Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands est un jeu promotionnel développé par Explosive Barrel et édité par Ubisoft Entertainment, sorti le 1er mai 2010 sur navigateur web. Conçu en Flash pour faire la promotion de l'épisode principal homonyme, il reste jouable via le site explosivebarrel.net. Le titre propose une expérience d'auto-runner découpée en six courts niveaux où le Prince doit esquiver des pièges et affronter des ennemis. Le premier niveau se limite au rembobinage temporel à la mort, le second introduit un combat de boss en déplacement libre et un pouvoir de dash, tandis que les niveaux suivants remplacent ce dernier par des pouvoirs élémentaires successifs : gel, bouclier de feu, puis bouclier de terre. Le niveau final confronte le joueur à un boss dont la couleur de la poitrine dicte le pouvoir élémentaire à utiliser pour lui infliger des dégâts. À l'origine, terminer ce jeu débloquait un costume dans l'opus principal, une fonctionnalité désormais inopérante.
Côté narration, le Prince se précipite pour sauver son frère et rencontre Razia, qui lui indique d'activer quatre fontaines élémentaires disséminées dans le palais afin de vaincre l'armée de sable. Bien que la fiche technique mentionne le moteur Anvil et une configuration en ligne requise (connexion permanente, compte Ubisoft, âge minimum de 13 ans), ces éléments semblent davantage concerner la version commerciale complète décrite sur Steam, laquelle se situe chronologiquement entre Les Sables du Temps et L'Âme du guerrier. Les temps de complétion indiqués sont de six heures pour l'histoire principale et de quatre heures et demie pour une complétion à cent pour cent.
L'accueil critique et public affiche une note agrégée de 75 sur Metacritic. La presse spécialisée a salué l'expérience : Game Chronicles souligne une histoire captivante et des antagonistes uniques, tandis que GamePro y voit un retour en forme gratifiant pour la franchise. Du côté des joueurs, les avis divergent : certains regrettent une entrée médiocre au scénario superficiel, d'autres défendent un titre sous-estimé au gameplay agréable malgré un parkour différent des anciens opus, et un utilisateur Steam exprime sa nostalgie en déplorant l'arrêt de la série par Ubisoft.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« With an interesting story and unique villains and ancient lore, you will be hopelessly captivated from start to finish each and every time you play this game. »
« The Forgotten Sands is more than just a return to form for a long-running franchise: it's also one of the most gratifying platforming epics to come along in ages. »
« With solid platforming and tricky puzzles it's a long-awaited return to form for the Prince. [Aug 2010, p.92] »
« Slick, challenging gameplay with brilliant pace, marred only by the average combat. [July 2010, p.88] »
« While it misses the mark of nailing the same sense of magic and wonder of the original trilogy, fans who had missed this style and approach in 2008's Prince of Persia offering should welcome this new-yet-familiar adventure with open arms. »
« Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands successfully manages to represent the great platforming gameplay and level design of the first Ubisoft game: unfortunately it will end in less than eight hours, and this is its main shortcoming. »
« If this were a novel or comic, it would be utterly without merit or point, filling in a gap that didn't exist before its creation and serving only to kill time. As a game, it's another run through comfortable and familiar ground, and serves to remind people why the Prince of Persia series is so universally beloved. »
« The best part about Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is that it's a lot of fun. »
Avis des Joueurs (Metacritic)
« Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is a fairly mediocre entry in the franchise. The graphics were decent for its time, but the story is shallow, and the characters are entirely forgettable. While the combat is well-designed, the overall difficulty is too low, making encounters feel unchallenging and **** platforming sections, however, are the game’s saving grace. They are well-crafted and provide a good level of challenge, capturing the essence of what makes Prince of Persia **** the end, The Forgotten Sands is a passable game, but it fails to leave a lasting impression. »
« Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands is an underrated game. The parkour isn't quite like the older titles, but I still enjoyed it a lot. The gameplay feels a bit different, but it's fun overall. Looking back at 2010 and the games of that era, The Forgotten Sands stands out as an overlooked gem and a great way to pass the time »
« I forgot this game even existed so at least the title is accurate. When I think of pop I usually think of parkour and fighting at most 4 or 5 enemies at the same time, however in this game you'll be fighting hordes of hundreds of peope for some reason. Also the prince looks nothing like the prince from older games. »
« I love the parkour puzzles they have its some of the best I have ever seen with it consistently getting harder and funner as you progress through the game and how it consistently uses things even from older abilities you got from the beginning of the game into the later stages and while that might sound normal a lot of games don't do that now and while the combat is basic it's fun until you get to the giant bosses then it just amounts to get beneath them and dodge every now and then and the story while predictable is still good »
« It is just as good as the sands trillogy, the criticism of it being a placeholder for a movie that released the same year or weak fighting mechanics are completely unnecesary and not even deserved, this title on its own even is quite a good enough game and i absolutely consider it a cult classic. it didnt got the praise it deserved due to poor timing and marketing practices, dont let these things push you away from experiencing almost the last of this amazing action adventure games franchise. it is great to go back to these older titles even more since the release of a new prince of persia the lost crown a while ago to see where the series was at not so long ago »
« It's a fun game with great gameplay. A mix of the previous titles with fresh ideas. It's not completely bug-free and could do with 60 FPS on console, but it's definitely worth playing. Unless a bug prevents you from progressing. I wish there would be a new 3D Prince of Persia or just remaster this one with some bug fixes. I would buy it again. »
« En PS3 o en PSP, un 8.5 sin problema. Historia y alcance técnico diferentes, pero sobradamente divertidos. »
« Been playing this on Series X. Just completed it. Absolute quality action puzzle platformer and I don't usually like platformers much. You occasionally jump a different direction than intended due to camera angles but nothing major. A really enjoyable game. It's not too challenging that you're sick of your life repeating the same bits but it's also not too simple. It strikes a really nice difficulty balance allowing a steady rate of progression. I highly recommend it. You'll get a good 3 days play from it, so at £3 can't complain at all. »
