Ubisoft's Come Back - Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Review

Even though I didn’t get the chance to play the first games in the Prince of Persia series in their time, I -like most people- really liked Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown which caught my attention with its animations and graphic style in its gameplay videos. It was also praised on every platform during and after its release.

I started playing without doing any research about the game. Only thing I knew was people's praise for it, so I felt at ease. This was also my first time experiencing the "Metroidvania" genre. The game drew me in as soon as the tutorial part of the game, which is also connected to the story, ended. I constantly though “There is no way this road is much longer than it already is” and couldn’t get near the end of the map. I can easily say the game exceeded my expectations in terms of map design.

As for the story, Lets just say I can’t give it the same praise as the gameplay. Most games tend to give more attention to one side of the gameplay-story balance. I think that's why the story of The Lost Crown feels a bit dull next to the impressive and fluid gameplay. As a person who likes almost everything, especially games, I can’t say the story was bad, it just seems like not much thought was put into the narrative parts of the game.

The story is about one of prince’s bodyguards becoming a prince. Mount Kaf was chosen as the location, and it was a perfect fit. Of course, the mountain is cursed, and we encounter alternate versions of ourselves emerging from the time rifts caused by the curse. But this isn’t the only evil part of the curse, you will have to find out what other tricks it has up its sleeves while playing.

We have two swords in the game. They are called Qays and Layla. The names are not very important. As we progress, we learn different combos we can do with the pair. As in most games, we have a mentor here to teach us these things. As we unlock new abilities from time to time, we can go to them and learn our new combos and moves.

Apart from these, the game has an amulet system. When equipped, amulets can increase our damage, give us extra health, or reduce the effects of damage-inflicting abilities like poison and burn. Amulets take up a maximum of 3 units of space, and we can carry a maximum of 12 units of amulets on us with the help of amulet holders we find as the game progresses.

There are a few places in the game that we come across that we can call shops. We can buy health potions from these, which we can use to regenerate our lost hp, or we can buy upgrades that can increase their effect. You can pay more than one type of currency to buy these, but of course it becomes more difficult to upgrade the items as time goes on.

 Like most games, there is a "home base" in this game, and it is called "Port". It contains places like the shop I just mentioned, a section where we can practice, a passage where we can make our improvements, and more places that will be more meaningful when discovered as you play. When we pass through the passage I mentioned, a blacksmith welcomes us. There, we can improve our swords, our bow -which I will talk about shortly-, our bow capacity and our amulets.

We get the chance the play with 2 more weapons. These being the bow and the chakram. As we all know, the bow is a tool we both see in real life and a lot in games. Chakram, which we can use in more places than expected, is a boomerang like weapon that comes back to us when its thrown.

As we unlock more skills, we can combine and use them as we wish in battle. The game gives us no limitations. But there is one feature that needs to be used (even though it is a feature we unlock early on). Of course, that is blocking. As in other games, in The Lost Crown, some attacks can be blocked while others can’t. These are marked in red and yellow respectively. If you manage to block a yellow attack at the right time you will perform a parry with a nice animation. And if your opponent isn't a boss, they are most likely dead. Even if they are, I can say you took a good chunk of their health away.

In addition to the skills we can unlock, we have Athra surges that are obtained after boss and mini-boss battles. We use these as a special attack by accumulating Athra. There is also a type that heals us. But you can carry at most 2 of these at a time. Just changing these can make defeating your opponent much easier.

The parts of the game that I thought would be the least challenging were the puzzles. I expected to have a hard time with the parkour sections, and I can say that there are some that will sometimes turn off even those who are confident in their parkour skills in side-view games. I don't have much more to say about the parkours, but I definitely do about the puzzles. Because some of the puzzles will require you to use the skills you learned to the fullest and develop strategies that will push your brain to its limits. I even had to look up solutions for one or two of them. But there is no need to worry because they are really fun to think about and are completely optional so they won’t spoil your fun when you can’t get through them.

To sum up, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown shattered my low expectations. The feeling of discovery that comes from stepping into areas I couldn't access before as I unlock new abilities, and the game's sweet and gentle push to me when necessary were the most valuable elements that kept me playing for hours without getting bored. Whether you are already interested in this genre or are trying it for the first time, I can confidently say that it is a really good game that will easily draw you in.