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Aug 24, 2010, 04.33 PM IST
Even though Ubisoft categorically declared Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones to be the final chapter in the Sands of Time trilogy, here we are five years later with yet another Prince of Persia game set in the famed Sands of Time universe.
Prince of Persia
The Forgotten Sands
RATINGS: 4/5
Action
Prince of
Price Rs 2,499
PUBLISHER Ubisoft
DEVELOPER Ubisoft Montreal
DISTRIBUTOR E-Xpress Interactive
PHONE 022 29661017
Email info@expressgames.in
PLATFORM Xbox 360, PS3
A WHOLE NEW PRICE GAME THAT DOESN'T SUCK AS MUCH AS THE RECENT MOVIE DID. By Avinas Bali Even though Ubisoft categorically declared Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones to be the final chapter in the Sands of Time trilogy, here we are five years later with yet another Prince of Persia game set in the famed Sands of Time universe. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (TFS) takes place immediately after the Sands of Time and the Prince, who now looks a bit like Michael Jackson for some reason, is on his way to his brother Malik’s kingdom for a nice family reunion. Unfortunately, the festivities and the impromptu reunion get cut short thanks to a hostile invasion from a neighboring army. Fearing defeat, his brother unleashes an ancient evil force that not only decimates the opposition, but starts ravaging his kingdom as well. Men and women all over the kingdom become lifeless statues while Malik starts changing under the influence of the corruption. Saving your brother along with his kingdom seems to be the order of the day. We could cut this review short by calling TFS Sands of Time in HD, but that would be unfair to the game since it does bring a decent amount of fresh content to the table. It doesn’t deviate a lot from the successful SoT formula, so most of your time in TFS will be spent platforming, puzzle solving and fighting enemies. And Ubisoft have maintained a fine balance between all three aspects, making sure none of them overstay their welcome. As opposed to 2008’s Prince of Persia that put you up against not more than one enemy at a time, TFS seems a tad inspired by Batman: Arkham Asylum, so you’re always up against multiple enemies. But unlike the silky smooth free flow combat system in Batman: Arkham Asylum, combat in TFS feels a bit clunky and repetitive. You can dodge enemy attacks by rolling out of the way and kick enemies if they get too close for comfort, but at the end of the day, combat boils down to simple button mashing. You can’t learn new moves, you can’t chain attacks, and you can’t counter attacks like in Assassin’s Creed.
What you can do is upgrade your sword’s power along with your health bar and other abilities thanks to the game’s new upgrade system. Killing enemies in TFS will grant you golden orbs than can be used to upgrade the Prince’s abilities and learn new elemental powers. This will endow the Prince with a protective Rock Armor - the ability to burn his foes or blow them away to oblivion with a blast of air. You’ll spend most of your time in the game battling skeletal minions interspersed with mini-bosses and bosses. Bosses are highly predictable and once you figure out their weaknesses, you just hammer away till they’re dead. Thankfully, there are no context sensitive actions in this game. Elemental abilities tie into platforming as well since the Prince can now freeze water and use it as a solid object courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Dijn. While this sounds pretty simple on paper, you have to give it up to Ubisoft for including this particular feature into platforming in a most devious and enjoyable way. The platforming in this game will push your reflexes to the limit, but don’t let that scare you off as you can still rewind time to save yourself from an untimely death. The Forgotten Sands may not be the best looking game on the block, but it certainly isn’t ugly by any means. The Prince’s animations do come across as a tad stiff, but other than that, he’s pretty graceful. Even though the game takes place in just one palace, there’s quite a bit of environmental diversity thrown in there, from sinister looking catacombs to princely residential quarters. Elemental effects like freezing water or the rock armor look pretty snazzy, although the way they handled the whole rewind mechanic in this game was a bit disappointing. It lacks the punch it packed in SoT, and considering we’re in the HD era of gaming, you would expect something a lot cooler. While we enjoyed the platforming, the camera angles in this game leave much to be desired. There are times when you need to survey the surroundings before you make that life threatening jump, but the game doesn’t allow you to do so. This becomes even more annoying when you have not more than a few seconds to decide your next move. Half the deaths could’ve been avoided had Ubisoft implemented a more flexible and player-friendly camera. Once you finish the campaign, you unlock a time trial mode and a horde mode of sorts where you take on eight waves of enemies, each of which get progressively tougher. It’s not as awesome as the combat rooms in Batman: Arkham Asylum, but it certainly gives players something to tool around with once they’re done with the game. Still, it doesn’t make this game any less enjoyable and all those looking for an authentic Prince of Persia experience will be more than happy with TFS. It doesn’t score top marks for innovation, nor does it look as good as some of the more recent games, but it really nails the familiar Sands of Time formula we love, and this is thankfully not a shameless tie-in to the crapfest that was the Sands of Time movie.
 Tags: Prince of Persia
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