Prince of Persia on the throne wearing the lost crown. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is not only one of the contenders for the title of the best game of 2024, but also the first production by Ubisoft in a long time to receive such high marks from industry portals around the world. Just look at the average rating for Lost Crown to realize that it is an exceptionally successful game. However, don’t be fooled by its candy-colored graphics, because even the more experienced players will find a challenge that will be remembered for a long time.

Will it be easy or difficult? Decide for yourself

The game, as befits a representative of the genre called metroidvania, is not the easiest one you will play this year. For some this will be an advantage, for others it will be the opposite, but you can adjust the difficulty level to your own preferences. It’s good that the creators simply gave such a choice, so in this respect everyone will find something for themselves

At the very beginning of the adventure, we can not only choose the appropriate difficulty level, but also decide whether the game should give us hints about where we should direct our steps at a given moment. And although I had the opportunity to complete some of the previous installments of the series that did not offer such a choice, the hint system in this latest one probably saved me more than once from the feeling of frustration flooding my brain.

We can turn the tips on or off at any time, depending on our preferences. For people unfamiliar with the genre and all kinds of casual players, I definitely recommend the first option. Veterans of the genre will be delighted with the fact that even on normal difficulty level without hints turned on, the game can sometimes get under your skin. In a word, it is exactly as it should be in a production aspiring to be a classic metroidvania.

For many people, the most important thing will certainly be that in terms of the scale of the challenge, the new Prince of Persia did not fall victim to any simplifications that would be unforgivable for fans of the genre. Because if that happened, who would this game be for?

Graphics like from Fortnite

The graphic style seems to be a nod to a more mainstream audience, and I was personally a bit offended by the game’s first trailers. What we get here is something of a hybrid of the oriental atmosphere of Prince of Persia with Fortnite-style graphics. In my opinion, it turned out quite average. Just don’t get me wrong – Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown looks very good, and sometimes even beautiful (60 frames per second does its job), but for me, a player with almost thirty years of experience, it seems a bit too… youth?

I don’t know, it was probably meant to be like that and I’m just a complaining grump. But it seems to me that the latest game, representing a series with such a gray beard, should make a gentle nod to slightly older audiences. And yes, I realize that this is very naive thinking, because in reality, the people from Ubisoft probably came up with exactly this style of graphic design from Excel calculations. Well, it’s sweet, but at least with a slight comic edge. And in the end, the most important thing in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown turns out to be something completely different.

The good old Prince has returned to the salons

By far the most important element of the game, as usual in this series, is the gameplay model, which after some time requires literally monkey dexterity to complete subsequent stages. In The Lost Crown we again jump on platforms, bounce off walls, fight with melee weapons, shoot with a bow, solve puzzles, use special abilities, use the power of amulets and… I could go on for a long time, because individual activities that ultimately consist of into a neat gameplay whole, there is a lot in this game. At the same time, there is no impression that something was added forcefully, and the game introduces us slowly, step by step, to the intricacies of gameplay.

Ultimately, the most important thing is that duels with enemies in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown are very dynamic and satisfying, and the moments when you have to demonstrate your ability to solve puzzles do not offend our intelligence. All this translates into an appropriate pace of play and has a positive impact on the experience gained from the game. The gameplay model here is, above all, very coherent, and the whole thing is presented in an appropriately accessible form, although, as I mentioned, it is not easy at all. The creators clearly approached the topic in such a way that both novices and veterans of the series could enjoy the game. In a word, it is exactly as it should be in the case of the latest installment of the classic series, which does not forget about its roots and at the same time can successfully provide great experiences also to completely new generations of players.

Ultimately, the greatest strength of this game is neither its candy-colored graphics nor its cloying and naive (as in the case of 90 percent of modern games) plot, which I deliberately omitted in this review to spare you bad words. Okay, let me just say that she is… typical. This is nothing more than another one-dimensional story about the fight between good and evil. I don’t know about you, but I have a problem (or maybe it’s an advantage?) that I can’t focus on the story in movies, TV series or games in which the plot is as simple as building a flail. This is one of the reasons why I will never be a fan of Marvel movies, but that’s a topic for a completely different discussion.

Because you need to know what is most important in life

But you know what? I expected nothing less from the new Prince of Persia, nor did I expect anything more from him. The most important thing for me is that this game is just damn good to play. It is both a classic and modern metroidvania, which is simply difficult to break away from, because the slow discovery of a large map divided into several worlds and appropriately dosed progress mean that in the end we are simply glued to the screen. Here, solving one problem opens up two more, which, however, do not tire us at all, on the contrary – they effectively motivate us to continue playing.

I highly recommend this title and taking advantage of the opportunity that I have a few hours of free time ahead of me, I immediately return to the screen to immerse myself in this adventure again, focusing once again on what is most important in it, i.e. the brilliant gameplay model . Not because of the stupid and shallow plot, not because of the Fortnite-style graphics, but because of all the brilliantly designed mechanics and arcade elements that this game has to offer. I have been waiting for such a Prince of Persia. Just play, don’t die.

RATING: 9/10