A beautiful piece of work that takes the core essence of art and applies it masterfully to a video game.
You play as the Prince, who is not actually a prince but rather a tomb-raider who has earned that nickname. You are quite literally dropped into the middle of a celestial war between a God of Light and a God of Darkness, and you pair up with a local Princess by the name of Elika who has many useful magical powers at her disposal in order to reseal the God of Darkness back inside of his prison which has been weakened.
True to the old style Prince of Persia games, the re-imagined game still contains all of the same gravity and basic laws of physics defying movements and motions. You will find yourself going for minutes on occasion without setting foot on solid ground, but rather wall running, jumping between pillars, climbing on ceilings and making use of magical power pads which start various sequences from a simple jump from point A to point B, to an extended wall run that can last for minutes, traveling upside down or sideways. Combat is also a very beautiful affair, with the Prince tossing Elika in the air with ease, combing attacks between the buttons to create some amazing affairs of magic, throws and sword swings. Combat is almost like an interactive movie at times, with dozens of times button presses each time you fight an enemy.
One of the key elements of gameplay in Prince of Persia is that you cannot die. If you happen to be in a situation where death would seem inevitable, Elika is always there to shove the enemy off of you before he shears off your head or to catch you and whisk you back to the last platform should you fall, regardless if she is constrained or even unconscious. The worst penalty is that the enemy regains a small amount of health, or you may have to redo 30 seconds of platforming. This gives the game an incredibly relaxed feel to it. You can appreciate the art and sounds more without the fear of the death looming over your head as you shimmy along the ceiling or jump from broken pillar to broken pillar suspended what seems like kilometers above the earth. It's an original idea that I believe paid off and works well with the relaxed and beautiful feeling of the game as a whole.
The graphics as mentioned earlier are superb. The game feels like art in motion and even the pseudo-rotted skeleton of the alchemist's corrupted body still looks beautiful in its own way. Every area is originally corrupted once you enter it, appearing almost black and white at times, and a gooey black sludge called corruption coating many walls and areas. It's up to the Prince and Elika to find the 'fertile ground' in each area, and restore it back to the beauty it once had, and the explosions of life and colour are nothing short of amazing, very reminiscent of Okami.
The Prince has a very un-Persian and not from the era voice and personality, and employs a cocky-funny attitude. Though nearing the end of the game he grows on you greatly, and you see a lot of humanity in him in the last scenes. I still wonder what I might have done in his situation at the end. Elika is also likeable, though her personality doesn't develop much other than the bond that grows between her and the Prince. The story is mainly told through short cutscenes that can be triggered at anytime by pressing the L2 button. Thus if you're not playing for the story it is almost entirely skipable, though I wouldn't ever recommend doing so.
The music is good, though you will likely encounter very few memorable songs, and rarely take notice to the background music and ambiance, but some would argue that's a great thing. It helps to immerse you on a subconscious level, and it is never noticeable on a bad level, only good. The sound effects are well detailed, from the scraping sound employed when the prince uses his gauntleted hand on a wall run, to the sound of your sword colliding with the enemy. It's all believable and well done.
My final thoughts are that this is a game that could not have been improved on the artistic front at all, the gameplay could use a few tweaks in the expected sequel and a more detailed story is never amiss. This is a game that took a risk, changed its formula and created something remarkable.