third outing for Jordan Mechner's swashbuckling hero has two tragic flaws, and these problems are so overwhelming that the good parts seem wasted. But there is much to like about Prince of Persia 3D, and certain aspects of it are especially excellent. If the game were terrible or even mediocre, it would be easy to file away with all other such games that come out month after month.

If everything about Prince of Persia 3D were bad, it wouldn't be nearly as frustrating as it is.

Prince of persia 3d jordan mechner