PS3 Review – Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
The Prince of Persia series has taken many twists and turns from its early beginnings on the NES. After Ubisoft’s fantastic début of the ‘The Sands of Time’ saga, and a subsequently thrilling trilogy, the series was given a fresh lick of paint, and relaunched as a cell-shaded, fluid, platforming game that stripped away the revered time control ability, and replaced it with a magical female partner. To coincide with the release of ‘The Sands of Time’ movie, Ubisoft have returned to their roots with an ‘interquel’ between ‘The Sands of Time’ and ‘Warrior Within’. But can the game compare to its lofty predecessors, or was it rushed to coincide with the film?
The game begins with the Prince traveling to meet his older brother, Maliq, only to find the palace besieged by an enemy army. Through the opening level you learn the basic acrobatic and combat controls as you try to meet up with Maliq. But before you can stop him, Maliq unleashes a powerful sand army in an attempt to repel the conquering invaders, that – predictably – turns out to be evil.
The story continues to unfold as you battle a mixture of sand monsters, brave various traps, and pull on an assortment of bizarrely placed levers and pulleys as you traverse the palace and try to reunite the two pieces of a legendary medallion and so defeat the demon horde. The pace builds gradually, perhaps too slowly – with the first few hours seeming more like an extended tutorial – but as you receive more powers and abilities the game picks up.
The first ability bestowed upon you by the djinni Razia is the classic time control ability that is synonymous with the franchise, allowing you to rewind the game the last 15 or so seconds. The technique of time control once again helps place the series above contemporary third-person platformers, with the frustration of a mistimed jump or an untimely fall quickly rectified by simply back-tracking a few seconds. Of course, the ability is limited, with each use of the rewind taking a blue orb, but these are easily replenished by smashing vases and pottery until they yield both health and power.
As you learn more abilities the game improves significantly, with the first being the power to solidify water – thus being able to climb spouts of water, or run up waterfalls. This ability, coupled with others, such as the power to recall pieces of the palace that once existed, allows for the player to string together the Prince’s powers and effectively navigate the game’s high altitude terrain in an enjoyable manner.
Mainly set in Maliq’s palace, much of the scenery is repeated, or rather similar, but the visuals are lush and beautiful, capturing the sense of grand Persian architecture at its finest. The return to the more realistic approach of the ‘The Sands of Time’ saga pays off, as it shows a detail and visual scope that 2008’s artistic Prince of Persia could not match.
The return to the classic Prince of Persia graphical style is not the only way in which the game mirror’s the previous titles, in fact, much of the game seems like lost scenes from ‘The Sands of Time’, and other levels seem nearly identical to the older games.
Sticking closely to the previous Prince of Persia titles is no bad thing, with much of the best attributes of the series brought to light in this sequel. But ‘The Forgotten Sands’ also seems to inherit the series’ less-than-stellar combat system, with the latest foray by the Prince having the worst combat of the franchise. While being able to fight 50 enemies at once may seem enticing, the core of the fighting relies on repeated hacking and slashing. While the action is spiced up by additional powers that can create whirlwinds or cause icy spikes to shoot from the floor, there is little enjoyment to be found in the tedious swordfights or boss battles, with the core of the game definitely being its platforming aspects.
Many will miss the bold revamp that the Prince of Persia series undertook over a year ago, but to fans of the classic series, as well as to newcomers, the platforming aspect is terrific, albeit a little slow to start off with. What holds the game back from being a truly stellar title is its dreadful combat system, as well as its lack of originality.
PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score
Classic Prince of Persia platforming Lack of originality Slow start |  |
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9 Responses to “PS3 Review – Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands”
Great review. Was looking forward to this iteration.
How is the combat system compared to GoW? I’m playing through the Collection right now, and although they are amazing, the fights tend to get a bit repetitive… and the controls consist of *Square* *Square* *Square*, or *L1* + *Square*, etc… even the bosses (like Euryale) get boring after having to repeat the same thing over and over again… *L1*, then *Circle* Rapidly… then jump and dodge… yea…
You had me all psyched up until the last two paragraphs – I was about ready to go over to Amazon and order it.
The screenshots look pretty terrific, I dunno. Maybe I’ll check it out when the price drops.
This was always a “maybe” title for me. The last PoP game really took the wind out of my sails. I hated it. I’ll avoid this one now. Thanks for the review.
I understand you guys have to sell advertising space to keep the site up and all, but lately these “Saint Lucia” advertisements have started to become an annoyance. They feature a pop out person talking and waving their arms around which really slows down my computer and takes forever to close. I love PSLS but I do wish you guys had better advertisements on the site that were not so intrusive.
