There’s a substantial number of games that I’ve played of late because they were on Gamepass. At first I felt somewhat bad for this, given just how little I paid for the service (some $180 for 3 years of access) but honestly it’s opened me up to games I might’ve otherwise passed by given their asking price. The Rogue Prince of Persia is a prime example of this as at $50 it’s in the realm of many other good games and above others, *cough* Silksong *cough* that are arguably going be much better value. But, because of Gamepass and the timing where I found myself between major titles I figured it was worth giving some time to. It’s a good, but not great, realisation of the 2D Roguelike concept.
The Huns have attacked the palace, setting everything ablaze in their wake. The young prince, lounging in the oasis just outside of town, foolishly races in to try and stop the invasion before they destroy everything. His brashness meets a quick end at the hands of the Huns’ general, his strength amplified by the dark magics that the Huns have been experimenting with. Unbeknownst to the Huns though is that the Prince is in possession of a secret object, his necklace, that upon his death will transport him back to the last place that he slept at. With this power in hand the young Prince seeks to save his kingdom, one death at a time.
Supergiant’s influence on this game is pretty clear right from the get go, with the setting doing most of the heavy lifting to differentiate the two. There’s also 2 distinct animation systems at play as well; a traditional 3D one which is has all the fluidity you’d expect and the weird, paper doll/old school flash animation for certain sections. As to why they do this, I do not know, but it is weird to see the prince go from slick, high frame rate animation in most combat and movement to a stilted, almost flat rendition when engaging in dialogue. At the end of the day it doesn’t change much but it does seem to signal some dissonance in the game’s art direction that wasn’t remediated for whatever reason.
The Hades influence extends to the game’s core loop which is an almost blow-for-blow copy of it. At the start of each run you get to choose from a variety of weapons and tools, each of which has a particular style to them. As you run through the level you’ll pick up other upgrades, usually things that provide a boost to your weapon, augments to a particular action or some other effect that could potentially prove useful. The devs rather loudly proclaim that there’s a lot of “broken” combinations to be found and this can probably be true, but most combinations aren’t going to reach that level. You’ll earn some in-game currencies to spend on permanent upgrades, although most of them are just either more weapons/tools rather than actual upgrades themselves. There’s a skill tree which does give some permanent benefits but progression with them is slow. As the title of this post suggests it very much has the “We have Hades at home” vibe: an imitation that tries to the capture the essence of the original enough to trick those who have only a passing knowledge of the original to think that they’re comparable.
Combat feels about as good as it can when you combine both fast action, 2D platforming and procedurally generated worlds. Whilst combat can feel good when you breeze through a couple sections, dodging and weaving through enemy attacks, the levels aren’t designed well enough to facilitate that endlessly. Part of this is that the procedural generation is one that has a defined set of tiles that it mashes together, so there’s no real coherence to the overall level design. Combat then tends to feel like it’s slowing you down, rather than being a part of the overall movement system. This leads into one of the core mechanics, breath, which is triggered when you perform a bunch of actions at the right time and gives you a speed boost. The intent seems to be that you should always be in this state but the reality is that you’ll have a tough time maintaining it for any good length of time. Instead you’re basically running through different levels, stopping to kill bad guys, and then moving on.
I will admit that like any good Roguelike the true progression comes from you, the player, getting better at the game more so than it does from getting a good set of upgrades or a broken combination thereof. The first boss had my number for a good long while, seemingly being a massive bullet sponge that was more a war of attrition than anything else. Once I had his moveset down and had all my crutch abilities and weapon he really wasn’t much of a challenge. Of course further boss fights just meant repeating that process which is something I don’t terribly enjoy, given how starting a new run then always ends up being a long run back just to try once again. But the game at least has the core essence of the genre down pat.
I’m also keenly aware that I haven’t yet got to part of the game where, potentially, I could unlock something that might have made the game that much more enjoyable for me. Had I not got the green eyed gazungas for another recently released title then there’s the possibility that I’d be feeling a bit different about the whole thing.
The clincher here though is just how bland the story is, mostly because of its delivery. Everything is given to you in walls of text and for the most part there’s not much depth to them at all. Characters are effectively one-trick ponies and, given the way the premise is constructed, there’s no real way for them to grow as you plough through run after run. Hades, by comparison, had an ever-evolving narrative that changed as you completed more and more runs, reacting to the actions that you’d took. That’s something that can keep me coming back far longer than just the base mechanics can and, sadly, the Prince of Persia just doesn’t deliver here.
Having said all this I still think that The Rogue Prince of Persia is a competent game, it’s just not rising to anywhere near the level of the game that it’s so clearly trying to emulate. It’s all well and good to try and do things that have been successful in the past but the changes you make need to go far deeper for it not to feel like a cheap knock off. This is the kind of game that if it was in early access (Editor: a quick search shows me that it was in Early Access…oh no) I’d say give it another year of polish before going 1.0.
Rating: 7.0/10
The Rogue Prince of Persia is available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch right now for $49.95. Game was played on the PC with a total of 5.5 hours playtime and 28% of the achievements unlocked. Game is also included in Xbox Gamepass.
