Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Preview: Ubisoft is set to start 2024 with a bang

Prince of Persia has had a rough go of it the past few years. It's been a long while since a new game in the series made its debut, and on top of that has been the whole debacle surrounding The Sands of Time Remake. Fortunately, the Prince's favour seems to be on an upwards trend as in January 2024, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is set to make its debut. I have been lucky enough to go hands-on with this promising title before, in the summer, but with launch looming, I've had the chance to preview the game in a much more complete sense, and this extra time has essentially confirmed my initial opinion on this title.

Before getting into my thoughts about the game, let me just lay out what this title is for anyone who is unfamiliar with it. The Lost Crown is a 2.5D game where you play as Sargon, a warrior and member of the Immortals faction, who is tasked with travelling to a time-warped mountain stronghold to save the kidnapped Prince of Persia (yes, you don't actually play as the Prince here). The gameplay is a Metroidvania style, meaning you platform and battle enemies and acquire new weapons and tools, all so that you can visit new areas and progress the story further.

While some fans of the series will no doubt favour a 3D game instead of a 2.5D one, in The Lost Crown, this style really works. The level design is excellent and authentically Prince of Persia. You'll come across traps, environmental hazards, rooms with puzzles to solve, tons of regular enemies, boss-level foes, and then even discover side-quests, collectibles, and additional goodies to keep you occupied.

The Metroidvania style hasn't negatively impacted the important narrative and world-building that the Prince of Persia series used to be known for. In The Lost Crown, there's a central storyline that features twists and turns, and plenty of character and world development that makes the fascinating world a joy to explore and Sargon a compelling character. Some of the biggest plot moments do seem predictable if you can pick out and pinpoint common gameplay design, such as the fact that the Immortals happen to be a gang of highly unique warriors that on the surface come across as templates for great boss enemies. While I can't attest to the exact truth of whether Sargon ever faces the entire Immortals crew, he does at the very least face off with one of them.

The story is a compelling part of The Lost Crown and will drive a lot of your adventuring, but it's the core exploration and combat that really elevates this game. The setting of Mount Qaf is shrouded in myth and legend, and this means you'll face skilled human assassins and also a whole host of monsters and supernatural beings. The enemy variety is usually dependent on the biome that you find yourself in, with these ranging from luxurious cities to verdant forests, and each biome hides secrets and further teases the direction the plot plans to take. As the premise of the game revolves around a time-warped mountain stronghold, you will have to use time-altering powers on occasion to manipulate and alter a level to access new areas, all while wall climbing, swinging on poles, using weapons to interact with puzzle scenarios and more. The exploration is relatively straightforward for a Metroidvania game, and from what I have experienced, won't have you banging your head on the wall trying to figure out a solution to a puzzle.

The combat on the other hand is a whole different can of worms. If the level design is relatively straightforward, albeit very pretty, and the exploration not too complex, the combat will require some skill and finesse to master. It's very fast-paced and enemies are not very forgiving, but it flows incredibly well at a tight 60fps and has a lot of intricate depth in what it offers. Between different melee combos to using special abilities for massive damage or supportive purposes, to blasting arrows from a distance, and then using a dodge and parry system at the perfect time to stun, counter, or avoid foes, there are a huge number of ways to approach combat. Matching this up with the fact that each enemy has their own specific attack pattern, some of which are uncounterable attacks, and you get a combat system that is challenging yet fulfilling at every turn.

There are elements of progression too. There are more commonplace upgrades such as increasing the number of health bars you have by acquiring specific and rare items, but you can also collect Time Crystals currency amid other resources to improve the power and damage of Sargon's weapons, or to improve the effectiveness of the Amulets you find or buy. Amulets are essentially perks, and you choose from a selection of them to gain additional bonuses to use in the gameplay. This could just be an extra health chunk, or it could be poison damage reduction, an extra melee combo, or the ability to suck up Time Crystals that are nearby without needing to walk over them manually. There are a multitude to find and unlock and each make Sargon a more powerful and capable hero.

From the few hours that I got to experience The Lost Crown, I did find that the rate you earn Time Crystals felt a bit too steady and because of that upgrades felt like more of a novelty and not a gameplay-improving element. Likewise, as anyone who has seen a trailer of this game will probably know, some of the graphics are not very striking at all. When you're exploring and get to appreciate the environments from the regular 2.5D camera angle, The Lost Crown is very pretty, but when a cutscene starts and the camera angle changes and zooms in, Sargon, the Immortals, and the world itself lose a lot of their charm. It's in this aspect that it's clear that Ubisoft has put a huge emphasis in making this game run well on the Nintendo Switch, and no doubt graphical quality was the price that had to be paid for that.

Ubisoft's recent portfolio of games has been quite impressive, and it seems like Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will be looking to continue that success into the New Year. This isn't a game that is looking to shake-up or massively redefine what we've come to expect from a Metroidvania, but what it does do is nail the most important elements. It's fluid, fast-paced, fulfilling, and fun, and to me that's a recipe for a game to be anticipated.