Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown PC review – A surprise coronation

When Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was announced as a side-scroller, I was less than enthused. I assumed it would be akin to the 2D Assassin’s Creed games. Not exactly the best use of the venerable license. But then I learned it was a Metroid-like and that it was being developed by the team behind the Rayman games and I started to feel the hype. After playing it, even that hype wasn’t nearly enough. This isn’t just a solid game or an acceptable entry into the series. This is one of the best Metroid-likes I’ve ever played, from its breadth of content to its exemplary level design and gameplay, it’s a must play.

Sargon is a member of The Immortals; a group of warriors tasked by Persia’s queen to protect the nation. When the queen’s son is kidnapped by one of their members, the others follow to rescue him and prevent him from being used as part of a prophecy that could have dire ramifications. The story seems extremely prevalent at first, as the game’s intro is disconnected from the main area and has a lot of plot focus. The characters follow an archetype model, but are likable enough. The story is honestly quite good and some of the action scenes are incredibly impressive. It’s rare for me to play a game of this sort where I actually wanted to see how things turned out, but this one definitely did the trick.

As far as the game’s presentation goes Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is one of the highest-budget 2D Metroid-likes I’ve ever seen. The visuals are cartoony but they’re very detailed, with plenty of fluid animations and impressive architecture. The cutscenes are also often framed in very visually interesting ways. The voice acting is similarly terrific. The main character speaks with an English accent and the way he says the name “Anahita” struck me as hilarious for some reason. I’d be playing the game and would randomly go, “AH-NAH-HI-TAH!” in an impression of him, which never failed to crack me up.

Gonna take some serious exploring

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown‘s map just feels kind of huge. Well, because it is. The different areas are vast and I was continually surprised by just how much more space awaited. Unlike many similar games, these areas are memorable and designed with a careful sense of place. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game like this that has so much quality level design packed into its play area. There’s plenty of platforming to do while moving around, which operates in classic series fashion with wall-jumping, pole-swinging, and traps to avoid. It absolutely feels like it belongs in the series without seeming like the name is tacked on.

The controls are simply terrific. Sargon’s movement is responsive and fluid in the best way. The only real negative I can think of is that you can only move with the stick and not the pad, which irked me on occasion. But the platforming feels so good that it’s hard to take much umbrage. It’s rare for anything to go badly because the controls didn’t work well or due to the physics or what-have-you. Sargon can slide, dash, and parry, as well as air-dash. You’ve got so much control over him and he’s so quick and nimble that moving throughout the world is a joy.

The combat is similar. While it seems extremely simple at first with just one main set of weapons and a single button assigned to them, this is deceptive. The combat is akin to a character action game like Devil May Cry, granting a huge amount of control and player agency to the proceedings. Slide kicking an enemy off of their feet only to launch them in the air, hit them twice, keep them aloft with a quick arrow, doling out two more quick hits and then slamming them into the ground never gets old. Boss battles are also impressive, with some even providing a decent challenge. As far as gameplay goes, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown truly is very full-featured.

Making the grade

As the game is a Metroid-like, it’s reasonable to expect upgrades and items to track down. Paths that can’t be accessed without specific abilities, hidden walls, collectibles that are part of side quests, they can all be found here. Most of the abilities are par for the course, such as the air dash, bow, and ability to swap between layers to activate or deactivate platforms. But then you’ve got the really creative ones, such as the chakram and the ability to literally open a rift and trap enemies or objects inside before throwing them out later. Moreover, there are shops that can upgrade your healing capacity, as well as a blacksmith that can upgrade your gear. Enemies drop currency, which is also found in chests to copious degrees.

Then there are the upgrades found in the field, such as Soma Tree Petals that increase your health bar, or items that grant you greater space for amulets that have a wide variety of useful abilities that can make a big change to your playstyle (such as slowing down time upon a successful parry or granting a fourth hit to your basic combo.) One truly unique addition is that you can take pictures of areas and have them saved directly on your map, allowing you to easily and quickly see what you couldn’t reach in that area. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before and it’s an incredible quality of life feature.

Overall, I was blown away by Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. It’s easily one of my favourite games of its genre due to how pitch-perfect so much of the design is. I was truly saddened when the head of Ubisoft Montreal retired a few years back, but seeing his old team turn out such an incredible game has really made me glad. It’s rare to see a game this good, especially in a subgenre that all too often grows stale or focuses on aping Dark Souls. Anyone who’ s fan of Metroid-likes owes it to themselves to play this game. It truly is worth being crowned.

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