Reviews

The PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
received positive to mixed reviews following its release in May. GameRankings and
Metacritic gave it a score of 74.82% and 75 out of 100 for the PlayStation 3
version;[36][37]; 75.52% and 74 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version;[38][39] and
78.22% and 75 out of 100 for the PC version.[40] [41] Major criticisms of The
Forgotten Sands were often concerned with overly simple combat, lack of innovation
and its brevity in comparison to the older games in The Sands of Time Trilogy.

In Tom Mc Shea's PC review for GameSpot, he criticized the game for borrowing too
much from 2003's The Sands of Time, stating, "The opening level, in which you try
to break into a castle under attack, borrows heavily from the opening sequence of
its predecessor, and it seems as if the predictable level design is a portent of
things to come".[42] Additionally, he lamented the removal of the open-world design
of older games and criticized The Forgotten Sands for its linearity, and overall
considered it a forgettable experience.[42]

Bob Mackey of the defunct gaming website 1Up.com, reviewing both the Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3 port, believed, that while The Forgotten Sands was a "polished riff"
of 2003's The Sands of Time, it was a refinement of the original game's gameplay
mechanics and performed well as a platformer in a "post-[Assassin's] Creed world".
[43] With regard to combat, Mackey states, "Also in the tradition of Sands of Time,
combat is The Forgotten Sands' low point; though the battles never get quite as
tedious as they do in Sands, fighting hordes of enemies comes off as nothing but
needless padding in an otherwise focused game".[43]