Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is a welcome return to Ubisoft’s popular franchise. It’s a swashbuckling, well-polished adventure, overflowing with the usual assortment of elaborate puzzles, treacherous traps and interesting enemies, that sees the Prince showing off his acrobatic and fighting prowess, and more than your fair share of thrills and spills. While familiar these elements will combine to draw you into another escapade as the wall-running, leaping daredevil that is the Prince of Persia.

Many gamers made the transition away from the Prince of Persia supporters club after the frustration encountered in The Sands of Time and The Two Thrones. Ubisoft then sought to reclaim some of these lost fans and appease those tottering on the brink of transition with the completely different art style and controversial lack of dying mechanism in 2008’s Prince of Persia. Despite having been very frustrated with the rewind time function, the challenges that The Dark Prince presented and insanely impossibly difficult boss battles in The Sands of Time and The Two Thrones, I remained a fan of the series and found myself enjoying the change of direction in Prince of Persia. However, it was with more than a bit of trepidation that I started up The Forgotten Sands, unsure of exactly where the Ubisoft team had decided to take the next installment in the series this time round.

It seems they decided to go back to their roots, a change which I must admit I am happy they decided to take. While you will no doubt be familiar with some of the elements included in the game, you will enjoy settling into this familiarity and feeling it welcome you home to another grand adventure in Persia.

However, there’s a flip side to the coin, as while familiar these elements will probably not be enough to bring those non-fans back into the circle. From my experience the videogame world is divided into two sections, those who like Prince of Persia and those who don’t. And I think the popular saying ‘and never the twain shall meet’ holds true here because it’s exactly this sort of familiarity which may not appeal to those who haven’t enjoyed the series in the past.

Let’s clear something up right from the start, this is a Prince of Persia game through and through so there will be lots of wall running, pole swinging, shimmying up ledges, navigating columns, activating time switches and pressure plates and general puzzling. If you don’t like this sort of action then you should probably steer clear. However, if you do enjoy this sort of thing then the game will be a delight to play, not too challenging, but given the complaints raised against the series in the past in terms of the difficulty level this can hardly count against it in my books.

Graphically the game is impressive, from the start you will find yourself marveling at the excellently crafted cut-scenes and explosive action sequences that draw you into the new story. The Prince arrives in his brother’s kingdom only to find it under siege from a powerful army. The invading army surging towards the palace reminded me of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the sweeping vistas and grand scale of a city under attack and a crumbling palace which has been lovingly created by the development team. The beautifully orchestrated soundtrack gels exceptionally well with the setting too and goes a long way to immerse you into this new world.

Aside from solving intricate puzzles of how to progress in the game and performing acrobatic feats to accomplish this progression, the Prince will also encounter more than a handful of foes along his journey. In fact I was impressed at the number of enemies that I was required to face at one time, bringing the fighting element a little more into the spotlight, especially given the exciting new tricks that the Prince has learned since his last quest. He’s always been quite skilled with the sword, but now he can perform satisfying finishing moves and aerial slashes, power attacks and even kick away enemies’ shields. It’s nice to see him getting his hands a little dirtier, he’s a little more rough around the edges this time round, and there’s no question that the focus on fighting has upped the enjoyability factor of the game.

Of course the Prince now has a couple of extra tricks up his sleeve as well. Not only does he gain the ability to control time, but he can also harness power over nature. At first I will admit that I was skeptical when he was awarded the control over time again, fearing that the mechanics of The Sands of Time would once again rear their ugly head. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how well implemented the rewind time mechanism was and even found myself breathing a sigh of relief that I had the ability after negotiating a long series of wall runs and columns only to misjudge a jump in the final stretch. I won’t give away too much about the second power he gains, its best left discovered for oneself I think. But I will mention that it’s also extremely well implemented and rewarding, and that I enjoyed the challenge it presented every now and again.

As you journey through the palace, fighting the hordes of a frightening army that the Prince’s brother has unwittingly unleashed, you will also find yourself needing to stock up on the red health orbs hidden within various pots and barrels throughout the levels. Smash as many as you can to keep your health meter topped up, and later to gain blue orbs to keep your rewind time meter overflowing as well. You’ll also gain valuable experience points as you kill enemies, these you can use to upgrade your health bar and weapons ability in a skill-tree of sorts. This almost added a minor RPG-like element to the game which I must admit I really enjoyed and I finished up boasting one of the largest health meters that I have ever seen awarded in a game.

And while falling to your death from the dizzying heights that the Prince dares to venture to can be more than a little frustrating at times, there’s still nothing quite as satisfying as running up a wall, shimmying over a ledge, climbing a column, swinging through a succession of poles, navigating your way across a plank then sliding down a banner, especially if you do it quickly. The Forgotten Sands comes highly recommended to fans of the Prince of Persia series and will also be a good starting point to those who haven’t yet tried the series, however, if you didn’t enjoy the previous installments then you probably won’t enjoy this one either.

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