Review: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
By Mike Wheeler
Publisher: Ubisoft
Console: Xbox 360
I’ve never played any of the Prince of Persia games, and my first thoughts when looking at it, thought “Hhmm, here we have a cross between Darksiders and Assassin’s Creed”.
By Mike Wheeler
Publisher: Ubisoft
Console: Xbox 360
I’ve never played any of the Prince of Persia games, and my first thoughts when looking at it, thought “Hhmm, here we have a cross between Darksiders and Assassin’s Creed”.
First the good news. It’s an engaging storyline, although it is secondary to the action. The Prince in the title is visiting his brother Malik, in the latter’s kingdom. The Prince hasn’t even entered the fortress gates before we find out that the kingdom is under attack by an army. Malik unleashes Soloman’s army, which is a supernatural fighting force made up of soldiers made out of sand.
It turns out to be a bad idea because soldiers start turning citizens into sand, but Prince and Malik are protected by a half seal they each wear on their chest. If the half seals are reunited, then the wearer will become supremely powerful.
The premise is a good one in as far as setting up the plot for the action. Developed partially by Ubisoft Montreal – who brought us Assassin’s Creed, I thought it might have similar funtionality, but it is a bit more simple than that. You go through the many levels destroying various sand creatures and developing new skills, such as climbing walls, avoiding pitfalls and freezing water. These things are pretty basic, however the last couple of levels will test your ability to multitask different buttons on your controller. It is this aspect of the game that is challenging and therefore enjoyable.
Where the game falls down is the ease of which enemies are destroyed. It is the getting from A to B that stretches your gaming skills, which is a pity because really destroying the enemy should be more taxing. Sure, you get more powers as you go, but you would expect the strength of bosses to increase expodentially with such upgrades. However, defeating them is not hard. Sure, there is the odd super sand monster that might take a few more hits, but nothing too troubling.
My only other complaint is that some of the various angles of gameplay are awkward, as in when you go to run up a wall, the character runs along a wall. I think this is due to the lack of a complete 360-degree panorama capabilities in some situations.
Overall, this isn’t a bad game. It does more than enough to keep your interest, however there is a class above this such as the aforementioned Darksiders and Assassin’s Creed.
3.5 out of 5 Shacks
