14 DAY TRIAL // The 2008 reboot of Prince of Persia had a bit of a problems in the acrobatics department because controlling that Brendan-Fraser-in-the-Mummy-wannabe version of the Prince felt too much like running through an easy Quick Time Event. You didn't have to direct his movements at all or even hold a trigger during a wall run. The advantage was that long and satisfying series of jumps, climbs and other platforming moves were possible, but lacked a sense of accomplishment because of the dumbed down nature of the controls.
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands manages to brilliantly overcome this dilemma by achieving an almost perfect equilibrium between difficulty and accessibility. Comparing this new installment with the games from the original trilogy, there is less stuff to worry about, like keeping a balance while on beams and the necessity to turn around on poles to face the direction you need to jump. This is all done automatically from now and I must say it is a great idea.
This strategy streamlines the movement of the character making long combinations of moves relatively easy to achieve, but still difficult enough to feel satisfying. This is probably the biggest success of the Forgotten Sands and it is not to be dismissed. This is one of the first 3D platformers to provide suspense and satisfaction, without the usual frustration and anger that accompany the genre.
On the one hand, you always need to be careful, to hold the right trigger to keep running on a wall and to keep pressing the left trigger to keep the water frozen. On the other hand, you almost never feel encumbered so as not to string impressive acrobatics one after another or that the game is insulting your intelligence. Ubisoft has gotten the formula right this time around and I sure hope to see it back again in their games soon.
This is a gamer diary entry and a full review of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is available.