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The Forgotten Sands is the latest installment in Ubisoft's line of Prince of Persia games. Despite the change of style implemented in the Prince of Persia of 2008, it has gone back to the way many fans preferred it.

There is two things I need to clarify first. First is that The Forgotten Sands is NOT a movie tie-in, it has been released around the same time purely for publicity. The second thing is that it is based in the seven year gap between The Sands Of Time and The Warrior Within. This may make some fans of The Sands Of Time jump for joy, but this game should not be compared otherwise you will likely be let down. That being said, The Forgotten Sands is a good game, it just isn't anything particularly special.

The story is nothing to really care about. The Prince arrives in his brother Malik's Kingdom which is under siege from an enemy army. The Prince shortly meets his brother and discovers that Malik plans to break the seal to hidden inside the Kingdom, a seal that keeps a supernatural army hidden. Unsurprisingly the army turns out to be an evil force which begins to turn everyone to sand. The Prince and his Brother however have part of a special Talisman each which keeps them safe and can seal the army back. They both begin to become stronger from the sand because of these Talismans and Malik becomes hungry for strength. The story plays out quite predictably from there.

The reason to play this game is in the gameplay, well the platforming and puzzles at least. Just like any Prince Of Persia game there is a great range of puzzles. They start of fairly basic but get more complex further into the game. The Sands Of Time is back so you can once again rewind when something goes wrong, there is a limit to this of course to keep it from being too simple. If you die and can't rewind you will simply just go back to the last checkpoint which really makes it not seem any different to the last Prince Of Persia which was very forgiving on the player. Only a few sections I died on made me repeat a decent amount of platforming so it wasn't a hassle, but was never much of a worry either so I guess it is good for some but may annoy the more hardcore players. There is a few other powers that are usable apart from the Sands Of Time. My favourite has to be freezing time and being able to use spurting water as a solid object. (For some reason enemies just slow down and time only stops for the water...) This creates some cool puzzles because using water as walls and poles just adds something appealing about it, plus in the later puzzles they are used in clever ways such as having to use some water solid but also having to jump through some flowing straight after. Apart from that you get the power of flight though it isn't as extravagant as it sounds, it just gives you the ability to quickly jump towards an enemy that is out of your reach. The puzzles just mix in everything you would expect from a Prince of Persia puzzle with the new ideas.

The combat in the game however is fun but also somewhat lame. In fights you will usually face huge groups of enemies which there is a few different types. You can use basic sword attacks, pushes, rolls, and aerial attacks. Otherwise you can use elemental abilities such as Fire, Earth, Wind, and Ice. An interesting feature is that you gain experience and can spend points into an experience tree and upgrade your elemental skills, otherwise basic attacks or time usage for certain abilities and so forth. The reason why the combat isn't as enjoyable as it could have been though is that it is WAY too easy. The AI is too easy to maneuver around and keep away from attacking you, then you can simply mash away at most enemies if you really want to. The game only seems to offer an easy and normal difficulty unless I didn't notice a hard unlock after finishing it. The game isn't really one you would want to play again on a higher difficulty though so it just seems kind of stupid really. The 2008 Prince Of Persia was criticized for being too easy, but I would say The Forgotten Sands is even easier. I found that the combat in the last game was quite enjoyable though because it had a great focus on 1 vs 1 fights which made it somewhat different. The Forgotten Sounds however just feels like you mash away at large groups of morons. The only other part of the combat that should be mentioned is the few boss battles in the game, which are pretty lackluster to be honest.

The visuals are pretty good. The three main characters have really good looking models which have a ton of detail in them. The other models lack a bit in comparison but still look pretty good. The environments are fairly detailed and there is some nice lighting. The environments do get a tad repetitive at times but there is usually a few parts of the game that stand out as visually unique. Yuri Lowenthal who voiced the Prince in The Sands Of Time and The Two Thrones returns as the Prince again which is great, and like usual he has lots of great one liners. The voice acting for the other important characters is quite good as well. The game also has some great music which really suits the overall theme and adds to the experience of the game.

The Forgotten Sands is a good rental for a weekend, but it is hard to recommend as a purchase. It won't take you long to finish, probably around 8 hours or so and there is only two challenge rooms to do after finishing the game. (one which is unlocked from Ubisoft's Uplay system) The game has some very easy achievements and trophies to get which may appeal to those who like to earn them, and the game is definitely some good fun too. It is just that it isn't memorable at all and is probably the most forgettable of the franchise in years. I guess I may be a bit of a hypocrite since I haven't played a ton of Ubisoft's line of games in the franchise but still from what I have experienced and read, this isn't The Sands of Time sequel some hoped for and those who love the franchise should be aware of this before they only compare it and discourage this game for what it actually does well.