Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Xbox 360, 2010)

I have been a prince of persia fan for a long time and I still own the trilogy on PC and I would say it is one of my favorite game series of all time. I was one of the people who was disappointed with the last game, the cell shaded styled one. I enjoyed it for what it was but I felt it was a move in the wrong direction. I liked the beautiful art design but it really was just too easy. So after spending a few hours playing Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands I have to say this is the best game in the series.

To begin, the graphics are excellent and the engine they use is great. I am able to play this game on an old pentium 4 3.2 with a nvidia 9500 GT with 2 gb of ram @ 1680 x 1050 with great performance and detail.

The prince and his surroundings are very detailed and everywhere you look there has been a great attention to creating a beautiful world to enjoy. From the wisps of sand moving below a swinging trap, the great use of light peering through cracks or the fine details on clothing and armor. Everything looks great. Including the newly designed prince. PoP games have always had great graphics and this game continues that tradition.

As for the game play, I think it is genius how the designers have added the control of elements, like water, into the great gameplay that we saw in the previous games. It really adds a welcome new twist to the action/puzzle solving style this game series has always done so well.

I see alot of people knocking the combat, well for me I love it. I like that I can charge my attacks, I like that I can kick enemies down and I really like the addition of finishing moves that are stylish and enjoyable to pull off. Quite simply this is the best combat engine ever use in a PoP game. As for it being easy, well I think it just makes you feel more powerful and I for one enjoy the fact that its not frustrating. It keeps the game moving along and that is something I prefer over games that have overly difficult combat (ex : Ninja Gaiden) I think it was done purposely because the game was meant to be enjoyed by more than just hardcore gamers. Especially with new fans coming to it after seeing the movie.

One thing that makes the combat seem easy is the addition of powers that you unlock with experience points. Like an RPG you can spend these points anyway you see fit to give you special abilities like stoneskin or allow you to knockdown all surrounding enemies with a wind based attack. Again I find these abilities a welcome addition to the game and I like the carrot being dangled knowing that I have more and more powerful ones to unlock as I progress through the game.

As for the sound I think this was well done, just like everything else in the game. From the voice acting to that music to the background sounds everything works well and never distracts for the experience. Which for me is what good sound design is.

I can't help but wonder what it is that gamers and reviewers who knock this game want from their games. This game is polished and fine tuned. It looks great and plays great. It has everything we loved about the past games while injecting some fresh new ideas into the mix. It gives you more of everything. More enemies, more abilities, more combat choice with finishers, new puzzles that use traps and timing as well as the new addition of elements like turning water solid. I think people look for the smallest imperfections when they should be enjoying what is so good in the game.

Overall PoP FS in excellent.

great game for sure. a bit short but good none the less. if your trying to get all the achievements its a little difficult because the game saves automatically and you cant choose which chapter to play or go back before a checkpoint if it already saved, so in order to get back to that part again you would need to start the game over. though in general it is an amazing game because it involves much timing and thinking and the climbing isnt as slow paced and tedious as the before PoP's. this game is fact, in my opinion, the best of the series. by using uplay you can even unlock the ezio costume from assasins creed II. And after the campaign there is a mode called challenge mode, which is fun but is also very short and repetitive if you were to play it multiple times. i would recommend this product to a friend because the campaign is very worthwhile to play and is challenging for the average gamer. i was upset, though, that there is only normal and easy mode, but its really the climbing that is the challenge, and i dont think that is affected by the difficulty setting. personally i bought this item because i am a fan of the PoP series and if you are too you wont be dissapointed because it contains the same old elements of the games before it but with upgraded graphics and new adventures and styles and moves. this game adds new abilities to the prince such as jumping to a wall and once hitting it you are able to start running up it. also when on columns instead of having to rotate around the entire column you can push the stick a direction and jump and the prince will quick jump in that direction. anyway, to wrap this whole thing up, i believe that this game is worth buying from anywhere from 10-15ish dollars. will not disappoint for the most part and i have enjoyed this game very much and im sure you will too.

