Prince of Persia: Epilogue Review

By Dan Whitehead Published 6 March, 2009

Ormazd try harder.

Version tested: Xbox 360

On the surface, this optional final chapter for Prince of Persia seems to offer most of what people expect from DLC. It extends the gameplay by a couple of hours, its price (800 MSP on Live, eight quid on PSN) fits snugly into the "Hmm, go on then" impulse purchase bracket, and it enables fans to do a little bit more of what they enjoyed. Scratch the surface, however, and you realise that, actually, Epilogue manages to miss the good points of its parent game and instead focuses to detrimental effect on the clumsier aspects of the original experience.

The story picks up immediately after the rather effective conclusion to the game, so those still wall-running their way through the Prince's adventure should probably be wary of spoilers. Gone? Good.

So, the Prince has revived Elika, but released the dark god Ahriman in the process. This is pretty annoying, given that you just spent the span of the entire game trying to imprison him, but the cliffhanger would be easier to swallow if this DLC gave some weight to the Prince's selfish choice. Sadly, it's not to be. Oh, Elika is in a right huff with him - and rightly so - but the story doesn't go to much effort to disguise the fact that Ahriman's release was brought about by practical necessity rather than narrative coherence. Games need baddies, and if that means undoing everything you've worked for then so be it.

Fleeing from the now-very-pissed-off Ahriman, the Prince and Elika take refuge in a large underground palace. Straight away, this setting robs the game of one of its best features - the gorgeous panoramic views. You're no longer scrambling and skittering around dizzying pinnacles, the world laid out before you, as far as the eye can see. You're confined and constrained in a blue netherworld from beginning to end, so the urge to see what new environments lie ahead soon dwindles.

'Prince of Persia: Epilogue' Screenshot 1

The Prince has a new dash attack, but it's not enough to save the combat from stale repetition.

The corruption is back, and gameplay soon settles into a repetitive rhythm in which you spend a lot of time dodging oozing black blobs as they slowly shuffle along their fixed paths. The moments when you're really able to let fly with the Prince's acrobatics are relatively few, but those who felt that the original game was too easy will be pleased to discover that the strings of death-defying moves you're expected to pull off now have longer gaps between the safety of solid ground. This also amplifies the trial-and-error factor, however, and can be frustrating when you reach the end of an epic run, only to be killed off by missing a ring obscured by the camera, or an assist throw from Elika that sends you sailing past your target.

There is a new plate power for Elika to use - Energize - but it works in much the same way as the others. You tap Y on the plate, and Elika hurls you to an unreachable area once again. This new power removes corruption from certain glowing areas to enable safe passage but it's ultimately a cosmetic change rather than a gameplay one. You don't have to adjust your play to accommodate this new ability, so they could have used the existing Hands of Ormazd power and the result would be much the same.

It's combat where this DLC really falls flat. Fighting was hardly the strong point of the main game, so the decision to repeat the same boss fights you'll already have endured many times over before is disappointing. There is, technically speaking, one new enemy but since the Shapeshifter merely switches between the Warrior and Hunter forms you'll already be familiar with, it's yet another feature heralded as new in the pre-download blurb that feels remixed rather than fresh in reality. He can only be damaged in the Hunter form, and only changes when you topple the Warrior form over a precipice, which means a lot of tiresome grinding to get through each encounter. That this fight is reused four or five times in this fairly short adventure makes the repetition even harder to stomach.

'Prince of Persia: Epilogue' Screenshot 2

Oh good, it's you again.

You'll also fight Elika's corrupted father four or five times more, as well as tackle a handful of the same old spawning soldier enemies you've seen dozens of times. Elika attempts to explain this laziness away, saying that Ahriman is weak and therefore conjuring familiar forms, but that's an obviously rubbish excuse. Given the game did a pretty good job of making the eventual deaths of these boss enemies meaningful and poignant, it feels very cheap to bring them back in this manner. It's like bringing Darth Vader back at the end of Return of the Jedi, so Luke can fight him another ten times, one after another.

What you end up with is a rather stiff experience, in which awkward acrobatic sections are constantly interrupted by the same fight scenes. There's no freedom to explore, and no real narrative drive to get to the end, other than the innate desire for completion that comes with any game. There are some frescos to find for your Trophy/Achievement needs but since there's no map and no backtracking if you miss any you'll have to play through the whole DLC again to find them.

