Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

by UBI Soft

Product Features

• From huge-scale multi-enemy combat to dizzying feats of acrobatic prowess in gigantic environments enhanced by the Prince?s ability to control nature and time, The Forgotten Sands will push the Prince?s prodigious abilities to a not-yet-seen level.
• With all-out war at the gates of the kingdom, the Prince?s abilities will be challenged like never before through the course of epic wow moments, be it by scaling a castle tower collapsing under bombardment or combating foes hundreds of feet tall.
• Wielding powers of nature and time, the Prince will have unparalleled mastery over his environment and his enemies. The Prince will discover that harnessing the forces of nature itself will prove to be a devastating companion to his ability to rewind time.
• Powered by the Anvil Engine used for Assassin?s Creed 2, The Forgotten Sands promises to bring a Prince of Persia experience like never before seen.  Battle hordes of enemies at once, explore life-like settings, and experience a more powerful Prince.
• Set between Prince of Persia ? The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, The Forgotten Sands provides fans with a new chapter in the saga of the Prince, and an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the events from this series.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0030GBUCS
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches ; 5 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: May 18, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,129 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #28 in Video Games > Xbox 360 > Adventure
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: Xbox 360

Amazon.com Product Description

Embark on an adventure to an exotic land and unleash your legendary moves on enemies as the acclaimed Prince of Persia: Sands of Time story line makes its return. Unfolding with the mystery and powerful narrative that have become classic elements in this series, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands challenges you to unleash powerful offensive attacks and destroy your enemies. Race against time in an unforgiving world as you experience the return of the vaunted Prince of Persia.

Stunning visuals.View larger.

Cinematic storyline. View larger.

Confront the danger. View larger.

Battle against enemies determined to take you down. View larger.

Synopsis Journey to a land of legendary combat and mysterious circumstances in this new installment to the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time franchise. Prepare yourself for impossible battles and know that you will come face to face with death as you engage in deadly combat. Experience many of your favorite elements from the original series as well as new gameplay innovations. The mystery and magic of the old-as-time fight between good and evil comes to life with all its rewards and consequences in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Features: Latest installment in the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time story line Encounter enemies determined to take you down Confront the danger that lurks around you in a land of mystery and intrigue Unleash powerful offensive battle measures against opposing forces Face off against well-matched enemies in battles of deadly significance

Product Description

Marking the next-gen console debut of Ubisoft’s critically acclaimed series, Prince of Persia - The Forgotten Sands is the next chapter in the fan-favorite Sands of Time universe.  Visiting his brother’s kingdom following his adventure in Azad, the Prince finds the royal palace under siege from a mighty army bent on its destruction. His brother Malik decides to use the ancient power of the Sand in a desperate gamble to save the kingdom from total annihilation.  To save the kingdom, the Prince must embark on an epic adventure in which he will learn to bear the mantle of true leadership, and that great power often comes with a great cost.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars From a longtime Prince fan..., May 20, 2010

By 

Brett Corkins (Hutchinson, KS) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Video Game)

Few games evoke the passion and yearning to play than the Prince of Persia series has for me. The amazing balance between combat, adventure, and puzzles was all I could have ever wanted in a franchise. Heck, even the 2008 reboot was immense fun even without the hordes of enemies. I was willing to sacrifice that aspect in order to have a hugely engrossing and epic story. It should come as no surprise that after the cliffhanger that was the end of the '08 PoP (and the subsequent DLC) that I wanted that storyline to progress into another full length game. I didn't get that. Instead we're sent back to the Sands of Time universe for another go-round with that Prince for a game that supposedly is set after The Sands of Time and before Warrior Within.

THE STORY:
The Prince ventures to meet with his Brother, Malik. When he arrives he sees his brother's castle is under attack. Skip ahead a bit and--against the Prince's wishes--Malik summons the Sand Army, thinking if he can get them to obey him he would have as many soldiers as there is sand in the desert. This backfires, and therein lies the rest of the game.

I'm sorry Ubisoft but you dropped the ball with The Forgotten Sands. The only thing you succeeded in doing was giving us the acrobatics, puzzles, and fighting, that we loved so much with the original PS2 series. That's all. Even then, the fighting gets unbelievably repetative, becoming nothing more than a button masher. The magic powers you receive are just plain awesome though that helps add much needed depth to the combat system. But the real treat begins and ends with the puzzles and acrobatics. Freezing water to get across gaps, recalling parts of long since crumbled buldings, and of course, wall-running, is where this game truly rises to the challenge.

