The Forgotten Sands is a lot like God of War: Ascension. It's an extra game in a trilogy that had a pretty definitive ending (at least at the time), telling a largely unnecessary story that takes place between the games and mostly exists to be a graphical showpiece with a couple fancy new mechanics sprinkled in. Perhaps that's too harsh, as there is some fun to be had here and some neat ideas to boot, but it doesn't exactly bring anything new to the table either.
In terms of new mechanics, the two biggest are related to traversal and puzzles: the ability to freeze water and the ability to make platforms and surfaces de-materialize and re-materialize. These are surprisingly fun, especially when certain areas encourage you to use them both in combination and add another element of challenge to the platforming.
Besides the new platforming mechanics and arenas and how well this game's graphics hold up, the rest of the package is pretty unanimously so-so. The story is woefully generic and honestly could have been reconfigured to be a prequel instead of an interquel set between the first and second games and been vastly more interesting because of it. Instead, it kind of just feels like filler, which, of course, it is, given that it's an interquel.
The combat in this game takes on a bizarre spin, which undoubtedly has to do with this game being a graphical showpiece. The core mechanics of fighting from the Sands trilogy have been largely done away with in favour of a new system that feels akin to the Dynasty Warriors series, in that there are dozens of enemies on screen at any one time and you can dispatch them easily with a broad sweep of your sword.
They do try to switch it up by giving you abilities such as status effects for your sword and special moves like summoning a whirlwind to whisk your enemies away, but by and large, this is just a hack-n-slash in its purest base form—a far cry from the acrobatic stabbery of the Sands trilogy.
The Forgotten Sands isn't a bad game at all; it has some good ideas and looks great, but overall it definitely doesn't reach the heights of the trilogy.
Of all the Prince of Persia games that could have been made, this is certainly one of them.
5/10
In terms of new mechanics, the two biggest are related to traversal and puzzles: the ability to freeze water and the ability to make platforms and surfaces de-materialize and re-materialize. These are surprisingly fun, especially when certain areas encourage you to use them both in combination and add another element of challenge to the platforming.
Besides the new platforming mechanics and arenas and how well this game's graphics hold up, the rest of the package is pretty unanimously so-so. The story is woefully generic and honestly could have been reconfigured to be a prequel instead of an interquel set between the first and second games and been vastly more interesting because of it. Instead, it kind of just feels like filler, which, of course, it is, given that it's an interquel.
The combat in this game takes on a bizarre spin, which undoubtedly has to do with this game being a graphical showpiece. The core mechanics of fighting from the Sands trilogy have been largely done away with in favour of a new system that feels akin to the Dynasty Warriors series, in that there are dozens of enemies on screen at any one time and you can dispatch them easily with a broad sweep of your sword.
They do try to switch it up by giving you abilities such as status effects for your sword and special moves like summoning a whirlwind to whisk your enemies away, but by and large, this is just a hack-n-slash in its purest base form—a far cry from the acrobatic stabbery of the Sands trilogy.
The Forgotten Sands isn't a bad game at all; it has some good ideas and looks great, but overall it definitely doesn't reach the heights of the trilogy.
Of all the Prince of Persia games that could have been made, this is certainly one of them.
5/10