Epilogue doesn't even have the grace to live up to its literary title. There's no closure here, just a finite story extended by transparent and clumsy means. The conclusion, when it comes, so blatantly leaves you hanging for Prince of Persia 2 that you wonder why the game itself couldn't have ended this way. There's certainly entertainment to be had along the way, but by abandoning much of what made the original game soar and replacing it with reheated battles and uninspired platform sections this offering feels largely superfluous.

5 / 10

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About Dan Whitehead

Dan has been writing for Eurogamer since 2006 and specialises in RPGs, shooters and games for children. His bestest game ever is Julian Gollop's Chaos.

Read more articles from Dan by visiting the Dan Whitehead archive page.

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Comments (49) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • muscleblade #1 3 years ago

    Still getting this.

  • Aretak #2 3 years ago

    "Anyway, It's DLC - what did you expect"

    More in the wake of The Lost and the Damned.

  • Artemis_Matsas #3 3 years ago

    "you wonder why the game itself couldn't have ended this way"
    Answer: MONEY.

    I'll wait until this falls under the 5 Euro mark.

  • RobertFoster #4 3 years ago

    "Oh good, it's you again."

    My thoughts exactly.

    @Artemis_Matsas: Does DLC drop in price often?

  • Les #5 3 years ago

    Loved the full game but I think I'll pass on this. I got the full game for € 25 and I'm not going to pay € 10 for a small extension.

  • miiiguel #6 3 years ago

    The parent game was very meh, imo. A QTE festival without the on-screen prompts. Still getting this.

  • Darren #7 3 years ago

    Yet another lot of PS3 DLC that is more expensive than the 360 one? Since when has 100 MP been equivalent to £1? 500 MP cost £4.25 from Microsoft. :?

  • Ninja_Tino #8 3 years ago

    Should be half the price.

  • Singularity #9 3 years ago

    Omazd try harder.

    /applauds

  • Thunderbolt #10 3 years ago

    Darren,

    Not sure what you driving at there? The MS points are very confusing in my mind and it obscures what you are really paying would prefer a standard currency.

    ----------------------

    As for this game, unfortunately for me I loved the trilogy on the PS2/Xbox so this left me cold, hell even Ass Creed was better than this.

    Oh well, roll on POP2.

  • JahB #11 3 years ago

    and here i was, hoping this version of PoP would die away quietly.... guess not.

    so we can look forward to at least another 2 crap games and we'll all just forget about the days when the PoP series consisted of outstanding games

  • muscleblade #12 3 years ago

    @miiiguel

    Well you didnt just complete it - you collected all the orbs. If you thouth it wasnt any good why go through all that? I dont get it.
    I loved the game but no way i would bother spending time collecting the last 200+ orbs. It was a great game but not that great.

  • BrokenSymmetry #13 3 years ago

    Prince of Persia was my game of the year 2008, and its ending was the best ending I have seen in a game. I loved how the Prince doesn't say a word at all in the closing sequence, but just slaps his hands on the coffin, and brings eveything to its grim conclusion. So, I'll be getting this, for sure.

  • TheRook21 #14 3 years ago

    5/10 hmmm

    better than Halo!

  • miiiguel #15 3 years ago

    It's an ocd thing, got to catch them all and stuff..., then again it's all too easy in this game, even the 1001 orbs.

  • TheRook21 #16 3 years ago

    @muscleblade

    he was either trophy or achievement whoring...
    Edited by 1 at 06/03/09 @ 09:55

  • berelain #17 3 years ago

    I thoroughly enjoyed PoP, but I have no desire to get this DLC. I thought the ending of the game was powerful as it was, and whilst I had hopes for a sequel, I wouldn't have been averse to the game ending there. But one of my biggest gripes with the game was the number of times you had to re-fight the same bosses, and I don't relish the thought of fighting them all over again. No deal, Ubi.

    @Darren - agreed. 800MSP is around £6.50 or something. Why is the PS3 content quite a bit more money? :s
    Edited by 1 at 06/03/09 @ 09:56

  • miiiguel #18 3 years ago

    @Rook12
    Just like your mother, without the trophies/cheevs.
    Edited by 1 at 06/03/09 @ 09:56

  • asphaltcowboy #19 3 years ago

    Loved the main game, will probably pick this up this weekend!

  • Masarin #20 3 years ago

    @BrokenSymmetry: Argh! Warn before putting up a spoiler like that. May I say pleeeeease? :-)

  • penhalion #21 3 years ago

    Hated the new POP and longed for more sands of time style gameplay. All the rediculous hand holding just made it pointless for me. The ending (in my opinion) was stupid and made the whole game pointless as a result. This new content sounds like even the developers suddenly thought "Oh hey the original ending is a soul sucking slap on the gamers face....maybe we should try to correct that"

  • Zelos #22 3 years ago

    I hated the final bit of the ending of PoP, I try to pretend that the game ended the first time the credits ran. If they hadn't bothered with the reviving Elika bit it would have been a great bittersweet ending.

