I will be trustworthy: Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown sounded simply advantageous on paper, however what I actually wished was the long-gestating remake of the best Prince of Persia sport of all of them, The Sands of Time. That 2003 gem channeled the spirit of the traditional unique sport whereas brilliantly modernizing it. The franchise has arguably been chasing that prime ever since. However that remake continues to be MIA.
So once I sat right down to play the primary few hours of The Misplaced Crown, then, I used to be pleasantly shocked to see that this wasn’t some low-budget, 2.5D try to recapture that early Twenty first-century glory. As an alternative, Ubisoft’s first correctly new Prince of Persia sport because the 2008 reboot is its personal sport – a Metroidvania – and it is such a fantastic match that I am scratching my head questioning how this franchise and style by no means received collectively earlier than.
Enjoying as Sargon, one of many not-literal Immortals who safeguard Persia, The Misplaced Crown guarantees to be a 20-25 hour romp set largely within the chrono-cursed Mount Qaf following a betrayal of the very best order. Primarily based on the preliminary few hours I skilled, I would say that Ubisoft seemingly is not exaggerating; this needs to be a reasonably meaty journey. And the most important factor that grew to become rapidly and unexpectedly obvious throughout my quest was that I used to be going to must mud off a few of my outdated action-game expertise, cast by Ninja Gaiden on Xbox across the identical time The Sands of Time got here out.
The Misplaced Crown isn’t any joke within the fight division.
Put one other method, The Misplaced Crown isn’t any joke within the fight division. It harkens again to the unique Prince of Persia in that regard. Proper from the leap, the dangerous guys right here come out swinging – swords, polearms, and loads of different weapons – and you will should be fast to parry assaults (those with a yellow indicator), lest they take a bit chew out of the three measly well being bars you begin with in the event that they join. Unblockable assaults, marked by a crimson glimmer, cannot be parried, so you may have to keep away from these altogether. I most popular to try this by sliding beneath them so I may counterattack from behind.
On this word, The Misplaced Crown additionally wastes no time in throwing you into one-on-one battles with bosses! I fought a number of of them within the opening hours, and I discovered these fights to be simply the fitting mixture of difficult with out reaching the purpose of frustration. On this huge monstrosity, for instance, I spent method too lengthy making an attempt to brute-force him earlier than lastly settling down, studying his assault patterns, and rising victorious in a white-knuckle battle. That tussle nonetheless took three-and-a-half minutes on account of his huge well being bar.
However that is nonetheless a Prince of Persia sport, and so there may be loads of precision platforming to do as effectively. Fortunately, the penalty for failing to clear that mattress of spikes is not on the spot demise (and as an alternative only one phase of your well being bar), however traversal isn’t any stroll within the park. In actual fact, one factor I did not particularly take care of within the first few hours was getting across the map. It is a Metroidvania, and as such you may go up, down, left, and proper on the map, and you will have to return to locations you have already been. Touring lengthy distances, which you will have to do, is considerably cumbersome, significantly within the first couple of hours earlier than you unlock fast-travel stations.
One other layer of The Misplaced Crown I did like was the upgrades. You should buy gadgets – like further well being potion capability, which I can promise you will have – in addition to upgrades like further amulet slots. Amulets are passive upgrades you could find world wide or buy, and so they supply issues like further well being, further injury, and so forth. I get the sense that I will welcome the power to tailor my construct the deeper into this journey I get.
Ubisoft guarantees it’ll run at 60fps on all platforms (together with Nintendo Swap).
Visually, The Misplaced Crown is not horrible but it surely’s not nice both, although Ubisoft guarantees it’ll run at 60fps on all platforms (together with Nintendo Swap). I performed on PC and solely had a pair moments of slowdown that I will not maintain towards it, contemplating that the workforce continues to be sprucing the sport. Odds are these minor annoyances will probably be smoothed out by the point it launches in mid-January.
One criticism I would levy to date that is unlikely to be mounted, nonetheless, is the onboarding course of. For my style, The Misplaced Crown takes method too lengthy to get going from a fight mechanics perspective. It took many of the preliminary three hours of the marketing campaign that I performed earlier than I had sufficient tips in my bag to begin holding my very own in fight. And whereas sure, this can be a Metroidvania that is meant to peel again further onion layers as you progress, I would nonetheless argue that this Prince of Persia doles out its fight fundamentals method too slowly.
Nonetheless, Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown is a surprisingly deep, no-nonsense Metroidvania that appears set to get our gaming yr of 2024 off to begin.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s government editor of previews and host of each IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, in addition to our month-to-month(-ish) interview present, IGN Unfiltered. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.