Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands - PlayStation 3

I loved Prince of Persia Trilogy on (PS2/Xbox) and while Prince of Persia (PS3/360) was not as great of a game, I still liked it. This game, the way it looked, I didn't have much expectations, but I was surprised. Here is why. PROS. AWESOME SOT LIKE GAMEPLAY: This game goes back to the roots of Prince of Persia. Sands of Time trilogy (SOT) wowed me with running on the wall, jumping from ledge to ledge and reversing time type of gameplay mechanics. In this game they go back to the roots and give you more of that gameplay. NEW MAGICAL AND ACROBATIC ABILITIES: In addition to what mentioned above you get some new moves and magical abilities. Most notable of them all is to freeze water for given amount of time. Developers have wonderfully make use of this ability give this game a novel feeling. Freezing and unfreezing water with proper timing makes it very important to move from one part of the palace to another (Very difficult to explain in words, have to see the gameplay to understand it). In addition to freezing water you also have other unique abilities such as swift jumps, crow hooks and one VERY UNIQUE one. But I don't want to spoil much here. MASSES AND VARIETY ENEMIES: In this game they have made good use of next gen console processor power in enemy battles. Unlike previous Prince of Persia games where you had 5 or 8 enemies at most, in this one you will have 15-20 enemies (if not more) at the same time. While initial enemies will look the same, as you progress in the game, variety of enemies will appear that will require you to change your strategy in defeating them. POWERS AND SWORD UPGRADES: Defeating enemies will give you orbs and these orbs can be used to upgrade your combat and magical powers. You can make your attack stronger, life bar larger, have fire walk power, ice sword power, stone armor power, wind explosion power or you can increase the time to reverse time. Each one of these can be upgraded up to 4 levels. Personally I loved the RPG element they added to this game. DECENT STORY: Not much to describe here. Voice actors are good and the game has decent story. Don't want to spoil too much. LOTS OF TRAPS: To many of you, this may belong in cons section, but I personally like challenges. In addition to acrobatic gameplay, there are tons of traps in the game that requires you to successfully guide prince through them. To me this was very challenging but the fun part of the game. CHALLENGE ROOMS: After you beat the campaigns, you can attempt challenge rooms to test your skills. While there are not that many of them, they are better than nothing. CONS. FEELING OF CHEAPNESS: I enjoyed the game, but when I played it, I just can't help but to feel that this game was either made on low budget or shortage of time. Unlike previous prince of Persia games where artwork was the strength of the game, this game didn't carry out the legacy. Sure things look great in 720p resolution, but in terms of artstyle and graphics, it look similar to PS2/Xbox games. BOSSES: There are bosses in this game but honestly they are not impressive. I love the game with strong bosses, especially those who require unique strategies to beat. Unfortunately, the bosses in this game are not much fun and can be beaten using mostly the same strategies. SANDS OF TIME TRILOGY CONNECTION: According to developers, this game takes place between first two games of SOT trilogy. So I was really hoping they have some information on DHAKA or some sort of connection to him. But to best of my knowledge, they didn't. So somewhat disappointed. CONCLUSION: Honestly, if they had put some more money into this game and had not pressured the artists to release it along with Prince of Persia the Movie, I think this would be a five star game. Nevertheless, I loved it. I think if you are Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Trilogy fan, then you should definitely give this a shot, especially now that it is selling so cheap. Chances are you will enjoy it.

