Days into 2024 and we’ve already received a powerful contender for Sport of the 12 months. Sure, Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown is that good. I wish to get again to enjoying as rapidly as doable so I’ll preserve this temporary.
(Editor’s word: She doesn’t preserve this temporary.)
The Misplaced Crown is a 2D sidescrolling metroidvania. You play as Sargon, a member of the Persian military’s elite Immortals squad. After the prince is kidnapped, Sargon and the Immortals journey to Mount Qaf to rescue him. In the course of the journey, Sargon will purchase an arsenal of instruments, weapons, and trinkets that can assist him overcome the perils of navigating the mysterious (and big) mountain.
That is solely a fraction of the map. It’s enormous.
This will sound a bit counterintuitive, however the attention-grabbing factor about The Misplaced Crown is that, mechanically, it doesn’t do something significantly new. The powers Sargon acquires to resolve the assorted platforming puzzles are all stuff you’ve in all probability seen elsewhere. There’s an air sprint, a bow and arrow (that transforms right into a boomerang-type weapon that ricochets off surfaces), a dimension-shifting energy that reveals incorporeal platforms, and an imprinting energy that enables Sargon to basically “save” his spot in a location then teleport again to it.
I’m not achieved with the sport simply but so this isn’t a complete checklist of powers, however Ubisoft isn’t reinventing the platformer wheel right here. What it has achieved is craft a recreation that makes utilizing each considered one of these normal powers ridiculously enjoyable. Shout out to the extent designers as a result of the perfect a part of The Misplaced Crown is determining the advanced waltz of buttons I must press to get from level A to level B, executing that waltz, then basking in my godlike prowess. Sargon’s motion is fluid and the cooldown on powers is permissive, so even when puzzles aren’t straightforward (and ho-boy they’re not), I don’t really feel pissed off having to repeat a sequence till I get it proper.
One in every of my favourite puzzles comes a bit later within the recreation the place you’re locked in a room and the one manner out is to make use of ghost doubles of Sargon to gather an out-of-reach key merchandise. The ghosts solely have a restricted period of time to finish one half of a bigger puzzle, like activating a lever that can open a door that can let one other ghost stroll by way of. Throughout three ghost doubles I had 12 seconds to fly down a shaft, make a double, stand on a strain plate, double soar up a distinct shaft, activate a lever, teleport to my double’s spot, then wall-jump my strategy to the purpose. I hate repetition, it’s essentially the most irritating half about enjoying troublesome video games, however I used to be so locked in, like a sax participant in the midst of a Charlie Parker solo, that I didn’t thoughts that it took upward of 40 tries to not solely determine the puzzle’s answer however to then execute it.
Fight is equally troublesome and rewarding. As you progress, every thing from common enemy fights to boss encounters require you to make use of each energy Sargon has to come back by way of unscathed. Similar to the platforming puzzles, you’re memorizing assault patterns, reaching into your expansive arsenal for the fitting instrument, then executing a fancy dance towards a boss that can punish the hell out of you for being too grasping with harm. All through the sport, Sargon will earn new fight talents like a therapeutic wave or a robust thrust however whereas a few of them are helpful for very particular encounters, I discovered that I used to be in a position to ignore each new capacity past the primary two. They simply didn’t appear consequential or different sufficient past “hit harder than normal” to warrant use.
Due to the complexity of puzzles and boss fights, but the relative ease of utilizing your instruments and weapons to beat these obstacles, The Misplaced Crown jogs my memory extra of a soulslike than a metroidvania. What’s requested of you, whether or not in a battle or a puzzle, by no means feels unfair or tedious, however extra like a progressive evaluation of your progress. It felt like the sport was saying “Okay, you’ve had your air dash ability for a while now, let’s see how effectively you can use it.” My favourite factor in video video games is when gameplay reinforces narrative, and in case you mix this concept that the sport is testing your mastery of abilities with the precise narrative of Sargon being a more moderen, youthful member of the Immortals desperate to show himself, then The Misplaced Crown turns into a recreation during which you as a participant really feel such as you’re rising together with Sargon.
Past buttery clean platforming and complicated fight, essentially the most revolutionary facet of the sport is the map. Sure, the map. To start with, it’s huge as hell. There are such a lot of locations to go and secrets and techniques to uncover that even if you’re not heading towards the subsequent story purpose, wherever you find yourself you’re getting one thing — both foreign money to purchase hints or improve supplies or necklace charms that improve Sargon’s talents. On prime of that, every space has a definite theme that influences what sort of platform shenanigans you may count on. There’s a sand space that has waterfalls of sand push you thru tight corridors lined with insta-death spikes and within the cursed library part, you’ll need to make use of your bow-boomerang to ring bells that’ll reveal hidden platforms.
Metroidvanias as a style can get tedious as hell in case you don’t know the place to go subsequent with the powers you could have. In The Misplaced Crown, Ubisoft has applied a signpost system whereby you may take screenshots of the place you might be, that are then pinned to their location on the sport’s map. So each time you get a brand new energy, you may revisit these screenshots to see in case your new toy unlocks a brand new space. I like these navigation techniques, it actually reveals that Ubisoft is respecting gamers’ time.
After final yr’s glut of expansive, time-consuming, however hella enjoyable blockbusters, I wished one thing smaller and easier to spend my time on. With The Misplaced Crown, Ubisoft has taken a technically and mechanically simplistic method — 2D sidescrolling metroidvania — and reinvented it into one thing extraordinary each narratively and in gameplay.
Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown launches on Nintendo Swap, Xbox, PlayStation, and PC on January fifteenth.