Now, though it breaks my heart to do so, I will state my grievances.
1. The story. It's terrible. After Malik called upon the Sand Army I lost all interest, I didn't care if Malik lived or died. I just wanted to play the game. Not once does he reference The Sands of Time (even though it supposedly just happened). Nowhere is there any looming dangers that face the Prince in Warrior Within (namely, the Dahaka), even though they said at the beginning of WW that after he unleashed the Sands in the first game the Dahaka started chasing him.
2. The graphics. After the awe-inspiring display that we got with the 2008 Prince, this is a huge letdown. It doesn't help that the character models are awful, I'd even venture to say they look like PS2 models, but when you have the Whirlwind power and the water freezing ability looking so good, it's obvious they rushed.
3. The bonus game modes, Challenge Mode, and Time Trial. Taking a cue from Dante's Inferno, you battle hordes of progressively difficult enemies to see how fast you can beat it. But Dante's Inferno had 50 waves, Prince of Persia has 8. You read that right, 8. You get nothing for beating it either. And then there's Time Trial. You have to beat 250 enemies in five minutes. Not hard. I beat it my first time without using special powers and had over 90 seconds to spare. Lame.

All in all, if you could find this game for 20-25 bucks and are a fan of the Prince, definitely pick it up. But there is no way I can justify recommending someone spend 60 dollars on a game I beat in 7 hours with 2 different game modes that I beat in a combined time of 10 minutes. This game was rushed, plain and simple, and a definite black mark on the franchise's good name.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A rental filled with magic and tedium, May 24, 2010

By 

Cloud "..." (Canada) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Video Game)

Game's too flawed for a 4 but it's not mediocre enough to warrant a 3 so consider this a 3.5 star review.

As a massive fan of the 2008 refresh of the Prince of Persia series, I often felt like as much of an apologist as an enthusiast, trying to convince people that the one from 2008 was an incredibly solid title with absolutely gorgeous graphics, a nice attempt at a different combat mechanic and a promising start to hopefully another successful trilogy. However the title was released in an incredibly busy fall/winter period and despite some positive press, the game didn't exactly sell well, not to mention the criticisms that it was too easy. I will admit the platforming was very rudimentary and basic in that game but it was also slightly zen-like, almost effortless and you never felt frustrated by the puzzle-y platforming aspects and it was a game where you can just..."go" and not worry about repeating long sections or have your fifth attempt at another hard section. Which makes the appearance of "Forgotten Sands" a very curious one, not only because it makes you wonder if they're even planning to continue the Elika story or if they stopped because of the low sales or if this is just a bonus release until a "Prince of Persia 2" or whatever it's called. And then of course there's the film version of "The Sands of Time" coming so close to the game's release and it makes you wonder about what this game is trying to do: rejuvenate the old Prince after the low sales of the last one? Just a simple cash grab for the movie-going masses? Either way, it's a game that as a longtime Prince of Persia fan, I don't regret I played it but I do regret that it's not a great game.

Story: Set in-between the time between Sands of Time and Warrior Within, we find the Prince (now voiced by Yuri Lowenthal who did Sands of Time and Two Thrones) visiting his brother's kingdom only to have it under siege. The brother, at a loss and outnumbered, unleashes a powerful demon known as Ratash and the 2 brothers carry a medallion that can end the whole affair but the brother, caring for his kingdom but also for the newfound power, doesn't make it easy and it's up to you to once again save another kingdom and bring down Ratash.

Warrior Within got heavy flak for being a really dark game in which the Prince said lines like "you bitch!" and apparently became a Godsmack fan, as evidenced by the metal riffs as well as the darker tone of the game in general, let alone the storyline but personally, aside from the metal, it kind of made sense. Having messed with time so much in the first game, the Dahaka was sent after the Prince almost like a time officer, trying to make the Prince atone for all the time interference he did and tried to kill him, causing the Prince to be constantly hunted and barely getting any sleep by the time Warrior Within rolled around. There's none of that in Forgotten Sands; there's no change in personality, no mention of the Dahaka's upcoming appearance and aside from one mention of Farah, this might as well have been a stand alone. The main plot itself in the game isn't that exciting either as there's no Kaileena to play off of or a Farah for some love triangle or even any kind of bond and the character you mainly associate with in the game seems more like an ally than anything more. Ultimately, Forgotten Sands as a story feels kind of unnecessary and it could've taken place before Sands of Time or after Two Thrones and you wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

Graphics: Like I mentioned above, the 2008 version of Prince of Persia is still one of the most stunning games available on consoles and not only the artistic design but the vistas, animation and impeccable detail makes it a sumptuous treat for the eyes. Forgotten Sands on the other hand looks bland and even when the game opens up with adding some new color, the game still doesn't look terribly gorgeous. Ubisoft basically said the combat was like the previous trilogy only there would be at least 50 enemies on screen but apparently somebody didn't tell them to have the game optimized for that kind of enemy count as the game can slow to a crawl and there's even gameplay hiccups during platforming itself at times which boggles the mind since Assassin's Creed II was twice as populated in parts and that thing barely coughed. Then again, the set piece at the end of the game is stunning and one bizarre location looks nice but the chief offender is the Prince's face, almost neanderthal-ish, like his face has no bone structure. This I don't get either since the Wii version and even the cover and disc art has a much better looking Prince so why his face looks so messed up is just weird.

