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Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Review (X360)

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Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Review (X360) Ubisoft
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is a by-the-numbers, predictable entry in the Prince of Persia series. That means it is still pretty darn good, all things considered, but it doesn't really stand out the way PoP 2008 or The Sands of Time did when they were released. It is enjoyable, but not memorable. It is good, but not special. In other words, a solid rental. Find out all of the details here in our full Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands review.
Game Details

  • Publisher: Ubisoft
  • Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
  • ESRB Rating: “T" for Teen
  • Genre: Third-Person-Action
  • Pros: Great puzzles; fun precision platforming; decent combat
  • Cons: Very short; very easy; so-so graphics & sound

The Forgotten Sands takes place between the Sands of Time and Warrior Within games, which means it stars the same Prince from the PS2/Xbox/GC Prince of Persia trilogy rather than the wise ass Prince from 2008's series reboot. In this game, the Prince decides to pay his brother Malik a visit only to find his kingdom overrun by an invading army. In order to protect his people, Malik decides to unleash a legendary army born from the sand that had once belonged to the great King Solomon centuries prior. It turns out it wasn't Solomon's army, however, but an army sent to kill Solomon. Now the only way to save the kingdom and lock the army of sandy skeleton warriors away is to unite two pieces of a seal - one held by the Prince and one held by Malik. Of course, things don't go quite that easily.

Gameplay

Ubisoft
The gameplay is split into two main areas - exploration and combat. Exploration is made up of the traditional Prince of Persia platforming that has you running along walls, jumping along vertical and horizontal poles, shimmying across ledges, and avoiding traps. If you make a mistake, you can easily rewind time to give a section another shot. New powers include the ability to freeze water in order to create poles you can swing from or solid curtains of water you can run across. You also earn a power that lets you see into the past in order to use platforms that don't exist in the current day. The best platforming puzzles in the game have you stringing together combinations of freezing and unfreezing water and wall running and jumping and swinging and activating platforms all in one fluid movement. The water element in particular is very, very cool here and leads to some really slick puzzles that are very satisfying to figure out. The platforming overall is a definite strong point and is quite fun all around.

The other part of the gameplay is combat, and it is surprisingly easy compared to the Warrior Within and The Two Thrones games. Instead of having lots of precise moves, this game is more button-mashy where you just sort of hack away at enemies until they go down. I like that the game throws dozens of enemies at you at once, but they are so easy to fight that there really isn't any tension in it. It is fun, just not very satisfying. You do gain access to elemental powers, but the combat is easy enough you don't really need to use them.

So, the game has fairly good platforming and fairly average combat. Both are kind of disappointingly easy, though. The platforming sections are almost always pretty obvious and easy to figure out. The only hard part of the game is a long platforming section right at the end. The occasional puzzle you have to solve, which usually involves turning cranks to move gears or slide bridges in place or something, are also quite easy to figure out once you grasp the concept. As I said above, the combat is dead easy as well. The game is fun, but it isn't all that memorable. There isn't anything you'll be itching to replay again because there isn't anything spectacular about any of it. If you have any experience with previous 3D Prince of Persia games, there isn't really anything here that is going to wow you and that is the ultimate problem with the game as a whole. It is safe and by the numbers. It also happens to be surprisingly short at only around 6 hours long.

Graphics

Graphically, The Forgotten Sands is pretty lackluster. It uses a realistic style, similar to the last-gen PoP trilogy, but is seriously lacking in detail. The environments are kind of bland and ugly and the character models aren't very good. The animation is also sort of jerky and not smooth. Compared to the gorgeous cel-shaded PoP 2008, it is a pretty huge step down in terms of visuals.

Ubisoft
Sound

The sound is a little better. Good sound effects and decent, if not forgettable music. The voice acting is quite good overall, and the Prince in particular is well acted.

Bottom Line

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands does everything well enough to be fun, but not well enough to really stand out. The platforming is pretty awesome, but nothing new. The story is predictable. The combat is easy and boring, but still kind of fun. And the presentation is kind of a mess. The result is a game that is enjoyable at the time, but you'll forget it as soon as you beat it. I will say this - I think fans of the original Sands of Time trilogy will get more out of it than people who preferred the 2008 reboot (like myself), but even they will find a too easy, too short, too familiar game that is hard to justify paying full price for. It is a solid and fun rental, but I can't recommend it for a purchase.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.

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