New Prince makes it to the next generation : new moves, new enemies and new troubles with the DRM protection. It’s probably meant to promote the movie, but is it a good game?
Back in 2008, ubisoft released first PoP after the sands of time trilogy – it wasn’t as popular as they expected, so they came up with new game that fits into the trilogy time line, between first and second part.
Story
Our prince goes to visit his brother Malik in the desert city to learn a thing or two, but instead he finds that the city is under siege and the only way to repel the invaders is to unleash the army of king Solomon. That turns out to be a very bad move as that army turned against everything living, turning them intro sand. Two brothers (that means only you,the prince) have to work together (no, its just you) to seal the army again. This time prince gets help from a busty Djinn named Razia, blah blah blah, jump-jump-freeze-water-jump-to-the-final boss 
There are notable things though, time rewind power is known to a Djinn with no connection to the sands of time? Was the empress of time also a Djinn? Also, the army of sand easily passes through the water (even its ultimately defeated by it) as if it were nothing…
The prince’s design changed from the previous games, some say he got uglier 
This time prince will gain power from the Djinn named Razia that is a beautiful white… or black lady?
It’s all about the angle, right?
Gameplay:
Ok, this game is all about traps and acrobatics, but they are ridiculously easy compared to the previous games. Some real challenge comes near the very end of the game, but that’s all. New abilities are done well, the old ones are polished and make the prince much faster;
On the other hand, we have a new fighting system with 4 new elemental spells and some new moves but… that’s all reduced to the mashing of the attack button (although the stone armor is helpful :P). There are two extra costumes to unlock: Assassin Creed 2 robe and Malik’s armor.
PC version
Ubisoft uses new DRM protection that requires user to be always on the internet. In pop, the game asks server what door to unlock and such stuff, which when cracked had some interesting results :D
First beta crack from skidrow made game unbeatable but second resolved that matter, only thing that remained were some doors (mostly the ones that should be always closed, they are part of the scenery) that open randomly (or wont close) so that you can see… empty space and die if you enter it 
There is also a small problem with the force feedback which you will probably have unless you have the xbox360 gamepad. It could be fixed by using x360ce vibmod 3.1.4.1. (unpack it in the game folder)
Graphics and Audio:
Compared to the trilogy, graphic are superb, but average compared to the today’s games. Level design has couple of nice sights, but in most cases its just walls and traps and walls and… but it doesn’t get boring. On the other hand, music has nothing memorable to offer, just keeps up with the visuals and doesn’t give anything new to the atmosphere, just average.
Conclusion
Pop TFS is an enjoyable game and a very short one – about 14 hours with searching for the secrets (which aren’t secrets at all and they don’t unlock anything but give you some small amount of experience points). Kinda cool for replaying once, but nothing more to it, as it leaves an empty feeling that there should be more…
