REVIEW – It’s a good Prince of Persia game—just not one made by Ubisoft. Developed by Evil Empire, the co-creators behind Dead Cells’ DLCs, this roguelike turns out quite well. Players also got to witness the process up close: it spent a year in PC early access before landing on consoles, covering a lot of ground and giving fans plenty to be happy about.

Since early access began, the game has grown larger, better looking (!) and tighter overall—improving across the board.

The invasion of the Huns

Our hero fights to protect the kingdom and keeps a handy trick: a bola that lets him respawn at the oasis. With it, you can rescue allies who then help at the hub with gameplay-impacting bonuses. The prince’s personality comes through surprisingly strongly—he often reminisces about his family and home, and he’s quick with a sharp retort when facing foes. Understandably, the spotlight is on gameplay, and this is where The Rogue Prince of Persia shines. Movement is the star: parkour feels fully realized. You sprint, jump, climb, and the game blends 2D and 3D to great effect—no complaints there.

Meanwhile, keep an eye on the Vayu’s Breath bar. Nail your platforming and dodges and it fills up, boosting the prince’s speed as long as you maintain momentum. Two currencies feed progression, used to acquire weapons, medallions (passive perks), and fresh cosmetics. There’s also a Mind Map—though not exactly Poirot-grade.

Progression is atypical. Routes and hazards branch, but the game clearly marks where you can’t go yet. The prince chats up characters, examines the environment, and a diagram links current objectives, nudging you to explore instead of only fighting. Filling in the Mind Map introduces a slightly linear rhythm that benefits the experience—reining in the chaos and constantly reminding the prince (and you) to take the invasion seriously.

Leveling feeds into that cadence, too. Each level awards points to add permanent upgrades at the oasis—more manual heals or resurrections, for instance, or a bigger stash of in-run gold (the temporary currency) to upgrade weapons and expand abilities. You can also raise the difficulty: after your first run, you can enable restrictions at the oasis to earn more permanent currency. An NPC offers a wealth of quests that further pump replay value; complete them and even more gear drops into your lap. The developers clearly didn’t phone it in.

Small yet big

There are a fair number of areas and characters—though not too many. The downside is that zones may blur together, with rooms feeling similar. Still, the roguelite structure shows its hand on repeat runs: layouts and encounters don’t lock into sameness, which keeps it from feeling like a strictly linear one-and-done.

Combat is kept relatively straightforward by Evil Empire. Blueprints unlock weapon categories, or you can access them at the oasis when prepping for a run. Special attacks and animation speeds differ by type, and you also have alpha weapons with their own energy bars—so you can’t just spam a favorite. Enemy telegraphs are readable and inputs don’t get dropped. In that sense the game skews easy, with drop luck playing a larger role.

You can vault over enemies and boot projectiles out of your path. It’s acrobatic, and that flair makes it fun—very fun. Describing fights doesn’t do them justice; it’s better to see them. Bosses aren’t overly tough, and a few more would have been welcome. There’s a faint sense of content thinness.

Performance on PlayStation 5 is the other knock: zone transitions load for oddly long stretches, and the UI hiccups when zooming the map. On the plus side, the button layout is fully remappable and frame rate is solid.

This prince is worth your money

Backed by a strong soundtrack, The Rogue Prince of Persia fell just shy of a 9/10 because the content feels a touch light. It lands at a robust 8.5. The series DNA is intact, and the roguelite ingredients—so easy to mess up—are handled well here. It’s an easy recommendation for fans of the franchise, even if it isn’t Sands of Time. (Will that remake ever happen? Our bet: it gets canned, too.)

-V-

Developer: Evil Empire
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: Roguelike / platformer
Release date: August 20, 2025