The Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, brings a new adventure for the Prince. On a journey home, to relax with his brother Malik, whom is now the Prince, finds that his home is being attacked by a fierce army. He hurries to the aid of his brother, just to find things in shambles and the palace falling under. He jumps and glides, and battles his way to be by his brothers side, just to find his brother unleashing something, that should have never seen the light of day...again.
PoP:The Forgotten Sands, is a fun title. With many puzzles, battles and surprises to keep you going for a while. Whether it is jumping from ledge to ledge, or rotating gears to allow a door to open, you will always have your hands full. Not to mention, some ferocious battles which pits the Prince, against many adversaries all at once in all shapes, sizes, and strengths. If you have played any of the previous PoP games, you will feel right at home, with all of the action and puzzles, though some may not compare to some of the older titles, this one holds its own.
The game begins with an awesome CG Video, which leaves you wanting more. You see the area you play in, the character you control and a lot of the action you will take part in, and in this video, everything looks perfect! Once the video ends, things are not AS pretty, but okay. The character models are pretty good, with the prince being the worse out of the whole game. Its like being teased with a fake lottery ticket, you think you've hit the big one, but then get somewhat let down in the end, lol. However, the environments are really detailed and probably play the biggest role in the game, as you will constantly be using the surroundings more than anything. All in all, Very Good, but could have been better.
The sounds of the Prince and of the area, are done very well. Not once, did I ever lose sight of where I was, or what I was involved in. Everything is done well, from explosions, to the sword fighting, to the long conversation voice overs. Everything is what you would expect. Nothing seems out of place or out of phase from what I could tell. The only gripe I have is, I wish the character models animated the voice overs a bit more as I think it would have added to the game entirely.
Controls are my biggest gripe. There is a learning curve that you must get over especially during your first 10-20 minutes of the game. You have to figure out the timing of every jump or run, otherwise you will end up in a world of pain very quickly. I cannot count how many times I died during the opening sequence of the game! Once you get it down, everything seems pretty good. Some of the actions you attain during your journey seem to be a little off, like when trying to run on a wall of jump to another ledge, sometimes you find yourself falling off for no reason or those other actions not activating in time, so It becomes a hassle. The fighting mechanics however are right at home, and are perfect. No fine tuning there!
Replayability in this game is almost non-existent. Once you get about halfway through the game, you find puzzles, and areas of the palace, to be very repetitive and very boring to say the least. You almost have to shove yourself just to finish the entire game. Once you finish it, you probably will not touch it again, unless you need to finish the challenge mode, which ties an achievement to one, and the other for grinding stats.
Achievement wise, this game can be done in One playthrough. However, I do recommend waiting for a guide to find all of the Sarcophagus as you cannot go back and redo things to earn them again. That goes for all of the achievements, such as not getting hit by a certain boss during your battle with him. Once you pass that area, you must play all over to earn the achievement. All in all, it is a good balanced list, and should keep you busy during your playthrough.
All in all, this game is fun and is worth a rental, but not worth a purchase. Some of the things seem a tad bit rushed, and something seem great. I really wish they would have polished up the look of the game a bit more, as well as some of the controls. But, not a bad adventure to say the least!
I rate it the following
Graphics: 7.5
Sound: 9.0
Controls: 7.0
Replayability: 4.5
Achievements: 7.0
Overall: 7.0
Thanks for reading this review!
Gabriel
