The negatives stand out though the theme, graphics, sound FX and orchestral music are top notch; it falls flat on basically everything else.
The story is a classic - the god of decay has corrupted the land and is about to escape from prison leaving you to restore the land one zone at a time. Your companion is key to the plot but little changes throughout the adventure and the twists come as no surprise. Its also unfinished, this being the 13,372,805th game which ends on a cliffhanger. Thoughtfully, the real ending was ripped from the game and packaged as the world's 525,858,542nd DLC and features no tangible changes and another subtly different cliffhanger.
NPC Characterisation fairs a little better insofar as there is some - you find out about the world and your companion through conversations, then grow to hate her as she flirts with settling on one of the personalities she'd read genuine people had. The prince also flipflops between personas and while scenes are congruous in isolation, I challenge you to drink every time you fail to predict the tone of a cutscene before it plays out and see if you can render the game challenging through insobriety.
Gameplay is mostly traversal - it's ok, but its slow and stiff with constant interruptions to pace due to the prince 'catching' Elika when she catches up. Your glove slows descent and can't be released so you grind down every wall. There are some nice touches like the vertical poles which flip you 180 and the rings to extend wall runs, but the supermove pads are nonsense and bounce you around the levels arbitrarily.
Combat is frustratingly basic and riddled with quicktime events and randomness, and finally, there are 3 very simple linear algebra puzzles in the game.
Overall, PoP is weak. It's not terrible despite the above whinge-fest - it just suffers from a low skill ceiling that doesn't allow for faster or more risky play - it's like a safe, on-rails ride without the candyfloss and queues.
