Set sometime between Sands of Time and Warrior Within, Forgotten Sands sees the Prince traveling to his brother's, Malik, kingdom at the behest of his father. Upon arriving though, he finds the castle under siege, in a scene that looks as if it was taken straight from one of the Lord of the Rings films. When he finally finds his brother, it seems all hope is lost. But as it turns out, the castle was once the home of the great king Solomon, and his army and power have been sealed away in a vault underground (hence the reason the castle is so highly coveted). Convinced this is his last hope, Malik opens the vault, only to find that the vault actually holds one of the Djinn. At this point all heck breaks loose, and sand demons begin turning the entire kingdom to sand. With only he and his brother immune to the curse, thanks to the magical seal they used to open the vault, it now falls on them to set things right.
If your getting a feeling of deja-vu right about now, that's because this is essentially the same plot as The Sands of Time. Sure, the names are changed, but the essence of the story is identical. This is what disappointed me the most. I really enjoyed discovering the prince's tale in past games, but in TFS I just felt like I'd seen it all before. It doesn't help that the game is much more serious than the one it so liberally copies from. Gone are almost all of the witty lines and humorous undertones, replaced with cliche after cliche. This actually makes it so that, when the Prince finally starts to feel like himself during the final hour of so, it seems suddenly out of character and out of place. I was just really let down at how little creativity and though Ubisoft put into the story, for a game that had so much potential.
The best part of any PoP game has always been the platforming. Once again you control the ridiculously agile Prince through a castle filed with so many saws, swinging blades, spike tiles, and miscellaneous traps, that you wonder how anyone actually managed to live in it. All his old moves return, like the wall run and wall jump, but new to the series are the elemental powers. Early on you get the ability to freeze water, which leads to a lot of really neat level designs.
The other powers aren't as cool or fun, but when you put them all together it becomes almost like a rhythm game, turning them off and on at the right time. But like the previous game, it's simply to easy. For almost the whole game, I breezed through barely ever having to rewind except when the game misinterpreted my controls and sent me flying off a ledge. Yes, the controls and camera problems are back. You'd think after this many games they would have gotten better at this, but alas I found myself jumping in the wrong direction, or having the camera get stuck on the environment over and over.
The other half of the gameplay is the combat, which is also a lot like TSoT. The big change is that you now fight off an enormous amount of enemies at once, sometimes dozens of them crowding the screen. While there's a sort of stupid fun to be had in knocking ten enemies down like so many dominoes, it loses it's charm rather fast. The enemies are all basically the same, with the only difference being that some of them have shields, and are slow and obvious with their attacks. You start out over powered, and only get more as you progress. You can now upgrade your character with different magical powers, but these aren't anything but a shortcut through battles, as spamming them can clear a room in a matter of seconds. There is also a sole challenge room, but this completely fails to live up to it's name, as I beat it with absolutely no trouble in a mere five minutes. The combat isn't bad per-say, just repetitive and easy. It gets the job done, but you'll be happy when it's past.
The Forgotten Sands is a pretty game to be sure, but it never impressed me. Character models are hit and miss, sometimes looking great, but other times looking completely plastic. Animations, something the series has come to stake it's name on, are a bit stiff and make the Prince's jumping and climbing look that much less possible. It has it's moments to be sure (anytime there's a sandstorm is incredible), but for the most part it's rather routine. You visit areas you've already seen before, like the baths or the gardens, and the castle tends to blend together (and not in the good kind of way). After the eye candy of the last game, this doesn't hold up, and even manages to look like just an uprezzed Sands of Time at parts. Like most of the game, it sits right between good and average, leaning more towards the latter than I'd like. Not to mention the bugs and glitches, which are about as fun as being attacked by a giant scarab beetle.
Audio is also less than it could be. The Persian inspired rock that I loved so much is gone, with generic orchestral music in it's place. Maybe this was to try and fit with the more serious tone of the game, but that's not what Prince of Persia has ever been about. The Prince has always felt like a pirate more than a hero, and it just doesn't jell well together. The voice acting also feels a bit forced. Some characters are good, but the Prince (voiced by the same actor as the SoT Trilogy if I'm not mistaken), just isn't himself. The lines feel forced half the time, but I suppose this is mostly do to a lousy story and script. You can only do so much, and this time it wasn't enough.
Verdict
I might have given the impression that I hate The Forgotten Sands. On the contrary, I had a great deal of fun with it. The platforming and combat are to easy, but running up and along walls is still just as exhilarating as in games past. The game was just to similar to The Sands of Time for me. It felt like I was playing through the game for the second time, as it hits on so many of the same story points.
It just feels rushed, and I hope that without the pressure of a movie on them , the developer will take their time with the next game. If all you wanted was more Sands of Time, congratulations, Ubisoft has made your day. If your like me though, and was hoping for something that reinvigorated the series while keeping what worked, you'll probably like TFS but not love it. The series has apparently been put on hold for now, so here's hoping for a strong reboot when the Prince emerges once again.
Final Opinion: 3/5 Good
Note: This review was of the Xbox 360 version of the game. Any differences found in the PS3, Wii, or PC versions are not accounted for, and should be taken as such.
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