It turns out that Ubisoft knows how to move towards experiments, developing something other than Assassin’s Creed. This time, the studio not only provided a new branch of the usual path, but immediately leapt into metroidvania – a completely atypical genre for itself. We didn’t want to pass by and instantly came out of a long winter hibernation with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Let’s go!
Save Prince of Persia
Let’s not beat around the bush and note the obvious things at the very beginning. The game can be considered a kind of alternative universe in a different style. There will be no running around from Dahaka, playing with the sand of time in the “classical” sense, saving the heavenly beauty of princesses and other nuances of the original series. But the developers presented a new vision of the world and tried to create a metroidvania for the mass gamer with adjustable difficulty and a colorful world.
Sargon, the main character of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, being a member of the clan of the Immortals, the most experienced and virtuoso Persian warriors, goes with his comrades in search of the Prince of Persia (hehe) in order to save the kidnapped ruler and understand the events taking place. After arriving in the abandoned city of Kafa, the hero is faced with a mysterious and unnatural passage of time. A couple of hours for him turned into several days for his friends and dozens of years for ordinary warriors. Understanding what happened and finding the missing prince will not be easy, because dangerous creatures are waiting at every corner, ready to bite their teeth into an unwary mortal husband.
Throughout the adventure, the player will be provided with comprehensive information about the area, reveal the features of what is happening and help to better understand the lore of the world. Some things are revealed through banal notes, while other information is shown in numerous cut scenes, which the developers did not skimp on. You definitely shouldn’t expect an extremely unusual story and an intriguing plot. The conflicts “lie on the surface”, the development of the story is unlikely to surprise an experienced gamer in any way, and the events do not strike the imagination. Everything is quite clear and modest in terms of bright scenario moves.
The plot is the weakest aspect of the project, but metroidvanias usually don’t need it. Much more important: a well-developed world that you trust, “biomes” that differ in structure and appearance, unique gameplay solutions and colorful skirmishes with various opponents. This in PoP: TLC (more abbreviations for the god of abbreviations) cannot be faulted. On each of the points noted above, the game is fine, offering what you would expect from the genre.
Survive if you can
The gameplay does not go beyond the Metroidvania and just embeds the hero into a suitable setting. Throughout the entire adventure, Sargon will move from one room to another, where the same opponents await him. The exception will be small arenas for boss battles. By the way, the battles with powerful opponents turned out to be quite entertaining. Each such enemy received a certain set of actions, which are quite easy to remember. This doesn’t make the fights boring, but thanks to the choice of difficulty, any gamer can do it. Real hardcore fans of the genre can set the most skill-demanding option, while casual players can easily cope with their goals on “normal”.
In terms of Sargon’s combat skills, players have access to sword strikes, bow shots, parry, block and several powerful skills that can be activated after filling the atra scale, a special sacred energy flowing in every living creature. With its help, you can carry out a unique destructive blow with a special animation in a short moment. There are several types of them in the game, so if you carefully study the locations, choosing skills for yourself will not be difficult. In addition, depending on the deviation of the stick and the choice of direction of the blow, the hero uses several types of techniques, which allows him to perform various combinations and effectively and efficiently destroy targets.
Gradually, Sargon’s set of normal actions will also expand, for example, the first to open is a slide in the air, which will help to get to distant platforms; later, even an analogue of teleport and other useful skills will appear. Everything is done in such a way that the player does not have time to get bored and has fun exploring the locations.
For the sake of the setting, the developers did not forget about traps. Often you will have to perform long combinations of jumps, move from one wall to another and cross “rooms” with many obstacles. Sometimes you have to use your brains to get a special coin or get to a box. Nothing too complex and incomprehensible within the framework of a metroidvania.
In addition to two blades and a bow, the player will be able to collect various amulets that improve certain aspects of the character. Here is an increase in health, increased damage, faster production of atra, a larger radius of collecting currency and other variations. For points collected from enemies and by successfully finding special artifacts, you can improve weapons and amulets in a safe place. The developers did not overly complicate the gameplay, so they provided many opportunities to strengthen the hero.
And after memorizing the weaknesses of your opponents, even an inexperienced player will be able to defeat enemies in battle. We haven’t forgotten the numerous checkpoints that are activated near trees (long live Elden Ring). After failure, the player will lose a small amount of accumulated points and will appear at the last tree used. You can also run to the teleport and in an instant move to the far part of the city.
Not without nuances
In addition to complaints about the plot, players may be confused about the quality of the graphics. It’s not that it was extremely poor, but it definitely went back a couple of years. This concerns mostly the development of characters and not very high-quality facial animations.
But this is more of a nitpick than a significant minus, because of which it is not worth launching the game. In terms of the smoothness of battles, moving around locations and using various skills, everything is excellent in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. And no bugs were noticed. On consoles for sure. A good sign for the start of this year.
As soon as Ubisoft moved away from the usual formula, they immediately turned out to be a very good game. Perhaps not the best, but as a start to the year it is quite unique and special. The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is able to entertain players, provide quality gameplay and is suitable for a painless introduction to the metroidvania genre. Only an ordinary plot with an insufficient number of unusual scenario solutions can upset you, but it’s worth diving into the project for the sake of your favorite setting and thoughtful gameplay.
Pros:
- Entertaining gameplay;
- Metroidvania “for everyone”;
- Pleasant exploration of locations;
- A good fit into the setting.
Minuses:
- Ordinary plot;
- Weak facial animation.
Final score: 8.0 out of 10
Verdict: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will not return fans of the series to the familiar universe. But it will offer high-quality gameplay and an alternative reading of history. This can be both a plus and a minus of the project, however, with a small price tag or at a discount, it will be a pleasant addition to the collection of gamers.
