Useless Cells is considered one of 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 considered one of my favorite video games of 2024, offering a contemporary begin for the long-lasting collection and a few great puzzle-platforming motion. So getting the possibility to play a side-scrolling Prince of Persia roguelike from the builders of Useless 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, however it definitely has the potential to be one other excessive level within the collection.
For essentially the most half, you’ll know what to anticipate from The Rogue Prince of Persia when you’ve performed Useless Cells. Every run includes making an attempt to get so far as you may, taking out enemies as you go, and amassing as a lot foreign money as you may to improve and unlock stuff for the following try. There’ll be bosses to combat, secrets and techniques to search out, abilities 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 count on, and I’m excited to spend extra time exploring it.
The fight is satisfying too. Simply as they’re in Useless Cells, the usual assaults are fast and you need to preserve transferring to remain alive. Mix them with kicks that ship enemies crashing into one another – suppose an analogous impact as punching a door in to stun enemies in Useless Cells – throwable weapons used with R1/RB, fast dodges, and taking over teams of enemies is sensible.
It’ll be attention-grabbing to see how fight modifications as completely different enemy varieties are presumably launched in later areas, as there are lots 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 abilities that increase your skills, permitting you to construct an arsenal that focuses on particular assaults or elemental harm. I discovered one which triggered 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 to chain completely different abilities for large harm as you progress additional and additional.
These skills additionally increase your others in numerous methods as you equip them in every of your preliminary 4 slots. How they have an effect on every of them means it is advisable to take into consideration the place you place them in your stock as a lot as what you decide up, which provides one other attention-grabbing stage of complexity to every run.
The place Evil Empire have made their new sport stand out is within the traversal. Motion in Useless Cells is fast anyway – you’ll die a swift dying when you’re not all the time on the transfer, however it’s typically fairly linear. You’re restricted to the flooring you may 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 virtually something.
Not solely are you able to double leap and sprint with L2/LT, however you may 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 situation, the power to dash alongside a wall is all the time there. You’ll then be capable to assault from new angles, shock enemies, or just get to security in a fraction of a second. It’s rather well carried out and the world has clearly been intricately designed with wall-running being on the centre of every thing you do. Motion is enjoyable and fluid in The Misplaced Crown, however it 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 had been restricted, so I’m excited to see how the traversal mechanics are utilized in attention-grabbing methods afterward.
Evil Empire additionally says that they don’t count on The Rogue Prince of Persia’s gameplay to alter a lot, if in any respect, between when it launches into early entry and the total launch, every time 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 yr 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 count on from the staff behind Useless Cells, although?