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PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE FORGOTTEN SANDS (X360)
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Publisher: Ubi-Soft.
Developer: Ubi-Soft Montreal. Released: June 2010. Genre: Action/Adventure. Other versions: PS3; Wii; DS; PSP. Posted 7th August 2012. By Shane Battams © 2012 |
Ubisoft seems keen to press into the fans that this latest edition in the Prince of Persia franchise is as close to The Sands of Time, the lauded and oft-compared 2003 instalment, as it can be without fully remaking it in HD, even stating on the back of the box that it's ‘from the creators of The Sands of Time’. This stems from the last game, the 2008 edition which changed the Prince in an all new direction with a beautiful artistic vision and modified gameplay which mostly strung a chord with audiences, but displeased hardcore fans of the sixth-generation games. So we get The Forgotten Sands, which basically emulates what a HD version of the Sands trilogy would look like. But it also brings with it some old troubles and new ones too, meaning it fails to live to that legacy.
TFS takes place in the seven year gap between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, acting as a bridge between those two games. Once again, you take the role of the Prince, whom is visiting his brother Malik. He learns that his palace is being attacked, and when they meet up Malik assures the Prince the solution can be found in the palace vault. This comes in the form of Solomon’s army. This, however, majorly backfires, and it releases an army even more terrifying than the one already attacking. Separated, the Prince must reunite his and Malik’s medallion to stop this. However, Malik is becoming greedy with power, and it seems that he is becoming lost in a gluttonous rage. It’s boosted by some good voice acting, but overall this plotline is mostly background noise, and doesn’t hold a candle to its predecessors, particularly The Sands of Time.
Moving through The Forgotten Sands is pretty straightforward. The game follows a mostly-linear path, with a few alternate paths for collectibles called sarcophagus. These give extra XP as well as health and energy replenishment. Most are pretty obvious, some can be spotted in cut scenes, and a couple are fiendishly hidden. Unfortunately a lack of level select means that if you miss any, then you’re pretty much buggered. These make collectibles more frustrating than value-extending. This is coupled with the fact that you can blow through the game in not even 8 hours means the game is pretty poor value for money. But, to be honest, value has always been somewhat of an issue for the modern PoP games.
But those games made up their lack of value through the quality of their gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, The Forgotten Sands is far from poor – it’s a perfectly capable game in its own right, but it feels like a step back from previous games in many respects. But there is good – mainly, the platforming is smooth and fun as ever. It also marks the return of challenge, something which the last game lacked severely, and some of the challenges here can cause heated anger. But it’s never cheap, just sometimes complex. The Prince has his standard moves – jumping, wall climbing, wall running and more. However, there’s a lot interlaced with these normal moves too.
You gain many abilities, both for combat and platforming, throughout the game. The first you acquire, and a main staple of the series, is the rewind feature. If you fall down a pit of death, with sharp spikes waiting, you can rewind time to avoid this. It’s a bit clunky, as sometimes the rewind feature stops when you are in seriously awkward positions and in one case, not stop at all despite running out of power. You also gain the ability to freeze water in time, meaning new walls, poles and other items are created. You later gain the ability to do a dive dash at enemies, which while technically a combat ability, is mainly used to scale large gaps. And you can even use this to jump onto vultures in mid-air. It adds some nice variety to the platforming.
But those games made up their lack of value through the quality of their gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, The Forgotten Sands is far from poor – it’s a perfectly capable game in its own right, but it feels like a step back from previous games in many respects. But there is good – mainly, the platforming is smooth and fun as ever. It also marks the return of challenge, something which the last game lacked severely, and some of the challenges here can cause heated anger. But it’s never cheap, just sometimes complex. The Prince has his standard moves – jumping, wall climbing, wall running and more. However, there’s a lot interlaced with these normal moves too.
You gain many abilities, both for combat and platforming, throughout the game. The first you acquire, and a main staple of the series, is the rewind feature. If you fall down a pit of death, with sharp spikes waiting, you can rewind time to avoid this. It’s a bit clunky, as sometimes the rewind feature stops when you are in seriously awkward positions and in one case, not stop at all despite running out of power. You also gain the ability to freeze water in time, meaning new walls, poles and other items are created. You later gain the ability to do a dive dash at enemies, which while technically a combat ability, is mainly used to scale large gaps. And you can even use this to jump onto vultures in mid-air. It adds some nice variety to the platforming.
