The Rogue Prince of Persia Provides Lifeless Cells Magic to the Iconic Franchise (Palms-On Preview)

Lifeless Cells is one among my favorite video games of the final ten years. The mix of difficult, fast-paced motion with rewarding development grabbed me like few roguelikes do (nothing beats Hades, nevertheless). 

Prince of Persia The Misplaced Crown can be one among my favorite video games of 2024, offering a recent begin for the long-lasting collection and a few fantastic puzzle-platforming motion. So getting the possibility to play a side-scrolling Prince of Persia roguelike from the builders of Lifeless Cells was one thing I couldn’t be extra excited for. My half-hour of playtime wasn’t sufficient to get a full style of the sport, but it surely definitely has the potential to be one other excessive level within the collection.

For probably the most half, you’ll know what to anticipate from The Rogue Prince of Persia for those who’ve performed Lifeless Cells. Every run includes making an attempt to get so far as you’ll be able to, taking out enemies as you go, and amassing as a lot foreign money as you’ll be able to to improve and unlock stuff for the following try. There’ll be bosses to battle, secrets and techniques to search out, expertise to seize, and new areas to progress to.

Having solely explored the primary space, fought a boss as soon as (doing embarrassingly poorly that one time), and tried simply two runs, I can’t say an excessive amount of concerning the world itself. It’s beautiful as you’d anticipate, and I’m excited to spend extra time exploring it. 

The fight is satisfying too. Simply as they’re in Lifeless Cells, the usual assaults are fast and you must preserve shifting to remain alive. Mix them with kicks that ship enemies crashing into one another – assume an analogous impact as punching a door in to stun enemies in Lifeless Cells – throwable weapons used with R1/RB, fast dodges, and taking over teams of enemies is good. 

It’ll be fascinating to see how fight modifications as completely different enemy sorts are presumably launched in later areas, as there are loads of methods to strategy even the early encounters.

Once more, what I noticed of them was restricted, however The Rogue Prince of Persia additionally options findable expertise that increase your talents, permitting you to construct an arsenal that focuses on particular assaults or elemental harm. I discovered one which induced fireplace harm when kicking an enemy into one other or in opposition to a wall, and I can envisage the way you’ll be capable of chain completely different expertise for large harm as you progress additional and additional. 

These talents additionally increase your others in several methods as you equip them in every of your preliminary 4 slots. How they have an effect on every of them means you have to take into consideration the place you place them in your stock as a lot as what you choose up, which provides one other fascinating stage of complexity to every run.

The place Evil Empire have made their new recreation stand out is within the traversal. Motion in Lifeless Cells is fast anyway – you’ll die a swift loss of life for those who’re not all the time on the transfer, but it surely’s usually fairly linear. You’re restricted to the flooring you’ll be able to leap between and a few methods of climbing up and down. For The Rogue Prince of Persia, the spirit of the collection’ motion is maintained by permitting you to run on nearly something.

Not solely are you able to double leap and sprint with L2/LT, however you’ll be able to maintain the set off to run alongside or up any wall or floor, permitting you to get previous or above enemies with ease. 

In any difficult platforming part or fight state of affairs, the flexibility to dash alongside a wall is all the time there. You’ll then be capable of assault from new angles, shock enemies, or just get to security in a fraction of a second. It’s very well carried out and the world has clearly been intricately designed with wall-running being on the centre of every little thing you do. Motion is enjoyable and fluid in The Misplaced Crown, but it surely doesn’t have the liberty in it that there’s in The Rogue.

Within the first space of the sport, which was the one one I performed, platforming puzzle sections have been restricted, so I’m excited to see how the traversal mechanics are utilized in fascinating methods in a while.

Evil Empire additionally says that they don’t anticipate The Rogue Prince of Persia’s gameplay to alter a lot, if in any respect, between when it launches into early entry and the complete launch, at any time when that could be. They’re planning on utilizing that point so as to add extra content material to the sport and refine what’s already there. 

In a 12 months that’s already had a superb Prince of Persia platformer, I’m curious to see how The Rogue Prince of Persia will stand out and discover an viewers. As a roguelike platformer in its personal proper, it’s shaping as much as be one thing nice. What else would you anticipate from the group behind Lifeless Cells, although?