  • miiiguel #23 3 years ago

    err... din't like the QTE mechanics of the game but I actually liked the ending a lot.

    "The girl or the world? The girl or the world ?
    The Girl!!!!"

    Cool. Kind of a backwards Shakespeare thing.

  • VicViper #24 3 years ago

    Mmmh Already bought it but having trouble just getting it to work (xbox360 version), stuck on the loading screen. So plus 1 to you PoP.

    still I'm sure I'll enjoy it when I get it working
    Edited by 1 at 06/03/09 @ 10:19

  • rodpad #25 3 years ago

    Well I liked it alot, just like I liked the full game immensely.

    Eurogamer can sod off :)

  • TheRook21 #26 3 years ago

    @miiiiiiiiiguel

    good use of spoiler tags... pillock

  • Beano #27 3 years ago

    Never completed the game - bored the hell out of me after 6-7 hours. The gameplay was ok but way to simple and repedative to be fun.

  • Thunderbolt #28 3 years ago

    TheRook21,

    I know you and miiiiiiiiiguel are having a bit of a flame war but you cant blame him for the spoilers as the article itself is riddled them.

  • pha #29 3 years ago

    Does this game suck as much as I think? or even more? thanx

  • dudefella #30 3 years ago

    Most gallingly, while the DLC brings new achievements, they haven't actually updated the game on Microsoft's end, so they won't count towards your gamerscore. STILL. Damnit.

  • jimboton #31 3 years ago

    I hope ubi brings back the old series gameplay for the sequel. it was easy enough for anyone but still allowed for great exploration and platforming as well as pretty decent fighting, the new prince is too dumbed down for me to enjoy, and I don't think the longer 'qte' sequences in this dlc are going to change that. Back to the drawing board I say..

  • muscleblade #32 3 years ago

    "he was either trophy or achievement whoring... "

    Achievements is fun but i dont bother with the ones thats not fun to get. I like challenging ones though.
    I do think Miguel is to old to be achievement whoring btw.

  • miiiguel #33 3 years ago

    As a matter of fact the section of the game I enjoyed most was actually collecting the orbs. Since Crackdown I like that stuff. And if they glow (or even better, emanate some alienish sound... ooooh) I'm in!

    I stress it again, the game itself is but a QTE thing, even the combat.

  • Les #34 3 years ago

    "I hope ubi brings back the old series gameplay for the sequel. it was easy enough for anyone but still allowed for great exploration and platforming as well as pretty decent fighting, the new prince is too dumbed down for me to enjoy"

    I loved this one except for the open world design. Having to use the guide to determine where to go took away much of the puzzling. Clear case of where less is more.

    The fights were decent but TBH I don't really care for them in a PoP title. It's all about the platforming and this one had the most fluent system up till now. Doing speed runs through the levels was very nice, I hardly used the teleport function.

    The not dying part was cleverly implemented and was much more consistent with a story driven game than the old fashioned dying and restarting at the previous checkpoint. In the end only a cosmetic difference but still.

  • JahB #35 3 years ago

    @pha

    if you've enjoyed any of the three PS2 PoP games, then yes - it sucks even more than you think

  • YobRenoops #36 3 years ago

    To be honest I thought the original game was ok. a 6/10 kind of OK but it got pretty repetive and the boss battles did my head in. I was very glad when I finished it and mvoed onto Mirrors Edge.

  • Artemis_Matsas #37 3 years ago

    @RobertFoster

    Well, i've seen DLC dropping in price after a while. Look at the map pack of COD4 for instance - from 9.99 it dropped to 5 euro.
    I think that it is grossly overpriced, especially after reading the review.

  • metalangel #38 3 years ago

    I'd happily spend 1001 Arabian nights balls deep in Elika.

  • jimboton #39 3 years ago

    "The not dying part was cleverly implemented and was much more consistent with a story driven game than the old fashioned dying and restarting at the previous checkpoint. In the end only a cosmetic difference but still."

    I disagree. Consistent with which story? only one in which the hero is invincible and never runs into slightest risk throughout his 'adventure'.

