Prince of Persia has a long history, but there hasn’t been a mainline game for some thirteen years. You have to go back further than that to find a really good one, whether it’s the pleasing 2008 open world reboot, or 2003’s The Sands of Time, which I personally feel represents the best of the franchise. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is looking even further back for its inspiration, though. Rather than being a third person action adventure, it is actually a side-scrolling action adventure, similar to the original that was released in 1989.
Rendered in a 2.5D style, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown features a very pretty world for you to explore. It’s all sunlit sands and dilapidated ruins through the stretch of the game that we got to preview, and it’s a step away from the now traditionally darker and slightly emo art style that Warrior Within started in the franchise, but it’s charming and pretty enough in its own right. The character animations are particularly good alongside this, looking especially smooth, and while they sport a modern feeling haircut, Sargon is clearly a Prince of Persia character.
He’s not a prince, though. Instead Sargon is a member of a ridiculously accomplished band of warriors known as The Immortals, sent on a quest to the city of Mount Qaf to try and rescue the kidnapped Prince Ghassan. If you’ve played Prince of Persia you probably know what to expect to find there – enemies, traps, and time manipulation shenanigans, and all three of those are here in full force.
Enemies are obviously a constant threat, especially since once you rest to refill your health they’ll respawn, forcing you to fight your way through them again, Dark Souls style. Thankfully you might not mind simply because the combat is so rewarding, especially once you’ve gotten used to some of the finer details, such as directional attacks and parry timing. Yes, it’s parry heavy combat, with red highlighted attacks that must be dodged instead of deflected. It’s not entirely original, but it’s still very engaging and, most importantly, really challenging. Especially the bosses, who are a bit of a spectacle to say the least.
There’s also the constant threat of traps to contend with, ranging from simple spikes against walls all the way up to an entire room that rearranges itself with multiple waves of giant spinning maces and such to avoid. Thankfully, traversal is very smooth and snappy as well, and you’ll unlock abilities that help you get around a little better. Some of those abilities will give you access to new areas, such as the standard dash which allows you to jump further, clearing bigger gaps, not to mention plenty of utility in combat.
These traps initially seemed daunting to me, especially when watching someone jump through 18 of them in a row in the trailers, but they’re not as difficult as they look. Most importantly, they very rarely lead to instant death. The trap room did demand perfection or you had to restart, but it was an optional side quest that I did eventually pull off – it took more attempts than I’m willing to admit. It was incredibly satisfying to finally overcome it. Even if the platforming is a bit too much for you, the game apparently includes platforming assist in the options to get you through it, which is nice, though I didn’t get a chance to try it in this preview.
There aren’t too many time-related shenanigans in the preview we played, but the ones that did appear looked typically cool. Namely, a giant statue that had been frozen as it was falling apart, and when you hit floating… orbs of… time, I guess, it would rearrange itself allowing you to climb up. This statue is in an entire dilapidated temple where people who arrived at the same time seem to be experiencing time at different rates, which was fascinating and has me looking forward to seeing more of it.
So The Lost Crown is basically a fusion of 2D and 3D Prince of Persia games, resulting in a 2.5D action-adventure with challenging, but fair combat, huge bosses, traps galore, and the obligatory timey-wimey stuff. It also mixes in influences from various places – bonfires and enemies respawning from Dark Souls, for example – but it seems to be combining them into a game that is worth a look in its own right. So far it seems very promising and should be one to keep an eye on as it heads to release on 18th January 2024.
SLRC98
Played this at EGX this year. Highly recommended :-)