Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Review

The old Prince is back and this time he’s got a Genie in a bottle to worry about.

The Prince goes on a little trip to visit his brother Malik but finds that his castle is being invaded.  As a last ditch effort to stop from being overwhelmed Malik decides to unleash the army of Solomon, despite the protests of the Prince.  When the army is awakened it real purpose was to destroy King Solomon not follow him.  Now the army of sand lead by a powerful Genie must be stopped less the world become sand.

The story itself is nothing amazing but serviceable to get you from point A to point B.  I was a bit sad to see the newest Prince discarded so quickly in favor of the old Prince, mainly due to the Disney movie that just came out.  It is fun to see the Prince back despite my misgivings though he does look a bit on the pale side, like he was doing some Michael Jackson skin pealing.

If you’ve ever played a Prince of Persia game on the last generation systems then you know what you’re in for.  Platforming is the name of the game and the puzzle is every room you step into.  The Prince is in tiptop shape for this adventure and can climb, swing (not the ladies this time), jump and wall run like a parkour champ.  This is all handled very well though expect to die from misjudged jumps from time to time. But hey, isn’t that why they gave you the ability to turn back time in the first place?  Controls are tight if not overly complicated due to the amount of buttons you need to push or hold down while traversing the area.  The game does a good job at making the platforming fresh as it adds new abilities as you go through the game.  The first power you get is the good old rewind time; in case you make a false step this will let you take a second stab at it.  Second is the ability to stop water, creating new polls to swing on, and waterfalls to run up and pillars the climb.  Third is a charge attack which gives you that little extra space that you need to make a jump as you hit circle and hurl at an enemy, killing him and making it to your mark.  Last is the ability to make a crumbled wall or floor reappear, though you are limited to one at a time. This can make things challenging as you need to time your jumps right by making the last thing you were standing on disappear and your destination appear.  Things get very complex near the end as all these elements are combined testing your reflexes trying to hit the right button combination at the right time.  This can get annoying as you will, at some point, hit the wrong button and either not make your platform appear or fail to solidify the water.  I would say that the fatal flaw of this game is the length.  Most of the time people want to have a longer game, to get their moneys worth, but with this game less is more.  I found that by the end I was tired of playing, knowing what was coming next and just ready to beat the final boss.

Fighting is serviceable but don’t expect much. This Prince is a downgrade from before, and for all his fancy platforming moves he sure is much slower in this department.  He doesn’t have many moves, mostly just hit the square button and dodge and if they have a shield kick them first then finish them off with a sword attack.  You can jump on an enemy and do a downward slash or a vaulted kick but I didn’t really do much of that, as it wasn’t needed.   You can charge your attack at any point in a combo which is not necessary to do unless you run into a big armored sand monster and they don’t come by often.  There are also magical attacks that you can unlock which can make short work of massive groups but this is also not really needed as you can do that with your sword.  I felt like the fighting was just tacked into the game to help break up the monotony of running and jumping.

Graphically I thought this game took a hit from the last one.  The first next gen Prince took a drastic turn in the art style, going with a cell shaded look and more saturated colors.  This time around you won’t see anything you didn’t see in the last generation incarnation, mostly just one big Persian castle to go through with lots of browns and subdued colors.  The graphics themselves are all right but nothing great, the environments look good but the characters lack a level of detail that most games now have.  The faces are stiff and when compared to Ubisofts much more superior Assassin’s Creed 2; The Forgotten Sands just fails to impress.  Again the Prince looks funny now, and takes a bit after Michael Jackson in the middle phase of his transformation from black man to white woman.

The music is very good and fits the game great, nothing stands out but it served its purpose of filling in the background and enhancing emotions when needed. The game also has a couple of challenge rooms, only two in fact.  This is a fun distraction and also is a great way to get trophies since you can get enough experience points to upgrade your Prince to his max.  It’s nothing great and won’t last long at all but it’s a fun 20-minute diversion.  There is also Ubisofts Uplay website that you can access from the game.  As with Assassin’s Creed 2 you after finishing the game you will get enough points to buy a few extras, like the Altair’s skin and an exclusive theme for your PS3.  Half of it is still under construction, but it’s kind of nice to get a free reward for finishing your game, good on them.

I don’t have much more to say, it’s not a bad game but it is a bit longer then it needed to be which hurt the fun for me.  I really just wanted to be done with it by the end, and I think the developers did too as the final boss was a pushover.  For me this was a distraction in the direction of Prince of Persia, which I blame on the movie that just came out.  I’m hoping to see the cell shaded Prince back so that we can continue to see his adventures.   I can’t recommend a buy for this one unless you are a hardcore Prince of Persia fan, rental only.