“Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown” Review

 

As a fan of acrobatic action games, I’ve been waiting 14 years for Ubisoft to make another Prince Of Persia in the vein of 2010’s The Forgotten Sands.

But as someone who goes back with this series to the days of old, when it was a side-scrolling hack & slash action game, I’ve also been waiting 21 years for Ubisoft to make a Prince Of Persia that brings me back to when I used to play the original and 1993’s Prince Of Persia 2: The Shadow And The Flame.

Well, twenty-five year old me can now rest easy, as Ubisoft have given us Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC), which is not only the best Prince Of Persia game since Sands, but the best side-scrolling one since Flame.

In Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown,

Prince Ghassan has been captured, and it’s up to you, as the acrobatic, dual-sword wielding Sargon, to save him.

Which, of course, you do by hacking and slashing tons of bad guys, button-mash style, while also making your way around some intricate locations that have conveniently placed jumps and swings, and inconveniently placed spikes and spinning blades.

Not surprisingly, given its lineage and perspective, Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown does recall those original Prince games. Sometimes intentionally. Like when you run through a door and the screen momentarily goes black before revealing you’ve entered another room.

But, at the same time, Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown never feels dated. Or even all that retro. And not just because people are still making 2D side-scrolling games.

No,

it’s more because Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown‘s controls are fluid and intuitive, and the game has added both new mechanics and modern conceits. And I don’t just mean side quests and upgradable weapons like every game has these days.

It’s more because the acrobatics and combat are deeper, and include moves that probably would’ve been in those old games if the controllers had more buttons. Like how, as you land blows, you charge up a meter that, when full, can be used to deliver a special attack. Verethragna’s Smite, for instance, has you rushing forward with a strong strike that can break an enemy’s defenses, while Bahman’s Breath causes an explosion the results in a temporary zone of healing.

Or how you can now slide. Which comes in handy when you’re fighting someone bigger or carrying a shield, since you can dodge their attacks by sliding between their legs, and then smacking them from behind.

Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown also…

adds a neat trick I think a lot of other games are going to steal…uh, I mean, incorporate. There are places in the world you can’t get to when you first come across them, ones you can reach later when you learn a new skill. Now, normally, you’d have to just remember where they are. But in The Lost Crown, you have the ability to mark these spots on the map. Even cooler, it marks them with an image of the area, which can serve as a reminder of why you wanted to go back there.

All of this works so seamlessly together that it makes Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown feel less like an homage or an attempt to appease the series older fans, and more like an evolution, like what a modern Prince Of Persia would be like if they had never moved from 2D to 3D. And hadn’t stopping making these games altogether.

That said,

there are times in Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown when twenty-five year-old me was not happy.

First, the story is a bit uneventful. It’s certainly not as cinematically exciting as any of the Sands Of Time series. Sure, it gets the job done — it sets up the action nicely — but as a story, it’s not as gripping as it could’ve been.

Similarly, Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown has a control issue, one that seems like it could’ve been easily avoided.

Along with your swords,

you also have a bow and arrow. And while it can be used combatively, it can also be used to shoot flowers that, when hit, sprout big leaves you can jump on to reach previously unavailable areas.

The problem being that, unlike The Last Of Us Part II Remastered, Horizon Forbidden West, and other games in which you get to go full Katniss, Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown doesn’t give you a moment to aim before shooting an arrow. Despite what the glowing arrow in the screenshot above may suggest, you can’t take your time and carefully aim your arrow where it needs to go. It goes off right away.

What aggravates this issue is that arrows are only available in select locations, and you can initially only carry 10 at a time, and not many more after you upgrade your quiver. As a result, you never have that many.

Worse, you may run out of arrows at a critical time. Which is how I got stuck in between two large spike pits and had to kill myself so I’d come back to life somewhere else.

The irony being…

that you can take a moment to aim when you’re swinging on a pole and want to plan which way to dismount, as well as when you get the Chakram Of Menolias, a circular throwing blade that can also be thrown at certain gears, causing them to spin and thus open a door or move a platform.

The Chakram Of Menolias also returns to you like Thor’s hammer, which means it’s always available (well, except when it’s spinning a gear, of course). All of which just makes your arrow’s shortcomings that much more irritating.

Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown also, ironically, makes a mistake that could itself be called “retro,” given how I haven’t played a game in ages that’s made it: If you hit the button to drink a health potion while at full health, Sargon will drink one anyway. It’s almost like Sargon hasn’t played a new video game since, I don’t know, 1989?

Despite these annoying issues, though,

Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown is still an engaging, and nicely challenging game worthy of its name and legacy. It is every bit as clever in its puzzles and platforming as the originals and the good 3D games, and every bit as compelling in its button-mashing hack & slash combat. Twenty-five year-old me would be impressed.

SCORE: 8.5/10