this is a digital download version from digital river using the Ubisoft download manager and so far i had to restart the game once because a handle was missing in the obseratory and could not continue the game i contacted ubisoft customer care and they said that i needed to look up game hints but this was not the case.
did they care? enough to help me? didn't feel like it to me.
but and after reading some forums i found i was not the only person with this problem and they started there game over but was stuck at the same point they had been before. but i took my chances and clicked on my computer icon then went in to my local disk (c) then in properties and then tools and clicked on volume errors check now and checked automatically fix errors and checked scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors this took one hour to run then run ccleaner you can download ccleaner free also and started the game over and keeping my upgrades was cool and bingo it is working great and i am past the Observatory and the throne room where i hear the door doesn't open for some people but it did for me.
i am at the rooftop gardens with no problems so far..knock on wood......
the graphics are great and this is one of the best games i have ever played.
i just wish customer care from ubisft would be a little more respectful with its patrons..........over all i am happy........i have a Asus p5kpl-cm motherboard and the this is a digital download version from digital river using the Ubisoft download manager and so far i had to restart the game once because a handle was missing in the obseratory and could not continue the game i contacted ubisoft customer care and they said that i needed to look up game hints but this was not the case.
did they care? enough to help me? didn't feel like it to me.
but and after reading some forums i found i was not the only person with this problem and they started there game over but was stuck at the same point they had been before. but i took my chances and clicked on my computer icon then went in to my local disk (c) then in properties and then tools and clicked on volume errors check now and checked automatically fix errors and checked scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors this took one hour to run then run ccleaner you can download ccleaner free also and started the game over and keeping my upgrades was cool and bingo it is working great and i am past the Observatory and the throne room where i hear the door doesn't open for some people but it did for me.
i am at the rooftop gardens with no problems so far..knock on wood......
the graphics are great and this is one of the best games i have ever played.
i just wish customer care from ubisft would be a little more respectful with its patrons..........over all i am happy........i have a Asus p5kpl-cm motherboard and have an pentium dual core cpu e5200 @ 2.50 ghz and i my ram is dimm sdram of 1.5 gig i have an ATI Radeon HD 4650
with dvi and vga it is 1680 x 1050 60 hz 1 gb of ddr 2 memory its an x16 pci express and has ati cross fire and i am running op system xp pro with server pack 3 and i have had no problems with freezes or crashes i also have an antec 750 watt psu and also running this on an antec skeleton open pc case............seriously people buy this game.it truly rocks............

I have been a fan for the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time trilogy for years since I first played the original on Gamecube. The reviews claim this game was a crappy movie tie-in but it is nowhere near that level. The story is completely different and fills the gap between Sands of Time and Warrior Within. Combat is awesome as well as the new elemental moves the Prince gains. The platforming is still there and just as challenging as ever. The game is short, about a 6-8 hour romp . . . it is designed for this though. I am a fan of replayability in games and Forgotten Sands gives you one Prince throughout. You can replay campaign as many times as needed with your maxed out Prince. There are also two challenge modes (One unlocked upon completion of story, another through Ubisoft's Uplay rewards system) and four skins for the Prince (the basic, Ezio from ACII off Uplay, Malik's armor which is available through Ubisoft newsletter and the Sandwraith which you can get from Best Buy). Overall it is a great game. I enjoyed it more than any of the other Prince of Persias because everything felt right. I saw no issues with this games whatsoever besides the length. Many enemies to combat and great boss fights as well as a compelling and rather dark story. It will keep you on the edge of your seat and you will crave completion just to know what happens. Unleash the Power of the Elements, Save Your Kingdom

This new offering of the Prince of Persia is visually eloquent, but the combat sequences leave a lot to be desired. Like every Ubisoft games I've played so far there are glitches with the voice-over--I can't understand how they can still have the same problems they had with the second Prince of Persia of over five years ago. The coolest novelty is by far the power to freeze water. If you've played the previous versions, you'll be right at home with climbing walls and the diverse puzzles.
All in all a good game that could have been much better if they had just worked on it a little more.