A little later than initially planned, The Rogue Prince of Persia is released today in early access, only on PC. After trying its hand at metroidvania, Ubisoft’s iconic license is tackling one of its variants that we owe in particular to Dead Cells: roguevania. We were able to extensively test this early version of the game, developed by the nice little studio Evil Empire, and here is our opinion.
After the great success of Lost Crown, Ubisoft once again seems keen to increase the number of Prince of Persia-branded productions, while waiting for the Sands of Time Remake. Enter The Rogue, which should have been released in early access on May 14, but a certain Hades 2 also arrived in early access with its big Greek satyr hooves earlier the same month. Since ” everyone and their moms “, says Evil Empire, was too obsessed with this other extremely anticipated rogue-lite, the studio chose to postpone the deployment of the first draft of its own interpretation of this particularly popular genre until May 27. An a priori sensible decision: despite rather promising beginnings, this new game published by Ubisoft does not yet have the shoulders strong enough to compete with the titanic title from Supergiant Games or the excellent Dead Cells from the French company Motion Twin. Let us also remember that it is to Evil Empire that we owe the latter’s Castlevania DLC. We’re taking you on a little journey through time to break it all down for you.
The misfortunes of the Huns are the time loop of others
The Prince of Persia license has long had a special relationship with time. The Rogue is no exception in this regard. Following a sudden and unexpected attack, the Huns conquered Persia with almost no resistance. A little late, our good prince intends to bring down their king and liberate his homeland. To do this, he can count not only on his great agility and his martial skills, but also on his bola, which allows him to avoid a disastrous fate by going back in time.
Thanks to this very practical artifact, Evil Empire manages to skillfully adapt this specific aspect of Prince of Persia and the story of its game to the rogue-lite sauce. We will have to regularly go back in time, by dying or finishing a traditional “run”, to advance the scenario. Speaking to a specific NPC in a level will give us, for example, a clue allowing us to solve an investigation, unlock new options or areas to explore, and thus progress towards our ultimate objective of driving the Huns out of Persia.
We are not going to expose the story of The Rogue Prince of Persia further, in order to avoid revealing too much, and especially because, early access requires, the Evil Empire game still keeps revelations for a future update. major update or a release in version 1.0. We can, however, focus on the slightly cartoonish artistic direction, which is overall simple but effective. The settings are rather successful, without too many frills for better readability of the action. This is all the more obvious when it comes to the characters, who display a very minimalist appearance (perhaps too much, for our taste). The fluidity is in any case constantly there, the game clearly not requiring lightning to run like a charm.
To stay on the level design, fans of Dead Cells will not be disoriented: we cross different biomes equipped with teleporters scattered throughout each level, with rooms, NPCs and interactive elements arranged more or less randomly. On this point, Evil Empire is not really original. But after all, why change a formula that works? That being said, we salute his work on the soundtrack, which pleasantly mixes traditional oriental music with modern electro, completed by a quality sound coating.
Prince of Persia The Rogue-Vania, or Dead Cells-like
When it comes to gameplay, The Rogue Prince of Persia certainly doesn’t forget its roots. Taking at first glance the rather classic form of a 2D action-platform game, it allows us to benefit from the feline agility of the prince. Climbing on vertical walls, running on walls, acrobatics on ropes or beams, this part of the Evil Empire title is overall pleasantly successful. We will thus regularly have to deal with pure platform sequences that previous games in the license would not have denied, where we will have to weave between spikes, toothed wheels and other deadly traps. Fans of the franchise will therefore feel at home on this point, like the prince. However, we can criticize the fact that our character has an unfortunate tendency to cling too easily to surfaces or elements of the decor, which can cause us some inconvenience.
The fights also have this little Prince of Persia touch which does not displease us. As such, we have a range of options, from melee or ranged attacks to acrobatic dodges. We quickly feel on this point blatant similarities with Dead Cells. The resemblance even extends to our character’s equipment: we will in fact also roughly be entitled to a melee weapon and a ranged weapon, which requires a certain consumption of energy to be used. Within the framework of early access, the possibilities in this sense are currently quite limited, but still varied enough to suit everyone’s playing style.
We finally have a particularly practical kick in our arsenal. The forces of the Huns are numerous, with a bestiary once again a bit sparse but nevertheless diverse, and we will often have trouble with several adversaries at the same time. A well-aimed blow can stun two opponents to make our task easier, or even push an enemy into the many traps that litter each level and kill them immediately. Be careful, however, the slightest attack suffered by the prince is very costly, and our options for treatment are terribly limited.
This is precisely where the slightly too “clingy” side of our character comes into play. On several occasions, it clung to an element of decor without our knowledge, with a terrible sentence: a quarter or even more of our rather meager life bar less. Such examples are unfortunately rather frequent and deserve a little calibration on the part of Evil Empire. Fortunately, boss fights are generally less susceptible to these issues. A good thing, because they will not do us any favors and risk sending our prince of life to death as long as we do not have their sometimes very devious patterns in mind.
Oasis is good, even in death
Dying in The Rogue Prince of Persia is therefore commonplace, but also a full-fledged mechanic of the game, rogue-lite requires. This will send us back to the Oasis, which acts as a central hub. This will welcome new residents throughout our expeditions, who will allow us, thanks to Glimmers of Spirit, a kind of currency collected from enemies or in the different levels explored, to strengthen the prince’s arsenal. We will thus be able to unlock new melee and ranged weapons, but also medallions, which will greatly alter our style of play.
It is possible to equip up to four of these. Their positioning in our inventory invites us to think carefully about our way of disposing of them. These can in fact reinforce the other medallions depending on their arrangement. Placing one on the far left could, for example, unlock several bonuses on the two locations to its right, and so on. We can then benefit from various improvements, such as energy gains to use our weapon at a distance by performing a given action or life points by defeating an opponent, if the medallion concerned is sufficiently reinforced by the others. On this point, The Rogue Prince of Persia demonstrates a little more originality and rewards the player’s intelligence quite pleasantly.
Depending on how the prince is equipped, the progress of our current game could radically change. However, it is a shame to note that the options for these medallions are currently quite limited. We will indeed quickly come across the same bonuses, and will tend to equip those who have already carried us as far as possible in our previous expeditions… provided that chance is on our side. Please note, however, that certain medallion effects sometimes did not trigger as described by the game. There is no doubt, however, that such a thing will be corrected in due time.
We’re waiting for The Rogue Prince of Persia to complete its time loop
The Rogue Prince of Persia shows itself to be rather promising, but does not fundamentally reinvent the wheel by blatantly drawing on inspirations such as the iconic Ubisoft license or Dead Cells. Notwithstanding a certain lack of originality, the rogue-lite (or in this case roguevania) of Evil Empire remains very pleasant to explore thanks to particularly solid gameplay in its 2D platformer aspect as in its combat. This despite some inaccuracies in the controls that could literally cost us our lives. We also salute the work of the small studio regarding a scenario which skillfully exploits the die and retry side inherent to the genre and the principle of the time loop, as well as the artistic direction (although perhaps a little too minimalist) and a high-quality soundtrack. Early access requires, the game is by definition incomplete, with in particular an arsenal still quite limited for the prince. However, we can bet that it will expand as it develops, resulting in its final version in a nice game for both Prince of Persia fans and rogue-lite enthusiasts.