Quality Platforming Can't Save This Otherwise Lackluster Game
Playing Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is like playing two tangential games; one an exciting, intricate platformer and the other the most boring, basic brawler you can imagine—all linked together with a middling story.
PoP:TFS does itself no favors by leading with its weakest aspect. Everyone lumbers around and overly projects their actions to the point that combat is simply a chore and not at all compelling. You fight off hoards at a time and they make almost no effort to attack you; they rather just mull around and occasionally raise their sword. Your methods aren't much more elegant either. You don't block or parry, the best you can do is roll out of the way or kick them and watch as they fall like dominoes. The combat actually regresses as you advance, as the larger enemies can usually be defeated by standing between their legs and slashing away at them.There is a rudimentary ability tree that you fill out, but most of the abilities you end up with seem to not be very well thought out. For instance; the fire ability leaves a trail in your wake that when an enemy then walks over, they take damage. As you may imagine, this has no practical purpose while you are swinging away with your sword at the enemies in front of you, so for it to be useful you have to roll around on the floor, weaving your way between enemies and hoping that they cross your path. You literally have to stop, drop, and roll to make it have any effect.
All of the faults of combat are compounded by various glitches. The first one to happen involved an enemy somehow being spawned inside of the floor. There was a blade coming out of the ground that would swipe at me if I stood near it, but I couldn't do anything about it. While that didn't stop me from progressing, the second glitch did. I was fighting a boss who decided to stop taking damage. I'm not sure why, and I tried and tried but he wouldn't register hits at all. As soon as I reset and went back to the fight and got through with no issues (spoiler alert: you stand between his legs and he can't touch you while you are free to hack away). Combat works on only the most basic of levels and in my opinion, it is poor to the point that it's almost not worth having in the game.
When you aren't fighting, TFS has a chance to shine. Wall-running, jumping, and climbing are present and as you advance there are cleverly layered techniques like solidifying water at the press of a button and the ability to restore missing pieces of the architecture. This not only lets you climb or hang from water, but also introduces puzzles requiring some precise timing going back and forth between states. Other than some minor annoyances, like the fact that it can at times be hard to judge whether you need to wall run or jump and doing the wrong one will kill you, the platforming is really quite stellar. With a decent story to motivate you along, it would make a good game on its own.
When you enter a new area, there is supposed to be a sense of excitement and wonder as the camera pans across the path you will have to traverse until it stops—except that when it stops you know you are looking at a doorway that is the harbinger of another relentlessly mindless battle with dozens of skeletons. It's really the opposite of a reward, and because of that Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is an unfortunate game. What could have been a solid follow-up to PoP games of the past ended up being a hacked-together, rushed title with clever platforming but terrible story and an even worse combat.
