Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands PS3 Review

The Prince of Persia series has been around for over twenty years, and 2010 brought about the newest iteration in the series, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. The new Prince of Persia takes place between the events of the Sands of Time and Warrior Within. In the Forgotten Sands, the Prince is on his way to his brother Malik’s kingdom, when from afar he views the kingdom being invaded by a foreign army. Malik tells the Prince to meet him in the treasure room as they make their retreat from the invasion. In the treasure room, Malik unleashes Solomon’s Army, an army of creatures created from the sands of the desert and lead by an evil Djinn named Ratash. The seal that imprisoned Ratash and his minions is separated into two halves one worn by Malik and the other worn by the Prince. The story continues with the Prince attempting to reunite the two halves of the seal and once again imprison Solomon’s Army.

The Forgotten Sands has similar platforming to the previous iterations in the series with a few notable exceptions. In addition to the standard time rewind that the Prince had in previous games, he can now freeze running water for a limited time and propel himself through the air at enemies in order to jump long distances. Freezing water allows the Prince to create columns, poles, and walls of ice to traverse to upper levels.

Combat is overly simplistic even with the added elemental abilities. One can kill most enemies with just the use of a normal attack and the dodge move. By the end of the game, the player is overpowered and most enemies will die with one hit. Also, gameplay is focused more on platforming than actual combat. Enemies come at the player in droves, but the actual number of encounters is far and few between. For an army that is supposedly as numerous as the grains of sands in the desert, Solomon’s Army is rarely encountered in the game and easily dispatched.

Unfortunately, Ubisoft has gotten into the habit like most other developers of milking franchises for all they are worth rather than reinventing the series. The last Prince of Persia game had a great visual appeal and an excellent story ending despite the familiar plot and complaint from players about the ending. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands has the same familiar story of man unleashes evil upon land to save his kingdom and suffers from lack of creativity. Ubisoft should read up on some Arabian mythology and create an entirely new storyline in order to keep players interested. Overall, the Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is not a bad game. In fact, the platforming is well executed, but the story and the combat are lackluster, which leads us to suggest that gamers should either rent the game or grab it for a bargain at $20 on EBay. Hopefully, after this experience, Ubisoft will finally take note and create a game worthy of the Prince of Persia title, such as the Sands of Time.