Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is part metroidvania, part soulslike, and all fun
14.01.2024 - 14:47
/ theverge.com
Days into 2024 and we’ve already got a strong contender for Game of the Year. Yes, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is that good. I want to get back to playing as quickly as possible so I’ll keep this brief.
(Editor’s note: She does not keep this brief.)
The Lost Crown is a 2D sidescrolling metroidvania. You play as Sargon, a member of the Persian army’s elite Immortals squad. After the prince is kidnapped, Sargon and the Immortals journey to Mount Qaf to rescue him. During the journey, Sargon will acquire an arsenal of tools, weapons, and trinkets that will help him overcome the perils of navigating the mysterious (and massive) mountain.
This is only a fraction of the map. It’s huge.
This may sound a bit counterintuitive, but the interesting thing about The Lost Crown is that, mechanically, it doesn’t do anything particularly new. The powers Sargon acquires to solve the various platforming puzzles are all things you’ve probably seen elsewhere. There’s an air dash, a bow and arrow (that transforms into a boomerang-type weapon that ricochets off surfaces), a dimension-shifting power that reveals incorporeal platforms, and an imprinting power that allows Sargon to essentially “save” his spot in a location then teleport back to it.
I’m not done with the game just yet so this isn’t a comprehensive list of powers, but Ubisoft isn’t reinventing the platformer wheel here. What it has done is craft a game that makes using each and every one of these standard powers ridiculously fun. Shout out to the level designers because the best part of The Lost Crown is figuring out the complex waltz of buttons I need to press to get from point A to point B, executing that waltz, then basking in my godlike prowess. Sargon’s movement is fluid and the cooldown on powers is permissive, so even when puzzles aren’t easy (and ho-boy they are not), I don’t feel frustrated having to repeat a sequence until I get it right.
One of my favorite puzzles comes a bit later in the game where you’re locked in a room and the only way out is to use ghost doubles of Sargon to collect an out-of-reach key item. The ghosts only have a limited amount of time to complete one part of a larger puzzle, like activating a lever that will open a door that will let another ghost walk through. Across three ghost doubles I had 12 seconds to fly down a shaft, make a double, stand on a pressure plate, double jump up a different shaft, activate a lever, teleport to my double’s spot, then wall-jump my way to the goal. I hate repetition, it’s the most frustrating part about playing difficult games, but I was so locked in, like a sax player in the middle of a Charlie Parker solo, that I didn’t mind that it took upward of 40 tries to not only figure out the