Game Review: Prince of Persia The Lost Crown
Hello, dear readers! My name is Victor, and I am a totally blind gaming, technology, and entertainment journalist. I am also an ambassador for universal design, an accessibility consultant, advocate, and tester.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is releasing today from Ubisoft for PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.
As we received the game for review purposes a few days ago, we find ourselves in a position to bring you a short, but hopefully comprehensive article.
First of all, I need to tell you that I was a huge Prince of Persia fan in my life as a gamer before going blind. I have played all the games in the series released until this one, but although Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown seems to be a hit with almost everyone, Ubisoft did not include sufficient accessibility features as to make it accessible for totally blind gamers like myself.
This is definitely more than a little disappointing considering The Lost Crown is a somewhat linear and narrative-driven experience that could have easily been made approachable if intuitive level design and sound cues were properly implemented.
Depending on your needs, you can take advantage of Color Blind or High Contrast modes, adjust the size of the HUD, activate target lock, choose to automatically face your enemy, pin screenshots to the map, use a Text log that allows to scroll back through the last 50 lines of conversation, or turn on Platforming assist which enables an optional portal to skip past such challenging sections. All these features are welcomed and appreciated, but aren’t enough for me to be able to play the game.
With recent Ubisoft releases we saw the Accessibility Menu displayed at the welcome screen, but this is not the case with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. All the features can only be accessed after we begin our adventure and only during actual gameplay.
Sadly, Blind players like me don’t even have access to rudimentary text-to-speech functionality which was present in almost all games released by Ubisoft even three or four years ago. This is baffling, and I hope it won’t become a trend in new releases from Ubisoft. You can see in the video embedded below how short my adventure was.
These being said, Ubisoft communicated before the actual release with the Accessibility Community all the accessibility features that we can expect from this title, so at least nobody can accuse them of not being consistent and transparent with us on this matter.
This is a trend that I hope everyone else in the gaming industry picks up as soon as possible because we need clear statements and communications when it comes to accessibility between developers, publishers, and the estimated 450 million impaired and disabled gamers.
If you are curious to find out what kind of accessibility features Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown offers, I encourage you to check out the official blog post from Ubisoft. I guess that players with low vision, cognitive needs and some of those with limited mobility may have more success with a game than I did.
Now, as Alina had some time to play the game, I can tell you the following about it.
Created by Ubisoft Montpellier and published under the Ubisoft Originals umbrella, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a refreshing, stylish and thrilling action-adventure platformer set in a mythological Persian world.
Inspired by the Metroidvania genre, this latest journey in the beloved Prince of Persia saga invites us to explore a handcrafted world at our own pace.
The Story of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown delivers a captivating narrative and follows Sargon as he faces many challenges, daunting mysteries, and tries to survive epic encounters on his mythological adventure through Mount Qaf.
From the majestic Citadel of Knowledge to the colorful landscapes of the Hyrcanian Forest, we will discover a variety of environments and by acquiring new time powers, unlocking unique abilities, and combining them in combat, we, as Sargon, can delve deeper into the secrets of this captivating Persian tale.
Here the boundaries of time and space are meaningless and irrelevant so thus are ours to manipulate in any way we see fit. Using our Time Powers, combat and platforming skills, performing deadly combos and defeating time-corrupted enemies or mythological creatures is a lot of fun! We can even spice things up by acquiring and equipping new Amulets from different shopkeepers.
Along the way, we will be exploring a variety of highly detailed biomes, each with its own identity, wonders and dangers. Solving puzzles, finding secrets, and completing exciting side quests are also at the core of this highly entertaining experience, so be prepared to sync more than 20 hours into Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown before rolling the credits.
Aside from the excellent story, I am happy to report Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown offers an enjoyable presentation, complete with high quality graphics, immersive cinematics and a refreshing Artistic Direction. The satisfying gameplay is characterized by fluidity and responsiveness thanks to the 60fps on all platforms. The voice acting is good, and the soundtrack is awesome.
In conclusion, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a fabulous Metroidvania inspired platformer that will delight and entertain you with a great story, likable characters, immersive gameplay, a beautiful art style and last but definitely not least, superb music.
You can try out the free demo available now on all platforms to see if you like it and if the accessibility features available at this time are enough for you if you are impaired or disabled.
I wished that I could continue my journey in the Prince of Persia universe even after going blind, because I grew up with these games and I am fascinated by them, but it seems that my adventure will stop here, at least for now.
I hope that one day Ubisoft will be able to deliver a game that’s fully accessible for blind players like me. Until then, wishing everyone an enjoyable experience with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown!
Review copy provided by Ubisoft.
Victor Dima
Latest posts by Victor Dima (see all)
- Ubisoft shares Accessibility Spotlight and Story Trailer for Assassin’s Creed Shadows - Jan 24, 2025
- After two years of using it daily, I am still very much in love with Parallels Desktop - Jan 7, 2025
- Naughty Dog announces new Sci-fi game Intergalactic: The Heretic ProphetWatch trailer and read all about it - Dec 14, 2024
