The Forgotten Sands is currently the last game in the Prince of Persia franchise in Ubisoft's hands and since then none games have been released apart from some Mobile games and an promised Remake of SOT to be released at some point, after the Two Thrones the series faced a Reboot or a new series to be followed in 2008, the game received moderate reviews and lackluster sales which resulted in Ubisoft moving on with the idea in making a new trilogy based upon this new game and just decided to get back to the sucessful original The Sands of Time trilogy by making an tie-in game with the movie based on the Sands of Time that was just releasing around the same time in 2010.
The Forgotten Sands takes place presumably a few years after the Sands of Time and just before Warrior Within showing the Prince travelling to see his brother Malik by a request of his father on learning how to command an Kingdom after his death, reaching the palace he finds out that the Kingdom is being attacked by an enemy force and the Prince joins his brother to defend the place, they suffer heavy casualties and soon Malik come with the idea of unleashing an mythical army called the Solomon's Army to defeat the invaders but as soon as they unleash the army of course they not only attack the enemy but also the whole Palace resulting in multiple Undead Sand creatures appearing and killing everyone, Malik and the Prince try to catch-up but are separated by the incoming crumble, the Prince finds a portal during searching and stumbles into Razia, an Djinn that know how to seal the Army once and for all and then the adventure finally begin.
on the Gameplay standpoint, Forgotten Sands features the same premise of the previous games in the trilogy while absolutely abandoning everything the 2008 game did, the result is a much more enjoyable and fun gameplay with the same tight platforming, pacing, and fun level-design of the original trilogy, the game manages to deliver well designed platforming sections that the POP series is known for while also surprising the player with fresh new mechanics such as the ability to control Water to create new paths or dashing into enemies to reach distant locations.
the combat in the other hand is average at best, Forgotten Sands delves a bit more on an Hack 'n Slash approach by fighting multiple enemies, striking and evading, the Sword attacks lack impact and the dodging mechanics felt finnicky or just clunky. the intrinsic depth featured in the other two games's combat systems in the trilogy is gone here, no longer weapon combos, enviromental interaction or dual-wielding, at least the Powers are fun... I guess?
the narrative is serviciable to say the most, the voice-acting is great but the only 2 characters that you meet in the game that being Razia and Malik are generally not that interesting and the whole set of events happening don't quite engage the player at all, the game's ending is a joke and it just ends abruptly without proper explanation or anything.
overall I think The Forgotten Sands is overlooked, most people find it to be worse than the 2008 game which is not true at all, the 2008 game while gorgeous back then had lots of design flaws not to mention the repetitive gameplay and structure, The Forgotten Sands play safe but sometimes this is not a bad thing when the game manages to introduce it's own mechanics and fresh ideas anyways. of course it is not as good as the whole trilogy but it's still a good time and an return to form for the franchise at the time, it is a real shame that Ubisoft abandoned the franchise after this strong return.
The Forgotten Sands takes place presumably a few years after the Sands of Time and just before Warrior Within showing the Prince travelling to see his brother Malik by a request of his father on learning how to command an Kingdom after his death, reaching the palace he finds out that the Kingdom is being attacked by an enemy force and the Prince joins his brother to defend the place, they suffer heavy casualties and soon Malik come with the idea of unleashing an mythical army called the Solomon's Army to defeat the invaders but as soon as they unleash the army of course they not only attack the enemy but also the whole Palace resulting in multiple Undead Sand creatures appearing and killing everyone, Malik and the Prince try to catch-up but are separated by the incoming crumble, the Prince finds a portal during searching and stumbles into Razia, an Djinn that know how to seal the Army once and for all and then the adventure finally begin.
on the Gameplay standpoint, Forgotten Sands features the same premise of the previous games in the trilogy while absolutely abandoning everything the 2008 game did, the result is a much more enjoyable and fun gameplay with the same tight platforming, pacing, and fun level-design of the original trilogy, the game manages to deliver well designed platforming sections that the POP series is known for while also surprising the player with fresh new mechanics such as the ability to control Water to create new paths or dashing into enemies to reach distant locations.
the combat in the other hand is average at best, Forgotten Sands delves a bit more on an Hack 'n Slash approach by fighting multiple enemies, striking and evading, the Sword attacks lack impact and the dodging mechanics felt finnicky or just clunky. the intrinsic depth featured in the other two games's combat systems in the trilogy is gone here, no longer weapon combos, enviromental interaction or dual-wielding, at least the Powers are fun... I guess?
the narrative is serviciable to say the most, the voice-acting is great but the only 2 characters that you meet in the game that being Razia and Malik are generally not that interesting and the whole set of events happening don't quite engage the player at all, the game's ending is a joke and it just ends abruptly without proper explanation or anything.
overall I think The Forgotten Sands is overlooked, most people find it to be worse than the 2008 game which is not true at all, the 2008 game while gorgeous back then had lots of design flaws not to mention the repetitive gameplay and structure, The Forgotten Sands play safe but sometimes this is not a bad thing when the game manages to introduce it's own mechanics and fresh ideas anyways. of course it is not as good as the whole trilogy but it's still a good time and an return to form for the franchise at the time, it is a real shame that Ubisoft abandoned the franchise after this strong return.