'Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown’ review: a time-bending triumph

It’s been nearly 14 years since the last Prince Of Persia console game, and developer Ubisoft Montpellier seems keen to shake off any dust that’s accumulated. In new entry The Lost Crown, an electrifying 2D platformer, movement is constant – and whether you’re slide-tackling a forest spirit or sprinting through a hallway of traps, you’ll never want to stop hurtling forward.

You play as Sargon, one of Persia’s elite warrior Immortals. He’s on a mission to save kidnapped Prince Ghassan, who’s been whisked away to the cursed Mount Qaf by an Immortal-turned-traitor. There, time has been shattered – entire years can go by in a matter of minutes – and monsters patrol the mountain’s once-vibrant settlement.

As a Metroidvania (think Hollow Knight or Ori And The Blind Forest, in which players must explore vast maps that open up as more upgrades are unlocked), The Lost Crown is never straightforward. You’ll come up against impassable barriers and dead ends, only to return to them, hours later, with a new ability that lets you through. These powers range from tropey classics – yes, you can double-jump – to ones that let you bend time and space. Even when you start unlocking more of these abilities, Mount Qaf never loses its labyrinthine magic. The area’s scale and interconnectedness make it a joy to explore, and the gorgeous array of scenery – from towering libraries to dingy sewers – looks gorgeous.

You won’t have much opportunity for sightseeing though, because lots of scary things – from axe-wielding zombies to deadly traps – will be trying to kill you. The latter is where The Lost Crown gets really creative. In some areas, you’ll need to pull off expertly-timed acrobatic feats to get through swinging pendulums. In others, cleverly designed puzzles can require jumping between dimensions or working with past versions of yourself to solve. Often, merely reaching the other side unscathed is enough to send your adrenaline (or ego) soaring.

When you’re not battling The Lost Crown’s murderous architecture, you’ll be plunging your dual swords into a vast array of enemies. In terms of difficulty, genre veterans may find The Lost Crown takes a while to ramp up – early enemies are meaty but largely harmless, and boss fights are surprisingly easy until four or five hours in.

Luckily, when the pace picks up, combat becomes significantly more engaging. Sargon’s movement is exceptionally fluid and he can do all sorts of fancy footwork, from backflipping over spears to slide-kicking enemies halfway across the screen. The ability to parry most incoming blows supports a captivating risk-versus-reward style of fighting, and the mechanic is slightly more forgiving than in other games. Tougher enemies have “golden” attacks that deal massive damage, but if you parry them instead of jumping out of the way, you’ll turn the tables with a unique riposte cutscene. Fudge the timing, however, and the only thing you’ll be looking at is “game over” written in big red letters.

Elsewhere, The Lost Crown makes the Metroidvania genre easier for new players to jump into. If you get lost, or aren’t a fan of the genre’s back-and-forth exploration, a toggleable setting shows you where to go next. If you hit a dead-end – such as a wall you can’t blow up or a chest that’s too far to jump to – you can take a screenshot to use as an in-game map marker. This means that when you get a new ability, you can check your markers for places it may come in handy, rather than trekking back to see what stopped you in your tracks. Other segments – such as skippable platforming segments and a “High Contrast Mode” that helps differentiate between background scenery and interactive elements – show clear thought has been put into accessibility.

In other areas, The Lost Crown doesn’t push the boat out far enough. Weapon upgrades feel like they have very little impact, while light, quippy dialogue undercuts several higher-stakes moments during the story of Prince Ghassan’s rescue. At times, the voice acting – like an incongruously chirpy American accent in the depths of a Persian catacomb – can stick out like a sore thumb.

On the whole though, we savoured every minute – or has it been years? – in the time-bending halls of Mount Qaf. This is Ubisoft’s best platformer since Rayman Legends, and if you’ve spent the last decade pining for Prince Of Persia’s return, this action-packed adventure is no disappointment.

Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown launches on January 15 for Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo Switch. We played on PC.