Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Review

I've been a fan of the Prince of Persia franchise ever since 2003's The Sands of Time. The combination of acrobatics and combat-- along with the sweeping environments -- made the Prince of Persia franchise one of my favorites from the last generation. And despite Ubisoft beating the franchise into the ground by releasing sequel after sequel each year, I still bought and played them all -- though I recognized that the Prince was starting to feel more than a little tired. 

But the 2008 Prince of Persia -- a reimagining of the franchise that took away almost all the player's ability to fail -- showed that the Prince needed more than just a few tweaks and a short break to be exciting all over again. While some people enjoyed the ultra-forgiving, you-can't-lose aspect of the 2008 PoP, I felt like the game had brought this aspect in at the expense of the sense of accomplishment the previous games evoked. The Prince's adventures need to be beatable, sure, but player's don't need to have their hand held all the way.

Which is why I think I enjoyed the latest game, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, as much as I did. While much more than a simple rehash of previous PoP mechanics, Forgotten Sands manages to find a fine balance between reward and punishment. Combine this with some awesome new mechanics and a combat system that really comes into its own by the end of the game, and it's easy to recommend despite the boring story and rather unpolished feel of the game's visuals.

In The Forgotten Sands you play as the titular Prince of Persia, a handsome, acrobatic warrior with a penchant for climbing just about anything and destroying anyone who he comes to blows with. The Prince goes to visit his brother and in typical videogame fashion things go awry, magical enemies appear, and he's quickly dragged into an epic quest that will take him through the ruins of a kingdom in an effort to save the world. It's the sort of stuff that previous PoP games were all about, but I have to say that this storyline pales in comparison to The Sands of Time (the PoP game that all are measured against in my mind), and never managed to pull me in to the narrative.

However, while the story failed to catch my attention, the acrobatic platforming the franchise is known for managed to get me hooked all over again. The Prince has the uncanny ability to run up walls and be an all-around monkey when it comes to climbing, and the game gives you plenty of environments to ninja about in. Each area the Prince enters is essentially a level, and it's up to you to figure out what moves you need to pull out in order to make it through.

The first couple of hours of platforming would have you thinking it's a relatively easy game, but it gets more difficult as the Prince unlocks new powers. During the quest the Prince will eventually gain the ability be to temporarily freeze water into climbable objects and make certain portions of ruins appear as they were before they were destroyed. The game gradually ramps up the difficulty, forcing the player to combine these powers until eventually they're encountering rooms where all of them are used in epic sequences that make the game feel like a mix of platformer and rhythm action.

Combining so many skills is hard, and resulted in a lot of dead Princes. Thankfully, Forgotten Sands brings back the ability to rewind time, giving me a second (and sometimes fifth or sixth) chance at success. But this isn't the infinite retries of the last PoP game, either, as this time around player's have a limited amount of retries (which are refilled by finding blue orbs in vases or from fallen enemies). Should you run out of retries you'll go back to your last checkpoint (which are pretty regular), making failure in Forgotten Sands the perfect balance of risk and reward. There's nothing sweeter than completing a challenge without having to use any retries, or, even better, succeeding when you're on your last try. After all, if there's nothing to lose, nothing to risk, where's the fun?

The platforming is immediately gratifying, but the combat takes some time to become a worthwhile part of the game. The earliest enemies are really boring to fight, and combating them amounts to little more than button mashing. Later, though, when I had a series of powers and a good mix of enemies to fight, combat became an entirely different beast.

Combat is often against 20 or more enemies.

Much like a host of other games before it, Forgotten Sands has an experience system. Killing enemies yields experience which is then spent on a skill tree. Through the course of the game the Prince will get such powers as temporary invincibility, an area of effect knock down, or even the ability to leave a trail of fire in his wake. These powers use up the same resource as your ability to rewind time, and thus the choice to use them in combat becomes a much bigger deal towards the end of the game when I was screwing up a lot. The biggest thing about the powers, though, is that they're really fun to mix in with your normal attacks -- so much so that they make combat interesting enough to actually make me want to play the game's challenge modes, wherein you fight waves of enemies in a set amount of time.

