I will be trustworthy: Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown sounded simply high-quality on paper, however what I actually wished was the long-gestating remake of the best Prince of Persia recreation of all of them, The Sands of Time. That 2003 gem channeled the spirit of the traditional unique recreation whereas brilliantly modernizing it. The franchise has arguably been chasing that prime ever since. However that remake remains to be MIA.
So once I sat all the way down to play the primary few hours of The Misplaced Crown, then, I used to be pleasantly shocked to see that this wasn’t some low-budget, 2.5D try and recapture that early Twenty first-century glory. As a substitute, Ubisoft’s first correctly new Prince of Persia recreation because the 2008 reboot is its personal recreation – a Metroidvania – and it is such an amazing match that I am scratching my head questioning how this franchise and style by no means obtained collectively earlier than.
Enjoying as Sargon, one of many not-literal Immortals who safeguard Persia, The Misplaced Crown guarantees to be a 20-25 hour romp set largely within the chrono-cursed Mount Qaf following a betrayal of the best order. Primarily based on the preliminary few hours I skilled, I might say that Ubisoft possible is not exaggerating; this ought to be a reasonably meaty journey. And the largest factor that turned shortly and unexpectedly obvious throughout my quest was that I used to be going to need to mud off a few of my previous action-game expertise, cast by Ninja Gaiden on Xbox across the similar time The Sands of Time got here out.
The Misplaced Crown is not any joke within the fight division.
Put one other method, The Misplaced Crown is not any joke within the fight division. It harkens again to the unique Prince of Persia in that regard. Proper from the bounce, the dangerous guys right here come out swinging – swords, polearms, and loads of different weapons – and you may should be fast to parry assaults (those with a yellow indicator), lest they take a bit chew out of the three measly well being bars you begin with in the event that they join. Unblockable assaults, marked by a purple glimmer, cannot be parried, so you may must keep away from these altogether. I most popular to try this by sliding beneath them so I may counterattack from behind.
On this notice, The Misplaced Crown additionally wastes no time in throwing you into one-on-one battles with bosses! I fought a number of of them within the opening hours, and I discovered these fights to be simply the fitting mixture of difficult with out reaching the purpose of frustration. On this large monstrosity, for instance, I spent method too lengthy making an attempt to brute-force him earlier than lastly settling down, studying his assault patterns, and rising victorious in a white-knuckle battle. That tussle nonetheless took a very good three-and-a-half minutes on account of his large well being bar.
However that is nonetheless a Prince of Persia recreation, and so there’s loads of precision platforming to do as effectively. Fortunately, the penalty for failing to clear that mattress of spikes is not instantaneous demise (and as an alternative only one phase of your well being bar), however traversal is not any stroll within the park. The truth is, one factor I did not particularly look after within the first few hours was getting across the map. This can be a Metroidvania, and as such you may go up, down, left, and proper on the map, and you may must return to locations you’ve got already been. Touring lengthy distances, which you have to to do, is considerably cumbersome, significantly within the first couple of hours earlier than you unlock fast-travel stations.
One other layer of The Misplaced Crown I did like was the upgrades. You should buy gadgets – like extra well being potion capability, which I can promise you have to – in addition to upgrades like extra amulet slots. Amulets are passive upgrades you will discover all over the world or buy, they usually supply issues like additional well being, additional harm, and many others. I get the sense that I am going to welcome the flexibility to tailor my construct the deeper into this journey I get.
Ubisoft guarantees it’s going to run at 60fps on all platforms (together with Nintendo Swap).
Visually, The Misplaced Crown is not horrible however it’s not nice both, although Ubisoft guarantees it’s going to run at 60fps on all platforms (together with Nintendo Swap). I performed on PC and solely had a pair moments of slowdown that I will not maintain in opposition to it, contemplating that the crew remains to be sharpening the sport. Odds are these minor annoyances can be smoothed out by the point it launches in mid-January.
One criticism I might levy so far that is unlikely to be fastened, nevertheless, is the onboarding course of. For my style, The Misplaced Crown takes method too lengthy to get going from a fight mechanics perspective. It took a lot of the preliminary three hours of the marketing campaign that I performed earlier than I had sufficient methods in my bag to begin holding my very own in fight. And whereas sure, this can be a Metroidvania that is meant to peel again extra onion layers as you progress, I might nonetheless argue that this Prince of Persia doles out its fight fundamentals method too slowly.
Nonetheless, Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown is a surprisingly deep, no-nonsense Metroidvania that appears set to get our gaming 12 months of 2024 off to a very good begin.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s government editor of previews and host of each IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, in addition to our month-to-month(-ish) interview present, IGN Unfiltered. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
