The new PoP is nothing more than a casual game for the weekend, though that might be enough for some.
First things first: the story. What we have here is a typical tale of light vs dark, good vs evil. The prince, who is enjoying a nice trek through the desert, stumbles upon this mysterious girl. Elika is her name. She's being chased by some guards and the prince helps her out. She needs to get to a nearby temple to stop something from happening. But what? Well, you get to the temple and long story short, the god of darkness, Ahriman, gets free and starts corrupting the world. See, the temple was his prison. But not all hope is lost, there are these places scattered about the gameworld called fertile grounds. If these places can be healed then Ahriman's corruption can be ended. And it so happens that Elika has just the right powers to heal them.
So the prince is basically the side-kick in this whole adventure, his purpose being that of helping Elika to reach and heal these fertile grounds. The funny thing is, Elika doesn't look like she needs help, she has magic on her side. Actually, she will save the prince from death every time. See, this is the interesting part, the developers have succeeded in making you, the player, feel like a complete tourist. I'm not really an adept of "the player must be the chosen one" design philosophy but I find PoP's approach flawed to say the least.
So you can't die (Elika's always there to save you) and you feel completely unnecessary most of the time, might as well enjoy the sights. The graphics are indeed beautiful, this is easily one of the best looking games of the year. The area design is also pretty solid, with four distinct areas in terms of art direction. But the whole game world is built around the platforming experience so don't expect areas to make sense in any other context. The sound is also up to snuff, with ambient and character related effects particularly impressive. The music is not remarkable but it complements the action very well. Nuff said, graphics and sound are among the best the genre has to offer.
And truth be told, the platforming is solid too. Running and jumping from place to place feels very nice and has a certain flow to it. The camera works great, the areas provide enough variety, though it's a shame you can't die, it would have enhanced the experience further. In terms of structure, the game gives you the choice of exploring areas in whatever order you desire but the action is concentrated around the fertile grounds. When you go to one such place, the world is corrupted and dark and after healing it you can either head to another fertile ground or you can collect light seeds that unlock powers. It's mostly an optional task, but one that I've found to be the best part of the game. You see, paths that were previously obscured by the corruption are now available to you, the area basically opens up. And that's important because the light seeds are scattered about, some being placed in less accessible areas, others being hidden. So you need to explore a bit.
You'll also come across combat situations but encounters are designed as such that you will always be facing only one enemy at a time. The combat system is pretty console-ish, with combos and some quick-time events. You can't die here either, but enemies will be healed every time you need Elika to get you out of a jam. So it's basically just a matter of time, no fight is challenging. There's not much to report really, combat is OK but nothing remarkable.
This is a console game after all and it shows, but not in the way you'd expect. Controls for example are surprisingly responsive and well mapped out. I didn't need to remap any keys, I used the default settings and it worked perfectly. The game is also very well optimized, with no frame-rate drops, no hiccups, no bugs or crashes. It's definitely one of the best port jobs I've seen. It's also worth mentioning that the game has no DRM infections, which is surprising, I guess Ubisoft is paying attention after all.
But otherwise, this is a pretty basic game. I'd even say casual. With a bit over 10 hours of game and little incentive for a second playthrough, this qualifies as weekend time filler, nothing more. So I couldn't really recommend a purchase, though I'd say it's worth renting if you're into this type of action adventure games.