HomeVideo GamesPrince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Review

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Review

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Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Review 1

I have no quote to go with this as I couldn’t find any real effective one. Anyway, I picked up this game over the weekend on a whim since I wasnt able to get my hands on a copy of Red Dead Redemption. I have one of the older Prince of Persia games that came with my computer however I have never touched it, therefore making this a new gaming experience for me. Was it as enjoyable as I hoped and live up to the reputation the series as a whole has set? Read on for my opinions.

Visiting his brother’s kingdom following his adventure in Azad, the Prince finds the royal palace under siege from a mighty army bent on its destruction. His brother, Malik decides to use the ancient power of sand in a desperate gamble to save the kingdom from total annihilation. To save the kingdom, the Prince must embark on an epic adventure in which he will learn to bear the mantle of true leadership, and that great power often comes with a great cost.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Review 2Since I haven’t played any of the prior games, I have no idea what happened in his adventure in Azad, however I assume it had to do with more sand and mystical powers. As a first time player, the storyline seemed solid however didnt offer anything special. I found that the storyline was spread out well, however all the possible surprises seemed to have been spoiled earlier on, making it sound less interesting. That being said, for the kind of game this is, I wouldnt call it a failure of a storyline and for a genre like this, I cannot forsee much else working well… other than if they had a flying carpet, genie and a princess to rescue. The one thing I would like to complement on however is that they did keep up the consistency with the story, not deviating from the original plot and adding pointless levels or story components to add time.

I suppose it is hard to focus on the characters since I haven’t played prior games, however the Prince does seem to have a good personality, often making sarcastic comments when necessary and having a level head overall, however I did find that he was a bit too teary at times which was drawn out a bit too long, then again, given the circumstances I wouldn’t blame him for having a false sense of hope…. I mean, he is only standing in a palace full of skeletons and monsters. His brother Malik is portrayed as a stubborn brat and for whatever reason, broke the one thing game characters shouldn’t do, activate dark powers from beyond imagination. The only other character in the game is this woman who you meet in random portals within the game. Character development is slow for her however she is the only character with a level head that is not letting emotions drive her actions.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Review 3Graphics wise, the game is pretty good. Character designs were rather well done and the lip-syncing to my memory was also good. However, my main peeve was with the level designs. They were good for the most part, however I did find that some areas of the levels were reused, occasionally just with harder traps in to deviate it a little bit and then there are points at the game where you could not see what was nearby however still was expected to just jump and hope you landed somewhere safe. The overall palace theme and decor was very good overall however I did feel that they could have diversified the designs and theme just a little bit more. Also, I found that the monster designs seemed to be used a bit too much, and would have benefited from some more monster designs, both for graphical and strategical appeal.

The music in the game was pretty good, however I found that due to my focus being diverted to other things in the game, the music was quite often forgotten. That being said, what I heard was quality and my complements go to the composers. Voice acting on the other hand was also of high quality, with most of the voices being appropriate for what one would expect from the setting the game takes place in. However I found that some of the voices were much to soft personally which made them hard to understand at times.

Gameplay was a mixed bag for me, there were some good concepts and some bad concepts overall making it an average experience for me:

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Review 4Pros

  • The core fundamentals one would expect from the game such as the wall climb and run were there, which were always fun to do. However, I did find that it was a bit strict at times when you had to jump off the wall, as I was finding myself missing the pole I was supposed to grab on to because I jumped a fraction too early. Still fun through.
  • The magic involved in the game comprises of four different functions: Power of Time, Power of Water, Power of Flight and Power of Memories. Where you could reset time, climb on water, jump over large distances and recall walls and items from the past respectively. This added some complexity, especially near the end where you would have to do wall climbs and jumps over several walls made of water which you had to keep calling into existance.
  • The Power of Time is one that deserves a special mention, since if you were to make a mistake, instead of going back to the start of the level, you can use a magic point to go back in time to redo that action, definitely a big time saver!
  • Challenge Mode was pretty fun, with challenges unlocking through the U-Play system and by finishing the game.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Review 5Cons

  • Combat was simple button mashing, especially when at the end of the game, they overpower your sword which can take down almost every monster in one hit. They give you skills to apparantly make it easier, but in the end I found the only benefit of them were to get trophies and you could finish the game without using a single skill, EXCEPT maybe the imbalanced shield spell for the boss battles.
  • They seemed to use the same puzzles over and over again and just added another one or two traps to the same sequence every few levels. There were some creative puzzles at the end of the game, but besides that it seemed like the same old stuff.
  • Controls I found got a bit wonky during the game, especially when you had to keep alternating buttons, you might have found yourself missing your target entirely and then having to reset time and lose a magic point.

Once you finish this game and play through the challenges a few times, you will most probably not be motivated to replay this game unless you want to platinum the game, in which you may want to do with a guide so you can find all 21 Sarcophagus’s, since a few of them are well hidden and it unlocks the gold trophy cleverly named “Got Walkthrough?”. Also, all trophy designs are the same, even for platinum, so if you only get trophies for their designs and not to 100% complete the game, then look elsewhere. Overall, if you keep a list of sarcophagus locations, it is more then possible to platinum the game in one playthrough like I did. Each playthrough should take approximately 8-10 hours, making it a very short game overall.

Despite the negative comments, I did find that the game was a fun way to kill time, and if you are a fan of the series, I am sure you will enjoy this game equally as much.

Overall Score

Storyline: 4
Characters: 4
Graphics: 6
Music: 7
Gameplay: 5
Replayability: 3
Personal Opinion: 5

Total Score: 5

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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