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After a fun, but
somewhat
disappointing
previous installment
to the Prince of
Persia franchise,
Ubisoft took a step
back from 2008's
The Prince of Persia,
and came in with Prince
of Persia: The
Forgotten Sands.
The focus on this
game is on the
in-game action.
Typical stuff,
you're the Prince of
Persia, you bounce
and climb
around like a crazy
gymnast. You run
across walls, swing
on poles, climb
ledges, and rip
banners all over the
place- with some
fighting thrown in
until you beat the
bad guy and save the
day.
In this game, the
Prince travels into
the kingdom from
afar to discover the
palace under attack.
When the attackers
have the upper hand
and are going to win
the battle, the King
makes the decision
to unleash a magical
army to even the
score. The only
problem is that the
magical army doesn't
seek to save the
kingdom... it seeks
to destroy it. While
rendering the rest
of the castle
useless, the Prince
remains immune to
the army and has to
stop its demonic
leader before it's
too late and the
kingdom--- and the
world are destroyed.
The storyline's not
bad. It's set up
nicely and it
carries on well
through the middle
of the story so you
keep playing to find
out what's next. The
only problem is that
things are rushed at
the end and the
story isn't properly
finished. The game
is finished, but the
ending movie that
you play for....
it's only partly
there. You get a
nice narrative, but
really it's more
like the ending to
an individual
character in a
fighting game, You
get that type of
ending when you beat
the game, if it
weren't an
accomplishment to
beat the game
then you’d be pretty
disappointed at the
end of things.
The gameplay on
Prince of Persia:
The Forgotten Sands
is outstanding. Gone
are the ways of the
last game where you
can rewind things
over and over
without any
consequence. In this
game you get a
select amount of
rewinds before you
die and you have to
restart from your
checkpoint. The
checkpoints are
timed out nicely so
you don't lose too
much ground, but
you're still
punished for losing
all of your rewinds.
It's a system that
works and should be
implemented in the
franchise from here
on out. The balance
of checkpoints and
rewinds is superb;
it makes the
climbing in the game
the focal point.
There are some new
timing devices
thrown into the
acrobatic assault.
In this version you
get the ability to
temporarily freeze
water so you can use
ice objects to
extend you're path
and you have the
ability to
'remember' parts of
structures that used
to be present.
Sometimes you have
to jump through
water so you freeze
and unfreeze, and
you can only have
one 'memory' object
at a time so you're
constantly timing
button pushes in a
rhythmic fashion.
It's a fun and
rewarding system
that's challenging.
The graphics on
The Forgotten Sands
are solid on some
levels and pretty
normal in others. It
does win the battle
between this version
and the last
version- the cell
shading is gone and
more life-like
characters are used.
The only problem is
the textures on some
levels just aren't
there. Stuff looks
to plain from afar
and there's not
enough detail used.
The story-aspect and
the graphics may be
lacking from
Prince of Persia:
The Forgotten Sands,
but the gameplay
factor trumps both
of those keys to
make this a good
game. You can
forgive a terrible
cut scene here and
there for some
awesome controls and
a balanced system of
play. It's not the
best Prince of
Persia game made,
but it's a good
version of the game
and one that people
can get into after
catching the movie
this summer.
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