It took fourteen years for Ubisoft to unearth Prince of Persia from the sands of time. It’s surprising that such a well-remembered and iconic game, a title whose mere pronunciation already generates nostalgia, has been forgotten for such a long period. So, one of the great foundational adventures of the video game returns – the first installment came out in 1989 – and it does so with something more than a change of look for its protagonist. For starters, the player no longer controls the Prince of Persia, but one of his protectors, an immortal warrior named Sargon who is armed with two swords, a bow and a multitude of mind-blowing abilities and powers to discover.
But the matter does not end there, and if thirty-five years of evolution of the interactive medium have served for anything, it is so that the stories are not reduced to saving the Sultan’s daughter from the clutches of an evil vizier. The roots of the series may still be tied to those tales of The Thousand and One Nights that inspired designer Jordan Mechner, but first and foremost The lost crown is a game of its time.
The new adventure maintains the two classic dimensions, but leaves behind the limitations of the titles of other times to embrace a non-linear structure, which imposes its labyrinthine world, a gigantic stage to explore freely and get lost in for more than about twenty hours. Gone are those sword duels that looked like something out of an Errol Flynn movie, as the fights in this new iteration are wild, demanding and quite a spectacle. Mechanics such as the so-called parry, which would come to be a counter-attack, play a major role and add excitement to every encounter.
And, although it may seem like a minor detail, it is also worth noting the neatness of the game as a product, due to its good performance on all platforms and the fact that it has a range of accessibility options that will allow many more people they can enjoy it. This revival of Prince of Persia invents nothing, but embroiders everything it does.
Ubisoft should take note of what their Montpellier division has achieved, as theirs is the first must-have of 2024.
