Sandblasted:
Forgotten Sands looks great, with sweeping level design and silky animations that live up to the standard that the franchise set decades ago. The character models are well-designed and eye-catching, too. Moreover, this Prince of Persia may be the most successful of the modern PoP games when it comes to actually feeling Persian. The characters look like they might actually be from the Fertile Crescent, and not like the tan white guy from the last PoP game. Having swarthy-skinned characters in the games actually makes the mythology of djinns and ifrits feel more real.
Prince and the New Power Generation:
From a gameplay perspective, the biggest problem with the last Prince of Persia game was that it wouldn’t let you fail. Your companion Elika always saved you if you effed up in a fight or misjudged a jump. In Forgotten Sands, there isn’t any such hand-holding. Deeper into the game, you’ll have to navigate some of the notoriously intricate machineworks puzzles that are a series hallmark. If you flub them, and don’t have any time rewind juice left, then it’s back to the previous checkpoint for you. The return to more standardized difficulty model doesn’t just stop there. A revamped fighting engine pits players against dozens of characters at a time, too. This should especially please old-school PoP fans who know that excellence in combat has been spotty in previous games.
The Sands of Time spun heads in 2003, by letting players rewind, pause or speed up time. Time manipulation powers return in this game, allowing you to rewind time and recover from missed jumps and other mishaps. But Forgotten Sands expands on the models of previous games by adding upgradeable abilities fueled by experience points. It’s pretty standard RPG fare–increased health, new attacks, better defense–but these changes adds depth to Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. The new powers rotate around control of the elements, so the Prince can summon stone armor that makes him temporarily invulnerable, push back waves of enemies with gusts of wind and solidify water so he can grab hold of it. It’s this last ability that’s most impressive, as it combines a fair amount of technical flair and adds to the gameplay as well.
Be Kind, Rewind:
Forgotten Sands feels like a celebration of all things PoP. It’s strongly reminiscent of The Sands of Time, but has elements of each modern installment lurking in it. 1001 Arabian Nights still figures prominently in the PoP DNA, as does hack-n-slash action that features a touch of flair. Perhaps mindful of tying in with a PG-13 blockbuster waiting to happen, the combat’s a lot more bloodless than in previous Prince games. You’re still getting devious deathtraps and sweeping environmental acrobatics, too. But, even if it feels like a greatest hits compilation of Princes of the past, there’s enough new stuff here to make you appreciate how much effort Ubisoft put into a title that could’ve been a crass cash-in. Provided the movie’s any good, the epic swashbuckling that Forgotten Sands delivers will make a nice compliment to the Prince’s silver screen debut. Not a bad feat for a game tethered to a movie based on a game.
Official Techland Score: 8.0 out of 10