Seven years passed between the events of the acclaimed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and its sequel The Warrior Within. The events of those seven years, when the Prince went from a happy-go-lucky charmer to a hardened l head, are unknown -- until now. The Forgotten Sands offers fans a glimpse at what happened to the Prince in those lost years.
The Forgotten Sands kicks off with the Prince arriving at his brother Malik's palace, which is under siege. The opening scenes of a large scale battle and the destruction of a gorgeous palace are reminiscent of the opening for The Sands of Time. Under duress, Malik makes a critical error. He releases an ancient sand army to take on his enemies, but that turns all of the citizens into sand statues. And, wouldn't you guess it, the sand army is evil.
Good thing the Prince is used to battling supernatural forces. Along with superior sword-fighting skills, the Prince can rewind time in short bursts, allowing him to avoid death. Each use of the rewind function depletes one of the blue orbs at the top of the screen, just like in The Sands of Time. Use them all up and death becomes a very real thing.
Visually, the new POP is halfway between the Arabian fantasy look of The Sands of Time and the dark and harder edged look of The Warrior Within. The Forgotten Sands is timed to release with the Prince of Persia feature film in May, but it still has a ways to go in terms of its s and overall polish. The game currently looks a little rough, especially compared to the quality the Prince series has offered over the past decade. Fortunately, the gameplay is looking solid.
Combat is a big part of The Forgotten Sands and is no longer a one-on-one affair as in 2008's Prince of Persia. For the new game, the Prince engages in large-scale battles. Early on, you must take out 10 enemies who swarm you. That's a small battle. You will battle upwards of 50 enemies at time before vanquishing the sand army. Melee combat is a combo-heavy affair, but you can steer the Prince from one enemy to the next so that a five-hit combo can take out close to a half-dozen sand demons. Bosses come big and mean and must be beaten with skill as there are no quick time events.
The new POP's combat is fast-paced action with no blocking. If you want to avoid getting hit, you'll need to roll dodge out of the way or strike first. You use the same sword throughout the game, but every time you get an enemy's sand on the blade, you earn experience points (XP) that can be used to purchase upgrades. Increase your life bar, unlock new moves and increase your sword's damage through these upgrades. You can also purchase powers for use in combat. Shield knocks back enemies that have surrounded the Prince. This upgrades to Tornado, which creates a whirling dervish to throw enemies around. Every combat power can be improved in this way.
Along with these smaller combat powers, the Prince is gifted with new magic courtesy of a Djinn (AKA Genie) named Razia. These are used primarily for acrobatic feats. And I must say that as a Prince fan the acrobatics got me pretty excited. Even in the earliest levels in the palace, it's clear that this could be something very special.
The magic powers you earn are related to the elements, with the first allowing you to temporarily solidify water. They spared no expense when building this palace. It's definitely a luxury accommodation, complete with plenty of artificial waterfalls and fountains. One of the simpler acrobatic moves has you solidify a waterfall, then run across it (holding a button to do so), leaping off the wall and unfreezing the water to pass through another waterfall so you can land on a ledge. Free the water shooting out of a spout on the wall and it becomes your standard pole to swing on. As the acrobatic sequences get more complex, you'll need to start using your head to figure out how and when to use the water power to get to new places
Operating System:
Windows ® XP (32/64 bit),
Windows Vista (32/64 bit),
Windows 7 (32/64 bit)
Processor:
Intel Core ® 2 Duo 1.6 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
RAM
1 GB (Windows XP)
2 GB (Windows Vista - Windows 7)
Video Card
256MB video RAM,
DirectX ® 9.0c, NVIDIA Geforce 6800
ATI X1600
http://www.fileserve.com/file/TVJm2CT
Windows ® XP (32/64 bit),
Windows Vista (32/64 bit),
Windows 7 (32/64 bit)
Processor:
Intel Core ® 2 Duo 1.6 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
RAM
1 GB (Windows XP)
2 GB (Windows Vista - Windows 7)
Video Card
256MB video RAM,
DirectX ® 9.0c, NVIDIA Geforce 6800
ATI X1600
http://www.fileserve.com/file/TVJm2CT
