A number of days into 2024 and we have already got a powerful contender for Recreation of the 12 months. Sure, Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown It’s so good. I need to get again into the sport as rapidly as potential, so I am going to preserve this quick.
(Editor’s observe: She doesn’t do that briefly.)
The Misplaced Crown is a side-scrolling 2D metroidvania. You play as Sargon, a member of the elite Immortal workforce of the Persian military. After the prince is kidnapped, Sargon and the Immortals journey to Mount Qaf to rescue him. In the course of the journey, Sargon will purchase an arsenal of instruments, weapons, and trinkets that may assist him overcome the hazards of navigating the mysterious (and big) mountain.
That is only a fraction of the map. It’s big.
This may increasingly sound just a little counterintuitive, nevertheless it’s fascinating The Misplaced Crown it is that, mechanically, it does not do something significantly new. The powers Sargon acquires to unravel the assorted platforming puzzles are all stuff you’ve in all probability seen elsewhere. There’s an air sprint, a bow and arrow (which turns right into a boomerang weapon that ricochets off surfaces), a size-shifting energy that reveals incorporeal platforms, and an imprinting energy that enables Sargon to- and “save” the spot to a location, then teleport again to it.
I am not performed with the sport but, so this is not a complete checklist of powers, however Ubisoft is not reinventing the platforming wheel right here. What he is performed is create a recreation that makes utilizing every of those commonplace powers ridiculously enjoyable. Shout out to the extent designers as a result of the perfect a part of The Misplaced Crown determine the advanced waltz of buttons I’ve to push to get from level A to level B, performing that waltz, then experience my divine talent. Sargon’s motion is fluid and the cooldown of his powers is permissive, so even when the puzzles aren’t straightforward (and ho-boy are they not), I do not really feel annoyed that I’ve to repeat a sequence till I get it proper.
Certainly one of my favourite puzzles comes just a little later within the recreation, the place you are caught in a room and the one manner out is to make use of Sargon’s ghost doubles to gather a key merchandise that is simply out of attain. Ghosts solely have a restricted period of time to finish half of a bigger puzzle, corresponding to activating a lever that may open a door that may let one other ghost by. In three ghost doubles, I had 12 seconds to fly down a tree, do a double, stand on a strain plate, double soar one other tree, activate a lever, teleport to my double , then wall soar to the gate. I hatred repetition is probably the most irritating a part of tough video games, however I used to be so caught, like a saxophone in the course of a Charlie Parker solo, that I did not thoughts that it took greater than 40 tries not solely to i understand the answer to the puzzle however to execute it afterwards.
Fight is equally tough and rewarding. As you progress, all the pieces from common enemy fights to boss encounters require you to make use of all of the powers Sargon must get by unscathed. Very like platforming puzzles, you memorize assault patterns, attain into your in depth arsenal for the appropriate device, then carry out a fancy dance in opposition to a boss who will punish the hell out of you for being too grasping with harm. Over the course of the sport, Sargon will achieve new fight talents, corresponding to a therapeutic wave or a strong strike, however whereas a few of them are helpful for very particular encounters, I discovered that I used to be in a position to ignore every new skill past the primary two. They simply did not appear important or diversified sufficient past “hit more durable than regular” to warrant use.
Because of the complexity of the puzzles and boss fights, nonetheless, the relative ease of utilizing your instruments and weapons to beat these obstacles, The Misplaced Crown jogs my memory extra of a soul than a metroidvania. What’s requested of you, whether or not in a battle or a puzzle, by no means feels unfair or boring, however fairly a progressive evaluation of your development. It felt like the sport was saying “Okay, you have had your air cleaner skill for some time now, let’s have a look at how successfully you should use it.” My favourite factor about video video games is when the sport reinforces the narrative, and when you mix the concept the sport is testing your mastery of expertise with the precise narrative of Sargon being a more recent, youthful member of the Immortals, desperate to show himself, then The Misplaced Crown turns into a recreation the place you, because the participant, really feel such as you’re rising up with Sargon.
Past the graceful platforming and complex fight, probably the most modern facet of the sport is the map. Sure, the map. Initially, it is large as hell. There are such a lot of locations to go and secrets and techniques to find that even if you’re not heading to the following story goal, wherever you find yourself, you find yourself. one thing — both forex to purchase clues or improve supplies or necklaces that improve Sargon’s talents. Moreover, every space has a definite theme that influences what sort of platforming shenanigans you’ll be able to count on. There is a sand space that has waterfalls of sand pushing you thru slim corridors lined with unstable spikes, and within the cursed library part, you may want to make use of your boomerang bow to ring bells that may reveal hidden platforms.
Metroidvania as a style can get boring as hell if you do not know the place to go subsequent with the powers you’ve got. Within the The Misplaced Crown, Ubisoft applied a flagging system the place you’ll be able to take screenshots of the place you’re, that are then pinned to their location on the sport map. So each time you get a brand new power-up, you’ll be able to revisit these screenshots to see in case your new toy unlocks a brand new space. I like these navigation methods, it actually reveals that Ubisoft respects the gamers time.
After final 12 months’s glut of expansive, time-consuming, however very enjoyable blockbusters, I needed one thing smaller and less complicated to spend my time on. With The Misplaced CrownUbisoft took a technically and mechanically simplistic method—the 2D sidescrolling metroidvania—and reinvented it into one thing extraordinary each narratively and in gameplay.
Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown launches on Nintendo Change, Xbox, PlayStation and PC on January 15th.