Good review though, I really liked the 2008 Prince of Persia and was sad that they reverted back to the Sands of Time series.
hmmm… that combat aspect is really disappointing. I really enjoyed it in Warrior Within, there were numerous combos, it encouraged using acrobatic abilities to fight the multiple enemies, since most moves hit one enemy at a time… and then picking up different weapons that had their own unique combo moves was great too, with the option to throw them for a one-hit kill. I really hoped that was part of what they meant when they said this would revert to the core mechanics of the original trilogy… I guess those magic powers replaced that. I’m probably still going to check this out, but probably wait for a price drop or just rent it.
@doctorstrange Thanks – I am actually getting into GoW2 a bit further, and I see. The whole Sub-Weapon aspect of GoW2 changes the game completely. I just got the spear of Destiny, which now gives me two sub-weapons to choose from, each with their own combos and benefits (and limitations… i hate not dodging with Barbarian’s Hammer)…
PoP not offering a similar combat system does seem odd (considering GoW2 came out years ago). I haven’t played the Original Sands of Time trilogy in a while… Might have to dust off the PS2 for this…
Recommend: Buy/Rent/Skip?
I really think that there is no combo and it is sucks,,, it is just commercial game nothing more… just to earn money from people…who believe that this game will be like we used to play old-fashioned Prince of Persia especially warrior within and two thrones…after that Prince of persia crisis in 2008 the paralel galaxy prince,,I think that this prince will be disappointed as well… I think creators should play games like i dunno God of war or maybe Dante inferno etc….to feel how the free-fighting system is making the absolute art of gaming…and makes gamers feel excitement and passion of fighting and playing !!!
Well, I waited for the price to drop, bought it saturday after work, beat it sunday after work, platinumed in monday after work, returning it today (tuesday) after work. Here’s my opinion and me ripping this game a new one. You’re pretty spot on with a 7/10, although as an avid fan of the original trilogy I’m inclined to give it a 6. Note that here I’m constantly comparing this to the PS2 trilogy, of which Warrior Within is my favorite.
Graphics are mediocre. Nothing special here, a lot of repetitive looking areas.
Story is mediocre – pretty freakin predictable. This was a strong point for the original game, so I’m dissapointed.
Combat – holy crap what happened here? They removed all his combo moves (at one point alternating square and triangle gave some wicked ones). They removed alternate weapons. They removed all wall running attacks, which there used to be a bunch of fun ones. They replaced all battle – time powers with magic, which I’m actually okay with. There were 6 types of enemies the entire game! Basic warrior, shielded warrior, scarabs, slightly big guys, giants, and titans. I supposed you could include sorcerer guys, but you don’t ever fight them really, just jump dash at them. This leaves you with some pretty basic hack and slash combat, with no real combos, just a kick to knock enemies over and magic to decimate them – the entire game can be beaten with just ice wave, no problem. Sure the aerial slash is still there, but even that sucks, since 90% of the time you try to use it you jump to a ledge instead. Oh, and theres no block button – WTF? Combat used to be focused on the acrobatics of the prince, utilizing combos while manipulating the crowd of enemies. The way its done here I feel like I’m playing Dynasty Warriors (IT SUCKS). You could count boss fights as another enemy type – but really they’re all just like fighting the titans, except the final boss. No real variety or challenge there.
Environment – Another big one – PoP games are generally known for the environments being big puzzles, where the goal is to figure out how to get out of the room, or to where you want to go. Almost the entire game uses a director’s camera (very limited user control) that shows you exactly where to go at all times. This removes almost all puzzle element from the platforming, which is something I really loved, and turns the game into a big obstacle course. Well thats pretty boring – it gets spiced up a bit by the water freezing and environment memory skills, but that just makes it a complicated obstacle course. As a result, the game doesn’t really get fun until the end, and only by requiring a good reaction time, or trial and error. Also, the hardest puzzle occurs before you even get any powers, while trying to lower the gate for Maliq. Ridiculous.
Oh, and there isn’t even a hard mode when you beat the game! Theres a “challenge mode” that you’ll beat in five minutes flat without even trying. You won’t have purchased half the upgrades by the end of the game, so you can use this to get the rest, or start a new game that keeps your upgrades – on normal mode. Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
I could rant on more really, but this is getting lengthy, and I just needed to vent my disappointment. Once again I underestimated how bad it could be – I really wouldn’t have cared that there was little innovation if they had simply stuck to more of the elements that made the original series great – puzzles, acrobatic combat, and a good story. Instead there was very few puzzles, none of the others, and this game can be beaten in under 5 hours easily – which if anyone knows how pissed I was about MW2′s campaign, then you’ll see why I’m pissed about this. Rent this game for a quick adventure – but DO NOT PURCHASE. Its like the franchise took a step 15 years back in time, instead of progressing to next-gen gameplay.