Composed by ex-Motion Twin developers, the people behind the excellent Dead Cells, Evil Empire has been working on The Rogue Prince of Persia, a roguelike platformer game set in one of videogaming’s oldest and most beloved franchises, as an early access project. Now, one year after its unveiling, I’ve decided to jump back in and see how the game is doing. And I couldn’t be happier with what I found.
Back this time last year, The Rogue Prince of Persia was hitting the scene shortly after being announced, and to no one’s surprise, it felt a lot like Dead Cells, but with some mechanics that tie it directly to its origins as a Prince of Persia game. It’s funny to think that in the course of only four months, we got to play two games in that franchise, with the excellent Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown being released in January of 2024.
Sadly, even though the latter did so well critically and commercially, Ubisoft saw it fit to dissolve its team, scattering the talent across other studios within their umbrella. Luckily for The Rogue Prince of Persia, which is being developed by an outside group, and through its unique development model, a first for the French company, it’s had a chance to evolve and thrive over the past 365 days.
The result is a game that feels much more mature, confident, and with the content to match. In May of last year, when I first touched it, The Rogue Prince of Persia felt understandably barebones. After all, it had only been in development for a short while, but the potential was clearly there. For as much as it seemed like a very close to home attempt for the ex-Motion Twin devs, who were hot from putting out the Return to Castlevania DLC for Dead Cells, the ties to the PoP identity helped settle it as a hopeful alternative to the game that put their names on the map.
Currently, Rogue PoP is still in early access, with over 1.1k reviews on Steam and 85% of them at very positive, a stark contrast to where it was originally, barely hitting the ‘decent’ rank last time I played. As for the actual product, I could easily mistake it for a full game. It’s now got an actual intro, cutscenes, dialogue, and, well, character. The titular Prince is an even more arrogant prick in this one if you can believe it, but the premise of the game dials down his prowess quite a lot given his loss in the hands of the Hun king, which fast-forwards the destruction of Persia and all that our pompous hero holds dear.
And a year has also done wonders to its overall presentation. It’s an even more beautiful game now, one with a very striking art style, that includes lush, detailed 2D backgrounds and characters that animate incredibly well in the foreground, without it all feeling too busy visually. The same can be said about its upbeat soundtrack, a mix of the usual Persian percussions from the mainline Prince of Persia game and more techno styled arrangements that fit in well with the action.
If you are not acquainted with the setting of The Rogue Prince of Persia, here’s a quick intro: the Hun army, under a mysterious influence, decides to lay siege on the kingdom of Persia. The Prince, ever the conceited fellow, decides to go out on his own to challenge their enemy’s most powerful warrior, ends up defeated, but is saved by a cloaked woman who whisks him back to life and live out an endless cycle of battle until he is able to finally destroy the invaders and save his kingdom and family.
The game takes place over the course of the three days before the actual destruction of Persia, on a loop. Each run starts off from the Oasis, the Prince’s base of operations where the NPCs he rescues along the way. They provide services where he can spend his hard-earned gold on upgrades that remain between runs, giving him a more varied array of weapons, for instance, which works out the same way as in Dead Cells. Some, though, are permanent buffs, where the purple goo that’s both dropped by enemies and collected from hard to reach spots is used for, a mechanic that those familiar with Hades will recall right away.
Basic gameplay feels fantastic. You can hop, dash, wall run, dodge and kick enemies into spikes, and, of course, hit them with your double swords or shoot them with your bow. Opposition comes in all shapes and sizes, some are even armored, requiring you to first deal with an outer layer of protection before doing actual damage. The aforementioned kicking comes in handy for that, since getting them to hit spikes or few compatriots instantly destroys their armor and dizzies them, letting you close in for the kill.
Structurally, Rogue PoP sticks close to Dead Cells. It’s split between large, multi-layered levels with different themes and bosses, with increasingly harder challenges and better rewards. The game doesn’t expect you to reach its conclusion right away, rather, you should take your time to evolve the Prince and unlock more variables, learn the obstacles each strata puts in front of you, and then go for your glorious victory run.
It’s a formula that pushes you harder and harder, but it’s ever the more rewarding to overcome its challenges. As you inch closer and closer to the end goal with each new attempt, you’ll keep going “just one more try” for hours. There’s a reason that Dead Cells did so well and there’s absolutely no shame in borrowing if you do it as well as Evil Empire did with this one. As it is currently, it’s got the content and quality to match their former game, no doubt. And knowing that it’s still a little ways off before 1.0, the promise of even more to see is enticing to say the least.
