Evil Empire is a company whose work I have loved in Dead Cells. Using the knowledge gained over the years they are releasing The Rogue Prince of Persia, a game that exists because of a chance encounter at an industry event, and it’s really damned fun. It’s out in early access on PC and I played the Steam version for a dozen or so hours and see a package light on content but solid at its core.
The Setting
You are the Prince of Persia, a purpled-hued man whose city is besieged by the Huns. Using their dark Shaman magic they’ve conquered your city and you awaken three days later in a camp hidden in an oasis. The Prince has himself a bolo that protects him at the time of his death, sending him back to the last safe place he was in, and this is how the game’s roguelike run mechanic is explained through lore. You will run, jump, wall-run, and slice your way through level after level trying to get stronger, open up extra paths, and discover a way to defeat your enemy once and for all.
As it is an early access launch several things are missing for now. The procedurally generated tile set is light on variation and after a dozen or so runs I felt like I knew the pattern of it all far better than I ever could in Dead Cells. That game has had well over 20 major content updates though, so I’m happy to let Evil Empire cook and see where this tale goes as they take user feedback over time. The game features an interesting mechanic for figuring out what happened when and where you’ll need to go next. As you discover more items it offers up new paths to take, similar to Dead Cells.
The Gameplay
Fluid parkour-style movement is the name of this game. Using simplistic, colorful graphics on a 2D plane you’ll mix running, jumping, dodging, and wall running in a dance that feels fantastic. The Prince is an incredible acrobat, more akin to a Simone Biles than your typical videogame ruffian. Whenever there is a wall behind your character you can hold the left trigger to wall run for a short distance. Once you’ve reached your limit you can jump off the wall or slowly slide down. Mixing jumping into wall runs then ping-ponging off of other walls which you then run up to climb a ledge feels incredible.
Combat is a mix of melee weapons on the X button, Y is a forceful kick, and the right bumper activates your ranged ability. Ranged moves use up energy, which is gained by hitting people with melee and it’s a fun, albeit simplistic system. B is a powerful dodge which sees you vault over enemies to avoid their attacks and A of course is for jumping. To assist you in combat there is a small number of weapons available at the launch of early access. While a few can drop right away most will need to be unlocked via the game’s meta leveling system.
As you progress through runs you’ll gain a temporary currency. These purple whisps of smoke need to be deposited in purple glowing braziers that line each level or else they will be lost if your health reaches zero. It’s a similar mechanic to the cells in Dead Cells, where you needed to spend them at various merchants or else they too would be lost at death. In between each run back at camp, you can spend the currency you’ve saved up to unlock more weapons or mods. These mods can drop in run and you can equip up to four at a time. They offer various passive abilities like shooting fireballs when you kick or dropping poison on the ground when you down a ground pound attack (holding down and pressing A when high enough in the air). There is more to be found and you can bet your sweet bippy that the devs will be adding and changing things up a lot during the early access period (and beyond).
The Looks and Sounds
The Rogue Prince of Persia is an interesting-looking title. It’s an extremely simplistic and brightly colored look that turned me off a bit at first. There is an opening cutscene that was shown to us during a preview event where things had more detail. The game itself though relies on sharp black lines to pull off an almost cell-shaded look. Humans have colorful skin tones and enemies are all manner of creatures. I love the way it looks, and it averaged roughly 400 fps on my PC so I’m guessing consoles and handhelds will not have a hard time running it.
Soundwise the game has no voice acting though lots of basic text interactions. The writing is fine, though it is extremely limited. Most conversations are a few lines back and forth early on and it’s another area where over time the team will (need to) add a lot more. Outside of the movement, my favorite part of the game is its soundtrack. The opening screen has a surprisingly beautiful pop song and each level has an excellent mix of classic and modern sounds. The first stage has a classic Middle Eastern twang meets hip-hop feel that’s hard to describe but it kicks serious ass. Every level has music that feels appropriate for its look and the boss fights go all out.
I haven’t run into any major bugs, which is always nice with a game in early access. Everything seemingly works like it is supposed to, though with the lack of overall content in comparison to something like Hades II, I would hope that is the case.
Wrapping Things Up
The Rogue Prince of Persia’s Early Access launch is a solid one. While there is a decided lack of content the core gameplay is fantastic and I cannot wait to see what this one turns into by version 1.0.
The Rogue Prince of Persia | In-Progress
Played on
Steam (PC)
PROS
- Feels Great
- Unique Look
- Great Music
CONS
- Light On Content
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