While I do not usually talk about video games in my Corners, I want to make an exception for this one. This video game is the most similar to my ideal of what a perfect video game should be amongst all I have played.
The Prince of Persia series of video games stands strong as my favourite of all. All these games had a certain something that always clicked for me, an atmospheric invariant. As a sucker for architecture and spatial compositions that blend room coherence and psychophysical richness, the PoP games stay on the pinnacle for me. Exploring labyrinths of rooms, isolated one from the other gameplay-wise but that somehow are built to act as the natural transitions between each zone -and correspond to the experience in the plot-, combined with an exquisite attention to the aesthetic detail gives my brain a boost of hype. The most similar games that provoke this to me are the Souls games and modern iterations of cohessive action-adventures.
I always rued the oblivion that Ubisoft condemned the PoP series to in last decade, so I was certainly happy to see The Lost Crown announced. After purchasing it, I couldn’t stop putting it in the centre of my everyday. I do not know how this game came out of modern Ubisoft. This Prince of Persia does not only translate this spatial hype to modern scenarios, but it is the most accurate depiction of pre-Islamic Persia that I have ever seen in Western media. As a sucker for Central Asian cultures and Eastern Antiquity, this game felt like a true gift from the heavens for me. Aesthetically-wise is superb and correct, showcasing real Persian architectures, decorations, engineering wonders, items and even stories, myths and sounds. Aside, it has learned from the Souls series to drop lore and little hints of stories in form of items that do not only add richness to the plot, but also do inform the curious player to real bits of Iranian history and myths.
The platforming is frenetic and challenging and the combat is smooth and fluid, with many easy possibilities of customizing your experience with character builds or difficulty options. The gameplay is seriously addictive, with creative challenges, hidden secrets and unforgettable showdowns. The characters are loveable and play their role well, and the Farsi dub sounds badass of course I played it in Farsi.
I know that a video game will stay with me if instead of advancing, I spend time looking at the scenario, enjoying the views while listening to the background music. I took 50 hours to complete this game instead of the normally-assumed 25 because of this. I couldn’t stop shaping a map of all the scenarios and levels in my head, where up equals up and north and down equals down and south at the same time, transitioning from majestic cities to sunken ruins, tangly woods, nightly deserts and hanging gardens and palaces, thinking about the wonders of life while believing I was sharing the views with my avatar in the game, Sargon of Fars.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has done nothing but good to me during these last two months, and offered me the awes of heroic fantasies, seductive views, sounds and sights and dreams of beauty and light during my gray between-work moments and nights.
There is always something to look forward to, and hope it will come to us. We never should forget that.