Sound/Music: Like mentioned above, Yuri Lowenthal provides the voice again and I got to say I missed him. Nolan North did a fan job with 2008 one but he felt almost stoic, kind of bland as a main character. Yuri's Prince on the other hand is fallible and still has that tendency to talk to himself and make little quips about things and while he's not as buff and manly, he feels way more relatable as a main character. The music is pretty good but it's not really a memorable soundtrack and one you can hum but I guess it does the job well. The sound effects are decent and pretty basic so there's nothing much to talk about there.

Gameplay: One complaint that was lobbied against the '08 one was that it was too easy, but mainly people were complaining about Elika and her tendency to save you from mistimed jumps and mistakes even though all she was a fancier (and cuter) time rewind from Sands of Time or even a "now loading" screen substitute. Forgotten Sands tries to bring back the trickier parts of Sands of Time with timing and mastery of your abilities getting you through. Prince gets 3 main abilities: the time rewind which is back like you remember, make a mistake, press RB and rewind to give you another chance. There's also the...I don't know what to call it but it's like the power from Epilogue DLC from the last game where you can bring back platforms, beams or water fountains/jets and reinstate them to be used but only one can be turned on at the same time. But your main ability is the water freeze where holding LT will freeze water which either acts like a water column you can climb up or jump off of or make it like a beam you can jump and swing off of. These abilities will start to mesh a bunch in the game and pretty soon you got to freeze a waterfall, run up it, jump off, freeze the jet to jump off, turn on a platform, wall-run across a frozen waterfall, jump off and...yeah, it gets complicated, almost turning the game into a rhythm game. My biggest issue though is that the controls don't feel..."nailed" and you'll absolutely swear you pressed the button to make the Prince jump off a wall or have him not run up a wall even though you're holding the button for it. The platforming's as tricky as ever but it's just the controls that are not quite as refined as I would've liked. If you're a longtime Prince fan, you'll know the difference between a legitimate mistake on your part and a control issue where the Prince did something you had no intent in doing and sadly, the game has a few.

In 2008, the Prince had more of a cinematic one-on-one (well, two, counting Elika) and I kind of liked it, especially since the Sands trilogy had a more button-mashy vibe and that returns in Forgotten Sands though there is some differences. One is that the game has 4 powers you can use, ice power that shoots out waves of ice when you attack, a flame attack that sets enemies a-light, a shockwave that knocks enemies to the ground and a stone armor that gives you better defense. The lack of a block button I feel is disappointing because the enemies are quite plentiful and it's very easy to get hit by people you didn't even know were about to hit since there's at best 40 or even 50 onscreen at once. But the combat feels adequate but definitely not ideal since lack of lock-on makes you swiping at the air but the kick button gives you a way to knock enemies away and give you some breathing room (plus it allows you to get your "300 `This is Sparta!''" kicks out, complete with achievement). My one issue here is the camera because there's these typical rhino bosses where you have to dodge before they ram into you, causing them to crash into the wall, but when you're juggling fighting 30 guys in addition to 2 rhinos, getting nailed out of nowhere than nailed by the second one while you're down is beyond frustrating. As much as the platform is the highlight in Prince games, the combat always seems to be a problem.

The puzzles aren't exactly that tricky and it's more platforming puzzles now though there's some occasional "puzzle" puzzles in there. They seriously overdid the swinging spiky logs, the spike-y floors and the spike-y columns that move back and forth and after awhile you feel like "is this all the platforming you're going to make me do?" Also the game is remarkably short and aside from a slow beginning it starts to pick up but the game has barely any replay value and there's not much reason to replay the game aside from achievements/trophies.

So should you buy Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands? If you own the previous 4 or you're a diehard Prince fan anyway, then go ahead but personally I wouldn't. It's too brief given its full retail price and from a story standpoint, it's nice nostalgia but unneeded so this game is what I call the "Gift game": you'd gladly accept if somebody bought it for you but paying full price yourself just doesn't sound right. Solid rental.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Killer BUG kills the fun, May 22, 2010

By 

DM (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Video Game)

After close to 11 hours of playing this game and being very close to the final battle, I ran into a bug that makes it impossible to continue the game. The game saves automatically and there seems to be no way to restart a specific chapter. The automatic checkpoint is not your last checkpoint, but puts you in a room with no exits. This is a room you passed by before, only both doors are now locked. I restarted, rebooted, but nothing changes this. The only option left is to restart the game and replay the 11 hours.

This is too bad, because the game itself is probably one of the better POP to come up lately. I don't mind replaying it sometime, but I do mind replaying it on these terms.

Even with this bug, I would have rated this higher than 1 star, but with Warrior Within having a similar issue, this is really sloppy work from the developer, especially for a $60 game.

How to avoid the bug: in the last chapter, there is a long section where you have to jump from one vulture to another, same as you did in the other chapters. At the end of this section, you have to make solid the block you need to land on. Try avoid falling and restarting in this area and will probably be ok once the game saves again.

2115|R2YY5D1WRZLHEH;2115|R1S8FAG9MN503C;2115|R36GA9031INQ6M;