Both challenging and highly rewarding
The Lost Crown is the latest in a long line of Prince of Persia games, but it takes things in a rather surprising direction. Instead of an out-and-out platformer, Lost Crown embraces the 2D perspective, and throws our protagonist, Sargon, into a metroidvania that’s incredibly fun to explore and surprisingly challenging.
The game starts simply, with a story that sees Sargon set out on a mission to save the Prince. To give much more away beyond that would be a disservice to this one but suffice to say, things get very interesting after the third mission. It’s around this point that the game opens up and much like Days Gone when it released on PlayStation, this is a title you need to have some patience with to get to the good stuff.
Abilities are unlocked slowly over the opening 3-4 hours and beyond, and although the game is only around 12 hours or so (especially for those looking to unlock everything), but there’s a surprising amount of depth here. The platforming in particular is fantastic and there are little side-areas that allow you to venture off the main path into dangerous, obstacle-riddled sections leading to a treasure or collectible.
The main mechanics of the game are simple but they soon become more complicated as you progress through the levels. What starts as a simple run-and-jumper soon evolves to include abilities that allow you to manipulate platforms, how far you jump and special abilities to use in combat.
Much like other Metroidvanias, there’s a fair amount of backtracking here but it works well in the context of the game. There are so many little areas and sections to explore that returning to these different words never feels tedious or boring. This is especially true as you start to add more abilities to your arsenal, and even something as simple as a bow and arrow makes things more enjoyable as you play through.
These abilities can be upgraded and enhanced through a couple of makeshift shops. One is located in The Haven, which you discover pretty early on while playing through the game. Here, you can add in Amulets (more on this in a second) along with upgrading the number of potions you can carry among other things. There’s even a basic combat tutorial section too that’s highly advised to check out.
Rewards in the game are generated through crystal shards, which you can gain by killing enemies, destroying large crystals in the world or by completing Side Quests and those aforementioned tutorials.
We mentioned Amulets before and these can be collected throughout the game, either by completing Side Quests, finding them out in the world, buying them at shops or beating bosses. These can then be equipped to Sargon and make things a little easier.
As you continue, you can also unlock Amulet Slots (again, found out in the world) and these let you equip more than one Amulet at a time. At one point, I found myself carrying 8 different amulets, some helping to artificially increase my HP, another to increase my three-hit combo to four-hits and even playing a sound when you’re near a collectible. There’s an awful lot of versatility to this and Ubisoft have done a surprisingly good job at making this mechanic simple but deep enough to alter the way you play through the game.
All of this platforming would be for nothing if the combat fails and thankfully, the fighting here is up to scratch and packs one heck of a punch. On the surface, it looks like a simple hack and slash but under the hood, there’s a fair amount of depth here. You can fling enemies in the air and conduct combos up high, you can combine sliding with kicking to do a Liu Kang-styled Mortal Kombat kick or even charge up an attack from the air and slam into the ground. Each enemy you encounter has a different method to defeating them and seeing all of this come together on the vast map is really satisfying.
The other part of Prince of Persia that shines comes from its boss fights. Some of these are really imaginatively designed and it makes good use of the different moves you learn along the way. This is one area where the game really shines, although there are a tad few too many enemies you can cheese by sliding under the legs and attacking from behind, rinse and repeat. It’s not a deal-breaker, especially as some of the later bosses turn these mechanics upside down and require a very different approach, but it’s still worth noting all the same.
The final part of Lost Crown that’s absolutely on the money comes from the puzzles. There are some proper head-scratchers here, especially during the middle portion of the game where time mechanics come into play. All of these are imaginatively designed too, and while some are a little frustrating, they never negate from the main experience.
All in all, Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown is a great Metroidvania. It’s very easy to get addicted to exploring every nook and cranny of this world, and it helps that the visuals are gorgeously rendered too. It’s certainly no Hollow Knight or Castlevania, but Lost Crown is a solid, highly enjoyable game with a harmonious balance of combat, puzzles and exploration.
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