Welcome back to the Prince of Persia Special. I apologize that it has taken awhile to get this special back on its feet, but so many games have taken my time, and well, I only recently have gotten to play the next game in this special. It’s the final game. While this is an interesting series and it is worth checking out a majority of the games, these are pretty much for specific tastes. The games are more known for their interesting and creative platforming and puzzle-solving more so than its simple combat or its bland hero. I still think my favorite out of the games I have played is the 2008 Prince of Persia. I think I just enjoyed the great art style and having Nolan North voice the more personality-driven Prince. Yeah, the backtracking got tedious, and fighting the same bosses over and over got annoying, but it was a solid game that I think gets a bit too much hate. Let’s just get this over with it; this is 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the PS3 and 360. This is an um, interesting game, but I won’t say why until the very end of this review. I mean, you might already know, but this is for the people who haven’t played this yet. Let us get started
Yuri Lowenthal returns as the voice of Prince, with the story taking place in the 7-year gap between Sands of Time and Warrior Within. The Prince returns to his brother’s kingdom to see that it is under attack. After getting through the enemy army, he reunites with his brother, Malik, voiced by John Cygan. Malik, in a desperate move to defeat the enemy army, unleashes a cursed army led by a powerful genie named Ratash, voiced by Fred Tatasciore. The Prince must attempt to save his brother and restore the kingdom, with the help of a guardian of the water, Razia, voiced by Salli Saffioti. Overall, the story isn’t really anything special, but there are a few twists here and there that will keep you invested. However, I just didn’t find any of the characters that interesting, and I kind of checked out a few hours before the game ended.
The gameplay is a mix of action, puzzle-solving, and some pretty fun, if a bit tedious, platforming. Your main form of attack is your sword as you beat down the evil undead sand zombie army. You also have a couple of different magic spells, like a wake of fire, wind shockwaves, ice blasts, and a protective spell that surrounds with armor made of rock. The combat is simple, but Prince of Persia has never been about its combat, it’s all about the platforming. You will be wall-running, jumping, and hanging from pillars to get to where you need to go. With the help of some magic, you will even be platforming across water, and making platforms and pillars appear out of nowhere. To round out the 8-hour experience, you have challenge arenas where you beat down on enemies in specific challenges. It’s not a bad package, but there isn’t much in the replay value on this game.
Even if the Prince’s face looks a bit odd, the graphics aren’t bad. I just think they are okay, with some good textures from time to time. The music is also just okay, I don’t remember too much of it, but it wasn’t terrible. The voice acting is, you guessed it, okay. I just think none of the actors put their fullest into this game. I mean, yeah, there are games with worse voice acting, like Call of Juarez: The Cartel, but this isn’t Mass Effect 3 or Castlevania Lords of Shadow. I think the package as a whole is passable.
While this is a solid action game, there are some major faults. Overall, I found the game to be boring. It had creative platforming and some boss fights to separate everything, but the game as a whole is as boring as Alice: Madness Returns. I just didn’t find the story that interesting, and the characters were boring. I think it doesn’t help that a lot of the bosses are repetitious and pretty much play the same. The enemies are also a drag. Sure, the designs could be cool from time to time, but they act more like Dynasty Warriors enemies. When you get two giant enemies, the combat can be slightly intense, but the combat was pretty boring. I just find games like Assassin’s Creed 2, God of War 3, Bayonetta, and Darksiders to be much more enjoyable action games that have platforming on them. They had intense and or fast-paced combat, while this game had rather boring button-mashing combat.
While Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is a solid game and it isn’t the worst thing I ever played since the level design and platforming is good, it was, for me, a boring experience. If you are a fan of the franchise, I’d say pick it up for super cheap, but I could recommend many other action platformers. I think it’s right for me to end this special here. While I might look up and rent the Wii version of this game since it’s completely different, it might be awhile before I do. Hopefully, this rumored Prince of Persia game coming to either this generation or next will bring the Prince out of the sands.
This game gets a 6 out of 10
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