The Rogue Prince of Persia review: "I roguelike but don't roguelove this freerunner – there's just not enough to stand out"

When I first played The Rogue Prince of Persia in Early Access over a year ago, I summarized my thoughts as "shows skill, but not much imagination." Now with the full 1.0 having been released, that opinion remains largely unchanged, as this roguelike from the makers of Dead Cells provides a perfectly pleasant and serviceable distraction that instantly passes out of all memory the moment you put the controller down.

I doubt anybody will regret playing this one, but only because I can't imagine anybody feeling hugely strongly about it in any sense – which is admittedly a shame considering how great Evil Empire's work has been in the past.

On the rogue again

The set-up will be unsurprising to anybody who's played this sort of game. Set in the titular ancient kingdom, the Prince's homeland is overrun by an army of evil Huns wielding black magic, scattering the royal family and leaving our hero for dead. But his nibs has a pendant on him that allows him to infinitely respawn when killed, establishing the story context for the cycle of death and rebirth. Every time His Grace gets cut down by eldritch scimitars, he pops back up at the hub zone three days before and gets to try again.

There's nothing inherently wrong here, but perhaps the big issue is that The Rogue Prince of Persia can't help but exist in the shadow of numerous better games, and seems to have no ambition to outreach or even simply match them. When placed within its own franchise, it's not as clever in design as Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and it can't match the charisma of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

When considered in the enormous landscape of roguelikes, it's not telling a story as deep or broad as Hades did, it's not as endlessly replayable as FTL: Faster Than Light, and it's not as versatile or polished as Dead Cells. That being said, it is eerily similar to Dead Cells at times, including whole regions and boss fights that mimic it so much that even now I'm uncertain whether the studio is trying to pay deliberate homage to itself, or just reusing proven ideas.

The standout element of Rogue Prince of Persia is probably the visuals, which go for a clean, hand-drawn "ligne claire" style reminiscent of comics like Tintin. It's very pretty at times – arguably prettier than any game mentioned above – though it can occasionally feel wasted on some of the darker, drearier biomes that don't really play to that style's strengths.

Nevertheless, it means the characters have an immediate visual charm, the daylight regions have a nicely zesty quality to them, and the overall colorfulness ensures the game is always comfortable on the eye. Still, I wouldn't have minded the writing meeting that panache halfway, as the characters are broad, predictable, one-note archetypes that provide little to invest in. The only interpersonal conflict with any teeth is the Prince feeling embarrassed that his fight against sorcery is only possible because he's using it himself to keep undoing his mistakes, but his allies' inevitable perturbation is always cleared up in a few dialogue lines and it never amounts to much.

Flinger Prince

In moment-to-moment gameplay terms, Rogue Prince of Persia is a 2D platformer that's largely focused on mixing movement and combat in as seamless a way as possible, and to that end it's a solid effort. There's a fluidity that thrives when the environment is set up well (demonstrated best in randomly occurring races where you have to outrun an evil tentacle), and the ability to wallrun on background objects helps to tie it all together nicely.

There's even a temporary speed boost you can trigger for timing jumps and actions to a correct rhythm! You'll have all the movement powers you'll ever get the moment you start playing, but there's definitely some skill needed to master all of them, as you go from a fumbling free-runner to a parkour pro over the twenty or so hours needed to complete the game.

On the other side of the coin, combat is serviceable, albeit with a few flaws. There's several dozen weapons and sub-weapons – some of which are inevitably overpowered – and while backflipping around enemies and hacking them up is never boring, there's a slightly inelegant element to it that can sometimes feel at odds with the precision of the movement controls.

Whether it's certain combo attacks that push enemies out of range of the later hits or a kick move that feels a bit too situational, Rogue Prince of Persia has some flabbiness at the edges that future updates would do well to smooth out. One theoretically-powerful upgrade I unlocked was supposed to create helpful explosions around me when triggered, but ended up being a series of obscuring lights that allowed the enemies to backstab me from behind the cover of a firework display.

I roguelike it, but I don't roguelove it

The Rogue Prince of Persia is fine – and in a very crowded market for these sorts of games, that may well be damning with faint praise. It's an experience that would probably be easier to justify if it had been a themed DLC crossover for Dead Cells, but similarities aside, I won't deny that I had a decent amount of fun.

It's shorter than most roguelites – about 20 to 30 hours unless you're out to get all the optional costumes and achievements – and it's to the game's benefit that it knows not to outstay its welcome, as the inevitable sense of repetition was beginning to creep in. Those who need to kill a weekend with something unthreatening will find an adequate, attractive-looking game here, but if you're looking for novelty or ambition, you'd be better off looking elsewhere.

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