Just released into early access, The Rogue Prince of Persia offers plenty of stylish fun, but it’s also exactly what I expected from developers Evil Empire in a post-Hades world: a slick but traditional 2D action rogue-like, with a strong platforming focus and a narrative that slowly unfolds and expands with each run. That said, it does have a fantastic Persian-inspired aesthetic and soundtrack that we don’t get enough of.

It’s not easy to judge The Rogue Prince of Persia’s narrative during early access, but the premise is intriguing and the structure immediately familiar. The Prince - once again dealing with the consequences of a decision born of arrogance - has instigated war with the Huns, resulting in the invasion of his Persian kingdom and the sacking of its cities. Your first death sees him resurrected - by way of a magical bola in an oasis retreat, with the Prince frustrated it never allows him to go back to before the invasion.



Each run through a succession of procedurally-generated biomes - which feature lightly branching paths, secret areas, and useful fast-travel points - offer up potential encounters with survivors or clues to discover. These expand a mind-map of sorts, as the titular Prince pieces together events of the last few days and attempts to slay the leader of the Huns to disband their war party. The actual narrative content is fairly light - think short notes and brief conversations - but these events unlock new level exits for alternative paths, albeit with what appear to be unskippable boss fights that function as progression roadblocks and narrative convergence points.

Each run through a succession of procedurally-generated biomes - which feature lightly branching paths, secret areas, and useful fast-travel points - offer up potential encounters with survivors or clues to discover.

When it comes to the core gameplay, fans of Dead Cells will feel right at home as soon as they’ve acclimatised to the more abundant platforming elements. The Prince retains many of his skills from the 3D-era games - leaps, vaults, and wall runs - and these translate fairly well into 2D environments with a lot of verticality. Movement in and out of combat doesn’t feel quite as slick as classic 3D Prince of Persia trilogy, but movement is consistent and predictable - essential in a game where the stakes are higher than going back to the last checkpoint. Falls, spikes, and blades were never one-hit-kill hazards, but healing can be hard to come by and sloppy platforming will lead to quick deaths.



Combat also feels familiar and forgiving at first - think one-button combos, charged attacks to break shields, and drop attacks - but The Rogue Prince of Persia throws a lot of enemy combinations at the player and reveals surprising depth once you incorporate other mechanics. There are various weapons with unique attack patterns - think daggers, swords, or spears - coupled with a useful kick and ranged tools with limited charges - think bows, chakrams, or grappling hooks. The prince and basic foes can take several hits, and bosses tend to be damage sponges, so combat is fast and mobile, forcing you to focus on avoiding damage as much as inflicting it. Also, no matter how skillful you are, the difficulty ramps up significantly during each run and you’ll need to manage both single-run and permanent upgrades to survive.

The Rogue Prince of Persia throws a lot of enemy combinations at the player and reveals surprising depth once you incorporate other mechanics.

During a single run, you’ll find secret chests and a store to purchase new or higher-tier weapons and tools, but the medallion system is by far the most interesting and impactful single-run mechanic. The Prince can equip up to 4 medallions that offer everything from simple health or damage boosts, to far more situational abilities like inflicting status effects with special attacks, flinging daggers during evasive moves, or gaining health or energy when breaking shields or spending coin. These level up during a run to provide further benefits, but you’ll destroy any medallions you replace. While different weapons and tools offer different attack patterns, effective range, and damage output, the medallions provide the greatest opportunity to individualise your playstyle.



In contrast, the permanent upgrades - unlocked at the Oasis using a currency called “glimmer” - felt both less impactful and designed to encourage grinding. In the early access build, all I’ve seen is the ability to unlock basic weapon types at the start of each run, but they’re expensive and I often lost glimmer on death. Hell, to be completely honest, I’m not even sure under what circumstances glimmer is retained as I only earned enough for a single Grapple Hook unlock in over a dozen runs - including runs that took me through two unlockable biomes. Perhaps I’ve not seen all on offer or perhaps there will be more substantial persistent upgrades in the future, but when I hit a difficulty spike that resulted in multiple deaths, the limited persistent upgrades reminded me of why I have an on-off relationship with the genre.

Wrapping up, The Rogue Prince of Persia has the solid gameplay foundations I’d expect from a developer with the pedigree of Evil Empire, and it feels like a perfect match of a popular indie genre with an IP that shares gameplay and narrative themes. That said, aside from the stylish aesthetics and the medallion system, the early access build feels more like a traditional 2D rogue-like with smart narrative context, than it does some novel hybrid of rogue-like with time-bending action platformer. As an early access title with a hyper-focused scope, it’s well worth keeping an eye on if you’re a 2D rogue-like fan - but classic Prince of Persia fans might want to take a wait-and-see approach until the narrative and persistent progression elements are expanded to make it more satisfying and accessible.

*Early Access code provided by Ubisoft