Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Demo - First Impressions
The free demo of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is available now!
Image credit: Ubisoft
When I learned that the latest Prince of Persia game was a sidescrolling platformer, I was excited as a fan of the original games in the series. Learning that the game is a metroidvania got me even more interested. The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown demo was released last week and I tried it out immediately on my PS5.
The demo is a short experience, starting with a disclaimer that it’s not representative of the actual game’s map and flow in order to give players a taste of the game features without spoilers. It features a “more straightforward experience with a “custom set of areas” and starts players off with certain powers and items unlocked.
Image credit: Ubisoft
As far as the story goes, all we know about this Persian mythological fantasy is that main character Sargon and his companions enter the cursed Mount Qaf to rescue a kidnapped prince. The game features in-engine, fully voiced dialogue cutscenes with animated characters, overlaid with static character portraits along with on-screen text. These cutscenes feel static, boring, and inessential. However, the game does have more dynamic, cinematic cutscenes as well, so I’ll withhold final judgement for when I play the full game. The game’s graphics don’t stand out; they’re good enough.
On to the gameplay — it’s great. Running, jumping, sliding, dashing, wall jumping, and pole swinging all feel smooth and organic. The player must be nimble to evade the series’ classic traps and hazards—spikes, slicers, and the like. Movement in the game is a pleasure.
Image credit: Ubisoft
Combat is fluid and quick. Sargon uses two swords for basic attacks and can dodge and parry. Performing a perfect parry leads to an automatic strong counterattack, while whiffing a parry will punish the player. Sargon also has a bow with limited arrows at his disposal, good for dispatching flying enemies and hitting switches. In addition, there’s a special meter that determines when Sargon can use one of his two powerful special attacks. The demo includes three and the player can equip or swap them at save points.
As you’ve probably gleaned from my description of the combat, it’s very much Souls-inspired and can be suitably difficult. Healing also works like Souls games; the player has a potion with a limited number of charges that refills at save points.
Image credit: Ubisoft
The player can equip a limited number of amulets to change Sargon’s build. Amulets can do things like increase health, modify special meter regeneration, or change how some of Sargon’s moves work. The demo starts the player off with a small sampler or amulets to try and I’m sure the full game has many more to collect.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a metroidvania with all its common genre tropes, such as a large map with multiple biomes, hidden treasures, and areas that can only be accessed after acquiring abilities. There’s a feature, however, that stands out as unique and brilliant. On the map screen, the game lets players place special markers called “memories” that also have a screenshot attached. These markers are more effective and useful than any other map marking feature I’ve seen in other games. Typically, when a game lets me place map markers, I’ll very quickly forget why I marked something, leading to a lot of wasted time returning to areas only to realize I’m not ready to be there yet. With the way this game handles markers, that’ll never happen to me.
From what I’ve seen so far, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is shaping up to be a must-play. The game will be released this week on all major platforms, so I’ll be playing it soon!
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will be available on January 17 for PC, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4/5, or Xbox One/Series X|S.
