After 10 years, Ubisoft releases a new Prince of Persia – but where is the Prince of Persia?
Ubisoft has never known what to make of Prince of Persia. Brilliant Sands of Time was followed by an identity crisis: the rockier, (more) violent Warrior Within. In 2008, they rebooted the series again (nobody asked for it), before going back to the old timeline with one more game. A film with Jake Gyllenhaal was in the works (it sucked) and then you could take advantage.
“Ubisoft never knew what to do with Prince of Persia”
The 1989 original is straight to the point: get out of a tower filled with traps and enemies while the clock is ticking. But the fumbling has nevertheless continued for Ubisoft. Not even when you confirmed what many had longed for, a remake of Sands of Time, it went as it should. It looked downright miserable. So: back to the drawing board.
The last game in the series was released in 2013. Ten difficult years later, a new one is finally underway. Ten! Year! It’s also sequel-happy Ubisoft we’re talking about. Just one thing. Well, January 18th we get Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown which, of course, is its own thing.
That thing has a good flow, it turns out. After a couple of hours there is a craving for more. So I’m also a sucker for metroidvania. This subgenre that perhaps more than any other arouses a curiosity. Everywhere in the castle, the forests and the library – all of course on a coherent map – I sense secrets and unexplored paths. A crack in the ceiling, a platform on the other side of a cave filled with deadly spikes, a ledge i then reaches up to.
At first, Sargon (who is not a Persian prince, but a warrior to rescue a kidnapped prince. Possibly from Persia.) is ill-equipped for all the secrets. He can do the expected—jump, slide, swing—but any metroidvania buff knows it’s only a matter of time before we’re handed keys to the puzzles. Before my hours are up, I find a bow and arrow, which helps me activate particular plants I use as ledges. A chakram can bounce off walls, activate mechanisms, and – yes, that one too – propel me forward. It always comes back to me.
At the very end, I learn to bend time and space, which is a complicated paraphrase of: dasha through the air. Suddenly, new paths open up and the rudimentary platforming deepens.
What I learn I take into the battles. They feel immediate while I see opportunities for them to grow. Every now and then the fighting takes over. I get away from the adventurous and fall into fleshing. The bosses are by all accounts spectacular: mythological devil lions and large chunks of meat. However, it feels like I’m playing the same against different bosses. Moves away, counters with my specialist, charges up another specialist.
Sargon bends time and space. In short: he dashes.
When you can be in two places at once.
Here, I still see a chance for the game to blossom in a similar way as it does outside the battles. Playing alternately is rewarded (you do more damage). I learn to knock down smaller enemies, kick them into the air, and suddenly that acrobatics also feel like part of the battles.
“An acrobatic metroidvania”
I will probably always prefer my adventurous one Prince of Persia in front of the warlike. At the same time, it is strikingly frequent The Lost Crown feels like something completely different. Every now and then the quasi-Persian breaks through, but this really could have been its own thing. The taste is also a bit so and so. It’s an explosion of color but also feels plasticky. The protagonist has a stuck up attitude I don’t buy. I miss my prince of persia.
But. We don’t have the luxury of choice Prince of Persias. This is the look Ubisoft prefers in 2024. At least it looks better than the first vision of Sands of Time-remake, and beyond plastic and attitude is an acrobatic metroidvania that piques my curiosity.
Prince of Persia is not what it once was, but it hardly ever was.
Footnote: Prince of Persia the Lost Crown is released on January 18 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One and Switch. PC version tested.
2023-12-13 17:00:00
#Prince #Persia #Lost #Crown