Whereas the combat and acrobatic sequences of Forgotten Sands are, in many ways, like those in the fantastic Sands of Time, the story and visuals of the game are a far cry. The plot is utterly predictable, and the characters (outside of the Prince) are forgettable. Likewise the game's visuals, something I normally don't even really notice, are all over the place. At times the game looks pretty fantastic, with great dynamic lighting and a wide array of colors, and at other times the game looks dull and dated. It's too bad, really, because if the story and look of the game could have been as refined as it felt in Sands of Time, 2010's Prince of Persia could have been a game that people remembered as fondly as its predecessor. But buyer beware: if you're into what you're hearing and want to pick it up for your PC, just know that this game requires you to be online at all times while you're playing. Check the DRM requirements before purchase.

                                             The special powers are pretty impressive looking.

See the trailer

Prince of Persia two thrones Main weapons

Fish Gutter

―Why is it that every time disaster strikes, I find myself without a proper blade?

^the Prince 

The Fish Gutter is the Prince's first weapon for the first part of The Two Thrones.

This is a weak and simple weapon found by the Prince shortly after he lands in Babylon. Even though this is a weak weapon it can still Speed Kill like the Dagger of Time.

The Prince acquirers the Fish Gutter when trying to free Kaileenia from the Viziers henchmen. His comment "Why is it that every time distaster strikes, I find myself without a proper blade?" is a comical referrence to the previous games where he continually loses his sword somehow and has to find a new weapon to use. The Prince loses this weapon when he recklessly charged towards the Vizier in a fruitless attempt to save Kaileena. When theDaggertail caught the Prince's arm and slammed him into a stone wall, the Fish Gutter went flying in a random direction.

                                         The Dagger of Time

Due to the Prince's efforts on the Island of Time, the Vizier is still alive. Motivated by dreams he had from the dagger of the Empress's return (presumably when she entered the timestream in the present day), the Vizier kills the Maharajah and steals the dagger for his own. After conquering Babylon, he then killed Kaileena with the dagger, recreating the Sands of Time and absorbs them into the dagger (though not before they transform his generals and, partially, the Prince himself). Through its power, the Vizier became Zurvan, a youthful, immortal, though monstrous, being.

The Prince takes the Dagger of Time after the Vizier stabs himself with it and becomes Zurvan. With it the protagonist can use the following time powers: Recall, Eye of the Storm, Winds of the Sands and Sand Storm, all of which help the Prince in his journey to defeat the evil Vizier. The Dagger of Time is taken away by Kaileena's spirit when the Prince kills Zurvan.

The Prince was able to grab the Dagger before the Sands could fully mutate him, though it couldn't stop the emergence of his dark alter-ego, the Dark Prince. At the end of the game the Prince uses it to stab Zurvan (apparently it was the one thing that could undo his immortality) and then returns the dagger back to the spirit of Kaileena and it is removed from the world to prevent anyone else from using its powers.

The exact origin of The Dagger of Time is unknown; however, since the Sands of Time were created on the Island of Time, it's likely the dagger was too, though for unknown reasons. It was later stolen from the Island of Time by theMaharajah and his Vizier along with the Sands. The Dagger was placed in a glass case in the Mahajarah's treasury.

       Daggertail

The Daggertail i

s one of the Prince's main weapons in The Two Thrones.

It is a fearful chain weapon, originally wielded by Mahasti. It was embedded on the Prince's left arm just before the Vizierkills Kaileena. It was completely fused to his arm when theSands of Time started transforming the Prince, but could not completely transform him as he had grabbed the Dagger of Time already. The Prince himself cannot use the Daggertail, but his dark alter-ego, the Dark Prince, can. It is unknown what the reason for this is, though it is supposed that because the Sands moved from Mahasti to the Daggertial, which then, from being embedded in the Prince, moves on to him, the Daggertail was also minutely transformed by the Sands. The Daggertail is normally used for fighting; however, it is also able to be used in various circumstances such as swinging on hooks or triggering far-away switches. The Daggertail was removed from the Prince's arm by Kaileena when he released her spirit by killing Zurvan. The Prince loses any secondary weapon which he has when transforming into the Dark Prince, but it is replaced by the Daggertail.

