I was in two minds while opening up my review copy of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. After all this was the game of a film of a game and by the rules of Film to Game Conversions that would mean it would be terrible. What made it worse was that I'm an unabashed fan of the rebooted version of Prince of Persia that came out in 2008 and I even went so far as to name it my game of the year. So when I heard that The Forgotten Sands would see the Prince return to the Sands of Time universe it added another nail to the coffin. So imagine my surprise when I found a rather competent and fun game in The Forgotten Sands. The sublime platforming that I'd come to love from the franchise was present, and as addictive as ever, with a few neat twists thrown into the mix.
The Forgotten Sands sees the story return to the the Sands of Time story arc and deals with the Prince's adventures between the Sands of Time and Warrior Within games. The story is rather flimsy and only serves as a backdrop to take you from level to level with your goal being to rid the palace of an army of sand demons that has been let loose by your brother. It's a bit artificial and the dialogue is not the best, but I don't think anyone was expecting The Forgotten Sands to reinvent the face of storytelling in games.
Not too much has changed from the previous games when it comes to the platforming as you'll still find yourself running along walls and completing complex gymnastics as you make your way through the palace while using your ability to rewind time in order to prevent yourself from winding up as a sticky patch at the bottom of a very deep hole full of spikes. It's still fun to play but after thirty minutes or so you begin to wonder what exactly you're doing playing a game that has no ambitions to improve itself, and that's when The Forgotten Sands springs its first surprise on you.
The Prince now has the ability to control water. You can use the left trigger to freeze any water in order to make additional swinging posts or walls to use in conjunction with the usual palace walls and fixtures. You can't just press it once and carry on though. No, you can only freeze water for a certain amount of time before it goes back to liquid form which means that some platforming sequences will depend on how quickly you can jump from beam to wall to ledge and back to the beam before landing on a platform, all while timing your leaps perfectly and using the water ability to create extra walls and columns for you to swing on. It adds a welcome change to the usual flow of the platforming sections and gives players who have beaten the previous games something new to contend with.
Another new entry to the platforming side of the franchise is the Prince's ability to restore sections of the levels, although once again there is a caveat in that he can only restore one section at a time. This means you'll be flinging the prince around from a platform to thin air and then restoring a beam to land on or wall to run along. Add that into a section with the water ability and you're presented with challenging platforming. Unfortunately though the platforming sections of the game tend to repeat old tricks once too often which means you're not too perplexed while traversing levels. It does, however, improve as you near the end of the game, with some of the most innovative and challenging platforming sections around; it's just a pity that these sections weren't more evident in the earlier level design.
The platforming sequences are broken up by combat encounters and it's in this area that The Forgotten Sands is probably let down the most. The combat system is a basic hack and slash affair, with a bit of RPG mixed in with the minimal experience points system, and although it accomplishes the task of giving you "something to do" inbetween the platforming sections, it feels more like a chore than anything else. You can pretty much always tell when there's going to be a battle, and the boss fights don't require too much thought. You can upgrade the Prince in both fighting skills and magic abilities, such as dealing fire or ice damage to foes or temporarily encasing the Prince in impregnable stone armour. It adds little to the combat experience, but at least helps you overcome your enemies far quicker than just using your sword.
The art design is a bit hit and miss with the early parts of the game, with the style seeming to embrace the colour brown with open arms which makes all the levels look rather drab and uninspired, but from the halfway mark the levels gain a bit of colour and you'll find yourself stopping and taking in some beautiful scenary. The character design on the other hand left me rather underwhelmed with the Prince's design being particularly ugly. The enemies you fight are so similar that they could have called this game Clone Wars and you'd be none the wiser except for the abundance of sand and the absence of Jedis.
The music they used was one of the high points of playing the game for me with some particularly grandiose orchestral arrangements. It was nice to see that they got hold of Yuri Lowenthal to reprise his role as the Prince form the previous games.
Overall Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is a competent and fun platformer that's let down by lacklustre combat and some early repetition in the platforming department. If you're a huge fan of the series then you'll buy this regardless of what I or anyone else might say, but if you're sitting on the fence and wondering if you should buy it then rest assured you won't begrudge handing over your hard earned money. For the 10 hours or so of gameplay, you'll find more than enough to justify the expense. I'm glad to say that in the end, despite approaching the game with a negative attitude, I was eventually won over by the Prince's charms.
Pros:
- Platforming is as great as ever
- Some neat use of elemental powers to change up platform sections
- Bargain retail price in SA
Cons:
- Lacklustre combat
- Hit and miss art design
Rating: 
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