Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft
MSRP: $59.99
by: Katrina Pawlowski
So, there’s this young Prince returning home to visit his older brother, Malik. Well at that exact moment the palace is under siege, and it’s not looking good for the home team. In order to reclaim his palace, Malik awakens the fabled Army of Solomon against the young Prince’s warning. Those of us who have ever seen a Hollywood movie know this spells disaster.
The young Prince (you) is blessed with the powers of the Djinn, while Malik is corrupted by the sheer power of the Army. Able to manipulate time and matter, it’s up to the young Prince to stop the Army of Solomon and knock some sense into Malik.
By defeating the sand-skeletons and other monstrosities that make up Solomons Army, you’ll gain “upgrade points” and be able to increase your djinn skills, health, power, etc.To begin with, the game is fairly true to the Prince of Persia series with a lot of running, jumping, climbing walls, and falling to your death - but with a recent film in theaters, the developers seemed to kick up the action, near death experiences, and explosions to the next Hollywood level.
This Hollywood aspect almost turned me away from the game, but the platforming gameplay is just oozing Prince of Persia at its finest. Sure, it’s a lot of copy-paste from some of the previous games, but why fix what isn’t broken? Added RPG elements and a few Djinn powers to use really give this game a bit more flare than expected. (Oh and to be clear, this game is not a “remake” of the original, nor does it have anything to do with the recent film except maybe the model of the Prince).
The additional powers give the usual 3D platforming a new angle. You’ll have to manipulate time, water, and even memories to get through the later stages of the game. It did take about half of the game for the gameplay to truly pick-up (about four hours), which is a shame - but the second half is just a phenomenal amount of fun.
Moving away from the amazing stylized visuals from the 2008 Prince of Persia really made the environments and characters feel so bland in comparison. Additionally, this game did not really flesh out the background on characters or lore on the land, which took away a lot of the depth for The Forgotten Sands that adhered me to the series to begin with. Overall it’s a world of platforming adventure fun with new elements to add to the flavor of the original Sands of Time trilogy, but some aspects just aren’t quite as well fleshed out for this title.
Score: 