As a historically parkour-heavy sequence with a essential character who typically has a troublesome time dying when it counts, a roguelike Prince of Persia recreation appears like an idea that was merely ready for an execution. Pair that intuitive thought with Evil Empire, the builders behind Useless Cells, and also you’ve received a super coupling for Ubisoft’s second sidescrolling Prince of Persia of 2024. However whereas The Rogue Prince of Persia has rather a lot of potential, at this stage in its Early Access life, there doesn’t appear to be fairly sufficient to hold onto for this time loop journey to essentially shine but. I nonetheless have extra to play earlier than I put a closing rating on it, however what I’ve seen thus far is a skeleton of a roguelite journey that can entertain for just a few hours, however already lacks the range to encourage me past that.
The preliminary and best comparisons that may be made for The Rogue Prince of Persia are to imagine it’s both The Misplaced Crown with roguelite components or Useless Cells with an emphasis on parkour motion, and neither of these descriptions wholly encompasses the way it truly performs. With out dropping its roguelite roots, this new go-round for the Prince places extra of an emphasis on the titular character’s combating capabilities throughout a myriad of weapons. Enemies come in many shapes and types, with each shielded and unshielded varieties, and require each method on the Prince’s disposal to get by every battle unscathed. Each cost assault, drop assault, or vault over an enemy helps hold your well being bar pristine till an inevitable boss battle.
The fight is so concerned that it might probably find yourself feeling overwhelming at instances. An unfortunate fall into a gaggle of enemies may be devastating to your life complete, and even a very good plan to destroy enemy shields can nonetheless disintegrate when there are too many grouped as much as discern between them. When two or three hits can fully decimate a run, it begins to really feel just like the platforming takes an pointless backseat to the fight.
The story, on the launch of Early Access, is edging on non-existent. The Prince needs to avoid wasting his kingdom from invading and seemingly magical Huns, so he takes off towards the fort with a magic bola in tow. The bola retains returning him again in time to when he first set after the Huns, that means that the Prince is afforded alternative after alternative to free his homeland. It additionally means he’s perpetually caught in a loop the place he might by no means actually have sufficient time to make it there. It’s an intriguing setup that might be an ideal launching pad for extra characters to steal the present, however there’s too little to seize onto presently.
A forged of characters helps the Prince alongside the way in which, however at this level, they haven’t any selection and no depth. Azadeh, the chief of the village you set out from, solely has dialogue that feels vaguely nonsensical in the meanwhile, clearly ready till she will both be up to date or given extra strains earlier than they make sense. Different characters transfer to the Prince’s camp, which protects these people from dropping their reminiscence whereas rewinding time, however little or no is made of or by this handy contrivance. There may be lots of time and alternative to broaden all of this in future updates, however it’s a bit of a bummer to begin the journey and really feel little or no motivation to do proper by this merry troupe of one-dimensional misfits.
No less than The Rogue Prince of Persia is gorgeous to take a look at, styled like a Sasanian period portray come to life. Easy animations and shiny colours meld right into a satisfying aesthetic, even when issues look greatest whereas in movement and a little bit awkward when standing nonetheless. The environments not solely look nice, however learn properly with vital immediacy as you dash and battle, which is necessary contemplating not each background floor helps you to run on it to your coronary heart’s content material. I’m considerably puzzled as to why each character has purple pores and skin, however I assume that’s extra of a stylistic alternative than a malicious one.
At this juncture, there is no such thing as a voice performing to talk of for any of The Rogue Prince of Persia’s characters, together with the Prince himself. This doesn’t really feel like an enormous loss proper now as there’s little or no story for actors to voice anyway. It doesn’t assist the already flat characters really feel any much less paper-thin, although, and makes it that a lot simpler to run previous them with out caring what they need to say.
The music is considerably relaxed and in the background, by no means actually taking focus away. It’s not unhealthy, however it’s a bit of a disappointment when held up in opposition to different Prince of Persia video games. I can perceive how something bombastic would possibly get tiring over repeated playthroughs, however I’d nonetheless choose some catchy tracks to go alongside working up partitions and vaulting over enemy troopers..
Nonetheless, all of the great and unhealthy of specifics like that’s largely a wash underneath the criticism that there’s merely not sufficient at The Rogue Prince of Persia’s Early Access launch to carry my consideration very lengthy. It doesn’t take various hours to get sturdy sufficient by crafting and leveling up gear – which helps you to do stuff like create swimming pools of oil to stymie enemies or slowly poison them with clouds of fuel – to surmount the primary main boss, and the encounters after that observe swimsuit. I genuinely had a enjoyable time getting by the areas and fights which are presently accessible, nevertheless it’s arduous to advocate for anybody who doesn’t care about watching this journey take form.
After about 10 hours, I really feel like I’ve roughly seen what it has to throw at me. I count on the rest of the Early Access interval to introduce new areas, fights, gadgets, and extra, which is nice as a result of it positively wants them. I’m nonetheless pushing to get to the tip of what’s right here at launch earlier than I give a closing verdict, however I can already inform there’s not sufficient selection – amongst encounters, amongst environments, amongst builds – to maintain me entertained by the repeated runs this style is meant to be outlined by.
It’s going to undoubtedly be fascinating to look at The Rogue Prince of Persia fill out as time goes on, because it finally wants extra than simply new content material: It wants the type of selection that makes every run really feel actually totally different. With a slick presentation and a powerful fight system, all the fitting items are there for achievement, so I’m at the very least optimistic. The Rogue Prince of Persia may have what it takes to sooner or later turn into the following main roguelite favourite, nevertheless it’s a bit removed from that aim the place it sits now.