The Prince of Persia has gone rogue! No, I don’t imply that he’s married a Hollywood actress, moved to California, and spilled the royal tea in a tell-all interview with Oprah. I imply he’s starring in his first 2D roguelite. Sizzling off the heels of the collection’ glorious return to type in January’s The Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown, his sword-swinging highness is stepping away from the Metroidvania construction and into the procedurally generated, reside, die, repeat mould of Dead Cells, in The Rogue Prince of Persia. Whereas I’ve solely had a really quick quantity of hands-on time with the upcoming journey, the early indicators recommend that this might effectively be the second dazzling jewel added to the Prince’s crown in lower than the house of a yr.
The Rogue Prince of Persia could not look precisely like Dead Cells – it swaps the latter’s 16-bit sprites for a stylised sheen extra befitting a Saturday morning cartoon – nevertheless it definitely performs like Dead Cells. This could come as no shock on condition that it’s being crafted by developer Evil Empire, the group behind the very good Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania and Dead Cells: The Queen and the Sea expansions. (Evil Empire splintered off authentic Dead Cells developer, Movement Twin). The fundamental construction is identical; throughout every run you discover randomly generated 2D slices of thematically distinct areas – within the case of my hands-on, a sprawling village space and the slippery surfaces of an Aqueduct – slaughtering enemies for gold and looking for the deadliest weapon upgrades alongside the way in which. There are even portal gates to activate as you progress, permitting you to rapidly blink backwards and forwards across the ever increasing 2D map so as to uncover any secrets and techniques you could have missed.
The preliminary enemy sorts additionally appear acquainted, significantly the bolt-blasting archers and bomb-hurling grenadiers that are palette-swapped variations of the foes present in Dead Cells’ opening dungeon areas, and the weapons you’re given to dispatch them with are comparable too. I started my first run in The Rogue Prince of Persia with a main pair of twin blades for close-up assaults and a secondary compound bow for ranged assaults, and subsequently acquired my palms on a spread of swords, javelins, and bladed flying discs to use so as to spectacularly tear by the indignant hordes that stood in my path, accompanied by a propulsive Arabic electro beat.