Written by: Ian

 

 

 

Seemingly abandoning the remake of Prince of Persia, "Forgotten Sands" ties in with both the new movie, and with the older ‘Sands of Time’ series- is it a successful revisit?

 

Combining the improved gameplay from 2008’s game, with the combat of the previous series, surely this is a game destined for greatness?

 

 

Fitting in the series somewhere between ‘Sands of Time’ and ‘Warrior Within’, ‘Forgotten Sands’ returns to the classic Prince of Persia character from the last decade.

 

The prince is now an actual prince again, and has a posh British accent (a bit odd). Much more heavily armoured and bulkier than in the 2008 version, the prince is more of a bad-ass than before, although he is still cheeky with his brother, who stupidly unleashes the army of Solomon- which turns out to be a rampaging magical army of undead troops- the prince obviously then goes off on a quest to stop the foul beasts.

 

It’s a reasonable yarn; but I much preferred the intrigue and twists of the 2008 game over the action film pomp of Forgotten Sands.

 

 

If you cross together the platforming of the 2008 PoP, and add in some more hack-n-slash combat (a la PoP Warrior Within), then you get an idea of what Forgotten Sands is like.

 

 

Almost all gameplay reverts to the original remake trilogy, including the way that time rewinds when you make a mistake. Platforming is still fun, but it’s much more precise, and obviously much more linear than what you get in Assassin’s Creed. It’s also buggier- frequently I found that the controls would just miss, forcing you to replay a section or to use a precious rewind crystal. And whilst playing, I realised that I much prefer the open style of AC2 to PoP now.

 

So, I was hoping for some improved combat over the 2008 game, where combat was definitely the weakest element. It’s kind of there, but at the same time, most definitely not. Combat is no longer as frustrating, as it’s not based on how quick you can counter, but it’s not any good either.

 

Most enemies have very poor AI, and will just sit there, making the game feel more like Dynasty Warriors than Prince of Persia. Enemies can be blown through is just a couple of sweeps, and there isn’t that much in term of skill or combos to be used- generally the best tactic seemed to be mashing the two buttons until everything was dead- at which point the enemies just vanish (very quickly)- which was a pretty odd and unnerving effect.

 

 

The game is a half decent length (about 6-9 hours, depending on how often you die), and has some pretty decent environments to jump about in. It’s not the worst value package ever, especially as there are some challenge areas, but at the same time, the game offers nowhere near as much content as Assassin’s Creed- which should definitely be picked up in preference to this first.