Prince of Persia - The Forgotten Sands
Pros:
- Good old formula again: traps, huge mechanisms, jumps / acrobatics make 99% of the gameplay.
- Water skill is fun to use. Mostly (see below).
- Upgrade system is interesting, if a little bit basic.
- Graphics are mostly great artistic-wise (Persian architecture, etc.).
- Bullshit (romances, DRAMA) is kept to minimum.
Cons:
- Some controls are streamlined too much (precision not needed): combat, jumping from poles, moving on tight ledges.
- On the other hand, sometimes controls require a hardly-achievable level of precision / timing (jump + dash into enemies, water puzzles based on freeze / unfreeze).
- Way to much combat: large, weak mobs + upgradable attacks = bore. Esp. after getting the talking sword.
- Too much barrel breaking, I liked previous mechanics of replenishing health/time bars more (drinking water, etc.).
- DAT traps are generally much more dangerous than enemies (drain your sand banks / health quickly).
- Some fights against stronger mid-bosses are retarded (powerful fag + mob of weaker enemies) - if you start them with low hp/time banks, you're fucked. And these are often preceded by unskippable cutscenes...
- Autosave works decent (for the most part) still, it’s a broken mechanic in such game: if you reach some difficult part while low on sand / health, dealing with it would be much more difficult than in the opposite situation. And you can’t go to “earlier” save since there’s no such thing.
- UI in PC version relies on mouse / keyboard, even when you use a gamepad to control the protagonist ingame.
- The game is too linear for my taste (one linear „corridor” from start to end) – Warrior Within had some optional sections / backtracking / etc. and it was the best game in series.
- Second part of the game (Djinn city and final stage) is IMO worse than the first part (up to the 2nd fight against Ratash).
- Ending is weak / anticlimactic.
tl;dr
for what it is.