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Puzzles are also present and pretty fun here. The basic cog-turnings and simple gear puzzles are bit lacking at first, however, once you start to acquire your other powers, then the puzzle design opens up really well. The best are the ones which mix together platforming and puzzles. One example is later in the game, where streaming waterfalls are used to descend a long drop. However, you must tactically turn your Flow Powers on and off, while still jumping to make sure you make the jump to the next couple of waterfalls. It’s much more interesting, and is definitely up there with the previous games.
Unfortunately, it is somewhat let down by a bothersome camera, mainly because it feels limited. Most areas have a locked camera, with a zoomed-in angle. It makes it difficult to time some jumps, and can also funk with the controls as it changes what direction you need to press to jump towards your next area. The camera also has a tendency to become stuck on some objects, entirely obscuring your view again. This is a major problem where distance is key, such as judging what time you need to jump in order to use your waterfall powers to move onto the next stage. It can cause some frustrations, and cheap deaths.
Combat is also incredibly bland. Granted, the games have never offered the best fighting experiences, but the tendency for style over substance has usually prevailed, making for some fun to pass between the platforming sections. But here, the combat has been narrowed down to mind-numbing button mashing. You only have one combo placed on the X button, along with a kick to knock down enemies. You do also gain elemental abilities, such as fire chains you drag along as you move, stone armour which prevents you taking damage, and a whirlwind which does long-range damage. But, most of these just add powers to your standard combo. The game sinks lower when you acquire a special sword, which basically kills any enemy in one hit. It’s just dumb.
Unfortunately, it is somewhat let down by a bothersome camera, mainly because it feels limited. Most areas have a locked camera, with a zoomed-in angle. It makes it difficult to time some jumps, and can also funk with the controls as it changes what direction you need to press to jump towards your next area. The camera also has a tendency to become stuck on some objects, entirely obscuring your view again. This is a major problem where distance is key, such as judging what time you need to jump in order to use your waterfall powers to move onto the next stage. It can cause some frustrations, and cheap deaths.
Combat is also incredibly bland. Granted, the games have never offered the best fighting experiences, but the tendency for style over substance has usually prevailed, making for some fun to pass between the platforming sections. But here, the combat has been narrowed down to mind-numbing button mashing. You only have one combo placed on the X button, along with a kick to knock down enemies. You do also gain elemental abilities, such as fire chains you drag along as you move, stone armour which prevents you taking damage, and a whirlwind which does long-range damage. But, most of these just add powers to your standard combo. The game sinks lower when you acquire a special sword, which basically kills any enemy in one hit. It’s just dumb.
Graphically, the game looks decent enough. The Prince moves smoothly across the environment, making the platforming as joyful as its predecessors. The combat too, despite its blandness, moves really smoothly. Enemy models are mostly quite repetitive; however the nicely detailed Titans and other large enemies add some needed variety. Environments are also detailed, with lush greens populating the gardens and beautiful reflections in the game’s water-heavy levels. The graphics take somewhat of a dip during cut-scenes, however, with rough facial animation and some choppy frame-rates. The audio is solid, with Yuri Lowentha returning to voice the Prince. Some grew tired of the Prince in the 2008 outing, but here he is much closer to the Sands of Time trilogy, and therefore more appealing.
Overall, TFS fills the needs of a hardcore Prince of Persia fan, especially if you hated the 2008 edition and loved the Sands of Time trilogy. It provides a nice filler between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, along with the same fun platforming we’ve come to expect combined with some fun new puzzle mechanics. But it is let down in several regards – a frustrating camera can dampen the joy of the platforming mechanics, while bland combat will put most players to sleep. If you’re desperate for some action in the Prince of Persia franchise then this will suffice, but anyone else should probably think before they buy.
Overall, TFS fills the needs of a hardcore Prince of Persia fan, especially if you hated the 2008 edition and loved the Sands of Time trilogy. It provides a nice filler between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, along with the same fun platforming we’ve come to expect combined with some fun new puzzle mechanics. But it is let down in several regards – a frustrating camera can dampen the joy of the platforming mechanics, while bland combat will put most players to sleep. If you’re desperate for some action in the Prince of Persia franchise then this will suffice, but anyone else should probably think before they buy.
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VERDICT
Visual: 8/10
Audio: 7/10 Gameplay: 6/10 Longevity: 4/10 OVERALL: 6/10 |