    Death in games need not be consistent with anything. You screwed up, you try again, it's simple. Deaths happen in alternate universes so they are not part of the story. I thought everyone knew that :D

    And it's not a cosmetic difference either as it removes the consequences of your failure. If you want a clever (and merely cosmetic) way to introduce death without disrupting the narrative you need only look at the Sands of Time where the prince (acting as narrator) simply said something like 'no, no, that's not how it happened' whenever you died and then you restarted. That is waaay more ingenuous, 'consistent' and respectful with the player than Elika. Elika is nothing more than a (clever?) device to prevent frustration in (very!) easily frustrated players.

  • Les #40 3 years ago

    "And it's not a cosmetic difference either as it removes the consequences of your failure."

    But it doesn't remove the consequences of failure. Whether you move back to point A after dying or because you fell and Elika 'saved' you, you still move back to point A. Hence it's just a costmetic thing but more consistent within the game universe than simply falling to your death.

    Do agree though that The Sands of Time-solution to dying was about as clever.

  • Gaol #41 3 years ago

    I loved PoP however this is a very fair and accurate review of the DLC.

    The boss battles aren't a grind if you know how to abuse the mechanics to get easy one hit kills off the edge (back to drop, wait on QTE of enemy rushing in, win QTE, press X (PS3) to jump over, press triangle three times to push of edge - works on both forms); but this doesn't excuse the cheap repitition.

    Indeed, I got the impression that this was a proper 'final' shrine level that had been missed out from the full game. The platforming buts were fun and challenging but there wasn't a huge amount of them. Barring the frescos, there isn't a lot of additional content provided by trophies/achievements.

    I'd up the mark a notch because of the terrific soundtrack, and I really like the extra skins.

    Still brought a smile to my face, still love the game.. but really with stuff like Flower cheaper this needed to be half the price.

  • FenderMaster #42 3 years ago

    This review sums up everything I hated about PoP

    Boring, unweildly combat, each battle is a grind... Fighting each boss 4-6 times each, just to blatantly pad things out, and those dull interchangable powers which add nothing to the gaeplay, and only serve to break the flow and (often) look ridiculous.

    No thanks Ubi, your game sucked, and by all accounts the epilogue sounds worse, time for a a rethink...

  • Burkey123 #43 3 years ago

    One of my favourite games of last year. Absolutely loved this game. I agree with Les when he says that the platforming was very good. I never used the teleport function either and getting all 1001 seeds was a treat.
    I'm definitely getting this DLC.
    Edited by 1 at 06/03/09 @ 18:17

  • Wayne #44 3 years ago

    Played about an hour of this tonight, and the review is absolutely bang on the money. Couldn't agree more.

  • dominalien #45 3 years ago

    Still haven't finished the main game, but I like it a lot. Ergo, didn't read the review.

    I'm happy to see some DLC which extends/continues the storyline. This makes it intrinsically interesting to me, as opposed to e.g. stuff available for Mirror's Edge and Bioshock, which is attractive to me only as an additional source of trophies.

    Will get this when the time is right.

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #46 3 years ago

    Man. This is one time I'm happy I didn't listen to the eurogamer review and went ahead and purchased it anyway.

    This episode was more engaging and interesting to me than anything in the main game, despite having none of the big colorful vistas. The vistas weren't that awesome really, when it just took you 5 minutes to run up and clear a level. There was no real accomplishment. I'm hoping the gameplay in epilogue constitutes an admission of error, and that they're going with more in-depth dungeons in the sequel(s).

    And saying there is no continuation of the story is pure bollocks, as this epilogue constitutes a reversal from the main game, where the prince(?) becomes the believer as elika loses faith. Doing this, the prince becomes the protagonist fully, after acting as elika's tag-along errand boy all through the main game.

    I'd say it is the combination of the ending of the main game, and the continuation through epilogue that is the main factor I'm in this for the long haul now, after just picking the game up on a whim a couple of weeks ago. Now bring on the sequel!

  • BillyBrush #47 3 years ago

    Thought the ending was good in the original game...what's one grain of sand in a storm...when it's Elika it's a grain you'd very much like to spread eagle.

    Also +50 for Eurogamers spoiler alert skills....if you've not finished the main game look away now because in the very next scentence i'm going to give away the ending.

  • muscleblade #48 3 years ago

    It was ok. I finished it in under 2 hours even if i "died" alot. Pretty challenging platforming and boss fights. Need to play threw it again later for a couple of achieves. But tonight its RE5 time.

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #49 3 years ago

    Yeah, I got the 2 hour achievement playing through it too. "Huh? Hasn't it been two hours yet?"