Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time series of games has always held a fond place in my heart. I remember playing the original side scrolling games with all the traps, and when the Sands of Time came out, i was ecstatic. That was nearly 7 years ago, and over the years, two more rather excellent titles were added to the series, as well as one horrible/completely unrelated game.

Each of the games in the Sands of Time Series were well made, but every time Ubisoft took a step forward, it almost always took a step backward. The Sands of Time had excellent writing and characters, but the gameplay needed some fine tuning. The Warrior Within's Combat mechanics had received the attention it needed, but in return, the prince was hit with the Angsty Stick and became a bit of an emo.
Then finally, in The Two Thrones, the gameplay and characters had been improved, but the dialogue and overall presentation had dropped slightly.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is an Action/Puzzle-platformer title developed by Ubisoft, as an "Interquel" between "PoP:Sands of Time" and "Warrior Within". It follows the Prince as he fights against an army as numerous as the grains of sand in the desert.

STORY
The Sands of Time Storyline has always been extremely well written, and The Forgotten Sands is no exception. The story follows the Prince as he journey's to his Brothers Palace to learn how to be a leader. He reaches the kingdom to discover that it is under attack, so the Prince searches for his brother, Malik.
As his last defence, Malik releases the Army of King Solomon; only to discover that the army cannot be controlled. The Prince must then fight to save his brother, his brothers kingdom, AND to stop the world from being engulfed by this unstoppable force.
As usual with this series, the story is strong; but i fail to see how this really ties into the sands of time story. Yes, at one point, the protagonist mentions his companion from the previous game, but theres no mention of the Sands of Time at all. It just seemed strange to me.
However, this game does show us the Prince's transformation from wisecracking, naive pretty boy; to angsty, tough as nails, cookie cutter hero.

PRESENTATION
The Forgotten Sands presents us with a once magnificent kingdom, torn by War and supernatural terrors. Settings vary from bright, majestic halls, to lush palace gardens; all with a distinctly eery feel to them, making each area feel as though you're about to ambushed by 50 sand warriors.

Speaking of sand warriors, enemies all looks quite awesome, as do many of the main characters; but for some reason, i find myself likening the Prince's face to the kid out of Jumanji, once he starts turning into a monkey. It really is something i just can't get past.

The music all seems very familiar; as its extremely similar to music heard in previous PoP games. It instills an epic feeling in the player, as he/she cuts down hundreds upon hundreds of sand warriors.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay of Prince of Persia games has always centered around three things; Puzzle-Solving, Platforming and Combat. And The Forgotten Sands returns to form on all but one of these aspects.
First off, the controls are more or less the same from previous games in the series (sure, some actions are button swapped, but who cares?), and it all works really well between both combat and platforming.

Unfortunately, someone at ubisoft said "Lets take most of the acrobatic fun out of Combat, as well as the prince's large repertoire of moves!", and the idea seems to have stuck.
The Prince is limited to a 5 hit combo with his sword, as well as knock-back unarmed moves and the occasionaly jump attack as seen in the other games. However, theres no more vaulting off of walls, no more running up walls then flip over enemies and slicing their nipples off, NO MORE ANYTHING!

Combat was always a central part of these games, but i think the developers really messed up this time around. Its not absolutely shit, but its a stepdown to what it once was. Along with the combat are 4 elemental powers, 3 of which are all visually impressive, as well as adding an extra layer to the combat. Still no replacement from the acrobatic fighting skills of Warrior within, or even Sands of Time.

Platforming, on the other hand, has been revamped with the abilities of Flow, and what I like to call Ruin Recall. Flow controls the flow of water, and gives the Prince the ability to stop water solid, as it is when the player presses the flow button. Ruin Recall allows the prince to recall one set piece of ruined architecture to its former glory at a time.

When both of these powers need to be used in synch with timed platform free runs, players will be tested. Luckily, time reversal powers return; which has always been an excellent feature, because it makes tricky platforming less frustrating (by taking you back about 10 seconds, as opposed to the last checkpoint).

Puzzle-solving returns in this title, but no significant changes have occured in development. It's more-or-less the same difficulty it ever was, with a few harder challenges when flow powers are introduced.

Enemies Spawn en-masse, as opposed to the few enemies that would attack at any single time in the other Sands of Time games. They dont act particularly smart, but that may be because they just want to eat your face or crush you to death. And that makes them silly. But still challenging, in the way that a particularly large Horde of zombies in Left 4 Dead is as challenging as 3 Tanks.

REPLAYABILITY
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands contains a challenge arena with two challenges. These are a wave defense game, where waves of enemies crash down upon the prince for as long as he can handle; and a time trial mode, which appears to be the same thing... but with a time limit. I don't know, i never played it.
Anywho, theres a lot of trophies/achievements to get, and they're some of the most fun trophies I've had the pleasure of obtaining. Like the one where you have to leap on 30 enemies in a row without touching the ground.

Other than that, there isnt a whole lot you can do with this game, except beat it on increasingly hard difficulties. So yea....

OVERVIEW
This interquel to a classic series of games is worthy to be in the same family of games, but certain problems with it; mainly the sluggish combat, really made this game appear substandard to me. And the fact that theres no mention of the sands of time at all makes it as though it could be a sequel to the final game, as oppose to the first. It just didnt make sense to me.
However, its a solid game. Excellent platforming, varied puzzles, fun new powers and an excellent presentation make this game enjoyable.
I just cant help but think that it could have been so much more.

So thats another review done, I hope whoever is reading these is enjoying them. Comment if you are reading, please, either on here or on Facebook. Next week should be F.E.A.R.2 if I can pull myself away from red dead redemption.