Time for a bad pun! Ready? "Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands" should have stayed forgotten!
After leaving the magnificent PoP of 2008, a game with personality, an interesting story and some of the best art and graphics of this generation, without an ending, Ubisoft offers a dull, repetitive, cheaply made PoP with no shred of charm or creativity.
The story follows the "original" prince from "The Sands of Time" a great game that started the franchise in consoles and of which this is a direct sequel. The unnamed prince travels to a city ruled by his brother, Malik, which is under attack from some... well... unnamed army. The villains take the city and as his rule is threatened, Malik unleashes "King Solomon's Army" to defeat the invaders. Solomon's Army was supposed to be what Malik was guarding in the first place to stop it from falling in the wrong hands as it was supposed to be an unstoppable force. Of course the army ends up being a bunch of sand soldiers lead by an evil Djinn with some grudge against humans and its up to the prince to stop it from spreading outside the city and take over the world. As pedestrian and unoriginal as the plot is I supposed its enough of an excuse for some platforming and combat. The problem is the whole thing is lethargic and with a total of three speaking characters in the game and none of them, including the prince, likable its hardly surprising its difficult to find the motivation as the player or any sort of urgency in the gameplay.
Gameplay consists of boring combat and average platforming. The combat is so easy and bland that you cant be faulted for forgetting the prince actually has an upgrade tree with skills and magic because quite frankly a blind man wouldn't have much trouble getting past these boring sequences which drag and drag with a huge number of cannon fodder for you to dispatch with no sense of excitement or fun.
The platforming is at least moderately successful but the environments and graphics are so uninspired its hard to feel engaged. When climbing on the same brown wall or seeing the same ruins again and again its impossible to feel anything other than utter boredom after a few hours in such insipid background. A nice feature in the platforming is the prince's ability to solidify water which provides some interesting moments but is soon spoiled by jumps which require split second button presses that bring some annoying trial and error and increase the repetition in what is already a highly repetitive game. The final climbing sequence in the game is the pinnacle of unfair, annoying and luck based gameplay. The ending itself is devoid of any sense of accomplishment or excitement. Its abrupt, unsatisfying and after the end credits we get a cheap slide-show with the prince's voice over giving a bit of closure to the story which at least prevents it from being even more pathetic.
As for length, expect no more than five or six hours. Yeah, Ubisoft really put the effort in this one!
I suppose I might seem a bit too harsh but from such a big "name" more was expected and its hardly a surprise that after such a poor effort and the corresponding poor sales, Ubisoft has put PoP on "pause" indefinitely. Might as well. Better than to drag it on the mud with such cheap titles as "The Forgotten Sands".
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Product description
Platform:Xbox 360
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Edition:Standard
Manufacturer's Description
There have been many different princes of Persia, but now the one from the classic The Sands of Time trilogy (and the new movie) returns for his greatest adventure yet.
 The prince from The Sands of Time is back for more action |
 Enemies of all shapes and sizes stand against you |
 Amazing acrobatics are key in any Prince of Persia game |
 Explore beautiful landscapes and deadly dungeons |
The kingdom of the Prince's older brother is under siege and as a last ditch effort to save it the sands of time are unleashed once again. The Prince's usual acrobatic skills will only get him so far this time, as you face more dangerous enemies and an army of the undead.
To help you on your quest you've a whole range of elemental powers to master, as you turn water fountains into ice columns to clamber up or upgrade abilities such as a tornado summons into devastating attacks. You'll need every power you can get too as you take on giant monsters and fight dozens of enemies at a time. The real next generation Prince of Persia has finally arrived and it's fit for a king.
Key Features- Royal Command: A direct sequel to The Sands of Time and influenced by the look of the new Disney blockbuster movie, the true prince of platformers returns.
- Second Chance: Rewind time whenever you want to escape from certain death or tackle cunning puzzles and deadly enemies.
- Classic Elements: New elemental powers let you turn water to ice, summon tornadoes or create impenetrable shields.
- Crowd Control: New combat engine lets you take on up to 50 enemies at one time with a flexible and intuitive new combo system.
- Picture Book Prince: Stunning visuals and cinematic action create a game world on a scale you've never seen before and yet all clearly set in the classic Prince of Persia universe.
Ubisoft's huge development studio in Canada has created many of the French publisher's biggest hits, including the Splinter Cell series, the modern Prince of Persia games, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Assassin's Creed, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja and the Far Cry sequels and spin-offs.
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