Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

"It's a fantastic installment for newcomers to the Prince of Persia series...  Bob Mackey, 1UP.com
"This is a compelling entry of the series, and it will please those fans of the originals of last generation...  Pablo Grandio, VandalOnline.com
"...one of the most gratifying platforming epics to come along in ages.  GamePro

IGN.com 8 of 10
I've been a fan of the Prince of Persia franchise ever since 2003's The Sands of Time. The combination of acrobatics and combat-- along with the sweeping environments -- made the Prince of Persia franchise one of my favorites from the last generation. And despite Ubisoft beating the franchise into the ground by releasing sequel after sequel each year, I still bought and played them all -- though I recognized that the Prince was starting to feel more than a little tired...But the 2008 Prince of Persia -- a reimagining of the franchise that took away almost all the player's ability to fail -- showed that the Prince needed more than just a few tweaks and a short break to be exciting all over again. While some people enjoyed the ultra-forgiving, you-can't-lose aspect of the 2008 PoP, I felt like the game had brought this aspect in at the expense of the sense of accomplishment the previous games evoked. The Prince's adventures need to be beatable, sure, but player's don't need to have their hand held all the way...Whereas the combat and acrobatic sequences of Forgotten Sands are, in many ways, like those in the fantastic Sands of Time, the story and visuals of the game are a far cry. The plot is utterly predictable, and the characters (outside of the Prince) are forgettable. Likewise the game's visuals, something I normally don't even really notice, are all over the place. At times the game looks pretty fantastic, with great dynamic lighting and a wide array of colors, and at other times the game looks dull and dated. It's too bad, really, because if the story and look of the game could have been as refined as it felt in Sands of Time, 2010's Prince of Persia could have been a game that people remembered as fondly as its predecessor...Forgotten Sands is much better than the 2008 Prince of Persia, but still not as great as Sands of Time -- the game it so obviously seeks to recapture the spirit of. The story and visuals are unimpressive, but the combat and platforming are good enough that anyone who's been longing for another PoP game since 2005's Two Thrones is in for a treat. - Anthony Gallegos