4
It may be surprising that we went through several years of drought with the Prince of Persia saga to have two releases for this year and that these are important for a franchise that had been somewhat forgotten in the past, despite the announcement of the Sands of Time remake. The Rogue Prince of Persia is characterized by having quite an influence on the trilogy seen in the sixth generation of consoles and that is why, perhaps, its gameplay draws attention, although it is clear that the first thing that will catch the eye is the visual section.
On this occasion, Ubisoft has partnered with Evil Empire, a studio whose best-known work has been Dead Cells; Roguelite video game with a very good community and that over the years has obtained new downloadable content, some even striking like that focused on Castlevania. On this occasion the team is in charge of giving life to a prince of Persia who does not flee from the roots of the developer but it does surrender to the bulk of the genre, such as level exploration and encounters with formidable enemies.
Analysis of The Rogue Prince of Persia
An Early Access with an air of greatness
What is most striking is that, despite the fact that the video game is launched as an Early Access title, It works like a charm and the feeling of fluidity is constant. In the options menu, at the start of the video game, there is a selection of various preferences for the user. Playing on a mid-range and high-end computer there have been no serious performance problems and it has even been possible to play perfectly on a Steam Deck. Valve's laptop benefits from its portability and the screen that highlights the artistic style.
The story, although it is not its greatest asset, also has its strength and that is that the prince has the task of fighting against the army of the Huns, invaders of the capital of our protagonist. The prince has a mystical sphere that gives him powers to go back in time and with the help of his mentor Sukhra and people like him, he will have to discover the secret of the leader of the Huns in order to put an end to him.
The narrative progression is similar to what is seen in works like Dead Cells or even Hades. We will leave our base to explore different levels; get around them as best we can and move forward as much as we can, and start again. In the safe zone, the oasis, we will unlock melee and ranged weapons and different gadgets or amulets that we will detail below. Right from the start, you can see that The Rogue Prince of Persia has a unique and special artistic style, similar to the Belgian comic from the last century that feels like a fable and differs from that already seen in previous video games in the saga.
Jump, hit, run and do stunts
Being a two-dimensional Roguelite and a spiritual heir to Dead Cells, the title takes up the baton of the playable base; that of exploring different biomes that we will discover by advancing through the map, even unlocking some of them if we do it right. The most interesting thing is that in The Rogue Prince of Persia there is also room for those strong points of the franchise, such as verticality or the possibility of climbing walls and columns, making the prince a much more agile character than he might seem.
In fact, the guys at Evil Empire have an absolute devotion to the trilogy of the franchise that was born in the sixth generation of consoles, whether for the return ability to jump over the enemy or even move along the walls at the bottom of the level; adding one more layer to verticality and our movements.
The prince has a combat system with different weapons that we find on the map, such as some daggers that are given to us at the beginning, a one- or two-handed sword, a spear and a halberd. Fighting is agile and simple, but be careful with the life bar because the enemies will not hesitate to hit you. Here Every hit counts and the difficulty can put more than one person back.
What truly makes you special
The initial content of this early access is much more than correct. We are talking about 6 different levels; that are generated procedurally and that, inside, we find nooks and rooms full of treasures such as amulets that will improve our damage or add an element to one of our abilities, such as our bow having poisonous arrows. Some amulets will have all kinds of upgrades for others equipped; hence Each game will be very different from the previous one. It's a matter of trying and seeing which amulets are best for us to move forward.
In the end it's all about going out and exploring; fight using our possible arsenal and our skills and, if it doesn't work, then it's time to repeat one more time. At launch, we will be able to fight two final zone bosses; that will appear when we overcome two biomes previously and here the difficulty will increase much more, so you better be prepared. It may seem that these enemies have movements without a localized pattern and even think that they are unfair, but after trying we will verify that they are simpler than one might think; It is more the initial psychological barrier than the physical one after repeating the happy boss several times.
Exploring the levels we will also meet several characters related to the prince, such as children who sell all kinds of weapons, healing and various amulets. We do not want to go into detail but, given the unremarkable part of the narrative, it would be essential to find them if we want to understand what is happening in the kingdom and what the current situation is. The Spanish translation should arrive later.confirmed as additional content.
Conclusions
Evil Empire has managed to capture what users really want with The Rogue Prince of Persia. Beyond being a spiritual heir to the Roguelite mechanics and the repetition of Dead Cells, we are faced with a project done with respect and firmness. A work that, in essence, has a lot to do with the Ubisoft franchise, such as fluidity in movement. Difficulty is a weight to take into account and it can turn back those users who are not used to it, but if we let ourselves go and give it a chance, perhaps we are facing one of the best video games of the genre currently.
There is a lot of work behind Early Access and there will surely be significant changes as the release date of the final version gets closer, but if the playable base is the same and the content has the same quality as in previous works by the developer, we can be very quiet. When things are done well, you notice it instantly and just by looking at the entire beginning along with the tutorial, you know perfectly well that they are not going to fail.