Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
	Genre: Action Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher Region Released Ubisoft NA 05/18/2010

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Staff Review

Review by Louis Bedigian
June 19, 2010

Everyone has an old relative who can’t seem to grasp technology. After playing Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, gamers (those young, high-tech souls who know the difference between a mouse and a “clicker”) may finally be able to relate.

It’s not that the game is deep or complex – The Forgotten Sands was clearly designed for mainstream consumption. But somewhere along the development process, the line between simplicity and stupidity began to blur. The developers lost sight of what made the last Prince of Persia an unforgettable classic and attempted to create a game they thought the public might enjoy, instead of the one we actually wanted.

The resulting product can turn anyone into a cranky, technology-hating grandpa. Just as he struggles to press the right button on the TV remote, players will constantly press the wrong button(s) while trying to swing, leap, climb, and slide through the environments of The Forgotten Sands.

In this game, the R2 button is used as often as MSG appears in processed food. There is no escaping it; to grab or climb up ledges and to run up or alongside walls, players must press that button.

During the common flow of the game, players will run along a wall (press R2), grab a ledge (press R2), and then run up from that ledge (press R2). If no upper ledge exists, the Prince will have to jump away from the wall (press X) and hope there’s something to grab on the other side. If it’s a pillar made of stone, the madness ends. But if there’s another wall and another ledge, players will have to press the R2 button very quickly. On the bright side, this action can be performed with little effort just by holding the magic grab-anything button.

However, moments like this train the player to hold the R2 button, which becomes a problem when there aren’t any ledges to grab. In that case, this scenario would require the player to release the button (assuming he is holding it) and quickly press it again immediately after touching the next wall.

On paper, the R2 insanity must have sounded like a great idea. But it won’t be long before players are fumbling, falling – and of course, dying – because they forgot to hold a button or failed to press it fast enough.

As if that weren’t enough, the developers took the liberty to include a selective time-freezing mechanism (activated by holding the L2 button) that must be used to harden water or to prevent an object from moving. Water spouts are everywhere, so it doesn’t take long before the L2 button becomes the new R2 button. When combined, they’re nothing short of a nightmare.

This might not have been such a huge problem if The Forgotten Sands had variety. But its gameplay comes in two flavors: climbing and fighting. The former is overrun with repetitive gimmicks (such as spinning blades, swinging axes, and booby-trap arrows), most of which struggle to pay homage to the game’s revered successors. Every single level feels the same, and almost every puzzle is the same: push a lever and a large object will spin into place.

The battles are all but atrocious. While previous iterations have tried to bring a degree of skill to the combat system, The Forgotten Sands thrives on button-mashing. Simply pound the Square button until all of the skeletal enemies are defeated, or press the Triangle button to kick an enemy who’s blocking.

While you’re hacking and slashing through the throngs of boredom – ahem, I mean throngs of enemies – the camera randomly zooms forward to present a brief animation. These eye candy moments (which, frankly, aren’t that tasty) typically consist of a sword to the chest. The Prince may also push his enemies off a cliff. However, when he is able to defeat a skeleton with a punch and a kick, players won’t be able to hold back the laughter. None of the shield-toting enemies have trouble blocking a sword attack, but for cinematic purposes, the fist is the mightiest weapon.

Finishing moves aren’t the only non-interactive part of the game; before every new environment is explored, and before every boss battle is fought, The Forgotten Sands bombards the player with real-time cut scenes. Several of them are used to show off the next location, but many were produced to advance the story. In either case players will be eager to skip ahead to the gameplay. While the last Prince of Persia is remembered for its impressive storytelling features (great characters, excellent dialogue, and top-notch voice acting), The Forgotten Sands’s movie sequences are completely devoid of entertainment. They look and sound like they were produced for a game that was thrown together to coincide with the release of a major motion picture. Hey, wait a minute…

Visually, The Forgotten Sands is somewhat unusual. The Prince is highlighted with a very light shadow that creates a weird separation between him and the environment. It almost looks like the start of a cel-shading effect that was changed mid-way through the game’s development.

Other than that, players might be expecting The Forgotten Sands to be a beautiful game. Why wouldn’t it be? Assassin’s Creed II is gorgeous. The Prince of Persia reboot (released in 2008) looks even better. But like the gameplay mechanics, the graphics fail to measure up. The backgrounds, characters, and destruction effects are just barely above the quality of a PlayStation 3 tech demo.

When the camera issues, the boring gameplay, the mechanical flaws, and the repetitive battles are taken into consideration, The Forgotten Sands doesn’t leave the player with many options. This is a sequel that will dare gamers to find something better to do – which, after a few hours of button-mash battles and nonsensical climbing, won’t seem like much of a challenge.

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