Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Preview

Back when it released in 2003, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time became a memorable game that made a tremendous impact on all 3D platformers to come. The classic title’s unforgettable elements clearly provided a strong foundation for platformers up to and including Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia 2008 reboot, despite the fact that the reboot made over the hero’s, the Prince’s, acrobatic platforming and noticeably removed its predecessor’s time-control abilities.

With Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Ubisoft shows that they still have some magic sand left to go back in time to the series’ fond platforming roots. The very title itself seems telling, as if it’s Ubisoft’s admission that leaving The Sands of Time behind was a mistake they now intend to correct. While there’s certainly a place for the 2008 reboot’s new storyline with a new Prince, original take on a magical Persia, and differing style of platforming, I’m thankful that Ubisoft hasn’t truly forgotten The Sands of Time’s story and its two sequels, its beautiful Arabian Nights aesthetic, its unique narrative use of the protagonist Prince’s whimsical self-narration, the masterful mixture of puzzle solving, platforming, and combat, and most of all its innovative time rewind powers.

The playable demo on the PAX show floor and the developer-guided live demo shown during Ubisoft’s panel show how The Forgotten Sands definitely reenters the enchanted world of The Sands of Time with the full force of an “ocean in a storm.” In fact, Michael McIntyre, the game’s Level Design Director, outlined how much he loved The Sands of Time as his first point in the panel, and then discussed how The Forgotten Sands is a direct follow-up to the original. Set between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, the game tells a tale of when the Prince seeks to aid his brother Malik, whose kingdom lies under siege.

The playable demo’s tutorial level illustrates the Prince’s traversal of the city’s walls while he fights enemies that block his path to his brother. When the Prince makes his iconic wallruns on the city’s outer walls to get past small gaps in the path, I thought it felt exactly right. He doesn’t automatically wallrun like he does in the 2008 remake; the player has to time his jump correctly and then hold that wallrun button down, just as he should.

And he hasn’t even gotten to the magic yet.

In between the Prince’s smoothly animated leaps, swings from poles, and spelunking along ledges, the great volleys of arrows fly at the Prince and the vast number of warriors battling in the background complete an effect of a grand conflict. The game uses the Anvil engine in combination with a colorful art style to render expansive, beautiful vistas that look like a cross between the 2008 Prince of Persia and the Assassin’s Creed games (all of which also run on Anvil). “Very reminiscent of Sands of Time,” McIntyre said during the live demo, “it has real realism to it, but also just a hint of an Arabian Nights kind of fantasy twist.”

Siege towers ram into the wall and give the hero trouble. Appropriately enough given the game’s “place” in the series, the combat falls in between the simple swordfights of The Sands of Time and the complex, combo-heavy slashing of Warrior Within. In addition to the familiar normal slices and the graceful aerial slashes, the Prince can now charge up his attacks for stronger swipes. He can also knock foes down now, whereby he’ll perform an elaborate, contextual finishing move when enemies are on the ground or near walls.

Jan-Erik Sjovall, the game’s Animation Director, also made the Prince perform a single maneuver during Ubisoft’s live demo that looked very much like quick counterattack. Whether the combat has it or not, a good counterattack system has always been essential to Prince of Persia’s battles, so I’m anxious to see how the combat works in the full game.

The familiar moves feel like the Prince never left.

Finally, the Prince finds his brother, who, in spite of the Prince’s warnings, desperately decides to unleash an ancient Sand Army to further help his cause. Inevitably, things turn dramatically awry, as the army soon turns all of the city’s citizens into sand statues. The second half of the playable demo, as well as the developers’ live demo, takes place during the event’s aftermath, in which Malik and the Prince fight the new Sand Army threat in an attempt to recapture the city.

During the playable demo’s later game levels, the Prince has gained some more advanced platforming, combat abilities, and the vital rewind time power. As McIntyre explained, the kingdom stands on an oasis that Malik uses to adorn his city with an extravagant system of decorative waterfalls and water spouts, which is probably why the game uses energy orbs for regaining health in lieu of drinking water since the abundance of water understandably would make the game too easy. The Prince can take advantage of the water system using his newfound elemental ability to “freeze” the water, like stopping time for only the water and nothing but. Using the ability, the player can temporarily turn waterfalls into a makeshift walls, which the Prince can wallrun or climb, and solidify spouts into poles, on which the Prince can swing across gaps.

The water freeze ability adds a surprising amount of depth, complexity, and even puzzle-solving to the platforming; for example, the player will need to freeze a spout to swing, strategically unfreeze while he jumps through a waterfall, quickly freeze again to land on the next water pole, only to jump back to and off the now solidified waterfall to reach the next area. After relatively easy 2008 remake, I never would’ve thought that Ubisoft would ever again make platforming as complex as it was in the older Prince of Persia games, but they certainly did for The Forgotten Sands.

The water “freezing” allows Ubisoft to do fresh things with traditional platforming.

In combat, the Prince can use the Sands of Time to power special elemental attacks. The earth power partially surrounds him in rock armor that makes him impervious for a short time and strengthens his attacks. The ice power sends chilly waves from his sword to damage enemies from afar. And the wind power creates a massive, cool-looking whirlwind around the Prince to send foes flying and swirling. The developers’ demo also showcased a sort of homing attack, which the Prince can use to charge at enemies and thereby make his way across large gaps. Indeed the hero has a large repertoire of moves at his disposal, and he’ll need them when the game doles out a daunting encounter with dozens of sand warriors.

At the crux of all the gameplay lies the welcome return of the time rewind powers. The Prince will have no need for a magical girl to save him like his 2008 counterpart; he has the Sands, which the player can use at will, provided he has enough, to correct any platforming or combat mishap. With the complex platforming and sheer number of enemies, the rewind power will undoubtedly become essential to the Prince’s adventure.

As soon as I heard the Prince’s lighthearted, humorous remark right after Malik released the Sand Army (“A sandstorm? Well, it’s probably just a coincidence.”), I knew that The Forgotten Sands shows great promise to recapture the spirit of The Sands of Time. From the Prince’s voice, too, I could easily recognize that Yuri Lowenthal has contributed his talents as he once again reprises his princely role. Both the playable demo and the developers’ live demo greatly increased my anticipation for The Forgotten Sands, and I can’t wait for its impending release in May.