Gamersmint Review : Prince of Persia : Forgotten Sands
Prince of Persia is definitely one of the most famous video game franchises ever. There have been a multitude of ancient-generation games, the PSN and XBLA version of the original and now even a summer blockbuster movie, but what has stood out and made the franchise legendary is the previous-gen trilogy. Needless to say, Sands of Time redefined platforming and added a smooth layer of swordplay on top, and the sequels tried their best to carry on the legacy. The 2008 re-imagination failed to make that impact, mainly because in catering to the casual audience it forgot the beloved challenging gameplay element. With the new game trying to go back to the roots, is the franchise heading for a definitive direction again or is it just another detour?
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands has a rather lack-lustrous and forgettable story. Set in the time period between the first and the second game of the trilogy, this one has the prince travelling to the kingdom ruled by his brother Malik in the middle of an invasion. Needless to say, in all the confusion there is an ancient evil which is released and the rest of the game has the Prince trying to stop the demonic forces. This staple formula of the Prince of Persia series does seem a little stale now. Atleast the 2008 version has some back-story discovering and the lovely Elika playing companion throughout; the lack of both in The Forgotten Sands makes the game devoid of a unique personality.
The gameplay, however, is pretty great. The challenging platforming bits are back as the gameplay seems similar to its old roots planted in the trilogy. The Prince must run, jump, hang, roll, swing, slide, traverse and wall-run throughout the oft-crumbling hazardous environments, and turn wooden cranks to solve puzzles encountered to progress in a linear manner throughout the game while fighting off hoards of sand-skeleton enemies along the way. The ability to rewind time (by pressing and holding R1 button) about a minute or so back is present from the start, which helps to overcome mistakes during lengthy platforming parts. Along his way, the Prince gains new abilities to alter the environment – freezing water, by pressing the L2 button, and recreating destroyed bits of the environment, by pressing the L1 button. As becomes evident, the platforming has been made challenging by the continuous juggling of 3-4 buttons, some to be precisely timed mid-flight. Throughout the game, using just a single level-altering ability will get one through, and hence it becomes just a matter of remembering which button to press and timing it right.
The sword-fighting is an amalgamation of that of the original trilogy and Assassin’s Creed’s single button attack combat. A new introduction is the shoving back enemy move, while the jump attack and evade roll persist, and the heavy attack gets replaced by the charged power attack; blocking is thrown out of the window. Combos are merely reduced to any 5-moves combination. Although the combat works in defending off the groups of undead minions, the fluidity in motion certainly seems lacking. Breaking vases scattered all over the levels gives health and fills up power slots while killing enemies also releases experience points which can be used to level up and buy various elemental power attacks or the ability to temporarily become invincible, both of which are extremely useful for crowd control. These attacks, mapped to each key of the d-pad, utilize one power slot per usage and come in extremely handy during times when up to 50 enemies surround you and try and tear you limb to limb. The enemy types, however, are fairly limited and there are hardly any true boss encounters, except the final one. Infact, one of the final enemy types introduced feels like it has been thrown in just to make it easier to farm for XP points.
The level design has the Prince traversing fortress interiors, jumping over roof-tops and climbing ledges, all while dodging spinning blades and swinging logs. Some of the stages seem to be recycled from the previous trilogy games and there is one eerily reminiscent from the 2008 Prince of Persia game as well. Although most of the game seems fairly straightforward to get through, the final level is altogether a different story. Filled with a repetition of frustratingly difficult platforming bits coupled with bad camera angles, the player must get his/her timing of pressing both shoulder trigger buttons and one face button and controlling the analog stick perfect to advance. The fact that the time-rewinding feature sometimes seems to have a mind of its own and is completely useless when you need it the most does not help much. In the end, this ridiculously hard, button juggling part goes completely off-track from the otherwise fun previous challenges and ends up leaving a horribly bitter aftertaste.
Apart from the single player story campaign which lasts roughly 8 hours, there is a Challenge Mode which add on to the gameplay. Consisting of 2 levels, the first – Enemy Tides is just about surviving increasingly difficult waves of enemies – while the other one is Time Trial which is not too different except the time to do so is fixed. Additional costumes are also present, with the Prince unlocking an Ezio (Assassin’s Creed II’s protagonist) skin though Ubisoft UPlay system. These features don’t really add much replay value to the game. The lack of a chapter select feature is also disappointing.
The graphics engine seems to be taken from Assassin’s Creed so the game looks pretty good in motion. There are instances of screen-tearing during cutscenes, which are nothing particular to talk about. Where the game does marvel is the final boss battle, which looks incredible.
The music is decent and manages to fit in and the voice acting is average. The Prince keeps babbling things to himself, perhaps to fill up the void of Elika’s conversations, but doesn’t particularly manage to strike the right chord.
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