Combos

With a new weapon comes a new set of combos; and these combos are a lot more violent than the Prince's normal ones. It is able to pull your enemy towards you, so that it is in reach of slashes from the Dagger, or even more superb Daggertail moves. A useful move is the 'Hurricane,' where the Prince swings the Daggertail in circles above his head, giving him space, and buying him time. These are especially useful against the smaller foes, which can be weakened easily by the Hurricane, and a few other Daggertail moves will have them down in moments. Other combos are both useful and deadly, and the hardest enemies are dying or dead after performing a few of them.

Speed Kill

As

 the more powerful and stronger of the Dark Prince's two weapons, the Daggertail takes the place of the Dagger as the primary Speed Killing weapon. Even without the Dark Prince's more ruthless attitude, Speed Kills would still take a brutal shape with the Daggertail. It uses, while sneaking up from behind, strangling the victim with the Daggertail, pulling the head towards the Dark Prince, synonymously pushing the victim's body away using a foot, and ripping the victim's head off as the method, while from above, strangling the victim, then dangling him, and also ripping his head off. There are also variations depending on the enemies.

Acrobatics & Other Uses

The Daggertail, being in essence a chain, increases the Prince's reaching 

range dramatically. While wall-running, the Dark Prince can hook the Daggertail onto lamps jutting from the wall in order to gain more momentum to continue further along the wall (a similar concept is used in Warrior Within, except with ropes rather than the Daggertail). Poles sticking out serve a similar purpose, except it is used while jumping. The Daggertail can also pull switches too far away to use by hand; these switches have a distinctive cement-like color, with a creature's (most likely a lion's) face on it. All of these appear only when the Prince turn into the Dark Prince.

  King's Sword

The King's Sword (also known as Sharaman's Sword) is a powerful sword that the Prince obtains towards the end of his quest in The Two Thrones, and in the Sands of Time trilogy.

The King's Sword

Added by Dakovski

This is the massive, beautifully decorated sword of KingSharaman. When the Prince fell into the Well of Ancestors he found the body of his father, the King of Persia, along with this sword. Taking it, the Prince resolves to face his problems head on, and live with the future he created rather than running away from it as he had done for seven years by using the Sands of Time; this gives him the strength to suppress his dark form(although at some points in the game after gaining the sword, the Dark Prince's advice on defeating foes can still be heard).

The sword itself is inscribed with markings that glow with a bright light, which helped the Prince to find his way into the catacombs under the palace. It is also a very powerful sword: when the Prince is wielding it, he can break walls that are already damaged and can kill any sand monster, except for the Vizier - and supposedly the other bosses- in one hit. (However, they will not drop any Sand if killed by the Sword, so the best thing is to use a combo that uses both the Dagger of Time and the King's Sword.) The sword becomes a permanent secondary weapon; as such, the Prince can no longer pick up fallen weapons nor throw away the King's Sword - as if anyone would want to.

During the final battle with Zurvan, the Prince, after cutting off his "wings", plunges this sword through the Vizier's chest. This horribly wounded Zurvan, but did not kill him. Zurvan flew away to attempt to heal himself , but the Prince was able to follow him and finish him off with the Dagger of Time, thus ending the Vizier's evil reign.

This sword replaces the Dagger of Time as the primary weapon in the Prince's dream battle - named 'The Mental Realm' in the game - with the Dark Prince.

It can be assumed that this is the sword the Prince uses as the King of Persia, or it is also thought that the Prince had a new sword forged for himself, and buried this sword with his father. This is possible, though unlikely, since swords like these usually wind up being family heirlooms.