The Forgotten Sands is one of those games that you hear about, get excited for, and then while you’re playing it you can’t help but wonder what got lost in the translation. I’m not saying it’s a bad game, it’s actually fairly entertaining. But playing through it you can’t help but feel like something’s missing, or something is just not right. And by the time you figure it out, you’re fighting the final boss and then you walk away feeling like you just got taken advantage of. (The taken advantage of where you don’t really fight what’s going on but at the same time you’re not really happy with what’s happening. Just to be clear.) To get to the point, there are give or take 6 different types of enemies you encounter. Repeatedly. And the various (or not so various) booby traps are the same saws, spikes, spiked pillars, etc. over and over again. The combat gets old fairly quickly because of the lack of a decent system. There are a few combos but when you get put in the middle of a wave of enemies your first reaction is just to swing away hack and slash style. And added to the combat are 4 elements that you may use against enemies. Earth, which surrounds you in rocks acting as a shield. Wind, which blows all enemies away when the Prince pounds on the ground. And then Fire and Ice, which are very similar and forgettable as bonus powers. You’ll find yourself using Earth and Wind more than the other 2 anyway, and for good reason, since they actually help you in sticky situations. All these powers can be upgraded by an XP system that is fairly basic and nothing to really write home about. There is a cool ability of being able to freeze water. When you first get the ability you think to yourself “this is fairly interesting and pretty fun.” But like the combat, it gets a bit repetitive, so towards the middle of the game you think, “how many busted pipes does this place have?!” Then finally during the final stages you get smacked in the face with a series of platforming puzzles involving this power that make you take a breath when you’re done saying, “that was awesome!” It’s just too bad they waited till the end to drop those puzzles on you. Not only were they more difficult, but I’ll say they were the most fun I had platforming in the whole game. Bottom line, if you sit down to play The Forgotten Sands, you won’t be disappointed. Yeah, there are a few gripes I have with it but it’s nothing out of the ordinary for a Prince of Persia game. You don’t go to a restaurant for the bread, you go for the food. Same thing here, you don’t play Prince of Persia for the combat, you play for platforming and puzzle solving. It’s what the series is known for, where it strives, and what is consistently great about The Forgotten Sands. It may have been pushed out there for the sake of coming out shoulder to shoulder with the movie release, (Proof? Why would they just leave the 2008 cell shaded Prince reboot hanging out to dry when it was obviously set up for a sequel?) and the story may not actually fit in the timeline of the trilogy, but that doesn’t stop The Forgotten Sands from being a game worthy of the name Prince of Persia. Verdict: 3.75 / 5 If you’re a big Prince of Persia fan, buy it. But, for no more than $35 because if you’re good you’ll be done with it in less than 12 hours. And since it’s an easy Platinum Trophy (one playthrough) if you plan it right, there won’t be much to come back to once you’re done.

P.O.P is a decent title...that could have pushed the envelope a bit further, but for what it was...it passes. This P.O.P is very reminiscent of the earlier P.O.P titles. Combat is familiar with few tweaks here and there. The Prince is given new powers that are incorporated in his fighting, like stone skin 4 added defense, trails of fire, ice blast from your sword, and a giant whirlwind 2 suck up enemies. These are a nice touch but weren't really awe inspireing enough 4 me. They could have done more in this area (My opinion). The 1 aspect of this game that i did like was the movement of the Prince. As a BIG fan of Parkour Free Running (if you don't know what that is...look it up, it's dope) i loved how the Prince got around. All the precision jumps, cat to lache grabs, wall runs, bar work...were done well. Other than that the game didn't do muich else for me...i would only recommend this game if you really have nothing else to play and just want to kill time b4 a big title drops...

Very simple game. Very linear story. Powers are ad good as the original sands of time, but added nothing extra as the Two Thrones. Storyline as linear as always... Repetitive enemies...

Long story short - if you like the sands of time and the two thrones then you will love this game. Timed traps, puzzles to solve, locked gates, secret power-ups and more. Gome is the "never die" version of the prince who only seemed to be interested in collecting orbs. I loved playing it but felt like the ending was a bit ubrupt. I look forward to another prince adventure like this one. Puzzles need to be just a wee bit more challenging though.

After playing the Assassin's Creed series I found the game a bit "on rails." This is a different game, but I feel they could have done more with it. Despite its linear nature the game does make up for it with the excitement and challenge of its action.

Would have been excellent, except for a bug in the final segment which prevents you from finishing game

Its a good game overall, although the gameplay gets boring and drag at times, doing the same stuff over and over again.