Nice Twist on the new addition to the Prince of Persia series, but could have been so much more.
With the forgotten sands being a continuation of this series, there was the expectation of more acrobatic, dual-sword wielding combat and a more sinister Prince. The expectations were, unfortunately, not met. What was presented was a Prince who seemed to be a shadow of his former self. He seemed to lack everything that was likable from the former prince's, the bad attitude, the flair, etc. He now seems like too much of a 'good-guy', who regrettably is an extremely forgettable character.
The story follows the Prince and his brother, Malik, attempting to repel an attack on the Palace by resurrecting King Solomon's army. As per the standard PoP storyline goes, things don't always go as planned and inevitably, the Prince finds himself up against hordes of sand minions. It's the combat against these enemies where the game majorly falls down. The first most notable change is the lack of an additional weapon, which in comparison to The Warrior Within and The Two Thrones, significantly reduces the variation of combat moves available. There is an upgrade tree which does add some new abilities to the Prince's arsenal of moves, but overall range of combat options is disappointingly low. Secondly, the fighting itself is somewhat to be desired. The enemies are particularly easy to defeat from the get-go, even the more advanced encountered later on only require spamming the attack button with the occasional dodge-roll.
Where PoP does make up for its lacklustre combat system is the platforming element. The Prince has now become renowned for his acrobatic nature. His wall running and pole jumping antics from the previous games have returned, with a bit of a twist. Part way through the game, you unlock the power to freeze water. This turns waterfalls into solid walls to run up/along as well as spouting water to grab onto and jump from. This is quite a novel addition to the platforming, however, the novelty soon wears off as no additional types of obstacles are incorporated. As expected the platforming sections are very linear and are somewhat short, resulting in the full solo experience being very limited. The entire game can be completed in less than 4 hours and with only an additional challenge section based on the combat, there is very little replayability.
Overall, it is a mediocre addition to the PoP series, with the highlight being the addictive platforming. But its shortcomings are too much of a let down to call this another great Prince of Persia adventure.