The trilogy – part 4
Prince of persia: the forgotten sands
Five minutes ago we should have seen this coming. Surrounded by the expected enthusiasm that comes with the first look at a new game, we listen to lead designer Thomas Simon. Although the words “sands of time” are mentioned a lot more then the title we are here for, the biggest misunderstanding is denied instantly. This is not a remake. But then, what is it?
1001 princes
The forgotten sands is direct sequel to the sands of time, and a prequel to warrior within. It also has nothing to do with the playable painting that was released two years ago: prince of Persia. That’s another prince, in another universe. And no, we asked while visiting them: ubisoft does not want to make you feel confused – not on purpose, anyways.
The stolen opening scene of the forgotten sands starts the story of the prince, who is trying to rescue his brother’s kingdom from a giant siege. To stop the evil army, he decides to unleash the “sand army” from its eternal sleep, so they can fight beside him. These out of sand constructed freaks in all measures and sizes finish the job easily, only to turn against the prince, his brother and his complete kingdom when the enemies are dealt with. The castle then slowly starts filling up with sands. Within the walls, sand-like silhouettes of citizens, like silent witnesses of good plan that went awfully wrong. My mistake!
Macabre bones
If we were still thinking that we were watching a remake of sands of time, we’re proven wrong after the first five minutes. With one press on a button our main character freezes waterfalls into solid walls, and then runs over them. Also, little fountains that spray water out of the wall are frozen in time (in Dutch really meaning in time, not in time like at the right time, but by the use of freezing time) to be used as solid grips during an acrobatic journey, high in the air. Later we see him missing a jump, after which he uses a fire power shoot himself like a rocket. Further on, on a platform, about 40 skeletons are his main concern. That means, until he uses the wind to blow the countless macabre bones into the air. These are just some of the new powers the prince has now, next to the limited rewinding of time.
While we watching the presentation, we start liking the same charms that sands of time once had all over again. of course, it remains great to see the prince walk into a giant chamber. Everywhere there is water spraying from the wall, there are a lot of waterfalls, and the platform we need to reach is, obviously, in one of the top corners. With the possibility of freezing water for about 20 seconds, every second counts. The prince runs up a waterfall, jumps off, grabs a fountain, jumps to the fountains on the ceiling that have become stalactites, runs over another wall, up another waterfall, and during the last seconds, he “unfreezes” the water, not collapsing against it, but jumping through. Challenging, exiting and accompanied by some amazing, epic music. That’s the way we like it.
Persian dance night
Of the two main parts, the first one (puzzles, exploration and platforming) is good. Not only does it look really vibrant, the sense of excitement and the importance of timing are there again, in full glory. The second part, the fighting, is, like the rest of the series, the problem. In the first fight with two enemies, the first four strikes the prince delivers all miss. Even if the sword hits, the satisfaction that you should normally feel if you put a sword in someone’s chest is sort of missing. Don’t tell anyone we said this , but that must feel really good, right?
The enemies in this early version are also a bit slow of mind. Even when our acrobat jumped I a group of about thirty sand creatures, it took them a couple of seconds to start attacking. It looked a bit like a Persian dance night with the prince and some skeletons, instead of the two sides actually trying to injure each other. Ubisoft still has the time to work on this, but our biggest hope has already been pointed at the boss fights. It is promised that the bosses will be about 30 meters (+/- 100 feet) high. We saw some artwork of these titans and in combination with the acrobatics of the prince, the entire thing begs for some epic “shadow of the colossus”-like battles.
Prince charming
In the beginning, we had our doubts about the forgotten sands. It’s a fine line between an homage and copying an old game to get some money out of old glory. But, the more we saw of “the forgotten sands” the more we were convinced of the coming success of this title. There was a reason sands of time was a classic, and the promise that similar gameplay is about to arrive in a fresh take, makes for some high hopes. In the end, that should not be a problem for the prince. Freeze a waterfall, summon a tornado, and maybe a wall run to finish the package and our favorite Persian arrives where he should be, no matter how high he has to climb.