If you are anything like me, you would have been heartbroken at the end of last year’s magnificent Prince of Persia. While the game had a beautifully moving and harrowing ending that served as a fitting finale to the adventure, it was very difficult to accept that our escapade with the Prince and Elika had come to an end. Fortunately, the good people at Ubisoft Montreal Studios have heard our cries, and taken mercy upon us. Enter Epilogue, the first and hopefully not the last downloadable expansion to the Prince of Persia experience.

Epilogue is not quite what its name implies: gamers who expect a full conclusion to the main game and a complete sense of closure will not find it here. Rather, Epilogue functions as an episodic continuation of the game – almost a mini-sequel – providing an addendum to the main narrative. If there’s one thing that the developers of Epilogue cannot be accused of, it’s being lazy. Instead of churning out a rehashed chunk of the main game (as DLC is so often wont to be), Epilogue has been used as a platform for trying out some new design and gameplay ideas. In this way, Epilogue contains enough substance and novelty to be a worthy purchase for fans of the game.

Epilogue begins immediately after the events of the main game, and also addresses its ending, so gamers who have not yet completed Prince of Persia are strongly advised to first do so before embarking on Epilogue. The Prince and Elika now find themselves within the halls of what appears to be an underground palace, and need to proceed through the complex in the search for a way out. Dealing with the events at the end of the main game, though, the situation between the two characters has slightly changed, and the meaning of their actions seems to be the central focal point of Epilogue’s story.

Fans of Prince of Persia will be happy to know that the storytelling to be found here is of the same remarkable quality as that of the main game. While Epilogue is short, the developers have clearly made it their goal to add a significant new chapter to the tale, and they have admirably succeeded. As with the main game, players can initiate conversations between the two characters, and this again serves as an effective storytelling mechanism. This time around, however, external events and the history of the world have taken a back seat to character development. The story here was clearly crafted to put the spotlight on Elika and the Prince, and with every conversation we learn a little more about them and their respective motivations. Most players will be surprised by the directions that the character dynamics take, as well as the roles our two heroes start to settle into. The story builds to a surprising ending that serves as a tantalising set-up for future instalments in the series.

It is in the level design that Epilogue deviates most from its parent game. While Prince of Persia made excellent use of large, open environments with multiple paths between any two given points, Epilogue takes the opposite route, with a fully linear route through a channelled environment. It clearly draws inspiration from last generation’s Sands of Time trilogy. In the hands of a lesser team of developers, this could have represented a step backwards, but not here. These more traditional designs are still built upon the same elements as the main game, with levels still facilitating the same fluid and riveting platforming. It’s an interesting design direction resulting in quite ingenious sections, and which we hopefully will not have seen the last of. While the level design approach here is not necessarily better than that of the main game, it is refreshing, and hopefully the developers will find a way to effectively use both approaches with future instalments in the series.

Tying in with the new level design approach is the platforming. Again, the developers have looked to the Sands of Time series for inspiration, marrying those ideas with the approach of the latest game. The result is that Epilogue is jam-packed with some of the most riveting and jaw-dropping platforming sequences we’ve seen this generation. Platforming sections are both harder and longer this time around, with far more precise timing required than those in the main game. Making a mistake still results in Elika saving the Prince and returning him to the last stable ground, but with the longer sequences it means that being saved results in having to re-attempt longer gameplay sections. Elika also has a new power, and this is used quite extensively and effectively during Epilogue’s many platforming sequences. Overall the platforming to be found here is a refreshing re-interpretation of the main game’s approach, and hopefully we will see it used in future games as well.

The combat has also been ramped up in Epilogue. A new rush attack move is available to both the Prince and enemies, and enemies are generally a lot more aggressive. It’s slightly disappointing, though, that there are no new enemies to be found in Epilogue. A new boss, the Shapeshifter, is actually two of the bosses of the main game (the Hunter and the Warrior), shifting between the two forms during battle. This is an interesting approach to combat, as whenever the Shapeshifter changes form, players have to change their strategy, but it also feels a little like a design shortcut. A consequence of the somewhat harder combat is that some battle encounters tend to carry on just a little too long. Fortunately, as with the main game, combat encounters are not very frequent.

If there’s one area where Epilogue does not quite meet the lofty standards set by the main game, it’s in the art design. Where the main game’s environments were mostly set in open, outdoor areas, Epilogue is set exclusively within a closed and indoor environment. Almost everything here is grey and barren. While the colour palette is understandable, given the location, it’s still quite disappointing that the art team couldn’t deliver a more striking décor. The situation improves during the later sections, where dashes of colour were employed to beautiful effect, but this just makes the exclusively grey early sections all the more disappointing. Still, despite the lack of colour, Epilogue is built upon the same graphics technology as the main game, and is thus still quite a sight to behold.

Overall, fans of Prince of Persia should see Epilogue as a necessity. While it’s not the “actual ending” that some cynical observers have made it out to be, it represents one of the better uses of DLC that we’ve seen thus far, and is a good enough Prince of Persia episode in its own right to satisfy the cravings of fans. The episodic approach works surprisingly well here, and hopefully this particular episode will not end up being the series finale. Epilogue also introduces some bold new ideas and approaches to the series, which serve as a teasingly intriguing taster of what we might expect from future games in the series.

Pros: A great story with surprising character development; more challenging and riveting platforming sequences.

Cons: Some battles can be a bit long; the art design is a little underwhelming.

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